Tank birthday, 47+ years

Paul B · Apr 19, 2016

A copperband may not ever eat in a 25 gallon tank. They are very picky and get in bad moods. A small tank stresses them out more than most fish.

Naiad · Apr 19, 2016

Paul B said:
A copperband may not ever eat in a 25 gallon tank. They are very picky and get in bad moods. A small tank stresses them out more than most fish.

Ok. I may just let it go into the 220 it just has to deal with the tang.

Paul B · Apr 19, 2016

Good Idea. If he croaks, he croaks, there is nothing else you can do and he will like that tank better and may settle down

Paul B · Apr 19, 2016

I went to vote today in the New York primaries and when I went to the normal polling place, it was closed. So I called my town to ask where the voting place was. A woman got on the phone who barely spoke English and told me she didn't know where I should vote. This was the number you call for town information. So I went to my Village office and they said you vote right here. I said, How am I supposed to know that? She said, there is a sign on the pole out by the street. I went and looked. 100 yards away on a light pole there was this 8"X8" paper sign that said "No Parking, Polling place".
I think that's cruel.

Paul B · Apr 20, 2016

I will be on the radio this friday (4/22/16) at 10:00am. It is the CW Post station on 88.1FM.
It is a Geezer station and I will be interviewed. Not really about fish, it's a station that caters to retired people (Geezers) and being I am retired and have so many interests, they will talk to me about how I spend my time as they want to get seniors interested in doing things after they retire instead of just watching TV and croaking. I am not really sure what we will discuss but I think it will be interesting. :scratch:

Paul B · Apr 20, 2016

I got my new pump today, It's a Hydor Koralia. The thing is made in Italy (like my Grand Parents) It seems to be working fine so far. The only negative thing I notices is that the grill is extremely fragile and after it gets coated with sea growth, it will probably break when I try to remove it. But I will have to see how that goes.

mikesilverado8888 · Apr 20, 2016

Paul B said:
I just came back from collecting 30 gallons of NSW and I would swear this stuff gets heavier every time I collect it. Normally I don't do much to it except heat it and add a little ASW because the salinity here in New York is low for some reason but it is very turbid with all sorts of black particles in it so I had to diatom filter it. I only had a very little bit of diatom powder on hand so I didn't do as good a job as I would have liked but now it is crystal clear and I am just waiting for it to heat up before I dump it in. I even checked the nitrates and they are zero, calcium is 440.
I took it from the Coast Guard Station near Jones Beach. Near here.

How do you make it safe for a fish tank I mean getting out the parasites chemicals pollution things like that. I one thought of get sand from the beach and using it in my tank but after research I came up with it had to much crap in it.

Paul B · Apr 20, 2016

I don't get out the bacteria and parasites. The bacteria and parasites are the things I want in NSW. They keep up the immune system of my fish. But if you are the type of person that quarantines everything, you can't just dump it in.

Paul B · May 2, 2016

We went to a really nice all inclusive in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. We went there because our Daughter and Son in Law wanted us to come with them (to babysit) and that was the perfect place for us and the kids. They have a kids club with everything a little kid would want like giant hippopotamuses that spouted water and other things like Supermodels for me to look at. ( I particularly liked the Supermodel that was the singer) The place was great but the diving was not worth it at all. I knew diving there was going to be a waste, and it was not worth the effort to get wet. But it was very cheap, I guess that's why.
They came to get me on the beach with their "Dive Boat". Their "dive boat" was basically a 21 foot row boat with an outboard engine. No place to put anything including tanks and equipment that just rolled around in the bilge water of this very bare boat. If you had sun glasses, a camera, fine china or your best crystal it had to live on the bottom of this tiny boat under the tanks. There was no room for your feet so you hung them overboard. There were about 8 of us on the boat including the "driver" and the divemaster/GPS/depthfinder who stood at the front and pointed left or right so the "driver" didn't run over any swimmers near the beach as we were going full speed.
I was a little concerned because I was by far the oldest guy on the boat (as I normally am) and I didn't see any way to climb back on the thing after the dive. The freeboard (part of the boat above the water) was about 3' and there was no way for me to rocket myself out of the sea like a penguin to get back on this "boat". I asked about that and the divemaster ran up on the beach and produced this thing made from electrical tubing that he said would work as a ladder.
So we get to the site and tried to put on the equipment. I have been diving long before any of these guys were born but I need at least 8" around me to put on the equipment. It's not like you could stand up due to the 6' waves that people were surfing on right next to us.
I get on the equipment and happily throw myself into the water very excited to be off the "dive boat". I bob around a while banging my regulator in my hand trying to get it to stop free flowing for fear that I would run out of air before I sunk.
So we go down to the bottom which they told me was 45' deep. It looked much shallower. The first thing I noticed, was,,, well,,,, nothing. There is nothing there. Sea fans, more sea fans, other sea fans behind the first sea fans and an occasional gorgonian. I did manage to see "1" cowfish, "1" sharp nosed puffer and "1" trigger fish. We spent much of the "dive" looking for a place to tie the dive buoy (Clorox Bottle) to the bottom. That was the most exciting part of the both dives.
We got back on the boat by using the "ladder" and sailed about 100 yards to the second dive site. The second dive was a little better and had many more gorgonians. And in places where there were no gorgonians, there were more gorgonians. It was like a gorgonian warehouse. I think I saw a parrotfish but it may have been wishful thinking.
I fell asleep a couple of times and had to be woken up as I was drifting toward the bottom. I could have just walked on the bottom to shore as it would have been easier than climbing up the "ladder".
My GoPro camera croaked after a few shots but that didn't matter because how many sea fan pictures do you really need?
Flying back to the beach full of tourists at top speed was exhilarating because there was one or two of them that we didn't scare to death.
This is me with the "three" fish that we saw. I was clearly calling for someone with a spear gun to shoot me.

And a gorgonian. I took this picture because I have a few of these gorgonians in my tank. Maybe they "escaped" from there.

Paul B · May 3, 2016

I spent 8 days in the Caribbean and my tank is fine, maybe even better than when I left. I think my fish like my Supermodel tank sitter better than they like me. (I don't blame them)
She doesn't know anything about fish but I make it very easy for her.
Before I go, I make up individual portions of frozen food and put it in small containers. They are actually film containers but I realize most people on here were born last Tuesday and don't know what film is, but it is like Scotch tape and pictures stich to it.
Anyway, I make up enough food for a feeding every other day. Every day would be better but I don't want to push my luck by asking her to come over every day and I don't want my fish to get to used to looking at her.
In the containers I put some Mysis, clam, and live blackworms.
I built this frozen food feeder/defroster thing in about five minutes and use it every time I go away. It's just a small powerhead that pumps water into a small container with holes in it.
The Supermodel just has to take the frozen food from the refrigerator and dump it into the small container where it defrosts and gets distributed all over the tank. She doesn't have to mix it with water and all that or even wait for it to defrost. Just dump it in and leave.
If she were to just put in the entire lump of frozen food, one or two fish would eat it all. My copperband would get most of it. This way, all the fish get to eat.

That device is fine for most of my fish but I also have mandarins, ruby red dragonettes and pipefish and they don't have any sense of humor and won't eat any of that frozen food so I designed an automatic vacation brine shrimp hatchery/feeder that will dispends eggs, hatch them and feed the tank for that time.
There is a flake food feeder over a funnel that is at the top of the water which dispenses some brine shrimp eggs into the funnel. A small amount of water is also pumped into this funnel so that eventually the eggs sink into the hatchery where they hatch in about 36 hours and are attracted to the mesh on top.
My fish lay on the thing all day and suck out shrimp. I have been using these two devices for a few years and never had any problems.

This is the defroster, dispenser thing.

This is the hatchery/ dispenser thing.

And a video of it working.

Paul B · May 5, 2016

This guy stopped eating today which means he will molt in a day or two. Not a minute to soon as he is becoming to be covered in some algae and a little cyano.
After he molts I will look for a female for him to date as I want them to mate.
I have had arrow crabs mate a few times and it just seems right to get him a girlfriend to try to impress. I got him as a baby and I think he is now ready.

Paul B · May 7, 2016

I just realized I have two tank threads on here. Who knew?
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/i...rs-old-this-month.194963/page-26#post-2857005

gettaReef · May 7, 2016

lol yes, you do....and you've been posting to both...unknowingly it seems. How's the hand healing by the way? I'd think it must be doing alright if you're diving

Paul B · May 7, 2016

The hand is fine. Monday I have to go to some therapy because I can't straighten the finger, but that will be fixed soon. It's only a hand and not my head so it is fine as I have two of them

mcarroll · May 7, 2016

Paul B said:
This is the defroster, dispenser thing.

This is the hatchery/ dispenser thing.

And a video of it working.

Two of your secret weapons out in the wild - I knew there had to be some tricks up your sleeves!

Both are cool, but I especially love the brine shrimp hatchery!

Paul B · May 8, 2016

Mcarroll, as you know, that is why I wrote the book. So I could put all of that stuff in one place. I have most of my inventions in there as I get tired of writing them all the time.

Paul B · May 12, 2016

That arrow crab shed as I knew he would and now he is much larger. So much larger that I am afraid to go to sleep at night as he has been looking at me funny lately with those beady little eyes.
I think he is mad that it is taking me so long to find a suitable mate for him but I am looking for a real cute one, sort of like a Crab Supermodel, so it is taking a while. I find that crabs seem to live forever and that the only time one would die is right after they shed and another creature finds them tasty. I am sure the numerous bristleworms I have smell him and chase him around right after he sheds. If he sheds on the gravel, they will surround him and possibly trip him so that when he falls down, they put him in a Ricky Nelson.
(Full Nelson for you young uns)
I also have some large hermit crabs that I got the size of a pea. Those too live forever and I lost a pair a few years ago that were about 12 years old. They died a week apart.

These guys lived to 12 years old. The female is the cute one with the above the knee shell and blue eye stalks.

These local New York rock crabs you can collect here all over the place. They grow to about the size of a baseball in a year so you can't keep them to long.