Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Paul B]

Yesterday I was looking at my tank which I sometimes do. :rolleyes: And I couldn't find my pair of bluestriped pipefish. OMG. So I figured the Janss pipefish killed them like he did to my last ones and I figured maybe some babies escaped from this horrible demise. I got my magnifying glasses on and searched the tank, mostly on the gravel which is hard to see through al the flatworms that are sunning themselves. None of them have tan lines by the way.
But in between the flatworms I can see so much movement. Copepods. There are so many pods that they can't even do the macarana because there isn't enough room to swing their arms. No wonder my mandarin is overweight and constantly passing gas. :confused: There are exactly three pods on every grain of gravel and in between them is a brittle starfish arm. (By the way, I volunteer at the Long Island Aquarium and we are not allowed to call them starfish as they are not fish. I guess it is not politically correct and their feelings are hurt, so we have to call them "Sea Stars". Everyone has an issue) I am sure female watchman gobies will be the next to protest.

Anyway, I didn't find any pipefish fry but as I was looking for them, I found the pair of pipefish and the male is still very pregnant. The female pipefish is hanging around the much bigger Janss pipefish while her mate watches from afar. But she is twirling around him and making a complete pig of herself the little Hussy.

But being there are just a hoard of pods I bought a couple of fish. Another Queen Anthius and a scooter bleeny.
I am very surprised that after just a little over 3 months of this tank being here and me washing most of the gravel in fresh water, there is so much life. There is no quarter of an inch where I can't find something. I really love it because life, especially an abundance of microscope life equals health.
(unless of course we are talking about snowflakes, wasps, vampires etc.)

This is not the new fish, so just make believe because he looks like this with a yellow stripe.



Actually, he looks exactly like this. I wonder if male Queen Anthius think its prejudice to call them Queens

​

 

[TheHarold]

@Paul B I am with you regarding fish immunity.... my parents (both doctors) always exposed me to everything they could, from chicken pox to the flu. They were ahead of their time. Now we are seeing the statistics of those “protected” children having weak immune systems and such. I’m glad I was allowed to roll around in literal chicken s**t.

Now for my current new 300 gallon, I am adding fish directly to the display w/o quarantine. These are from liveaquaria divers den so have already been treated for parasites before being moved to their observation tanks. I have had a lot of success with them in the past. My local stores have ich and flukes even in there copper-laced fish systems, so I can’t bring myself to purchase from there.

 

[Paul B]

TheHarold, nice to meet you. I just got a tiny yellow clown gobi and in a day he developed so many parasites I could hardly see the fish. A couple of days and he is fine, eating and shows no spots whatso ever. My copperband who I have had a number of years displayed some spots on his tail after I introduced the gobi. Now it is easy to see those parasites are dead as his immunity took care of it. This is exactly what I want to see and what is supposed to happen. This doesn't happen in quarantined tanks and unfortunately never will. ;)

 

[norfolkgarden]

Lol, I discovered the secret to Paul B's tank but it won't help me.
[emoji53]

 

[Paul B]

Lol, I discovered the secret to Paul B's tank but it won't help me.
[emoji53]

Maybe you are using saw dust instead of water. :confused:

 

[atoll]

Maybe you are using saw dust instead of water. :confused:

Secret? :confused: I must be missing something here as I don't see a single cop out or hidden method you use Paul, in fact, it's so well documented I am thinking of complaining to the manufacturers of all the meds available, yep all 376.000 of them.
Psssst, BTW just what is your secret Paul and please PM me it so nobody will knows them ;)

 

[Paul B]

OK Atoll, but don't tell anyone. The secret method is don't do anything. Don't quarantine, don't medicate, don't use additives, especially stump remover or insecticide unless you have insects on your stumps, don't tweek, there is no parameter that needs to be exactly anywhere, don't worry about parasites, (as long as you follow my, do nothing method) don't change water to correct almost anything especially algae. A little algae and cyano is good or at least natural. Look at your fish closely and see what they are thinking. Are they hiding. If so, you did something wrong. Are they eating. if not, you did something wrong. Are they sick, if so you probably fed them dry food and quarantined them or your tank is to sterile and not natural. Are you feeding them food with live bacteria? If not you are doing everything wrong and should go back to quarantining so you can post on the disease thread.
My method is so simple even my 6 year old Grand Daughter knows it. :rolleyes: But don't tell anyone or everyone will have their fish living forever and what would the medication manufacturers live on? Carrots!

 

[atoll]

OK Atoll, but don't tell anyone. The secret method is don't do anything. Don't quarantine, don't medicate, don't use additives, especially stump remover or insecticide unless you have insects on your stumps, don't tweek, there is no parameter that needs to be exactly anywhere, don't worry about parasites, (as long as you follow my, do nothing method) don't change water to correct almost anything especially algae. A little algae and cyano is good or at least natural. Look at your fish closely and see what they are thinking. Are they hiding. If so, you did something wrong. Are they eating. if not, you did something wrong. Are they sick, if so you probably fed them dry food and quarantined them or your tank is to sterile and not natural. Are you feeding them food with live bacteria? If not you are doing everything wrong and should go back to quarantining so you can post on the disease thread.
My method is so simple even my 6 year old Grand Daughter knows it. :rolleyes: But don't tell anyone or everyone will have their fish living forever and what would the medication manufacturers live on? Carrots!

Na sorry I don't believe a word of that. I mean I have read all the books (apart from yours, in fact I tell a lie I have read yours but shhhhh don't tell a sole ok?) No what you say does not stack up, who says so? Well, the "experts" of course so you must be using some secret snake oil or other and spend $$$$$$$ on various potions to keep your fish healthy. I mean some of the guys have ologies so you can't argue with guys with ologies right? Then we have the guys without ologies but they are also experts, experts in snake oils, QT diseases and such. I have to admit I know very little about all these killer diseases and I am not sure I want to in truth. These experts mostly have lots of experience with all the diseases you can imagine and some you can't possible as like me you don't have anything like enough experience with these awful wipe out killer bugs. So don't try to tell me your Hillbilly ways will make your fish live long disease free lives with many spawning regular cos it simply can't be so, an expert told me.
BTW I now have 9 grandchildren and even the youngest says he can keep a tank like your using similar methods disease free with long happy spawning lives, but what does he know he's only 3 months old and doesn't have an ology

 

[Paul B]

I used to use snake oil but snakes are rare here now and it is very time consuming to extract the oil from them. But it does work wonders.

9 Grand Children, OMG that's a village. :D
(If you read my book, there is no need for the other ones with the snake oil. ) :cool:

This is the only medication I have and it is from the 70s. It is copper and formalin. I keep it for nostalgia and in all these years I still have most of it left as I never need it unless someone gives me a fish that is more parasites than fish and is receiving last rites and is on life support in Hospice.

 

[atoll]

I used to use snake oil but snakes are rare here now and it is very time consuming to extract the oil from them. But it does work wonders.

9 Grand Children, OMG that's a village. :D
(If you read my book, there is no need for the other ones with the snake oil. ) :cool:

I have told my 5 children to stop now as I can't afford another grandchild, I am already on reduced rations and have no money left for all these necessary and very important snake oils anyway. I live on bread and water and Christmas is going to be interesting with 9 presents to buy, they might have to share the one I can afford. :confused:

 

[Paul B]

Get them a goldfish each, they are 10 cents here. :D

 

[atoll]

Get them a goldfish each, they are 10 cents here. :D

I can afford a goldfish each but not a tank to put them in along with the much needed snake oil. We only have 2 snakes in the UK the adder which is poisonous but not deadly and the grass snake non venomous. Each is quite rare and protected so that rules them out.

 

[Sea MunnKey]

I don't & have never quarantine any past and present fish regardless. The fish have to toughen it out & fight it :D

 

[Paul B]

Remember, when those goldfish grow, they will want a goldfish reef tank. :eek:

 

[norfolkgarden]

Lol, the 'SECRET'

Feed a high quality live diet to a tank stocked at a *reasonable to minimal* stocking level.

Lol, technically you have 18 fish in your 125 gallon tank.
But really you have three 5" fish and 15 mini me's.
Even the ones needing a specialized diet have a bioload of near zero.
[emoji6]


I can provide the good foods.

My stocking level is a work in progress.

Love your tank. Thank you for setting a good example.
[emoji4]

 

[Paul B]

I hate setting a good example. :confused:

I just came home with what they called a Gum Drop Gobi. I never saw one before and this is the type of fish that gets my hair growing. Something I never saw before. In a minute I am going to throw it in my tank and I will probably never see it again because it looks like a fish that hides constantly just like two other fish that I have but I have never seen their entire bodies. I just know they are still alive.

 

[norfolkgarden]

Lol, your next disappearing fish could be a white tiger goby.
Pretty cool, 2.5" max. Another perfect mini me.

Took a month before we first saw it again after adding it to the tank.
Still hides a lot.

Tan, brown and bright white in a cool pattern. Hangs upside down a lot in a cave.

Reminds me of an upside down fresh water betta the way it jiggles its fins.

 

[Paul B]

I have a few fish that I have never seen the entire fish at one time. I once had a brutela or cusk eel for 18 years and only saw it maybe three times and that's when I looked at the tank in the middle of the night with a flashlight. I killed it by accident when I removed the rock and didn't even know he was in there. But anyway, I want fifty more of these Gumdrop Gobies as they are very cool and my kind of fish. Virtually everyone has tangs, angels, wrasses, butterflies, manta rays, etc, but not many people have gumdrop gobies. I searched for them and see that a few people have had them but I never heard of them. I could have had 20 of them and forgot but I forgot.

I took a picture of him in the container which probably didn't come out well and soon I will download it to see if it came out.
The fish is sitting in the coral head where he landed and looks extremely cool.
I also have two Gecko Gobies that I occasionally see a small part of their tail as they shoot out faster than the eye can follow to grab a piece of food and go back into hiding. I know two of them are still alive but I couldn't even tell you what color they are or if they are actually fish.

I realize most people, OK no one wants fish you can't see but I like those as I can lie and tell people they are bright electric purple with neon lights sticking out of their ears and they can do math.

 

[atoll]

Here ya go Paul, We get them here quite regular. If I remember right I was told they are related to lionfish which seems rather strange.

 

[fishybizzness]

Reminds me of the pet rock I had as a kid...