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
colour of young guppies
- oog1111 (Orlagh O Grady)
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I've two female guppies I've bought in the last few months. they've been busy making babies. about a month ago I woke up to about 50 babies swimming around...so I scooped out about 25 and put them in little mini tank. all still alive and well. But I've been reading a bit about them since and I'm now just wondering are they going to be dull inbreed guppies. One of my females is pretty one is not so pretty. male is not the best either, but he may not be the daddy.
anyway at the moment they are all the same size with no odd looking one. they are mainly silver, some have black dot at start of tail, and some have a yellow hue... from what I've read this maybe as good as it gets...
Is it likely to be the case?
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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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Wild guppies are very plain, see the photo in the Guppy section of the Wiki. www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/component/o...ambowiki/Itemid,100/ (you have to navigate from there to Freshwater fish, then livebearers, then guppies.
If you want to breed pure guppies or at least get a few colourful males to work with you will also need virgin females. The best way to get themis to separate out some fry and keep an eye on them and as soon as you see which ones are developing into males remove them, leaving only virgin females, then introduce you colourful males.
Have fun

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What Daragh has said is only to true i would suggest you start to split them now after 4 weeks they become active that way. i would suggest to help them along you feed some Daphina and brime shrimp or fairy shrimp the quality of the food will aid the colour personally i say variety is the spice of life so i fed a mix.
Mickey
Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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- oog1111 (Orlagh O Grady)
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Not particurally interested in guppies..just was told to get one or two to see if the tank was mature enough to get the fish I really wanted...hence why I got the ugly fish...and the tank was mature enough.
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- nonie (leonie troy)
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IMO I would not recommend getting one type of fish to see if your tank has matured (in the event of it not being mature - potentially killing them)!!!
Just my pennies worth ooog111!!!
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I have never seen swollows here which is easily as beautifull as any betta.
But everyone to their own
I will point out Guppys are know not to colour up when there is a lot of possiable predotors
Plus i would not expect to see true colours till they are about six month.
and one thing a guppy can offer that is unique. is the fact you can develope a colouration that is yours and will rarely if ever be seen out side your tank. and there are not to many things this can be said about!
but everyone to their own!!
Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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- oog1111 (Orlagh O Grady)
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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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The little ones, if only a month old will not have their colours yet, so give them a chance and a good diet, like Mickey said and they might surprise you.
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- oog1111 (Orlagh O Grady)
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was gonna try to keep some supplies of daphina in future. was chatting with one person, who made it all sound really simple...but then I looked on the internet and it all got very complicated. any tips on how to start and keep a small supply?don't want to end up with loads of big containers.
will continue on with the baby guppies for now and see how they turn out in another month
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you will get frozen daphina and blood worms here in Dundalk. linen hall street. ( make sure they scan it in) i got daphina last week less than €5. not sure about blood worms. if you use the frozen bloodworms just drop it in the fry will do the rest you will be amazed at how strong they are just watch a fry swim with a bloodworm twice it size!
As for the dried blloworms version well good for treats. not much else.
Daphina well i only defrost when i want to add vits etc. i would add one drop of Echinacea per block once a week i also add Tropic marin immuvit about half the measure per block.
Mickey
Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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- pkearney (Phil Kearney)
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The young guppy is placed in a champagne glass & held up to the light where the gravid spot can be seen in the female.
Line breeders use this technique to ensure a virgin female.
pkearney.
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it was something i tried for a cold and when i had abacterial problem i was down to nothing left to try so with a kill or cure provado i tried this and i cut death rate afterwards i noticed the inprovement in colour thus now i use once aweek.
i have noticed earlier colouration in recent fry.
having read your post i am not suprised at it.
yet another example of science....
i think it was hanta virus or similar hit in america of course the scienctific comunity dismissed native american advice. it was a guy studying oral history learened that local natives moved in certain years because of a plague of deer mice the same mice that later was found to be the cause.
modern doctors are only one step up the ladder from witch doctors and sometimes they could do with taking a step backwards
Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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