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
Black Angel on hunger strike.
- Didihno (Didihno)
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I bought two gorgeous jet Black Angels.
Perfect condition.
One is eating like a, well, me.
The other hasn't eaten so much as a flake.
He's not being harassed that I can see.
Just hides up beside the filter or in a cave, only occasionally swiming about.
So I just put him into a floating fry container, added just a couple of grains of salt. Then I mushed up some food into a powder, just to see if he'd eat it with no other fish around. Nope. Nothing.
He's getting really thin, compared to the other one whos happy as Larry.
I don't reckon he'll last much longer, sadly because he's the nicer of the two aswell.
Help!
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- monty (monty)
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The hiding up would suggest to me that he is stressed for some reason.
Have you a quarantine tank to move him to ?
Monty
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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What colour is his faeces?
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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He died during Corrie.
Swiming (slowly) one second, collapsed on his side the next.
Tested the water anyway, because I haven't done it in two weeks.
0% Amm.
0% Nitrite
10 ppm Nitrate.
Ph 8.0
(Tap water Ph 7.8)
There was no faeces mate, he didn't eat a damn thing all week that I could see. This fish was in perfect condition, body and fin wise.
His mate actually looked sad at his passing, nudging the body for signs of life.
The ph worries me.
I have three pieces of bog wood in the tank, with some rocks bought in a shop that another poster here tested for ph interference with 0% change in ph. Shouldn't the wood lower the ph a bit?
All the other inmates are in fine health and eat like savages.
Even the Pleco I thought was a goner due to his piss poor condition is doing well.
Some of the other fishes faeces are stringy though, in both tanks.
These fish get something different every meal.
Flake, JMC catfish pellets, Cichlid sticks, Cichlid granules, Peas, Algae wafers and so on. All food is in date.
How can I improve this food?
Should I try those sea monkeys?
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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Your pH of 8 is extremely high not only for angels but for most fish in general. Ypur bogwood probably has leached all of its tanins and will not longer acidify the water. What sort of substarte do you use?
Holger
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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Your pH of 8 is extremely high not only for angels but for most fish in general. Your bogwood probably has leached all of its tanins and will not longer acidify the water. What sort of substrate do you use?
Substrate is a white sand, bought in Tropical World.
If Gavin reads this he might better identify the stuff, but I'd say its that white coral sand.
Its very fine.
The bogwood is only in the tank about three weeks.
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- Deeco (Deeco)
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You know yourself
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- tanks_alot (Denis Coghlan)
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In most situation an increase in pH is not very detrimental to fish and normally its the increase in acidity that cause the problem, but 8.0 seems very high for angles. I have never kept angles so maybe somebody else may have better insight into your current situation.
IMOP i would remove the coral substrate if you are planning on keeping fish that require a softer ph in the long term.
regards
denis
Lead me not into temptation, For I can find it myself!
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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Never put a sick/stressed fish in a small container like that, it will only stress them more.What it says on the tin.
I bought two gorgeous jet Black Angels.
Perfect condition.
One is eating like a, well, me.
The other hasn't eaten so much as a flake.
He's not being harassed that I can see.
Just hides up beside the filter or in a cave, only occasionally swiming about.
So I just put him into a floating fry container, added just a couple of grains of salt. Then I mushed up some food into a powder, just to see if he'd eat it with no other fish around. Nope. Nothing.
He's getting really thin, compared to the other one whos happy as Larry.
I don't reckon he'll last much longer, sadly because he's the nicer of the two aswell.
Help!
Your ph is way to high for Angels. Coral sand will buff the ph up. Best going for Afrcian cichlids.
Whar colour is the pooh.
White feaces =possible internal worm infestaton.
White stringy pooh+ possible internal flagellets(Spironucleus Vortens)
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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The stringy bits are white, then a nice bit of normal poo then more stringy bits.
Also now I'm getting a small algae bloom on the glass (spots) and the water is ever so slightly murky, but I always assumed this was the tannins from the wood.
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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Will send you a pm on how to treat them tomorow when I am sober.
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- Peter OB (Peter O'Brien)
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Probably better off getting fish to suit the hard water rather than **edit**messing around with the water. Thats just my opinion anyway.
I find even the normal sand (Childrens Play-pit sand) has a certain amount of buffering capacity.
Also, myself and Deco have spoken about this before and its very true, the normal strains of Angels with Siver body and black stripes are a lot hardier than the Marbled, Koi Angels etc........ as mentioned in one of the earlier posts the inbreeding weakens them.
Smoke me a Kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast.
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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I'm not going to buy any more, and I'm not going to change the substrate.
Fook that.
If these Gourami die off then I'll switch to hard water cichlids.
I'm dissapointed though, I like Gourami.
Who can point me towards hard water cichlids and fish in general?
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- zebadee (zebadee)
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As a starter I'd go for Rift Valley cichlids. I'd take a look at cichlidforum.com to get an idea of the colour and temperment you might like. I've kept african cichlids for the past 8 years and I like them but they can be challenging.
If I was to set up a tank for you I'd go for a mixture of aulonocara (peacocks) with a male to female ratio of 2:1. They are easy to look after, relatively non agressive and very colourful.
A second option is to overstock the tank with mbuna including some of the following:
White and/or Blue Aceii
Labdichromis Caurealues (yellow labs)
Iodotropheus (Rusty Cichlids)
Here is a link to a brilliant website which will give you a much better idea of what is available and more importantly what works well.
www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/cookie_cutter_55g.php
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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Or rainbows. Just as colourful as cichlids without the aggro. And most of them love hard water. I would keep a few gobies with them just to have some fish swimming in the lower regions of the tank
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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1 Do not mix Mbuna with Haps unless the Haps are from the larger variety like Nimbochromas. Alonacara species will eventually be torn to bits by Mbuna when they start to colour up and display.
2 Do not mix Herbivores with Omnivores. If you feed the food intended for Omnivores(ie.tropical flake) you will eventually kill your Herbevores. They start to blow out and the fill up with a bile like substance. Some will die within a short space of time( two weeks) and not even swell out.
Some peole keep Tropheus species(Tangs) in a tank with omnivorous fish. Bad idea. Moori and Dubossi will probably last 1 week being fed omnivoruos food. Spirolina/Spinach/cucomber and a weekly supplement of krill is the best diet for them.
3 If keepng Mbuna don`t mix the really aggresive varietys like Red Zebras/Lombardi with Acei/Curuleus/Rusty. cichlids. Crabro will be able to hold themselves against Zebras and not be too aggresive to keep with the quieter spscies.
If you decide to go with Malawi`s post the list of fish you want and we can give you advice.
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