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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

Look what turned up yesterday...

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28 Jun 2014 00:18 #1 by JohnH (John)
















I'm well pleased.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

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


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28 Jun 2014 03:20 #2 by irish-zx10r (James feenan)
Very nice and very intresting fish how do you know the male from the female ?

Something fishie going on here

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28 Jun 2014 07:42 #3 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
Hey John
Where did they come from?
They look magnificent!
Happy looking beautiful specimens

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28 Jun 2014 08:47 #4 by JohnH (John)

Very nice and very intresting fish how do you know the male from the female ?


Not for a while James - they're only tiny now - the ones in the first six snaps are 1-1/2" and the Stewarti in the last two are a bit bigger - but as they both get to around 10" TL it will be a while yet before differences become apparent.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

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


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28 Jun 2014 08:54 #5 by JohnH (John)

Hey John
Where did they come from?
They look magnificent!
Happy looking beautiful specimens


They really are little crackers - two different species.
The ones in the first snaps are from India while the ones in the last two pictures are from China.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

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


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28 Jun 2014 12:29 - 28 Jun 2014 12:30 #6 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
I really like dwarf snakeheads.

ian

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.
Last edit: 28 Jun 2014 12:30 by igmillichip (ian millichip). Reason: doh....missed out the word "like"

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28 Jun 2014 13:26 - 28 Jun 2014 13:29 #7 by JohnH (John)

I really like dwarf snakeheads.

ian

I suppose I have long held a liking for them - although for many years they were only ever seen in the pages of 'The Aquarist and Pondkeeper' and 'Tropical Fish Hobbyist' and not very often at that (Herbert Axelrod has a lot to answer for!) but eventually I managed to get hold of a couple of Channas (I think they must have been Micropeltes) which ate and ate - and grew and grew!!! Once they reached a bit more than a foot in length it became clear to me that these were not, in any way, a Dwarf species!
They would take to the floor on very regular occasions but would soon recover their lovely sheen when returned to the tank.
Eventually, though - and very reluctantly - they had to go, since large tanks in the days of angle-iron framed aquaria were pretty costly - certainly beyond the pocket of an apprentice jeweller (which I was then)!
Sorry - I've 'rambled' again, I put it down to age!

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.
Last edit: 28 Jun 2014 13:29 by JohnH (John). Reason: Grammar

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28 Jun 2014 19:51 #8 by Eric (Eric Corcoran)
Very nice looking fish John. What sort of set up do you have for them ?

Eric

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28 Jun 2014 20:12 #9 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
I never knew there were dwarf snake heads before!!! I always got kinda concerned about people trying to keep a 40inch fish of that nature in an aquarium! Now knowing a dwarf snakehead is in the 8 - 10 inch region it makes alot more sense

Surely tho for such an active fish youd need a rather large aquarium for these???

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28 Jun 2014 20:38 #10 by JohnH (John)

Very nice looking fish John. What sort of set up do you have for them ?

Eric

For the time being Eric they're in a couple of 20" cube tanks - just to grow on, but the ones I had previously had a series of caves and tunnels and seemed OK with that.
Another line of thought is to keep them in heavily-planted tanks - maybe I'll try something along those lines, but my first inclination is to keep these as I did before. They really didn't seem to like the bright lights and kept in their cave(s) when the lights were on.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

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


ITFS member.



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28 Jun 2014 20:47 #11 by JohnH (John)

I never knew there were dwarf snake heads before!!! I always got kinda concerned about people trying to keep a 40inch fish of that nature in an aquarium! Now knowing a dwarf snakehead is in the 8 - 10 inch region it makes alot more sense

Surely tho for such an active fish youd need a rather large aquarium for these???


In actual fact they are quite sedentary and need just a 'reasonable-sized' tank (I know - what's reasonable...?).
They also don't like water that's too warm
The pair I had previously were quite happy in a 68-70 deg f 3ft tank - they must have been pretty content as they bred every three to four weeks. But those were paternal mouthbrooders, I think these ones are bubble-nesters. (Once the male released his charges they were 'at it' again and eventually I had to separate the pair to give the male a rest).
An interesting fact was that the fry were never eaten by the parents and indeed, the fry 'grazed on the sides of the adults in much the same way as do discus fry. It was a different story when the next batch of fry were released as their older siblings would snaffle the odd one when mum and dad weren't watching.

While only as young as these are they're quite tolerant of one another but once a pair forms the remainder can be moved on as the 'tolerance' fades pretty speedily.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

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


ITFS member.



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30 Jun 2014 15:03 #12 by Eric (Eric Corcoran)
Whats the water changes like with these fish ? Ive read an article about a keeper in the PFK mag and he only changes his water about once a year for his snakeheads

Eric

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30 Jun 2014 16:25 #13 by JohnH (John)
Water changes do not really need to be quite so regimented as with non-Anabantoid fish, particularly with Snakeheads.

Even I wouldn't leave them anywhere near that long though - in the main they are quite heavy feeders and heavy feed means heavy amounts of faeces. I'm assured their natural habitat is slow-moving, often somewhat polluted ditches and the like - but an annual water change, not for me.

I should guess it would be a bit different in a large heavily-planted tank but sadly I'm not at liberty to have this luxury so I'll continue with fortnightly or less ones.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

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


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05 Jul 2014 10:46 #14 by paulv (paul vickers)
Baby snake heads, wow, good for you, as ye know my golden cobra died last year. Very best with yours John, im guessing you hope to bredd them in time.

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05 Jul 2014 10:56 #15 by JohnH (John)
That is vaguely the plan, but - like the Channa Orientalis I was breeding a few years back - my suspicion is that very few people would be interested in the offspring...and both of these species grow a good bit larger than those did.

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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05 Jul 2014 13:15 #16 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
I have interests in the smaller snakehead species.

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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05 Jul 2014 14:37 #17 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
Depending on what way im fixed stock wise when it happens John
I will possibly take a few off ye

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