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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Getting junior interested

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26 May 2010 21:14 #1 by padraigr (Padraig Rooney)
Hi Brought my 9 year old to the fish show on Sunday which we all really enjoyed, even more so because he won a fish tank in the raffle at the end, he's now really excited about getting fish & I am wondering what would be a good way to go. I already keep malawis so I think it would be nice for him to to go in a different direction. I was thinkin gouramis, guppies or maybe tetras but am open to suggestion. Plenty of colour & easy to keep is the only criteria as I want my son to take responsibility for it. Thanks all:) :) :) :)

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26 May 2010 21:50 #2 by dar (darren curry)
ghost glass cats are a kiddies favorite aswell as khuli loaches groups of 5plus for both (although some khulis tend to be nocturnal i found) marble hatchets and african butterflies man they are great to watch hunting flies, neon tetras, glowlight tetras depending on tank size of course

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

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26 May 2010 22:05 #3 by JohnH (John)
Padraig,
I saw the young lad win his tank and was delighted, it's even better knowing he is the son of a Forum member (and a new member in the making, perhaps?).

There no doubt will be a huge amount of conflicting advice on what fish he should get, but in all honesty I would have him steer clear of Guppies for the time being (and I never thought I would ever be giving that advice to a newcomer, they were always the fish most aquarists 'cut their teeth' on.

Although they wouldn't exactly be my choice, I would suggest some Neons (or Cardinals, if they look OK), a selection of 'other' Tetras, like Emperors for example. Then a small shoal of Danios, perhaps Zebra Danios - or, if you can a] afford them and b] find them the Celestial Danios (Microrasbora Galaxies as were).

Gouramis, especially Dwarf Gouramis are not the best ever imported recently and I would caution against them, although I have seen some very nice Honey Gouramis recently, they might be worth a look.

You could round this off with a small shoal, say four Marbled Hatchet Fish as surface dwellers and five or six Corydoras Catfish to keep activity in the lower regions.

Food for thought, go out 'looking' in decent shops and make your own choice (or let the lad choose with your 'advice' in the background).

Let us know how you get on, but, of course, there's water and filter cycling to be done...

Good luck,

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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26 May 2010 22:21 #4 by dar (darren curry)
John would i be correct in saying some tetras do better in a well settled tank and are not a good starter fish

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

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26 May 2010 22:36 #5 by JohnH (John)
You would be indeed right, I did intentionally suggest some of the more 'tolerant' ones.
Another very easily-kept Tetra is the what we used to know as X-Ray Tetra, nowadays I think they are called Pristella Tetras, but really the choice is fairly-well endless.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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26 May 2010 23:19 #6 by Denis (Denis Goulding)
Whatever u put in the tank, please put in a bn as it wont get big and will eat every bit of algae on the tank walls

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26 May 2010 23:28 #7 by Denis (Denis Goulding)
When the tank is ready let me know and i will give u one of my babies 1 or 2 i have bred.
Depending on ur location of course

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27 May 2010 00:00 #8 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
Hi Padraig,
i am also planning to get the wee man interested in the hobby do his will be plastic as he won't be one till next week:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: getting started early is always the way to go.

when in a few years he is old enough i am going to start him with a a cold water set up white clouds as with reasonable care they can be quite successful and very enjoyable plus easily replaced in case of accident while providing opportunity to learn.

The reasons i hope to use these is their size so his first will only be 11 liters but will provide enough of a challenge with been overly difficulty.

show and tell/pet days in schools are becoming popular in schools. they will easily be able to be transported to school and the temp will not be a big concern were as with tropicals you face the dilemma of saying no and trying to explain the reason which to a child will be very hard especially since they may have already told the class they would bring fish.

just my ideas hope this helps
mickey

ps sorry about spelling

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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27 May 2010 16:01 #9 by padraigr (Padraig Rooney)
Thanks for all the advice still not sure what to go for but I certainly think I'll leave the final decision to junior(within reason of course):unsure: :unsure:, after all it his tank.

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27 May 2010 20:34 #10 by dyco619 (steve carmody)
my son is 10, a few months ago he got his first tank , its set up in his bedroom,
it has a nice mix of mollys, guppys, tetras etc, and small loachs an cats,
rather than decorating it with the usual coloured stones, plastic plant & ornaments
we done it real natural with live plants,sand,stones & rocks we even built little caves.
i have to say it looks stunning!! i actually prefer it to my own tanks,
the fish are much happier and it is much more educational for him.
its something you might want to think about..im sure he will enjoy it either way.

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07 Jun 2010 07:28 #11 by padraigr (Padraig Rooney)
could you post some pics of that set up it sounds great

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07 Jun 2010 14:31 #12 by padraigr (Padraig Rooney)
Hi all still haven't done anything about stocking the tank but one other request my little snapper had was that he would like to have fish that are easy to breed. Any suggestions guys & gals???

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08 Jun 2010 22:47 #13 by Denis (Denis Goulding)
guppys are great as are swordtails. But they need a large tank..
What about cherry shrimp and cories, bn cories and shrimp.
Cherry shrimp will breed well and lots of guys on here have them so they would not be costly and i said i would give u a bristlenose, great algae cleaner

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