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

[Paul B]

OK, I will take that.

I am going boating today and I will probably bring home some grass shrimp for my mangrove tank which I have outside. The shrimp live well in there. I can't put them in my reef because the fish chase them and they jump out. I won't collect amphipods or mud today because it is still to cold. Not for the amphipods, but for me to get in the water. :biggrin:

 

[Paul B]

Today I got 2 new fish. One is something that is the size of a clown gobi but has a poisonous spine and is polka dotted. I forgot what it is. I also got a new Possum wrasse. Now out of the 25 or so fish I have probably 8 of them are hiders and I will only see them once a year around the third of October about 2 or 3:00 in the afternoon. I don't really care if I see the fish or not as long as I know they are in there, or at least were in there. I once had a beautiful cusk eel for 18 years and almost never saw it. I killed it by accident when I removed some rock from the tank, and he was in it. I never fed it or took it out to dinner but occasionally if I went down stairs in the dark with a flashlight, (possibly searching for Supermodels) I would see him sneaking around the back of the tank.
Now I have cling fish, possum wrasses, perchlet, flasher wrasse, possibly a garden eel, a weird white pipefish and 3 or 4 others which I have no idea if they are still there, on the floor or went on vacation.
Those types of fish are my favorites. Anyone can have a clownfish that sits in front of the tank starring at you or an angelfish. The sea and heaven is full of angels. I go for the oddballs. I once dated a girl who looked like a flounder because any body can date a beautiful girl. The good thing about dating a girl that looks like a flounder is that if she swims away, Who cares!

 

[Paul B]

(Actually the girl who looked like a flounder did dump me, I guess that's because I look like a hermit crab. )

 

[Paul B]

I just noticed that only two people besides me read this thread and I may stop reading it myself. One of the people is Andy and he only reads it because I have more hair than he does and I look better in a Speedo. Believe me, I took him out on my boat collecting.
HEY ANDY, YOU OUT THERE? Let me know if you want to go collecting when it gets a little warmer. The amphipods still have long underwear on and they don't swim to good like that.
The flasher wrasse I got at Aquarium Village is out and running around. Of course I have not seen that tiny, polka dotted fish whatever it is or the possum wrasse but I am sure they will calm down and come out.
OK, ANYBODY ELSE OUT THERE?

 

[Paul B]

I posted this on my Immunity thread if anyone is interested. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a-discussion-on-immunity.209701/page-28


This morning my wife and I were discussing how we lived when we were much younger and how the world has changed. My Dad and her Dad had retail stores. My dad had a fish market and just like her dad and everyone with a food market there was piles of saw dust on the floor. The cutting boards were wood, the knife handles were wood and the fish, and meat came in wooden crates as plastic was not available then. I am talking about the fifties.
I used to play in the back yard of our fish market and shoot flies with a rubber band. We also had live carp and eels in old bath tubs.
At the end of the week my Dad would sweep the floor and throw out all the old, fish scale infested sawdust and put down clean sawdust. Every night he would clean, using soap and bleach the knives and cutting boards.

Today, you are not allowed to use saw dust, wooden handled knives or cutting boards probably because of lawyers. I am sure someone, some where got sick and saw dust was blamed just like coffee can't be hot any more.
But it was the saw dust, cutting boards and wooden knife handles as well as numerous other things that enhanced our immune systems.
I was always an out doors kid and cut myself many times. I would rinse it off in a puddle or pond and go about my business never thinking about it.
I had an uncle that worked at the docks in NYC, one of the roughest places on Earth at that time. He got stabbed in the belly twice when 3 guys tried to mug him. (the muggers didn't fare very well) My Uncle wrapped the wounds in the same rag he cleaned eels with and lived to be about 90 never seeing a doctor or dentist in his life.
When my Mom would get a cold as a kid, her Mother would make her sleep in the horse stables thinking the smell of horse poop would cure her. (my Mom was born in lower Manhattan in 1910) My Mother lived to be 99 years old, she died of old age and was never sick and never even took an aspirin. How many people today could say that?

The point of this is that today how many kids do you know with allergies? How many kids are allergic to peanuts? How many kids are home from school with colds?
How many people in their 60s or 70s can you name with allergies?
Probably very few. As a kid no one in my school had any allergies and we all ate peanuts. I always got an attendance award because I was never out sick. I think in the 40 years I worked as a construction worker in Manhattan I was out maybe 3 or 4 times from being sick and never for having a cold, allergy or anything else except maybe a broken bone or disk problem.
That is IMO because I was brought up in a natural environment surrounded by bacteria and never having access to that silly sterilizing hand spray that people today feel they have to take baths in.
I still almost never get a cold, flu or any silly infection.
The little kids in My Grand Daughter's school almost all have some sort of allergy. My Grand Daughter is allergic to everything and half the kids in her school are allergic to something. Peanuts are outlawed in many restaurants and schools.
Kids today, (Like fish) get all sorts of things and in some homes it is an adventure waking up to see if the kids have some sort of infection.

I feel this is a big problem in our fish tanks and the biggest cause of all the posts on disease threads.
This is also why I go to a muddy bay and collect mud to throw in my tank. If I didn't live by the sea, I would throw regular dirt in there as I did when I started my tank.
I also feel we have to start thinking of bacteria as a good thing instead of a bad thing.
Just my thoughts of course and not meant to be taken as fact. Just an observation that is obvious to anyone who is a lot older than most fish people.

 

[Paul B]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsGrL9nxJPs

 

[rhdoug]

Great video Paul. Love your dragonets. Do you see any aggression between the different species? Also, what is that vertical pipefish-y guy that comes in toward the end in the upper right corner?

I also agree with what you said about allergies and the overall "weakness" that seems to affect many people today. Few people seem to give their body a chance to fight off anything, the answer is always an immediate drug if they don't feel good. The other thing that I have noticed is that a lot of kids spend WAY more time indoors that I ever did. If I stayed inside my parents would find something for me to do that was no fun. If you never go outside and get dirty, then how is your body supposed to build up resistance to anything?

 

[rhdoug]

double post

 

[Paul B]

Randy, they didn't invent indoors when I was a kid, just like they didn't invent cell phones, I pads, color TV, automatic transmissions, credit cards, Starbucks, skateboards, Myley Cyrus, radial tires, alkaline batteries, Twitter, computers, Facebook, Nike sneakers, virtual anything or hand brakes on bicycles.
We had dirt, rocks and dirty rocks. We got cut a lot and if we didn't cut ourselves we got into a fight after school and someone else cut us. Then the teachers caught us fighting and they would beat us. Then our parents found out our teachers beat us and our parents would beat us again. Then our parents had to go up to school to find out we were fighting and they beat us again. Then we met that same kid after school and they blamed us that they got beaten by their teacher and their parents so they beat us again. The we got drafted and got beat up some more.
It was a vicious cycle but none of us died from infections and we had plenty of dirt.
It made us tougher, not just the beatings, but all that bacteria we had on and in us from all that dirt and fighting.
We had no Sissy snowflakes in those days, we were all street smart and tough.

 

[Paul B]

Oh those fish are shrimpfish, very cool but very difficult to keep as they eat many more shrimp than mandarins.

 

[Paul B]

I think my male Bangai cardinal is finally going to die of old age. I really thought he would die six months ago with his mate but he is still looking great. But he stopped eating and that is the first sign of dying of old age.
I will see how long he hangs on. I am thinking a week but I did say that before and he rallied and kept on living.

 

[paronaram]

Paul, How old is your Cardinal?

Thanks
Aram

 

[Paul B]

I am not sure, I have had the pair maybe 4 or 5 years (could be 6 but I don't think so)but their lifespan is only supposed to be about 3 years in the sea which is odd for such a large fish. I really didn't believe it but one of mine recently died of old age and this one is going.

 

[paronaram]

I heard they breed in captivity, have you seen them carry fry?

 

[Paul B]

Yes, they spawn all the time. I don't try to catch them.

 

[Paul B]

I went down to my boat yesterday to install a pair of hatch lifts so I could lift the engine hatch cover without breaking my back. It needs to be opened a lot because the table is stored down there as well as the vacuum, some oil and spare food in case a Supermodel drops by. But that doesn't take up hardly any room. So I bring the linear actuators, wires, switch, tools, Gater aid, beer etc.
I had to design my own brackets out of 1 1/4" thick acrylic because they needed to be mounted on a vertical part of the bilge. I got the two of them mounted and wanted to try them out with a temporary wire to make sure they were aligned correctly because they automatically stop at the end of the travel and it was a little difficult to get them properly installed due to all the stuff in the way down there.


So I get into the engine compartment and take a pair of wires with alligator clips on them and clip them to the battery, Then I crouch down and connect the other end of the wires to the actuators so the hatch would close. Being I am not a Jiboni, I first got one of the guys who works in the marina to stand there next to the boat because if this doesn't work, I will be stuck down there and there is barely enough room for me to fit. You can't lift the hatch by hand with the actuators installed.


I didn't mention that a few days ago I had this back procedure done where they stuck 6 ice picks, I mean needles in my back, guided by an X ray so he didn't go through my lung, spinal cord or ear lobe.
Anyway, I slowly crouch down as the lid closes and all is well.


I get as low as I can and the thing closes and boy is it dark. Yes, I did bring a flashlight, not being a Jiboni thing again. I can see it goes down perfectly. The only thing I failed to remember is that to open the thing, I need to reverse the connections on the battery. That is an easy thing. It's easy if the battery is in front of you. But the batteries are behind me and I can barely take a breath much less turn around.
I can scream through the cover at the guy next to the boat but all he can do is call 911 so the fire department will come with the "jaws of life" to rip my boat apart and I didn't think that would be prudent at this juncture. I also discovered that the sound deadening material that they have attached to the hatch cover so you can't hear the engines also prevents people hearing the "Jiboni" down there screaming.
Oh I forgot to mention, yesterday it was 93 degrees.


So I think fast. I can't turn around to reverse the connections on the battery, but I can pull the pins out on the actuators so they disconnect from the hatch. If I only brought down my needle nose pliers.
I search around in the bilge, but my neck is bent against the hatch so I have limited sight. I find a piece of wire. Using the light, I carefully push the wire into the hole where the clevis pin is and push out the pin. The actuator falls free. Great. But there is still the other one, behind me.
Oh great, I still have to turn around, and if I could turn around, I could just reverse the wires, oh, what to do.
I managed to bend my leg under one of the engines which would have been so much easier if my leg had an extra knee in my shin. Then I stuck my head against the gas tank and twisted my other leg under the other engine. Now I am thinking, if this doesn't work, the "Jaws of Life" would even be useless and they would have to bury me in the boat and that would be very expensive for my wife. Sweat is dripping off me so fast that the bilge pumps started.
I bend my leg out from under the engine and twist it around so I can stick it under the other engine. Now I am in a real awkward position but one arm is able to reach the batteries.
I remove one alligator clip and am very careful because if the two alligator clips touch, there will be an explosion and the wire would melt possibly causing a fire and with my head against the gas tank, that was not the outcome I was looking for.
I manage to get the alligator clip connected to the battery and the hatch starts to lift. I take a breath of air and see the guy standing there who says. I was starting to get worried.
I said, are you kidding, that was a piece of cake.


The thicker "rod" is one of the actuators I installed.





When the hatch closes, it hits the top of the air cleaners on the engines so it is a little tight.

 

[dowellmj]

Your thread truly is enjoyable Paul. I look forward to your posts as fellow tinkerer although I would class myself as more of a jury-rigger. Informative and always funny especially as I sit here reading while watching one of my tanks, a 65 gallon with a Bryopsis forest that I am waiting to clear from the Fluconazole I dumped in it (both me and the SPS holding our breaths :/

 

[Paul B]

Dowellmj. That reminds me. Once, many years ago I had a fish I carved out of soap hanging over my tank. Then I couldn't find the fish. Then I noticed my tank looked like one of those dish washer commercials where the thing is overflowing bubbles. :bigeyes2:

 

[Paul B]

I just came home from collecting in my favorite tide pool. I collected 55,372 amphipods give or take five. I dumped them in my tan with the associated mud, sticks, seaweed, snails, worms, barnacles and Godzilla larvae. Probably 73 diseases in there also. But my fish think they died and went to fish heaven. They are chasing amphipods all over the place and are in their glory. This is the first time this year I had the opportunity to collect as the weather and tide were perfect. The amphipods are swarming all over the place. I still have a bunch in my tank from last year but now their cousins and friends are in there . I may have over done it as I think if I weighed them, there re more amphipods by weight then fish.

Here is a five second amphipod video. This is about one fiftieth of what I dumped in today.

 

[Paul B]

So I went to my boat today and the first thing I notice is that the grass shrimp are swarming all over the place. That's great but I don't have time to collect shrimp. I open the engine hatch and spend a few minutes trying to figure how to bend myself down there in a position where I can remove the bad alternator without changing position too many times. For all you youngsters, this used to be a five minute job that 20 years ago I could have done with one eye closed, one hand tied behind my back while shucking a raw oyster with the other hand. As long as I had one foot free with no shoe on so my toes could wiggle it was a piece of cake.


Now with my almost pushing 70 year old bones that were in two helicopter crashes then spent 40 years doing industrial/commercial construction work and after 16 Manly operations for fixing broken things that I broke or tore doing Manly work and not texting or pushing papers, lifting paper clips or tickling computer keys, it is a little more difficult, but never impossible.

So I take the new alternator down there with me to make sure it is the right one. And it is. So I go to remove the largest wire. and what do you know. The wire comes right out of the "Sta Kon". (ring terminal)
Could this be the problem?
"Of course" it is the problem you Jiboni.
So I spent 2 hours in traffic and spent $275.00 for an alternator that I don't need. All I need is a 22 cent ring terminal.

But this is a good thing.

I get a terminal out of my tool box, strip the wire and smear on some Anti corrosion schmutz. In the trade we call it "Penetrox". (Actually that's what it is called on the can) We use it to keep aluminum conduits from "Galling". (Grabbing when you are trying to screw two large aluminum conduits together) but it is also used as an anti corrosion coating and if you use it, the connection will last longer than the pyramids. Actually I think that's what the Egyptians used to build those things which is why they lasted so long. If the boat builder used that stuff on this connection, I would not be in the bilge putzing around with it. I would be home watching "As the World Turns".

On my way home, I went back to the south shore to return the alternator which happing to bring me near my favorite LFS. I now had all this money to burn so I bough t a purple gorgonian and this garden eel. I am sure this is the last time I will see this eel as the last one I added I didn't see for 5 seconds. He may be 3' long, happily living under my under gravel filter or dried up under my bed. I may never know.