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

Malawi Tank Update

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KenS (Ken Simpson)
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29 Sep 2007 21:28 #1 by KenS (Ken Simpson)

Malawi Tank Update was created by KenS (Ken Simpson)

Just to recap. Everything was going fine up to two weeks ago when I lost a sprengerae. Two others then followed pretty quickly afterwards. Symptoms were gasping, loss of appetite, turning dark and death. A few days later I lost an Otopharanx and then a damesoni.

There was no phsical signs such as Ich or Venvet. I treated with eSHa 2000 which is a good broad based traetment to no avail. I then tried metrozinadole as this is a good treatment for bloat which is supposedly common in Africans. The only fish that bloated before it died was the Otopharanx.

Derek sent me a PM suggesting that it was most likely a velvet type parasite and that I should treat with Protazin. I quickly did a water change and added the Protozin.

Thankfully, things quickly improved. I put the last dose in yesterday and haven't lost a fish since I started the treatment. A couple of fish that looked dodgy and have started eating again which is always a good sign. The only fish still not eating is the fourth and last sprengerae. I'll keep a close eye on him and keep my fingers crossed that he pulls through.

My tank is 470 litres so I dropped the water level down to the halfway mark before treating. This has two advantages. Firstly, I have to use less medication to treat the tank. Treating 470 litres of water can work out expensive. Secondly, the outlet for the filter was above the water line thus aerating the water from the waterfall effect. Good aeration is critical when using any medication.

BTW, when you have a parasite like this, it's important to ensure you don't spead it to other tanks though nets and siphons, etc. I have sterilised my nets using a solution of Protozin. Just before I treated with Protazin, I set up my hospital tank to treat a gourami that looks as though he as a touch of fin rot. However, I keep the filter for my hospital tank matured in my African tank. This means that I possibly spread the parasite to my hospital tank and now have to treat with Protozin just to be sure. I also don't want to put my hospital tank filter back in the African tank and possibly reintroduce the parasite.

Thanks to Derek and Protazin for sorting this problem out. I'll do a water change tomorrow and bring the water back up to the normal level. Hopefully there are better days ahead for this tank.

Regards,

Ken.

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