Here on R2R I've yet to see really anyone with a tank that has some truly old fish, something verifiable, something with photo documentation and progression photos, and I'm not talking a 5 year old fish
Almost all of my fish are older than 5. I have a pair of 35 year old Fireclowns that I have been posting pictures of before there were computers or cell phone cameras, in paper magazines.
You can see him in this old film picture. He is under the bubble coral all the way to the left.
And today. His mate looks the same.
When this hobby started many of us went for the big, aggressive fish like lionfish, moray eels, clown triggers etc. I am past that. Then many of us went for the pretty tangs, angels and butterflies. I am also past that and now only want small, interesting and if I can find them, rare fish.
Those smaller fish only live about 6 or 7 years and if we get them as adults, you are not going to get too many years out of them but I keep most of them for their presumed lifespan then they die of old age.
This little gobi is dying of old age after a long life. This is what a fish looks like when it is too old to live as his immune system stopped functioning. This is the best outcome we can have with fish.
This Watchman Goby is also dying of old age after about 10 years.
Her and her mate hatched out many eggs which I have posted many times.
I have posted pictures of that Watchman from when he was a baby through adolescents, mating, spawning and with her eggs.
You don't have to be sick to die. My own Mother lived to 99 years old and never took a pill in her life. We owned a seafood
market and thats what we ate. A Mediterranean diet. Almost no processed foods as most Americans eat.
Or….
Show that if you did your entire method and used qt fish, the results would be worse.
Show that if you did your entire method and used dry fish food, the results would be worse.
OK, so my tank is now 50 years old and you want me to start another tank, feed only dry foods and quarantine and keep it running for 50+ years? Is that what you want me to do?
You do realize that I am 77 years old so that may not happen, but even if I was in my 20s, why would I want to run a system that everything in my bones tells me is the worst way to run a tank. The only proven "home" system that is running for that length of time, as far as I know, is mine.
Many people on here, probably the majority of people quarantine and feed dry foods. Are there any old tanks like that that have never had a disease?
Sure, you have nothing to prove to anyone, but also have not proven that each aspect is needed or even useful.
No I haven't, neither have you proved otherwise and you can't show any old, quarantined tanks fed only dry foods that are healthy.
(I think I heard of one somewhere)
You seem to have this thing about proving things. To me, this is not a contest and I have never asked anyone to prove anything because I don't care and I have already proved everything I need to, to anyone who wants to listen.
You said "I have and can put any fish in my tank with any disease, and the other fish will be fine." is a bold statement to make. Marine Velvet would likely kill all of your fish in 7 days. According to the "experts" there's no immunity to that,
So you feel that in 50 years, buying from LFSs all over New York and collecting fish, water, mud and seaweed for all of those years, I have never added velvet? Thats luck.
Who said there is no immunity to that? Probably someone who lost a tank to velvet because he didn't keep it correctly.
If he is an "Expert", what is he an expert in? Is there a doctorate for ornamental fish keeping? I don't think so and if there is, does he have an old healthy tank or did he spend 4 or 5 years in a classroom so he could get a certificate that says he is an expert?
I am an expert electrician, I can say that because I went to about 10 years of school, then 7 years of apprenticeship, then worked in the field for almost 50 years. I am certified for high voltage, subways, manholes and everything else. Most electricians you will find are only certified to work in houses.
By the way, I feel almost all the electrical schooling I had to take was a waste of time as it was all about theory. Nothing beats practical experience. To wire a sewage treatment plant I don't have to know what the electrons are doing while they are traversing back and forth in the wire 120 times a second. I just have to know how to bend those large conduits and pull in the heavy conductors so I can connect them according to the prints and make it so the place doesn't blow up when I throw on the switch.
The experience makes me an expert, not the time I spent in a classroom.
Many eat a Mediterranean style unprocessed diet. The similarities to sick vs healthy fish is 'food' for thought, no?
Thats what I eat and I am 77. So far, no heart disease, kidneys, cancer, Parkinson's or velvet. I know one or all of those things are coming but I am pretty sure it is asbestos or Agent Orange that will get me.
I used to install asbestos and remove it, and I was doused with Agent Orange many times in VietNam.
In the last 5 years I have lost 5 close friends because we are all near the end of our lifespans, all I can do is what I am doing. Walking up and down 17 flights of stairs every morning before the sun comes up in any kind of weather.
Even on this day.
Eat very little processed foods and stick to fresh. No produce from Mexico or any other "unsuitable" place, no deep fried foods and almost no white flour grown in America. (people should research that, it is really killing a lot of people)
I feed my fish the way I feed my family, naturally.
I just looked at my threads that I started on this forum. I have 18 pages of new threads from 2010 that I had no idea I had. They kind of build up. Not all of them are about fish, many are about nonsense.
. I worked at a land based dulse and sea lettuce farm in a town called Pubnico for a season and I was constantly wondering what North Atlantic seaweeds would be best to use for reef aquaria. Do you think dulse or other North Atlantic seaweed could work in place of Nori? Dulse stuff sold for human consumption is just air dried or tumble dried with no additives. I know some people on here feed dulse but from a digestibility perspective and bioavailability perspective I am curious if it's on par with nori.
