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
My tanks - Cichlids/Marine/Puffer
The intention was to show the Fossarochromis Rostratus I picked up recently but ended up going a bit mad & doing some of the other tanks too.
Apologies for the quality, cameras & I don't go so well together. They did look much better on the camera!
Main cichlid tank
This tank is running for the past year but I've had a lot of the stock for 3 years or so in a different tank.
Contains mainly Malawis but has a breeding group of Tropheus & a big old male Jack Dempsey too. Mostly male fish too.
This is currently being pared back to being an all Hap tank.
At some stage I intend to set up a much bigger hap-only tank.
Puffer tank
This is my Fahaka puffer.
These are the second biggest freshwater puffer species in the world.
She must be around 9 or 10 inches, a big pet but a headbanger when it comes to other fish. Impossible to keep other fish with her.
Fish room
The fish room is still very much work in progress..
I moved into this house last year & had to get a lot of work done on it so things have been manic.
The bigger marine tank here is only a couple of months old & I'm taking it very slowly.
It's lightly stocked with a Dwarf lion, Niger Trigger, a few soft corals & a pair of Clarkii clowns.
Not sure what the eventual stock list will be… The Niger trigger is being replaced with a Sargassum trigger as soon as I can get one.
Nano marine
I love this little tank, this is running almost a year now.
It's simplicity itself, 50 litre tank, 3 powerheads & a heater.
Stock is a Tomato Clownfish, Bicolour blenny, Humbug damsel, Fire shrimp, Cleaner shrimp & a few soft corals, snails & crabs.
This is maintained as a high nutrient tank (the opposite of most modern reef tanks)
This is to deliberately encourage the growth of all manner of strange & wonderful critters.
I'm considering removing all of the fish to encourage more critter growth.
Cleaner shrimp cleaning my hand:
Cheers,
Patrick
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they all look stunning. It must take you a long time to maintain these beauties what sort of schelude do you use?You big cichlid take is the best i,ve seen anywhere, i love the mixture of fish you have and the different sizes. Whats your view on adding bigger fish to a tank with mainly juvilles, smaller fish? I have seen so many beauties whewn out in LFS but to fearful to get them for my tank incase there is a bloodbath. Andy up in Ashbourne had this cracker of a black cichlid last week when i was up there, i was so tempted to get it but i resisted, still bugging the hell out of me:angry:
Nice to see the marine setup, is that a 240 tank. What sort of setup did you go for, lighting,filtration,any addition cannister filters, skimmer,RO or tap water, cleaning schelude,sump etc.
Congrats again on your tanks STUNNING
GB
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Jeff - It really doesn't tank long to maintain them at all.
Sure I don't get time with my 2 year old daughter hanging out of me all the time
She spends more time playing with fish stuff than toys & refers to everything as 'ours' - "That's like our puffer"
The only maintenance on the marines is a top up of fresh water every week & cleaning the glass every couple of days. Skimmer cup is cleaned every few days & I change water about every 6 weeks.
The cichlid tank gets a big water change each week - 30 - 50% depending on time. Same with the puffer tank.
My big cichlid tank is a bit mad to be honest, it breaks a lot of rules…
But I like to try things out & if something goes wrong I take action immediately to fix it.
Mixing big fish & small fish can be difficult. Not so much from a bullying perspective but if the bigger fish has a mouth big enough to try fit the smaller ones in, then he probably will…
I target feed the big piscavores in my tank with prawns every second day & once well fed they leave the smaller ones alone.
P.s. I saw that black cichlid in Ashbourne, nice fish but I no idea what species - possibly a hybrid.
The other nice fish with the stripes in that tank are Lombardi - total headbangers.
They are the reason the labs in the same tank have no tails..
The marine setup is the 240 that I had sitting empty for ages.
It’s a pretty simple setup, loads of flow (tank is turned over about 70 times per hour) and an oversized skimmer. I was running an internal filter but didn't like the look of it so took it out.
I might stick on a cannister but will wait a while to see how it goes first.
Tap water is used for water changes, done about every 6 weeks but I'll step this up once I stock it with some more corals. No additives/carbon/phosphate remover used as yet but I guess I will add them as necessary once the tank is more mature.
Ronnie - the cichlid tank is 400 litres.
Filtered by 3 extra large external cannister filters & I use a powerhead for flow through the rocks.
You are right to err on the side of caution, it takes a while to feel comfortable overstocking a tank.
The advice I would give would be:
- Over filter as much as possible
- Add fish in groups when you're adding them & cover the tank with the lights off for a day
- Research any fish before you buy it so you don't end up with a head banger
- Make sure there is a lot of aeration, oxygen is hugely important in an overstocked tank
- Check your water regularly to make sure your PH is 7.5+ & Nitrate <= 40
- Watch the fish every day to look for illness - a fish on its own, hanging near the surface, wounds etc.
- Big weekly water changes - I empty water with a hose & top up with dechlorinated cold water from the tap
Cheers,
Patrick
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