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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

White spot/Ich

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22 Jun 2009 11:48 #1 by Blake123 (Blake O Leary)
Hey everyone,
Ive just noticed about 40 tiny white spots on my Oscar and my Peacock Cichlid is scratching along the gravel im positive its White spot :( :ohmy: , I have no expieriance with this and ive read on the net that you can put 1-2 grams of salt per liter of water in the tank and raise the temp of the water to 30 degrees, but will take a few weeks for the disease to clear.:dry:

Is this info accurite, and does anyone have any better advice??

Thanks,
Blake

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22 Jun 2009 11:59 #2 by organicsteve (steve whiteside)
Hi Blake,

Firstly you must look at the cause of the problem.
Whitespot is an opportunistic protazoan parasite that will adhere itself to the fish if the fish is stressed and losing the slime that they lose when stressed that acts as a protective barrier ordinarily.
The main causes of stress are water quality problems and social problems.
I would suspect that keeping an Oscar with what I presume is an Aulonocara Sp. might be the cause of some social indifferances.
Have you tested the water?
Please supply details on the set up; how long its running, filtration, maintenance routine, other species, size etc. and I can advise you further.

Cheers,

Steve

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22 Jun 2009 12:33 #3 by Blake123 (Blake O Leary)
Thanks Steve
I havent tested the water in 2 weeks but everything was in good nik, and my nephew got his hands on kit a few days ago and started playing scientist in the pond and ruined it.
Its been running for almost 4 weeks,
I have a resun magi 380 bio filter running with a juwel bio 600, I clean the both weekly, and a 25% water change every two weeks, replacing the filter media weekly.
Currently i have a Brown Knife Ghostfish (3.5 inch), 1 Featherfin 4inch, 1 salefin Pleco 3 inch, 2 Bala Sharks 2.5inch, Oscar 6 inch, Cichlid 3inch, 2 Red Clawed Crayfish, And an Elephant nose 3inch.
Its a Rio 180, two T5s running 8 hours. The temp is at 25 degrees.

Would you reccommened using stress zyme to replace thier slim coating?

Thanks,
Blake

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22 Jun 2009 12:58 #4 by JohnH (John)
Replied by JohnH (John) on topic Re:White spot/Ich
Your regime of filter media changing so often is possibly adding to the stress upon your fish!

you aren't allowing the filter bacteria time to reprodue and do their work properly.

My opinion is that you should only clean the media when the flow through it has appreciably decreased, and then only clean it - not with tap water, the chlorine in it will kill off all your bacteria, then it's 'back to square one'.

You really don't need to be replacing the media until it really is 'past it', certainly not every week!!!

I would also suggest you do a 25% water change every week, not fortnightly.

One last thing - reduce your feeding pattern too, three times a day really is going 'over the top', honestly.

For White Spot I prefer Waterlife Protozin...do a water change then follow the instructions to the letter, dead simple, it's never failed me in all the years I've been using it.

Hope that helps.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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22 Jun 2009 13:15 #5 by organicsteve (steve whiteside)
Blake,

I agree with John in that your washing of filter media is a bit too often.

The set up is reasonably new and therefore unstable.

Unless you are using Organic Aqua you need to change the water (25%) at least every two weeks or as John suggests here, every week.

Your tank is quite heavily stocked and the species all seem to be quite large and messy.

I assume the featherfin is a syno. eupterus - this and some of the others will need adequate hiding places or they can add to the stress levels in the tank.

If you decide to go down the Protozin route (it works well) please note that the Elephant Nose will have to be removed as they are a 'naked' fish and do not react well to this particular chemical.
Also remove any carbon from the filters.

The temperature increase is a good idea and if you want a chemical free way of clearing it up I would recommend OA Health Treatment and maybe keep a close eye on the social habits of your tanks inhabitants as I feel there may be a bully in there somewhere!

Let me know how you're getting on.

Cheers,

Steve

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22 Jun 2009 13:21 #6 by organicsteve (steve whiteside)
Oh and dont go near Stress Zyme, Stress Coat claims to replace the slimey coating but check out

cms.marsfishcare.com/files/msds/stress_coat_ng_030907.pdf

This is a link from APIs own website.

Would you put this in your tank???

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23 Jun 2009 16:12 #7 by amdaley (Tony Daly)
Is this health & safety stuff for fish or humans ?
I wouldn't go drinking any of the stuff I put in my tank. There are much nicer products out there :cheer:

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23 Jun 2009 17:11 - 23 Jun 2009 17:13 #8 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Ive never had a problem with Stress Zyme, the link is a hazards sheet for if People use this, its intended for fish. The majority of the warnings are saying that the product is not thought to do this and that, but they are simply covering their own a*s. Im sure that many similar products do likewise. I mean do any of us honestly use gloves,goggles and wear protective clothing when using these products.
I would rather use this product on my water changes etc than empty a bucket of water straight from the tap into the water.
Just my personal opinion, but I think Stress Zyme does not represent a risk to fish if used correctly(and by that I mean dosage as opposed to having to wear protective clothing and goggles!).

Gavin
Last edit: 23 Jun 2009 17:13 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner).

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