Tank birthday, 47+ years

Paul B · Sep 1, 2020

I just did some tank maintenance (one large rock with coral fell and some are hitting the front glass) and am still surprised that some of my fish are living way past what their life span is supposed to be. My Janss pipefish and bluestripe pipefish are over 5 years old. Maybe 6. Five or six years for most fish isn't a big deal but for pipefish it's pretty good. I would like to get more but I can't find any except on line.

My Ich magnet Hippo tang who never ate greens of any type is looking fantastic and is a beautiful Royal blue. My other ich magnet copperband is also perfect looking, but I would expect nothing less.
My 6 line wrasses still appear to be spawning as are the Rainsford gobies, watchmans and of course the fireclowns. You can't stop those from spawning and it is about all they do. At least the other fish sometimes take a break.

The only two fish of the same species I have that are not spawning are the little citron gobies. They must be two males, females or can't make up their mind. I don't know but they never hang out together. Hopefully some day one will change sex and they will spawn.

I have to back away from the tank at least 6' of my hippo tang won't come out. Either he is really shy or he hates me. I should have gotten two of them when they were young. I wouldn't be able to add one now as this one would probably ex communicate the new one.

Paul B · Sep 2, 2020

Mattiejay6 said:
I’ve got about 7 years of reading your thread

I wouldn't do that.

Paul B · Sep 2, 2020

It's raining so I figured I would "play" with my tank a little. A gorgonian in the front grew much to large and I already cut a lot off of it but it is growing into the front glass and starting to cover an acropora that I have been babying for a year and it is growing well.

To move this gorg I had to re locate a few things and move a couple of bottles that have been in there for years. Of course they were filled with among other things, detritus, a lot of it because thats what bottles do. There were also a bunch of snails and tiny hermit crabs in there and forget about brittle stars, it's like a galaxy.

So I am not finished for a while but still not happy as that gorg is still hitting all sorts of corals so in the near future I think I am going to have to cut a lot of it and plant it in different places as I ran out of room.

To clear all this up I had to run my diatom filter which I am doing now. I really don't know how people are in this hobby for a long time without a diatom filter.

atoll · Sep 3, 2020

For some reason I am not getting emails telling me about updates to threads I post on R2R so I have just played catch up. BTW, weeds are just a plant you don't want, anything else is, well a plant.

Turbo's Aquatics · Sep 3, 2020

@atoll you only get one email when a reply is made, if you don't view the thread, you won't see additional replies. It happened to me as well - I forgot to click one of the links about a month ago and missed about 200 posts lol

atoll · Sep 3, 2020

Turbo's Aquatics said:
@atoll you only get one email when a reply is made, if you don't view the thread, you won't see additional replies. It happened to me as well - I forgot to click one of the links about a month ago and missed about 200 posts lol

Thanks, Yes, but I wasn't getting emails to tell me there was a new post on this thread. I have made numerous posts on Paul's thread. Just checked my spam and found a couple in there. Why they have started going to spam after all this time who knows. Anyway I have declared them not spam but will check regular. I did get an email saying there was a new post into my inbox.

Turbo's Aquatics · Sep 3, 2020

R2R changed the outgoing email address a while back, I noticed that. It's now mg.reef2reef.com (mailgun) so that might have done it

Paul B · Sep 3, 2020

I didn't even know that you get E mails on this stuff. I just check it whenever I can

atoll · Sep 3, 2020

Paul B said:
I didn't even know that you get E mails on this stuff. I just check it whenever I can

If not in your inbox check your spam Paul.

creativeballance · Sep 3, 2020

atoll said:
If not in your inbox check your spam Paul.

Careful, Paul may pull out a 57 year old can of Spam...

Brew12 · Sep 3, 2020

Paul B said:
To clear all this up I had to run my diatom filter which I am doing now. I really don't know how people are in this hobby for a long time without a diatom filter.

Most of us don't put Gran Marnier bottles in our tanks or need to feed industrial shoreline sludge to our Godzilla larvae. Cuts back on the need for a diatom filter.

Turbo's Aquatics · Sep 3, 2020

creativeballance said:
Careful, Paul may pull out a 57 year old can of Spam...

I will still be good, no worries

Paul B · Sep 8, 2020

I am turning our guest bedroom into a gym for my wife and it will have a Murphy bed in there in case Murphy comes over. I did the electrical and Cable work this morning and I will hopefully paint tomorrow.
So now to relax I gave my whiteworms a bath. I really don't like to start new cultures all the time and this one is probably 10 years old.

Eventually the culture stinks because it is mostly worm poop. ;Vomit
They eat constantly so they have to poop and they are not potty trained.

I just flood the culture and pour it into a plastic bucket. Then I stir it a few times as fresh water is added by having the sink on low so it overflows. I do that for maybe 20 minutes so the dirt is once again fresh like a lotus blossum.

Then I pour that into a big wide mesh net and drain it. Squeeze it slightly so the worms think you are hugging them and dump it back into the cleaned plastic container that is their home. (after I clean it of course)

That also eliminates all those mites because they float.
I then add more damp soil and am good to go for another 6 months or so.

atoll · Sep 8, 2020

Do you culture pisces we Paul. I culture them in an ASDA, Walmart to you under bed storage box.

Paul B · Sep 8, 2020

No, I don't breed those but cool video. Hard to understand because I speak English.

Those little guys breed in my tank so I don't have to bother with them. But very cool or as you Brits say "Brilliant"

atoll · Sep 8, 2020

Paul B said:
No, I don't breed those but cool video. Hard to understand because I speak English.
Those little guys breed in my tank so I don't have to bother with them. But very cool or as you Brits say "Brilliant"

Na you don't speak English you speak Yank and that's a completely different language to English in fact I have difficulty in understanding your written word.

Paul B · Sep 8, 2020

I took some pictures

fishybizzness · Sep 8, 2020

atoll said:
Do you culture pisces we Paul. I culture them in an ASDA, Walmart to you under bed storage box.

Hi! So u put the banana peel in your sump first and then put it in the container?

Paul B · Sep 9, 2020

Today I took my morning walk like I usually, but not always do. I like to get out before sunrise, before anyone is out to see nature. I usually go to the beach but I like to shake it up.

I walk about an hour and really enjoy it. On my way back a few people start to emerge and they are all very friendly and most of them don't even try to mug me.

I live near the sea so the grass is always covered with mist. Very cool

It's like those Science Fiction movies where it"s like 1947 and you walk through the mist and on the other side its 2083 and Everyone looks like a Supermodel but all they have to eat is pistachio ice cream and Snickers Bars but no one gains weight except for the creepy mayor who is part Alien from Andromeda.

Anyway, besides that it was very nice.
This is the road I walk down.

Through the mist (besides the Supermodels) I meet interesting "friends" like Muskrat Sally here. (Really a wood chuck)
They are all over the place but are lousy at crossing roads.

Being they are all so roundish and fat, when they get killed on the streets they always lay there with their little feet in the air. They remind me of Weebles. Weebles wobble but they don't fall down. I hate to see them dead because they are really cute looking and when I first moved here I thought they were beavers because when they stand on their back legs, thats exactly what they look like, but they usually live near a stream.

This guy flew up to the very top of my house and I didn't realize what a racket they make. OMG, like fly south. For an animal with such a small mouth, I don't know where that sound comes from. I hope they don't breed here as one is enough.