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
itfs march meet.
- john gannon (John Gannon)
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this months meeting is approaching [next tuesday],as mentioned elsewhere ian millichip will be giving a talk/presentation.we havent received a title yet but ian should be along shortly with that,but as before im sure it will be very interesting and well worth a visit.
As always the meetings are upstairs in rose o gradys in harrolds cross,Everybody is welcome just come along and introduce yourself.
hope to see you all soon
john
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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From Water to Land; From Ancient to Modern.
A look at the captive keeping and biology of fish that can move across land - using Lungfish and Mudskippers as key extreme examples.
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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It won't just be about lungfish and mudskippers.
ian
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- john gannon (John Gannon)
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- JohnH (John)
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John
Location:
N. Tipp
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- Andrew (Andrew Taaffe)
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True to his word Ian also spoke about how to keep some of the genus and we all explored theories on how they could be kept - researched & maybe one day find a trigger to breed in a tank. All in all what astounded me was the age they could attain
Thanks again Ian - another master class !!
Andrew
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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Huge thank you to Ian for a brilliant presentation & talk - learnt a lot tonight and have a higher respect for mudskippers - great characters.
True to his word Ian also spoke about how to keep some of the genus and we all explored theories on how they could be kept - researched & maybe one day find a trigger to breed in a tank. All in all what astounded me was the age they could attain
Thanks again Ian - another master class !!
Andrew
Very kind words Andrew. Many thanks.
As usual, it was a pleasure to give a talk with the ITFS.
As a speaker, it is always enjoyable to have a good 2-way discussion with the audience. I hope that the audience got as much pleasure as I did from the talk.
It is always a difficult to balance such a wide topic to cover enough of the biology and enough of the keeping without having to go either too deep or too shallow into the subject. So, I hope it was balanced enough.
As for the topics themselves, I am amazed by these fish…..not just as fish but as living organisms. As was mentioned, these have world-records and some unique features that no other organism has.
For the Mudskippers, as I said, there are still much to learn about these. Searching for definitive triggers in captivity for breeding simply defies me.
I have tried everything I can imagine with no success. Maybe a fluke spawning could be possible, and maybe we need to search way outside the box and start looking at visual boundaries or similar “difficult to ascertain” parameters.
The Mudskippers are well within the scope of many fish-keepers, and it would be great to see an increased interest in these fish (even though there are a few warnings to heed).
Lungfish are a different kettle of fish for keeping as we are coming close to the tank-buster status for all bar one species.
Ian
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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The talk covered the lungfishes and the mudskippers and we learned a great deal about their behavior and biology and the powerpoint presentation included video, photos and other illustration.
@ andrew, it is the lungfish which is very long lived.
30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- LemonJelly (Johnny Cowley)
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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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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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@LemonJelly....many thanks: it was good to see you there.
Yep.Mudskippers are a great option for someone wanting something different that doesn't break the bank and isn't a problem to house.
Lungfish are a different kettle of fish with only one species being one that is no more of a tank buster than Uaru, Black Ghost Knifefish or Clown Loach or many other commonly kept fish that get to 15 inches and above. The other species of lungfish would require something a lot different.
Latex gloves are something that I think I suggested on a number of occasions that are part of the LungFish keeping kit.

ian
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- Acara (Dave Walters)
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I was thinking though, that if you were considering lungfish, you would really have to take into account their longivity.
Sorry I had to leave so early, was enjoying the chat(and Guiness)but my driver was getting moany about getting to bed

Dave
always on the lookout for interesting corys.pm me if you know off any!
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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Thanks for a fantastic talk Ian, they're amazing fish, and certainly the mudskippers has got me thinking(not for the 1st time!).
I was thinking though, that if you were considering lungfish, you would really have to take into account their longivity.
Sorry I had to leave so early, was enjoying the chat(and Guiness)but my driver was getting moany about getting to bed
Dave
Many thanks Dave.
If I were to be a bit bold, I wonder if many really consider the longevity of many fish.
Goldfish, Clown Loach, Discus (that's a 15-year + fish !), and many others.
The we also have Parrots in the bird-keeping world, or turtles in the reptile keeping world.
Should someone who is 75 years old consider buying Discus?
I suppose it gets into those realms of philosophy.
Ian
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- Valerie (Valerie)
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Will there be a repeat ???

Looking forward to looking at the video you posted on the ITFS Facebook page

Valerie
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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Sorry I missed it ...
(
Will there be a repeat ???
Looking forward to looking at the video you posted on the ITFS Facebook page
Valerie
I'm not sure many could cope with yet another night of me chatting away.

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- john gannon (John Gannon)
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john
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