Tank birthday, 47+ years

[gregcoyote]

Oh, I got it. Remember I am not as smart as all you guys, I didn't go to college. There was that war thing with the draft and all. :dizzy:

You keep saying that, but you're the one with the patents and spawning fish. As we say here in the vast Midwest; proof is in the puddin.

I going to go to the worms. I spoke to my fish about it and they were all for it.

 

[Paul B]

I going to go to the worms. I spoke to my fish about it and they were all for it.

Oh, that is rediculous. Speaking to fish. Mine text me. :horn:

Having healthy, spawning fish is simple and the fish do it all by themselves. I am just here to give them someone to make fun of. (they think I went to college, I hung my Captain's lisense on the wall and they think it is a diploma)
All you need to have healthy, spawning fish is live food, no flakes, no broccoli, tater tots, rubin sandwiches. Just live food. They don't need a variety but if you feel they do, you can get some food coloring and one day make the worms red, the next day blue. You can mix the colors and come up with shades of green but that may just confuse them. Mandarins need anything small and alive like new born brine shrimp, pods or Loch Ness Monster fry.
To have a patent, just think outside the box. As a matter of fact, take that box and burn it, then think like a fish.
Look them in the eye, see what they are thinking. What do they want. What do they do in the sea? They certainly don't listen to Rap music and eat Mrs. Pauls Fish Sticks. Then of course you need about forty thousand dollars for the patent. :usa:

 

[Chris Aldrich]

ROI? What is that Roasted Oyster something? Oh, It is probably breaking even. Or paying for itself, right? Anyway. I installed the panels myself along with the entire system in 4 days. The system cost me $23,000.00 but I got back from the Feds and the utility all but about $3,000.00. The system makes me $1,500.00 a year so I made the money back in 2 years. My boiler that makes my heat and hot water saves me over $4,000.00 a year. I used to have an oil burner and oil was near $5.00 a gallon. I broke that up and took it out and replaced it with a condencing boiler. My heat and hot water went from almost $5,000.00 a year to last year $960.00. I also got rebates for that but I save so much, I don't even need them. My utilitys now are so small they are laughable. I was just laughing about them a few minutes ago. When the utilities get greedy, I get smart. I am waiting on a fully electric car and to save money on my tank, instead of saltwater, I use damp sawdust. :smash:

ROI = roasted oyster ingestion. I prefer mine raw (yea, yea...not safe...blah, blah), but to each their own. Haha...

I bet it's pretty exciting to "outsmart" the ole utility companies. Fantastic work and ingenuity, my friend. Is it safe to assume you'll be putting together a DIY for an electric car soon?! :tongue:

Also, who knew healthy clown gobies were so NOT reef safe?! I think their rent needs to go up. You can send the fire clown to collect.

 

[Paul B]

I practically live on raw oysters and clams. Going for some tonight because I am not a Sissy. A few parasites and worms won't kill you, what do you want to do? Live forever!
As far as the utilities. Instead of complaining, it is easy and cheap to do something about it. Solar panels can be bought on credit and be paid for over the life of the system.
If I had the time, I would build my own electric car and charge it from my solar panels. It is almost a no brainer. You don't see many of them because only the utility makes money from the electricity and no one cares how much the utility makes. Now if oil companies sold electricity, we would have electric cars to bring us from our bedroom to our bathroom and a different electric car to bring us back.
I also don't know why people have a regular boiler in their home when a new condensing boiler saves so much gas. Maybe it's me.
In the past I have outsmarted the electric company, but I can't put that on here.
Once, about 20 years ago I was coming home from work and I saw a back hoe In my street digging it up. I asked them what they were doing and they said they were removing my "unused" gas main. I said "wait a minute" I have been using gas for 15 years. They said that was impossible because they never sent me a bill. I didn't realize I wasn't getting a gas bill because gas and electricity used to come on the same bill. So they said they would send an inspector.
Two years later I see another back hoe In my street digging up my unused gas main. I want through the same story and they said they had to send an inspector.
A year later this inspector comes and looks at my gas meter. He says OMG this thing has been here since 1959 and no one has ever read it. He said they were going to back charge me for 3 years. I said OK, what can I tell you. The gas company installed the gas meter when the house was built, it is their job to read it, not mine. But they didn't back charge. A year later they changed the meter and I started getting gas bills.

 

[Eienna]

Wow. That's all I can say.

 

[vlangel]

I practically live on raw oysters and clams. Going for some tonight

Yep, some of us nurture them if they are in our fish tanks, but we eat them if they are on our plates!!! That's how I am with crab and shrimp.

 

[Chris Aldrich]

Mmm. Have yourself some Blue Points there?

I think we need to meet for some diving and oysters. That sounds like a good day to me.

 

[Paul B]

Animal rights

Yep, some of us nurture them if they are in our fish tanks, but we eat them if they are on our plates!!! That's how I am with crab and shrimp.

That's right and I eat fish or at least seafood a few times a week. I grew up on it and my Dad owned a seafood business as did all my family.
It amazes me that people don't want to cycle a tank with a fish, but a dead fish or shrimp is fine. That fish or shrimp also died for us to cycle our tank and if you are wearing shoes, that leather is there because someone killed a cow just so you could have shoes. We feed brine shrimp, fish, clams, squid, Mysis, goldfish, fish eggs, mussels to our fish all the time and that is fine. What is the difference of cycling with a fish? Those animals all suffocated on the deck of a ship but because they are dead when we get them, it is ok. If we feed pellets, look at the first ingredient. Look at that, fish meal, I wonder where fish meal comes from?
Does a damsel have more rights than a Mysis shrimp? If so, then why? I feed clams to my fish every day and I get those clams live. Do clams have rights? I will eat some clams tonight so clams must hate me.
I may also have some flounder tonight. And that flounder grew up to get nice and fat on shrimp. Should that flounder worry about those shrimp? I mean, really!
We don't cycle with dogs. You know why? Because dogs are cute. Chickens are cute but we eat an awful lot of cute chickens.
Just something to think about tonight over your steak dinner.

We can dive for flounder, fluke, lobsters, clams, crabs or amphipods.

 

[Eienna]

I do have to disagree somewhat. I would think suffocation on a ship deck is a less torturous and slow death than weeks of your gills burning away.

 

[Paul B]

Ok, you can disagree. I myself have never suffocated on the deck of a ship or had my gills burn. But I do remember that the damsels I cycled my tank with lived another 7 years and spawned for almost all of that, so I guess they don't always suffer.
I would not let any of my animals suffer and if I did have to start a new tank I am sure I would use a dead shrimp. Although I will feel bad that that shrimp died for me but I will feel good to know I didn't know that shrimp personally.:fear:

 

[Eienna]

Ok, you can disagree. I myself have never suffocated on the deck of a ship or had my gills burn. But I do remember that the damsels I cycled my tank with lived another 7 years and spawned for almost all of that, so I guess they don't always suffer.
I would not let any of my animals suffer and if I did have to start a new tank I am sure I would use a dead shrimp. Although I will feel bad that that shrimp died for me but I will feel good to know I didn't know that shrimp personally.:fear:

Lol!
Methinks fish are more intelligent than shrimp, but then I've never asked them.

 

[Paul B]

I am not sure how intelligent shrimp are but I do know that most fish don't do well on standardized tests because they don't have thumbs, so it is hard for them to hold a pencil. :bolt:

 

[Eienna]

I am not sure how intelligent shrimp are but I do know that most fish don't do well on standardized tests because they don't have thumbs, so it is hard for them to hold a pencil. :bolt:

Good thing, because mine probably would have written me up for abuse months ago XD

 

[vlangel]

Good thing, because mine probably would have written me up for abuse months ago XD

My mother in law wants to write me up for cutting her head off!!! Don't worry, I was only shaving the back of her neck with the clippers, and I didn't even as so much as nick her.

 

[gregcoyote]

In reading the direction this thread is taking, I think some mercury poisoning is setting in. And it's not in the reef... Of course my fish don't text me, they tweet.

 

[Eienna]

In reading the direction this thread is taking, I think some mercury poisoning is setting in. And it's not in the reef... Of course my fish don't text me, they tweet.

Mad as hatters, we are. XD

 

[vlangel]

Indeed!

 

[Paul B]

I think some mercury poisoning is setting in. And it's not in the reef...

Maybe because of all the seafood I eat, I have accumulated enough mercury to be hired as a thermometer.

 

[Paul B]

I have some time to just look at my tank and I like to do that with the pumps off. All the fish come out, the crabs look around in astonishment, the brittle stars peek out and the pipefish get a chance to hunt without their prey flying all around them. Occasionally I see some sort of amphipod make a B Line to the surface or, I would imagine, to a close friend. If he is lucky, and fast, he will make it. The pair of pistol shrimp come way out of their burrows along with the watchman gobi. They seem to be wondering what happened to the pumps and maybe could be of some help fixing them. The copperband darts back and forth because he knows that no pumps mean feeding time.
The very old fireclown stirs up the gravel with his tail to impress the smaller, younger female, but she plays hard to get and doesn't even notice him. Then he goes back into the bottle to clean out the detritus.
The pair of mandarins find it much easier to hunt in calm water and they take the opportunity to go to places where it is normally to turbulent to search for pods.
I can't tell what most of the pods are doing but you can see them climbing up from the gravel to the lower parts of the glass where I didn't clean. Maybe they find more food there or maybe they just go to hang out with friends. The possum wrasse seems to do cartwheels behind the rocks. I never figured why he does that but he seems to enjoy it.
The only ones who don't seem happy are the corals. Especially the LPS with the long 5" tentacles. They just hang limp and look very sad.

 

[roadrashpaul]

I practically live on raw oysters and clams. Going for some tonight because I am not a Sissy. A few parasites and worms won't kill you, what do you want to do? Live forever!
As far as the utilities. Instead of complaining, it is easy and cheap to do something about it. Solar panels can be bought on credit and be paid for over the life of the system.
If I had the time, I would build my own electric car and charge it from my solar panels. It is almost a no brainer. You don't see many of them because only the utility makes money from the electricity and no one cares how much the utility makes. Now if oil companies sold electricity, we would have electric cars to bring us from our bedroom to our bathroom and a different electric car to bring us back.
I also don't know why people have a regular boiler in their home when a new condensing boiler saves so much gas. Maybe it's me.
In the past I have outsmarted the electric company, but I can't put that on here.
Once, about 20 years ago I was coming home from work and I saw a back hoe In my street digging it up. I asked them what they were doing and they said they were removing my "unused" gas main. I said "wait a minute" I have been using gas for 15 years. They said that was impossible because they never sent me a bill. I didn't realize I wasn't getting a gas bill because gas and electricity used to come on the same bill. So they said they would send an inspector.
Two years later I see another back hoe In my street digging up my unused gas main. I want through the same story and they said they had to send an inspector.
A year later this inspector comes and looks at my gas meter. He says OMG this thing has been here since 1959 and no one has ever read it. He said they were going to back charge me for 3 years. I said OK, what can I tell you. The gas company installed the gas meter when the house was built, it is their job to read it, not mine. But they didn't back charge. A year later they changed the meter and I started getting gas bills.

Same sort of thing happened to me in the house I am in now. For the first two years I was here, I was only charged the minimum for my gas and water. Both of those come on the same bill here and it never got over $35. NEVER. I didn't think anything of it and just wrote the check. Well the good guy I am, I finally started doing some research and noticed that the bill never changed amounts. So I called and told her she needed to send someone out here to check the meter as something was wrong with it. I think she thought I was complaining about my bill being too high, so she never sent anyone. I waited about two weeks and called back one more time. I said this was the last time I was calling and she needed to send someone out to check my meter, it isn't right. This time someone came out and they went through the roof. Threatening to back charge me for 2-3 years and garnish my wages if I refused to pay it blah, blah, blah. I told her that if it wasn't for my conscience, I would still be being only charged the minimum. If her supposed "meter reader" was doing his job properly none of this would have happened and good luck trying to get me to pay any money back. They dropped it and no my bill is $100+ in the winter. I guess I did the right thing but when I pay the bill now I kick myself.