New Feature - Fish Community Creator

When you create a new fish tank in the fish tank community creator, it'll show in your posts and profile.

It should help other fish enthusiasts get a handle on the the type of tanks you're creating by showing the fish that you're putting in them.

I'm hoping this will stimulate extra discussion and use of the tool.

Fish are outputted by tank name - so if you have multiple tanks the fish will be grouped in their respective tanks that you created.

Yep, some people have remarked that the tool isn't perfect - I'm not going to enter into that debate right now as much of the disagreement I've read or heard is based on subjective opinion and hair splitting from other forum owners and people looking to see the worst in something rather than the best. I think it's pretty good as an indicator and my mailbox is full of praise from people who have used it to create their aquarium so for now, I'm quite happy with those kinds of affirmations as it's definitely helping newbies in the learning process. Those that are unsure will always come here for clarification.

Todo list: I'm still to integrate the sign in and login process on both the tool and the forum. As they're separate databases it's not entirely straightforward and the framework used to create the community tool is one I'm not very familiar with. 

Hope that helps, watch this space.

There are a couple of problems for me.
I have my three tanks in the community creator, and until 10 mins ago I had another three labelled as possible tanks - ie wishful thinking tanks. The fish in those possible tanks are also listed in the signature even though I don't have them and probably never will.
I have just emptied the three possible tanks and find the fish that were in them are still listed.

And another problem. I have fish that aren't in the database so I've had to use the closest match.

The list in my signature as of the time of typing reads:
Siamese fighting fish (male) - yes I do have one
Snails - I have these but not the apple snails that are in the database. I have nerites which are not in the database so I had to substitute apple snails *
Pearl gourami - don't have any. They were in one of the now deleted possible tanks.
Ember tetras - these appear twice even though they are not actually listed in any of my tanks.
Galaxy rasboras - listed twice but I don't have any. I do have them listed in my Main Tank but they are just subsitutes for fish that aren't in the database. In the text I have written, there are Microdevario and ember tetras - these are what I actually have that are in the CC as galaxy rasboras.
Neon tetras - I don't have any. I used to have these in my CC tank as green neon tetras aren't in the database. I removed them last week when the last green neon died aged over 5 years.
Emperor tetra - I used to have some till I part-exed them for pencilfish and changed the entry in the CC
Chain loach - yes I do have these!
Flag cichlids - I've never had any but as Nannacara anomala aren't in the database I substituted these instead. However, they died a couple of months ago so I removed them from my tank in the CC.
Japonica shrimps - I don't have any, they are substituted for cherry shrimps which aren't in the database
Alexrods rasbora - I used to have some but they died and I replaced them with Boraras. Boraras aren't in the database so I left the Alexrods rasboras in the CC as a subtitute
Salt and pepper catfish - yes I have these
Otocinclus - I have these
Cherry barbs - I have these
Chain loach - again. I think I had them listed in Main Tank and one of the possibles which I've now deleted, I assume that's why they are there twice.
Galaxy rasboras - again. See comments above for the first galaxy rasboras and the second chain loach
Golden pencilfish - I have these
Agassizis dwarf cichlid - I have these




So in my case, the fish I have and used to have in the CC are not the fish I actually own. Having the CC list together with the list I have typed myself looks very bad as the two do not agree.
Perhaps giving an option to remove the CC list from the signature would be better. That way it could be automatically displayed for those who have not entered their own info in the signature but could be removed by people, like me, who have.



EDIT
I have just deleted all the fish from my CC tanks. Checking my signature after I did this, I see that a lot of the fish in the CC section have now disappeared, but not all, including some that were in the possible tanks I deleted before typing all this.



* A problem with having apple snails in the database - it has been illegal to import these snails into the EU for several years. It is not illegal to sell them but the only ones you ever see these days are those that have been bred in fishkeepers' tanks.

Simon, the easy way to use the CC is to have the same password as for the forum 

I thought I did! Hence my surprise when I was unable to login earlier.

Hi Sue - I note the ones you removed are no longer at the bottom of your sig.

I'll add a divider so it's clear that the sig and the CC are separate entities.

I'll look at adding an option in user profiles to show or hide but that's going to take me some time.

The whole thing here is that if we get more users and usage of the tools then I can fund extra improvements like additional fish profiles for example.

Seriously fish and other places get their fish from commonly accessible academic databases, so there's no reason why we can't do the same. The issue at hand for me is the legwork required to put them in the database.

I fund this place from my own pocket and it doesn't pay for itself (yet) if it becomes self funding then I'm happy to reinvest and improve the offering.

If people don't know the tools are here then they won't use them, this does seem like an easy win win way of elevating its existence.

Edit: Ah I see a few remain for you...hmmn - That's odd. if you say you deleted all your tanks then they shouldn't be there as they will be tied to your email address in the databse.

I'll login and take a look

Simon - aha! Ok, so it seems my implementation is a little buggy. I'll take a look

Simon - aha! Ok, so it seems my implementation is a little buggy. I'll take a look

Never mind - I figured it out. I was using a different email address for the CC to the one I use to log into the forum.

I'll create a new CC using the same email address as the forum. I'll use the other one to mess around with (if I don't forget the password lol)

That's a good idea Simon. Then my wishful thinking won't appear as fish I actually have.

And I did use my CC account for other people too. When we get posts asking do I have too many fish, or can I add more fish, or will these fish be OK together, I often enter the other person's tank details and fish to check with the CC. I usually delete them straight after replying but there have been occasions when I've forgotten.



And before anyone comments, Robert has quoted a post I made and then deleted 

Have I done something wrong.....

Now we've finished our meal and read your post I thought it would be a good idea to check every 'tank' in the CC just in case I had missed one. I went to Fish Profiles and clicked on cherry barb (my usual route into the CC). I went down to the CC log in, entered my email address and password and clicked log in. That took me to a blank page. I now can't access any fish profile. The url in the address bar shows the Thinkfish address/fish/cherry barb but nothing at all on the page. I've even disabled all my add-ons to no avail.

I know that the CC does time out so I'll wait and see if I can get to the profiles later.

Or is it something that happened when

Yes - I just deleted all tanks associated with your email address and they've now disappeared

Hi Sue

Might be a cookie thing - clear browser cookies or login with with a different browser and see if it's still blank

I just deleted tanks with your email address, but I didn't t clear the fish ( the CC creates a tank reference and a fish in the ta k reference too )  - I'll check again later when I'm not typing from a phone just in case I missed something

Glad you like the text, helps differentiate 😊

Ok Sue - leave it with me and I'll take a look later 😊