47 year old tank

[paul b]

Yes, they seem to all be fine. I will have to step up my production of brine shrimp as now I have so many fish that depend on them

[paul b]

Today as I was feeding the fish, this guy, the stripped wrasse got so excited, he jumped out of the tank, hit me in the nose and fell on the floor. Then as I was trying to catch him he slid under the couch. I moved the couch and shoved him into a plastic container, but before I threw him back into the tank, I explained to him that what he did was very stupid and I hoped that he learned his lesson.

 

I am not sure if he wanted to punch me in the nose or kiss me for feeding him blackworms.

 

I have not seen him for an hour so I don't know if he is sulking, embarrassed or croaked.

 

 

 

[paul b]

That blue striped wrasse is fine, he just got a little headache. But I had to go away this past weekend to speak about pollution and I found one of my yellow wrasses decided to jump out. I am not sure if he was imitating the striped one but he didn't fare to well.

 

Unfortunately, very healthy fish can jump higher than not so healthy fish. To get out he had to jump over an algae trough and past some other obstacles so he had to go about 12".

 

 

 

[paul b]

Those four anthias look much better now after about 5 weeks in the tank. You can't see it in the video, but their tails now are longer and pointier and two of them are tipped with a fluorescent orange.

 

 

 

[paul b]

I am all excited now because my boat is in the water and in a week or so I will start to go collecting. I want to get a new influx of bacteria in my tank and I need to go about a mile from my marina for that. The water under my boat, although teeming with life is not a good place to collect as that water is mostly sludge, gas, tar, fuel oil, anthrax, paint, sewage, some meat from Lady GaGa's dress, and a few high heels from the swim suit models they sometimes have there when there are new boats to show. I go there when they have those shows just for the research factor.

 

My tank depends on bacteria and that is one important aspect of why it has lasted so long with no problems and it also allows my fish to keep the immunity they were born with. If I have the disease problems many people have I would get out of this hobby and perhaps start a new hobby like guessing the phone numbers of Supermodels or seeing how long I can grow my toenails.

 

My tank runs with no disease problems as it has for decades and I realize it is because as many people tell me "I am lucky". I guess I am lucky as I have no varicose veins, acne, the heartbreak of psoriasis, gout, nose piercing, athletes foot or any number of other things many people have. My tank depends on bacteria, viruses and parasites to keep it immune.

 

I will go to that tide pool and grab a few handfuls of mud along with amphipods and anything else I can find and dump it all in my tank as I have been doing since Nixon was President. He didn't have a reef tank as far as I know but if he did he kept it at the Watergate hotel (google it)

 

 

 

 

http://s258.photobucket.com/user/urchsearch/media/2012-01-02030422_zps2e3e126b.mp4.html?sort=3&o=337

[Bruleyii]

You should do a vlog style video of you collecting one day. I think that would be interesting. 

[paul b]

There is one of those floating around someplace.

[paul b]

Yesterday my wife asked me to help her find her old Barbie Dolls. She had a bunch of them when she was a kid and she wanted to take them out and play with them with my Grand Daughter. Neither of us remembered where we put them but I figured I would look in this very old cedar chest that was My Mother's.

 

It was under my tank (I don't have a sump and the tank is built into a wall.

 

The Barbie's were in there like brand new with all her clothes on the hangers because my wife is a fanatic with that stuff. We even found Ken but the poor guy looks like he had Chemo because he lost all his hair and just has a head full of dried glue.

 

 

 

Anyway, in that same trunk I found an old picture I air brushed of my wife probably 40 years ago.

 

I copied it from this picture and made it highly stylized like Nagel from Playboy used to do.

 

I was also working at the New York Playboy Club at the time.

 

I copied it from this picture. I think it came out pretty good. It helped that my wife was a Supermodel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[paul b]

I just noticed that I have a brown, in descript little gobi who is dying of old age. I have no Idea how many years ago I got him and he is a sort of fish that I almost never saw as he hid almost all of the time. I even forgot about him for months at a time.

 

 

 

 

I know he is probably dying of old age but I know people are thinking he has black ich, white ich, ecru ich, velvet, dropsy and a wide variety of ailments and I should immediately dip him in fresh water, soak him in Prizapro, metheline blue or vodka, test my parameters and change my water. But I will let him die in piece in a guppy breeding container.

 

 

 

 

He lived a good long life but he never had a mate to spawn with. That probably annoys him but I never found another one so unfortunately all he can do is look at the pictures of the Supermodels I have in my house and close his eyes. (if he had eyelids) I am pretty sure he won't last the night.

 

 

 

 

I wrote an article about how you know if a fish is dying of old age but I don't think I am allowed to link it here so if you are interested, and if I can find it I can PM it to you.

 

 

 

 

Good Bye little friend and thank you for letting me enjoy you for a number of years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Origami]

I wrote an article about how you know if a fish is dying of old age but I don't think I am allowed to link it here so if you are interested, and if I can find it I can PM it to you.

 

 

Paul, you can link to it here. It's not a violation of any sort.

[Origami]

Found it:

 

http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/how-to-tell-marine-fish-dying-old-age-5782/

[paul b]

That was quick Tom.

 

He is still alive but you can see in an old fish they get wrinkles just like we do. His face got fat, his lips are fat, his cheeks are fat and he is fat.

He shows no signs of disease or fear. That's how I caught him. I saw him sitting at the front of the tank and he never does that. I could tell right away by the expression on his face that his life was almost over. I went to get the net and I think he read my mind so he swam to the surface of the water allowing me to pick him up and put him in a guppy breeder. He tried to eat his last meal but didn't have the strength to swallow. Just before he dies he may show a few parasites because his immune system is failing. He will start falling over and lose the ability to swim. If I left him where he was, the fish would pick at him and a large hermit crab would finish him off leaving any scraps to the bristle worms. Now he can pass in peace.

[madweazl]

She's certainly the super-model you always claim, Paul. Sorry to hear about your lil buddy there; always a bummer losing something. 

[paul b]

Thank you, my wife was and still is very beautiful. I can't believe she married a Lug Nut like me. 

 

That gobi is still  kicking.  I will try to give him a worm but I think he needs last rites

 

Finished. The crank turns on some very bright LEDs on the front left. The tubes and gauge light up and the bulb is dimmable. I think I will keep this one.

 

[madweazl]

That's awesome!

[paul b]

Thanks, my wife wants me to keep that one and put it in our living room.

 

I made a video of that little gobi. He is still alive but is obviously dying of old age. You rarely see this because if he was still in my tank a crab would have grabbed him and the fish would tear his fins to pieces.

 

He has no diseases and is breathing normally but can't really swim or eat. His eyes are clouding over and his fins are deteriorating as his immune system fails. He also has not eaten in a week.

 

Eventually he will succumb to bacteria because the macrophages in his slime that normally protect him are not able to do their job. He may eventually show some parasites but not so far. He is not suffering as far as I know, just the normal process of dying of old age. If a fish is lucky enough, this is what happens, just like it happens to us. My Mom died at 99 of old age and like the fish, her body systems just shut down one by one until there is not enough systems working to sustain life. It's not a bad thing, just a thing that happens and it is much better than carpet surfing or dying from some silly disease which should never happen.

 

 

 

 

[paul b]

It seems very quiet today and I found out why. My cell phone doesn't work. It doesn't ring and I can't call anyone. But I can text, which I never do anyway. This quiet is actually nice. Life was a lot easier before they invented these stupid things.

 

In those days my Mother used to hang out the window and yell for me, if I didn't hear her, I would get a beating when I came home. But that was life then.

 

 

 

So just now I go to the Verizon store and tell the guy the problem. He calls my phone and of course it rings and works fine. Then he calls his phone from my phone and it works fine.

 

I go outside and call my house, two of my friends and Nancy Pelosi it works fine. They call me, no problem.

 

 

 

I drive home and try the phone but if I want to talk to someone I have to hang out the window and yell because it don't work. I can't get calls or receive them.

 

I hate these things.

 

I can get a new phone for basically free because I have an I Phone 4 which runs on steam and has a crank on the side that you use to call someone and I am due for an upgrade.

 

I don't want an upgrade because first of all, I won't know how to use it, I am still learning mine and it's so old the directions are written in Latin with references to chariot's.

 

And the new phone won't fit in my phone case which I built and is very cool.

 

So tomorrow it's back to the phone store where I am sure it will again work.

[paul b]

Instead of the phone, I bought this.  It was cheaper and I can just tell it who to call and it works.

 

[aquamom]

Much cooler

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bruleyii]

Nice! Just a heads up. If you stick with iphone, the new ones will still use the same operating system so there will be no additional learning aside from what you would have left to learn from the iphone 4. The not getting or sending phone calls might be a reception thing. Meaning you may get worse signal at your house than their store. I think the stores have a signal booster on their roof.

 

I'm sure the guy at the store tried it but you could try doing a soft reset on your phone. Sometimes software can snag and cause weird issues like that. I've seen it before when I used to repair iPhones back at apple 8 years ago or so. 

 

Here are their steps: 

 

Performing a soft reset is pretty simple

1. Just press and hold both the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons simultaneously for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo. You can let go of both buttons after the Apple logo appears.
2. Your phone will go through the usual process of starting up.
3. You’ll be back in your home screen.

[paul b]

Thanks Bruleyii, but I did that a few times before I went to the Apple store and they did it a few times. Then I called Apple and they did it a few times.

All of a sudden it works. I thin it got tired of me resetting it.

[Bruleyii]

lol. well at least it's working now.

[paul b]

So I go to Home Depot for a few things to finish up some Steam Punk projects and re cycle some fluorescent light bulbs. Every time I go there, or better yet, a good Hardware store I have to peruse the hardware aisle. I just like the smell of steel, brass and copper.

 

As I am walking around, my cell phone rings. I take it out, look at it and see who it is. When I try to answer it, it goes blank. I go to put it away and it comes on again. I go to talk, and it goes blank, I go to put it away and I hear "Beep" and I lost the caller.

 

So I walk around a little more and decide to call my wife because she wanted me to pick up something and I never pay attention to these things so I forgot what it was.

 

I call my wife and I hear "Hello". I go to talk and I get "beep" and the thing goes dead.

 

 

 

I call her back and see that she answered, I go to talk and "beep".

 

"Jesus Mary and Josephine" What the heck is going on? It's like I am in the Twilight Zone stuck in a phone time warp with no way out.

 

I have been having trouble with this phone but not like this.

 

My wife calls me back. I say, "My Phone is ............................." and it goes dead. No screen, no noise, nothing.

 

 

 

So I figure the thing is toast and I will have to get a new phone.

 

I check out and as I am walking to my car, the phone rings. I answer it expecting it to go dead, and it works fine.

 

I call back my friend and it works fine.

 

 

 

"AHA" It hits me. I think I know what happened. I picked up the stuff I bought in Home Depot, put the phone next to it, and it goes dead.

 

I bought a cabinet magnet that keeps a door closed. I took out my phone with my right hand and then transfer the phone to my left hand to talk. I just like my left ear better what can I tell you.

 

My left hand had the magnet in it. I didn't know that when you put the phone next to a magnet, it croaks.

 

Who Knew!

[paul b]

My tank is looking real good. It usually does but I had nothing really to say. I don't get dino's, hair algae, ich, carpenter ants, bryopsis, flatworms or any of that stuff. If I did, it goes away. Actually I do have some cyano but I have had some of that for decades. I actually like the purple tinge as it matches my eyes. My 5 Queen Anthias are looking real fine and growing. The store had to sell them to me real quick because they can't keep them alive. They are a type of fish you can't throw squashed brine shrimp or flakes at and expect them to thank you and

 

do the Macarana.

 

I really thought my very old Bangai Cardinal would die of old age by now but he still looks great. I also think my pair of bluestripe pipefish are well past their lifetime but they keep spawning. Lucky fish. My fireclowns spawn like rabbits as do my mandarins. I stepped up hatching brine shrimp due to all the Anthias but it benefits the other fish as well.

 

Too bad one of my yellow wrasses jumped out because I think they were also spawning.

 

I don't remember how old my copperband is but he is my biggest eater by far and it is hard to keep enough worms and clams for him. He eats more than all my other fish combined except for this annoying blue striped wrasse. He jumped out once and hit me in the nose. I should have left him on the floor as he is too big. But I got a big heart and threw him back.

 

Still don't see my clingfish and he may be on the floor someplace or stuck under the UG filter.

 

 

 

 

[paul b]

We had some friends on our boat last night for diner and there was a mildew smell in the head (bathroom) I changed the screens on the windows last week and apparently didn't seal the window very tight and the heavy rain we had this week soaked in to all the towels and they got moldy so we had to take everything home to wash. My wife is an extreme fanatic about cleanliness so now we have to go and bleach everything even though it is about 60 degrees and windy.

 

Anyway, while she is doing that I will collect some grass shrimp which there are thousands around my boat. I probably can't collect amphipods yet because there is no seaweeds yet growing there where they congregate to and I am not going to my collection tide pool today because it is to cold and I don't feel like jumping into 50 degree water.

 

I also probably won't collect any mud because I don't take that from my marina as those bacteria are always high from PCBs, LSD, Quaaludes, fuel oil, anthrax and now, Clorox. (from my wife's cleaning)

 

But as soon as it gets back at least into the 70s I can get some mud.