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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

Red Tailed Black Shark not eating.

  • Didihno (Didihno)
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09 Nov 2006 14:13 #1 by Didihno (Didihno)
Red Tailed Black Shark not eating. was created by Didihno (Didihno)
Hi all, I think my tank is now very nearly cycled, (read my intro thread).

All fish are healthy and active except this one guy.
He doesn't participate in feeding frenzys and does not seem to even scavenge much (except in the mornings when I come down hes rummaging and swiming normally, soon as he sees me he's back to playing sick).
Colour is varying from the unhappy grey to vibrant black.
Also he is flicking himself against gravel and the rocks, so I suspect a gill fluke or something.

I'm feeding different foods from bloodworms in the jelly sachets to Flake food to bottom pellets for the catfish and Chinese AE's.
Some but not a lot of food is making it down to the gravel.
I have ordered Hikari Algae wafers (recommended by a Yank on Badmans site).

This shark does not seem to be eating at all, not since he killed my Albino shark 2 weeks ago.

I have read the profile for this fish and one thing I have wrong is the size of the tank(45l), they like to have bigger tanks, but hes only 2 inches long.
Hey I'd like to have a Ferrari but thats life.

Advice please!

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  • Didihno (Didihno)
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09 Nov 2006 17:41 #2 by Didihno (Didihno)
Replied by Didihno (Didihno) on topic Re: Red Tailed Black Shark not eating.
Update: Did a 20% water change and gravel vac.
Added 1 teaspoon (disolved in tank water) aquarium pharmaceuticals salt.

The Shark just came alive.
In like 5 seconds he was swimming around, fins out proud.
Now he's retaken ownership of the tank from those cheeky barbs and chasing them out of his side.
Its bizarre.

He didn't eat any of the flake food I put in.
Then I put in a slice of cucumber weighted down.
He nosed around it suspiciously then swam off.
The Synodontis is ravaging it though!
My algae wafers still haven't arrived, so I hope he keeps his strength up until then.

I guess the problem still stands, he's not eating.

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20 Nov 2006 10:34 #3 by Didihno (Didihno)
Replied by Didihno (Didihno) on topic Re: Red Tailed Black Shark not eating.
I just don't get it. This fecker was on hunger strike and now...

The shark had a massive belly on him the other morning, he had eaten an entire algae wafer I think. Then the maniac fish decided to take on the school of Tiger barbs and show them who is boss.

Water quality seems to be a huge issue to this fish.

I bought and installed a Fluval 2 in the tank, and will let it set up for a few weeks before I cut out the old crappy filter from the tank lid. How long should it take to cycle in the new filter?

All the fish are loving their new aerated water especially the barbs who love playing in the stream. Watching them having to chase their food now is great craic. The water stream catches the flakes and throws them to the other side of the tank, with the barbs in tow!

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  • Anthony (Anthony)
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20 Nov 2006 10:54 #4 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: Red Tailed Black Shark not eating.
Did you check your nitrate level.

High nitrates can cause flicking and give the impression of external parasites.

The same can be said of ph crash. Scales falling off and it looks like they have gill flukes.

Bet my botom dollar it was hgh nitrates. Might be best to do another change in the next day or so to get it down.

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20 Nov 2006 13:18 #5 by Didihno (Didihno)
Replied by Didihno (Didihno) on topic Re: Red Tailed Black Shark not eating.
Nitrates are reading between 25-50 on two different strip based testers.
I have a proper reagent based kit in the post from the UK. (Tetra master test kit). BTW I'm reading Amm 0% and Nitrite 0% with these test strips.

I am currently making 20ish% water changes a week.
Hmmm....I might test the tap water for nitrates.
I'm in Balbriggan and our water is very hard.
I'm not sure what to do about it, except buy bottled water.
I bought a sachet of Aquarium Pharmaceuticals 'Proper Ph 7.0' and used it when I first set up the tank, it caused massive ammounts of calcium to fall out of the water onto everything. Don't want to do that again.

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21 Nov 2006 02:26 #6 by Peter OB (Peter O'Brien)
Didi,

Missed your silky skills last night,

I wouldn't bother using that crap to change the Ph, they are only temporary and cause more harm than good to your fish.

Just choose fish that are not too choosey about Ph and you'll be grand.

Tank sounds like its going well, just don't stock it up too soon or KABOOOM!!!!!!!...............Dead Fish.

Smoke me a Kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast.

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21 Nov 2006 04:06 #7 by Didihno (Didihno)
Replied by Didihno (Didihno) on topic Re: Red Tailed Black Shark not eating.

Didi,

Missed your silky skills last night,

I wouldn't bother using that crap to change the Ph, they are only temporary and cause more harm than good to your fish.

Just choose fish that are not too choosey about Ph and you'll be grand.

Tank sounds like its going well, just don't stock it up too soon or KABOOOM!!!!!!!...............Dead Fish.

Like I told Deco, my hammers are stiff and sore, last thing I need is to tear one, at my age that would be it for months!!!

I don't plan on getting any extra fish...however, I might well be offloading one algae eater and possibly the RTBS (I love him but he's just not enjoying my little tank) once I think he's healthy enough, to either get a mate for the Albino Cory or a couple of either Tigers, or Green or even Pink Tigers. There will be a lot more swimming space once I get rid of the stupid lid filter and one of the larger rocks.

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