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
Betta Falx
- Eric (Eric Corcoran)
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"The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you.They're freeing your soul."
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When faced with this scenario I have both 2 and 3 litre 'pop' bottles from which the bottom has been removed.
these are then placed over the fish I need to isolate and is sunk into the substrate, effectively isolating the fish.
I have always used this with smaller mouthbrooding male Bettas, but this could equally well isolate your female. You could also get her into a fry net temporarily if you have one?
It's worth considering this for the future and also you might think about getting a larger ratio of males to females - this is generally recognised as being the 'norm' among mouthbrooding Betta breeders.
I hope all goes well and that you have ended up with more than 4 fry.
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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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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Hopefully you can find more fry.....25 to 30 would be no problem for these guys.
I am always impressed by those who are keen to breed fish like these even though you'll never become a millionaire from the breeding.
ian
Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.
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Maybe now he can take a break and have a snack

"The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you.They're freeing your soul."
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You must have been delighted
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@anthonyd I'm over the moon. Hopefully I can grow them on now without much trouble
Eric
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- LemonJelly (Johnny Cowley)
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And I used to worry about leaving fish without food for a day
I'm not advocating starving our fish, but I do think this is a good example of the fact that the natural state of most creatures, most of the time, all through history has been hunger.
"The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you.They're freeing your soul."
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I started the fry on micro worms for a couple of days and then live bbs for another 4 days. Now they are feeding on decapsulated non hatching bbs which they seem to love and it's a lot easier than hatching the live ones.
The male was in decent condition after basically 3 weeks of holding 2 batches of eggs. I fed him up well for a few days and after a day back in with the female he's now holding again.
Ian sent me on a link about another mouth brooding betta the Betta Patoti (fabulous fish ). But it states that with this species that the female releases 2 types of eggs. One that turns into an embryo and one is for nourishment while he's holding. So im wondering if all mouth brooders do this. It might explain how my male lasted as well in decent condition
Eric
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almost looks like a sparkling gourami at that size!
They do actually

Eric
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