Tank Thread Tank reached 38 years old...in 2009!

[LongIslandAndy]

Good deal

 

[Paul B]

The pipefish, possum wrasse, perchlet, mandarins, hawkfish and a few others are camera shy

 

[Paul B]

We just got back from Connecticut for a couple of days in a B&B for our 46th (I think) anniversary.

It poured the entire time.

We took the ferry there and it was fairly calm. As I looked over the side at the sea, I saw this large fin slicing through the water. I have been out there in the middle of the Long Island Sound many times but I never saw a large shark there.

I know a few weeks ago they reported a 12' Great White Shark there so I figured it was one of those.
Then as we got closer I saw a Sea Gull land right in front of it. I figured the gull was going to be a small lunch for the shark.

Then I noticed the fin bending from side to side and I know shark fins don't do that as they are made out of aluminum and are very stiff.

All of a sudden this huge fish jumps completely out of the water and slaps down again. It was maybe 4' or 5' long and almost as high.

It was an Ocean Sunfish or Mola Mola.
It jumped three or four times and after every jump it would lay on it's side at the surface and the sea gull would stand on it and eat parasites off it's sides.

Our boat was moving pretty fast so I could only see this for about 30 seconds but it made my day.
I have only seen an ocean sunfish once or twice before but that was far out to sea. This was about 8 miles out.
Sunfish are the largest bony fish and can reach over 2,000 lbs. or as much as some of my old girlfriends. :p

Very cool.

Coming home it was so windy that they cancelled our ferry due to high winds and rain. I think the Captain noticed there were some Sissy, Girly Men Snowflakes on line and figured they would get the horrors and croak.
This ferry is a big boat holding maybe 100 or more cars.

We drove for an hour to Bridgeport Conn. and got a different ferry to Long Island so we didn't do to bad.

I got good news when I got home and found out my book, "The Avant-Garde Marine Aquarist" is back in print on Amazon so I ordered myself some copies in case I forgot what I wrote.

 

[Paul B]

Just in case anyone believes I am going to get wealthy beyond my wildest dreams with this book, I would like you to know that 100% of any profits from this book will be donated to MS
(Multiple Sclerosis) research in my wife's name.

She has had the disease for 20 years and is not really doing very well with it as MS is so far a disease that can't be cured.

Besides, my wildest dreams involves a flounder, two Supermodels, a bowling ball and a door handle from a 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass. :p

 

[Paul B]

At 6:30 this morning the sun just stated to come out and I figured i would go for a bicycle ride. Loosen up the stiff muscles a little.

There is a little hill next to a pond here and I started cruising down the hill.

All of a sudden I see this young deer right in front of me not moving. As I got closer and closer I could tell she had that
"Geezer in the Headlights" look.

Just before I crashed into her she took off. She was running right next to me for a while and as she looked over at me I could tell she was thinking "Wow this Old Coot can go pretty fast"

But I don't think deer know much about bicycles going down hill.
This isn't her, maybe her sister.

 

[Paul B]

This blue sponge that grows on virtually every spare piece of real estate in my tank is really looking nice. It is "Bluer" that it used to be for some reason. I think it is due to the clams I have been feeding and all the clam juice associated with it.

The stuff grows a little to fast and I do have to trim it about every month or so but it is a great water filter.
I got a small piece of it many years ago but it really took off. It's almost like a very cheap coral and I like it a lot.

I do throw a lot of it out when I trim it because i don't know what to do with it and I don't know anyone locally with a salt tank.
I also think it is photosynthetic which is weird as sponges are not usually sensitive to light except to hide from it.
If it gets shaded because something grows over it, it turns very light, almost white.

 

[Paul B]

This morning I am washing my worms. My neighbors think I'm nuts and that my PTSD got worse.
My culture of white worms is very old, maybe 10 years and there are tiny flies hatching in there. More flies than worms so it, of course is outside.

I am going to leave them flooded for 24 hours because I know the worms can live submerged for five days in salt water, but I am hoping the fly larvae can't SCUBA dive for long.

I don't want to order a new culture because these are very big for some reason, much larger than the original batch.
I think they are Godzilla Larvae.

 

[Paul B]

Today, after I went on my boat to do a few last minutes winterizing things, paid some bills and started designing a new
(what will be very cool) steam punk "thing" I gave my worms a bath. Actually it was yesterday that I flooded them and kept them flooded for 24 hours. My worm culture has been giving me problems as it is breeding dozens of flies, and I hate flies. Scurvy little vile things.

I know they are hatching in there and I know the worms don't mind being submerged so I sunk them all day.

The worms seemed happy and were all doing what looked like an Italian wedding dance so i figured there were fine.

I was trying to drown the fly larvae. So far, so good as I don't see any flies.
If this doesn't work, I will flood them for 48 hours, then 72 hours.

After I dried them out somewhat, I fed them a nice dinner of stale bread, yogurt and nutritional yeast. I also added more potting soil in the hope they will once again start breeding and multiplying. I may have to wait a couple of weeks to see if I was successful.

In the absence of live worms I have been feeding my fish, besides LRS food, clams that I got in a bait store. I was going to use these clams as bait, but I only went fishing once this year and didn't catch anything so i am feeding them to the fish.

My anemone quadrupled in size and is the largest thing in the tank by far except for the sculpture of myself next to Christie Brinkley. :p

 

[Paul B]

This thing says there are 238,000 views. Where are all you people? Are you in a coma? I understand that even if you are in a coma, you can still hear and understand. HELLO!!!. Someone say something, even Duh or Um.
Say something in Aramaic or Latin. Talk about Pina Colada's, anything except the democratic convention picking last night.

No politics. Just fish, life, wine, Praying Mantises, bowling balls, Supermodels, pliers, grilled cheese, salt water taffy,anything.

HELLO.
Is this thing on?
I went to the beach the other day and saw a Praying Mantis, see even I can make up something.

This little friend met me by the beach. See how easy that was.

 

[Paul B]

It seems my 24 hour worm bath did nothing to eliminate of drown flies. As a matter of fact, I think there are more flies now than before and if I look close I could swear they have SCUBA fins on.

Now i will try a 48 hour "bath" and if that doesn't work I will just collect all the worms I can and make a new culture. I don't want to do that because it will take forever to collect a lot of worms with no dirt as I feel fly larvae or eggs may get into my new culture. Maybe I will just play RAP music near the worms and see if the flies croak first.
Before me anyway. ;Wideyed

 

[Paul B]

My Book is "flying" off the shelves and Amazon had to buy a large tract of land just to get more trees for paper.

OK, maybe not that severe, but they are selling and I hope people enjoy them.

The MS Society should be happy because as I said 100% of the profits are going to them and I am getting Zippo.

At the end of the Tax year I will send them a check because I don't know how to just let the profits go to them.
Of course this will cost me because I still have to pay tax on the book profits even though I am donating the money so I will have to figure out how to do that so I don't go broke.

 

[Paul B]

I just got back from the fish market and bought 2 dozen live crabs. This is the first year I didn't go crabbing so I had to buy them. I finished cleaning them and my fish had a feast. My anemone looks to big for my tank now. ;Wacky

Now my wife will make a nice linguine and crabs and I will be in heaven.

 

[Paul B]

Amazon tells me that my book will be out in an E Book in a couple of days where it will be available to all parts of the Earth and beyond. They said it is so powerful and mind changing that they are going to replace the Bible in hotel rooms to make room for my book.

I told them to leave the bible there just in case some people want to pray that their fish don't croak using other methods :p

 

[Paul B]

Yesterday I went to an LFS with a pocketful of money and came home with an anemic looking arrow crab.
I only bought him because I felt sorry for him, actually, it is a Her. You can tell by their eyelashes and the females smell better.
(Yes Andy, you know the one)

They had some small angels, tangs, butterflies, lionfish, groupers, firefish and a lot of very common, no imagination sissy, Girly fish which i didn't even want for free. The guy tried to sell me a 2' ramora which would have taken food out of my freezer for himself.

I just can't buy anything as no one has anything reef tank worthy.

 

[Paul B]

I have been having a problem with my white worm culture, it's hatching flies so last week I flooded their container and I was straining it when my neighbor came over. He asked what I was doing and I said "I am washing my worms".

He just shook his head and walked away.

It is time to again trim this sponge that I have all over the tank, but instead of sticking my hand in there with a scalpel I will try my Majano Wand which I forgot about.
I have a few of them laying around because, Like Duh, I invented the thing and never thought to use it for this. People tell me it works on mushrooms so it should work on this. I will let you know

 

[Paul B]

For 2 weeks we have been hearing this "wind" noise coming through the ducts in the house and I just assumed it was the wind going over the vent pipe on the roof because we are very near the sea and it is windy here.
Yesterday I was downstairs where the tank is with my friend and he was behind my tank and he said, I hear a motor noise.
My hearing isn't that good from Nam so I don't hear high pitched noises which is why I can't hear it when my amphipods scream when the mandarin eats them. But I could barely hear the motor noise.
I told him there are no motors there. Then he pointed to this tiny motor on my DIY Sodium Denitrifying thing I built which I completely forgot about as it is tucked in between the tank and the duct. The motor got air in it and wasn't pumping water, just making a slight noise which went through the ducts because it was up against it
He unplugged it, and the noise went away. Like Duh.

 

[Paul B]

A member of a forum asked me about Majano Wands so I started looking for one as I used to have them all over the place.
(I invented the thing and hold the patent)
I found an old hand made prototype at the bottom of a box that I didn't un pack yet since I moved here a year and a half ago.

I didn't think it would work so I figured I would try it on the sponge I have encrusting all over the place.
Surprisingly, it cuts the thing like a laser beam. A very slow laser beam. Then I take out the pieces with a long tong thing.

It is hard to cut where it is attached to the rock so there is some ripping needed, but it still works.
I also noticed a couple of aiptasia in there which I also killed although it works much better on Majano's, hence the name. :p

 

[Paul B]

A few weeks ago my wife gives me this stuff you are supposed to spray in the shower to disinfect the walls and glass doors.

Yesterday I decided to use it. after I took a shower. It is strong stuff and you can't stay in there as it smells like nerve gas.

Anyway, after I used it I accidentally left it in the shower and by mistake put my liquid soap away. My liquid soap comes in a bottle that looks similar to that disinfectant stuff.
(I think you know where I am going with this)

So this morning I get into the shower and pick the stuff up and spray myself.
It is like a mixture of Clorox, Battery acid and riot gas. It wasn't pretty.

 

[Paul B]

My tank is doing really well, even my wife came and said that and she didn't even know we had a fish tank.

I have life all over the place as well as some cyano which I think looks kind of nice. All the corals are trying to reach the ceiling and the fish can't smile any broader. I think my young watchmans are spawning, or watchman and watchgirl.
I want to be PC just in case there are any Snowflakes that mistakenly fell into this thread.

I think my experimental Sodium De-nitrifier is working, or at least it looks cool. My algae scrubber that is hanging over the tank is growing algae. But I changed the grow bulb to a red bulb which was a mistake. The stuff grows much better with the normal bulb.

I am all excited, I got a rare look at my Janss pipefish as he never comes out. He must have thought I was out of town.
I never expected this guy to live this long as they are considered difficult. He did bite my male bluestripe almost in half, but besides that he is a great and beautiful fish. If you could ever see him of course.



I also finished (almost) my fireplace. The entire structure is on wheels and I can move it away from the wall in case I want to hide back there. All I have left to do, if I decide to do it, is to add hydraulics to that stone below the hearth so it lifts up to store stuff. It's about 400lbs and almost 10' long so I am not sure I want to do it or not.

 

[Paul B]

I had to bite the bullet and order a new culture of white worms. And I really hate biting bullets.
My old culture is just to old and the flies and Godzilla larvae over took the thing and are eating all the worm food.
If I had a small lizard I could easily keep him fed with these flies but I have no place for a lizard right now so I will just dump the entire culture in the dumpster so those flies can fight with the flies already in the dumpster. It will look like Star Wars in there. .

I wanted to order them before it got to cold because I doubt they ship them in an insulated container. As it is they may freeze before they get here anyway but they are not that expensive.

My old culture may be 10 years old so maybe the worms are Geezers and can't fight flies.