Tank birthday, 55+ years

[atoll]

Rip all those navy airmen soldiers and civilians.

 

[Paul B]

WE had a huge Christmas pajama party last night at our home with about 25 friends. Here are some of them

 

[Paul B]

• 
  Add bookmark
• #1

I posted this here 5 years ago.


I am not the smartest fish keeper in the world, but I am probably one of the oldest. Being one of the oldest, I have also had more time to study this stuff and more time to make mistakes. Mistakes are one way we learn. A very good way.

It's actually how they train you in basic training in the Army or Marines. By forcing you to do impossible tasks, knowing you can't do them, then punishing you for not doing it correctly. Eventually, you learn what they want you to do while never completing those tasks correctly.

Trust me, it works.

I was a Noob at one time and that time was the 1950s, yes the world as we know it was around then and so were fish. We had the same problems then as we do now but a few of us learned, after many dead fish what we were doing wrong and I think I got it.

Most people in this hobby do something and it works, and they think they found the secret, but we may be talking about a time frame of a few months or a couple of years. A common hermit crab lives over 12 years so if we keep one for a couple of years, it is not "Great Success". To have a reef tank for four or five years without crashing, although is an accomplishment that few people ever attain is also not a Great Success and we should strive for more. We should always strive for more.

IMO a reef tank should be immortal or "live" as long as it's owner. Of course fish are not immortal, but most of them live much longer than people stay in this hobby.

Corals are immortal and can keep living while growing new polyps on top of older ones. That’s how reefs grow.

I feel the biggest mistake we make (and us Geezers who started this hobby are the cause) is keeping our tanks to clean.

Our gravel or sand is to clean, and our food is to clean and our water is to clean.

I will get to clean water later as it even sounds weird to me.

Fish, birds, whales, lizzards, earthworms, Liberals, Conservatives and us all have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria, viruses and parasites.

Viruses, bacteria and parasites have been here longer than us and will be here when we all go to Mars because this planet has nothing left but plastic.

In a tank, any tank, except a quarantined or medicated tank, bacteria run everything. We forget about them, but it is the bacteria that call the shots, not us.

Bacteria have their own problems as viruses also affect and kill them. Bacteria hate that.

Parasites are also infected by bacteria and viruses.

Probably funguses also, but I am guessing.

Anyway, we call those things “disease organisms” because they can make us sick, but we forget that without them, we couldn’t live.

Our stomach is loaded with both beneficial and harmful bacteria. They live in harmony along with the funguses and viruses. Seawater is loaded with all of those things and that is natural and the way it should be.

We have problems when we mess with that system. If we kill bacteria, the viruses can take over as can the parasites.

If we for instance use copper, we will kill the parasites and bacteria, but not the viruses.

We really can’t kill the viruses (as Covid 19 taught us) because viruses are not alive to start with but we can disintegrate them using UV light or ozone.

So if we kill one of the pathogens, we allow the remaining ones to thrive and cause problems.

We can of course kill everything by using drugs along with UV and Ozone but should we?

It sounds like a good plan but have you seen anyone who just had Chemo and radiation to kill cancer?

Those people have no immunity to anything and although they are kept in a sterile environment, many of them die anyway because we can’t live like that in the real world.

Neither can fish.

In some cases we do have to resort to that drastic measure and sometimes it works. But not usually and it could take years for that fish to regain its compliment of stomach flora where it could live a normal life free from disease with a functioning immune system.

The problem with killing everything is of course that the bacteria, parasites and viruses will all infect the fish at different times and whichever comes first can overwhelm the fishes immune system because those things no longer are living in harmony where they can all keep each other in check.

In nature none of those pathogens get the upper hand because they evolved to counteract each other.

If we disrupt the cycle, we cause problems and tank crashes.

I propose, and it has worked for decades for me and other successful aquarists with long lasting reefs, that instead of trying to limit or eliminate natural pathogens leaving the fish open to disease, we cultivate those things, "in proportion" with each other leaving the fish with a strong immune system that it evolved with.

Remember, in the sea the fish are living with every aquatic disease there is with no problem. They only have problems after they are collected, shipped and put in our tanks.

There is no reason for them to have problems as my fish realize including my almost 30 year olds.

I know many, or all the fish we buy don’t look very good and are all infected with something. But remember, they are “always” infected with something because fish eat and breathe pathogens as they live. In the sea their immune system has no problems dealing with those afflictions because the fish is not stressed and is eating there natural food which is loaded with bacteria.

It’s the pathogens that tell the fishes immune system what method to use to eradicate that organism.

Remember in the sea fish normally eat living prey. They rarely eat sterile pellets, flakes or freeze dried anything. The prey they eat is always loaded with bacteria, parasites and viruses in the same proportions as are already in the fishes gut. Fish and us can’t digest food without bacteria which is the reason so many fish die while being medicated with copper or other drugs. It kills their stomach bacteria. It’s simple.

I mentioned before that our water is to clean and that may sound counterproductive because coral reefs are thought to be pristine. But the difference in water from a coral reef and our tanks is that the water on a coral reef has been there long before Betty White was born and many of our tanks were started a week from last Tuesday. Seawater actually gets better with age, to an extent.

If new, clean seawater was so good, why do new tanks look lousy? Why do new tanks, with all new water have so many diseases? Why do Noobs lose so many fish?

It’s because bacteria, viruses, corals, seaweed, rocks, meteorites, shipwrecks, whales and waste water from frankfurter carts in New York City all end up in the sea and all of those things are what fish evolved in. OK, maybe not the frankfurter carts. But it takes time for those organisms to reach a point where they are in sync with each other and none of them out weigh or out perform each other.

I was also under the impression that we needed to keep everything sterile. I wouldn’t think to put my hands in the tank without rinsing many times to get every trace of soap off.

I tried very hard to keep dirt out of my tank and vacuumed up every last bit of un eaten food.

I was wrong.

Now I take mud from a salt water bay and throw it in. I take garden soil (without pesticides) and throw it in. I feed earthworms full of dirt. I feed clams, mussels and whiteworms with as much dirt attached as I can find.

I never quarantine or medicate unless I purposely buy a very sick fish that I know will not live through the night and I experiment with questionable results.

I never worry if a fish I buy is in the same tank as fish with spots.



What I do is take that fish home as soon as I can and after a short acclimation, place it in my tank and try to get natural food into it. Natural food with living bacteria in it which is not usually commercially purchased food.

That food is deep frozen or irradiated to kill bacteria. I do use that food but I always supplement it with the foods I mentioned because without fresh, living bacteria, fish will always be at risk of dying from just about anything.



If you don’t believe any of this, go and watch Oprah give away Cadillacs to stray cats.

 

[SantaMonica Verified Sponsor]

It's too bad that bacteria are invisible in the water. If they were visible then we'd be able to visualize what levels of them correspond to good tanks.

 

[Paul B]

I just bought a dozen live blue claw crabs. My wife makes a great crab sauce. I caught 8 of them this summer but needed another dozen.

 

[SantaMonica Verified Sponsor]

We used to catch these in 50 crab traps in the bay and sell them on the side of the highway. Would get about 30 pounds a day, that size and larger.

 

[Paul B]

I love crabbing. The one I am holding is a pretty small one. I may have kept it as a pet. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[Paul B]

Unfortunately I received bad news last night. My close friend of over 40 years has 4th stage colon cancer.

Two weeks ago he went for a routine colonoscopy and got the news. He seemed to be in perfect health, he exercised all the time by playing tennis and racquetball and ate very healthy.

He has two Daughters and one just got engaged but we don't think he will even make the wedding.
I feel awful.

If he dies, he will be my 5th friend who passed in the last few years. I am about in the middle age wise. It's tough when all your close friends are dying. My old crowd is getting smaller every year and even though I realize this is the way it is and has always been, it is still depressing. His wife is going crazy and I don't blame her.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

It is happening to all of us. My older friend had his grandson tell him he just needs younger friends :face-with-hand-over-mouth:

 

[Paul B]

Last night in the pouring rain our power went out. So I called the electric company and informed them because it was only my block and not the east coast of the US.

Usually it comes right back on so I just got some of my battery lights and candles so we could see. My wife was in the bath tub so I gave her a candle.

After 20 minutes my fish had the look of horror on their faces so I started the generator. The power dept. trucks came and fixed the problem on the pole and the lights came back on.

Of course some of my neighbors came over to plug extension cords into my generator because I am so "lucky" that I have a generator. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[Rybren]

It's funny how that being prepared makes you "Lucky"

 

[Lowell Lemon]

You sure it was not one of "those" drones that the news is hung up on that caused your power outage? :cool:

 

[Paul B]

You sure it was not one of "those" drones that the news is hung up on that caused your power outage? :cool:

Thats the first thing that came to my mind. I went outside to look for the Aliens.

Yesterday I cleaned 18 crabs for part of the Christmas Eve. My wife makes a dynamite crab sauce over linguine.

Last year I think we had 21 types of seafood Christmas Eve.

This is a building near my Daughters house in Manhattan. It's by Louie Vittone.

 

[Paul B]

I decided that for my new book, (nothing about fish) I will donate any and all profits to "The Wounded Warriors" project. I dedicated the book to the almost 50 brave, young guys who lost their life fighting on April 1st 1970 on a remote Firebase in Vietnam.

I was very lucky that night and I really feel for those guys and I don't think enough is being done for them. Not that any meager profits from my book will help much but I think it's necessary.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hey, Paul,

Have you found any of the local seaweeds in your area to be able to last long term in a reef tank setting (not counting being eaten by herbivores)?

I saw one post were you suggested bladder wrack doesn't last.

 

[Paul B]

This Codium lasts maybe a couple of months. Fish don't eat it but urchins love it and tear it apart. If it were not for urchins it may last longer. But it is nice looking and stays green. I collect it out east of me in the Atlantic near Montauk on the eastern end of Long Island about an hour from me.

I never see it here on the Long Island Sound and the seaweeds we have here do not last at all.

These is a weed that almost looks like grass that is very nice but the fish eat it very fast so I don't know how long it would last.

We also have a bright red seaweed resembling thin grass but it doesn't last long.

Codium is the bright green stuff that resembles gorgonians

 

[Paul B]

I can't believe this is happening again in the same week. Another good friend is dying of cancer. He was fine and playing golf two weeks ago and I just got a call they are putting him in hospice for lung cancer that spread. There is nothing they can do.

If he dies, it will be my 6th friend in 3 years that have died. I am really depressed

 

[Rybren]

I can't believe this is happening again in the same week. Another good friend is dying of cancer. He was fine and playing golf two weeks ago and I just got a call they are putting him in hospice for lung cancer that spread. There is nothing they can do.

If he dies, it will be my 6th friend in 3 years that have died. I am really depressed

Sorry to hear this Paul. I think that it must be a sign of our advancing age. I have been to so many funerals in the past few years as well.
6 of my friends have lost their wives since my wife passed away.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

This Codium lasts maybe a couple of months. Fish don't eat it but urchins love it and tear it apart. If it were not for urchins it may last longer. But it is nice looking and stays green. I collect it out east of me in the Atlantic near Montauk on the eastern end of Long Island about an hour from me.

I never see it here on the Long Island Sound and the seaweeds we have here do not last at all.

These is a weed that almost looks like grass that is very nice but the fish eat it very fast so I don't know how long it would last.

We also have a bright red seaweed resembling thin grass but it doesn't last long.

Codium is the bright green stuff that resembles gorgonians

Thanks, Paul. I did collect a couple of codium while snorkeling in Rockport, MA, and brought it home, but I don't recall what happened to it. Others I collected were intended as fish food and were rapidly consumed.

 

[unclejed]

In a couple of weeks my reef will will have reached 40 years old.
Unfortunately I don't remember when I was 40 but I remember when I set it up. I was a skinny 22 year old just back from Viet Nam.
It is still running very well, still using the same reverse UG filter, same dolomite substrait but none of the fish are original. The oldest one, a fireclown is just over 16, all of the older fish died in an accident that was due to my carelessness.
The tank is mostly LPS, gorgonians, giant mushrooms and a few leathers.
There are only three SPS corals, two of which have been with me for a few years and are growing nicely.
I am not sure is any of the original NSW from the Long Island Sound is still in there or any of the original amphipods but maybe much later generations.
I still can't take a decent picture and the tank is not as blue as these pictures but it is what it is.

Give us a picture of the whole aquarium! Come on!:cool: