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47 year old tank


sen5241b

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I am having a hard time keeping all my fish fed because I just have too many. You know that feeling when you go into a LFS not intending to buy anything. You promise yourself you won't buy anything because you just don't have the room. You swear to yourself you won't buy anything. Then you see it. You really must have it. It is a one of a kind. You convince yourself that you owe it to your body. Then as you are driving home with the new fish, you swear to yourself, that that is the absolute last fish you can possibly fit in there. My fish are now taking turns putting their heads underwater, that's how crowded it is. Their tails are getting a rash from hitting each other. Each fish is on a first name basis with each other.

It's terrible, but that's where I am now. For the last two weeks I can't find my male bluestripe pipefish, so I figure he is gone along with my clingfish, so that gives me the opportunity to get more fish. As soon as I put in the new fish, guess who shows up? Yep, the bluestripe pipefish and clingfish. The pipefish was doing what he always does, having babies in the back of the tank. My water is like sewage from all the food I have to put in. One of my bubble corals died, probably because my nitrates are 980 or so. I tested the nitrates once and the test water in the vial turned into tar. I don't know what I am going to do because the fish just won't die, they don't even jump out any more but they keep growing. One of my bangai cardinals uses a shoehorn to get in between the rocks because he got to large. That fireclown had a birthday, he is about 25 years old (but I could be off by a couple of years as I lost his birth certificate)

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Today is a beautiful day so I figured I would powerwash the eaves of the house. To do that I had to turn on the hoses outside that I had off all winter. I tried to turn on the valve inside my house for the hose and it wouldn't budge. That figures, I never turned off this valve before but this winter it went to zero degrees and I figured I would turn it off so I didn't break the pipe. That valve was installed when they built the house in 1959 and generally you don't touch something that has had water flowing through it for so long. I put a wrench on it and tried it but I could see that I would probably break the valve if I turned hard enough so I shut off the water main in the house. Sure enough, just as I figured, the valve handle broke off. Great. But at least it broke in the off position. So I remove the bonnet nut and put a vise grip on the stem and get it to move. That valve is not in a place where I want to change it. Maybe 20 years ago, but not now. It is over the red central vacuum just to the right of the blue bucket that is my RO/DI top off and behind the float switch for that system. It is also right against the side of the house in a place I can just about reach with one hand. I would like to ask the genius who installed it what he was thinking as it could have been installed just as easily a foot away from the stone wall where it was accessible, but people rarely so sensible things. So I just put the valve back together, made sure it was open and not leaking and I sweated a new ball valve in a place where I could get to it. This also happened a few weeks ago with another valve for a different hose. They are always in the stupidest places.

But now all is well again and I can get back to powerwashing.

 

 

 

 

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As I was feeding the fish tonight I noticed a pipefish that I thought I lost a couple of weeks ago. It is a very plain looking pipe that crawls around the bottom like a dragon faced pipe. I got him at Aquarium Village my favorite store.

 

 

 

 

He is crawling around hunting, and apparently finding pods

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Just after Thanksgiving I had a hand operation. If you worked construction for 40 years and your joints still work, you didn't work hard enough. One finger (the one I use to point at Supermodels) was becoming stuck in the bent position so I went in to have it fixed. They "fixed" my knee at the same time. Well, the knee surgery didn't do anything and neither did the hand surgery. If I see a Supermodel now, I will have to point with my foot or chin.

The surgeon sent me for hand therapy and all that. Even the Supermodel in the therapists office massaging my hand couldn't fix it so I went in today to see a "different" surgeon. This guy only does hands. The other guy did arms, legs, ears, teeth and anything that ails you so I figure I would go to a guy who only does hands.

The nurse comes in and asks me all the silly questions, things like "Do you use your right hand much?" and "what do you use it mostly for?" "how soon would you like it fixed?". I said, "I don't have to comb my hair but if someone was hitting you in the face with a hammer, would you like him to slow down, or stop?".

Then she takes me for an X Ray. The Doctor comes in and he is a little older than my Grand Son. He bends my finger around a little asking me if this hurts and if that hurts. Now there isn't any part of my hand that doesn't hurt.

He says, We have three options. I can give you a cortisone shot in the finger. I ask, "does that ever work?" He says, "No". Then he says "We can try putting me on steroids for two weeks" I ask, "Does that ever work?" He says "Usually not, but it may make me fat" So another surgery it is. This time they are not going to knock me out so they can ask me stupid things while they cut open my hand, maybe tell some knock knock jokes.

This week I need to work on my boat outdrives to get them ready because I won't be able to use my right hand for a few weeks so if I need to pick my nose, I will have to use my toe.

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Good luck with the surgery, Paul. Hopefully this time it works out. Maybe this is why they call Doctoring a "practice?"

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Tom I had so many joint surgeries that they now close me up with Velcro. One of the shoulder surgeries was real MAN surgery where they take off your arm and send it out for repairs. The rest of them were Sissy arthroscopic surgeries. I am no stranger to surgery. They are kind of fun and it is a great sleep. I think I had 4 shoulder and 3 or 4 knee surgeries. If you work correctly, you wear parts out. If you don't, you were probably an accountant or Senator your entire life.

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In a few weeks my boat will be in the water and it will be amphipod hunting season. The early summer is when they are free swimming and possibly breeding but I really don't know. I do know that there are so many of them at that time that all I have to do is put my arm in the water (in a tide pool at low tide) and I am covered in them. If I anchor my boat, the anchor line is full of them. I normally hang a frayed rope off my dock and it becomes filled with amphipods. To me, this is very important as is all live foods. Not just for the obvious health benefit of feeding live food, but more importantly for the living (wild) bacteria in their guts. I feel this is the main reason my fish seem to be immune from everything so far so I will keep collecting and feeding live foods. Of course I still feed live blackworms and earthworms for the same reason.

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I had my second hand surgery yesterday because I guess the first one was only practice. Now they tell me they have it down to a science. My right hand is bandaged from my knuckles almost to my elbow. It is amazing how many times you need your right hand during the day. Luckily I am used to this from my last hand surgery 3 months ago. If this works, I will be as good as new. Not as good as I was 30 years ago, but good enough. It's a good thing that I don't have to comb my hair but holding a tooth brush is a little of a challenge, but nothing I can't manage. I just put the brush in the vise, bite on it and move my face back and forth. Today I cleaned the glass on my tank and noticed that everything is still alive. I saw some fish I thought were gone as that seems to happen a lot lately. I am not sure if I am just senile and the fish have always been there or they go into another dimension for a while. But they are all back and eating all the clams and worms I can buy. I can't open clams for a while so they will have to live on Mysis and cake for a couple of weeks.

 

My algae scrubber keeps getting full of slimy algae but I cleaned it the day before surgery so I am good for a couple of weeks.

 

I have a speaking engagement in September that I am excited about because it is in Boston and we have friends there that we will visit.

 

This is in the mangrove roots on Key Largo.

 

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I have been experimenting with this little anemone crab for a couple of months by giving him a live blackworm every day. At first he just looked at me like I was crazy and continued filter feeding. But now he comes out for the worm as soon as he sees the feeder and grabs the worm. He also gave up living on corals and prefers to stay in this spot on the rock. He doesn't seem to filter feed any more which is good because these crabs don't usually live long in a tank. I assume they don't usually get enough food. But I will see how long he will live on worms. I want to get a few more of them so they will mate.

 

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This is him when I got him.

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I have been experimenting with this little anemone crab for a couple of months by giving him a live blackworm every day. At first he just looked at me like I was crazy and continued filter feeding. But now he comes out for the worm as soon as he sees the feeder and grabs the worm. He also gave up living on corals and prefers to stay in this spot on the rock. He doesn't seem to filter feed any more which is good because these crabs don't usually live long in a tank. I assume they don't usually get enough food. But I will see how long he will live on worms. I want to get a few more of them so they will mate.

 

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This is him when I got him.

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Nice crab

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That little orange pygmy hawkfish comes out "near" the front now. I am not sure why he is getting over his fear of other company as he is not bad looking. My male bluestripe disappears for a week at a time and I always think I lost him, but again, today he came out in the front, smiling and pregnant as always. For a few days I couldn't find one of my bangai cardinals or my clingfish. I really don't know where these fish go and why they go there. But today after a nice meal of clams and blackworms, they all showed up. It looks like my bangai has a mouth full of eggs which is why he can stay hidden as he doesn't have to eat. My tank is not that big but it is 6' long and built into a wall under a staircase so about 3/4s of the back of the tank I don't have access to and never know what goes on back there. They may be having a Hoedown or flea market but whatever they do, they stay there for a week at a time. There is food everywhere in my tank because I don't believe in sterility. I am also not one to worry if I dump things in from the sea as I don't have to quarantine because I keep my fish immune. (Yes I realize many people think I am lucky, it is what it is) But having a little mulm and algae in some places in the tank goes a long way in keeping fish healthy. Especially if you want to keep mandarins, bleenies and pipefish. That stuff you buy commercially to feed them once a day is often not enough so it is nice to have someplace for them to hunt and maybe find a snack. I also realize many of us worry about nitrates and such. I think we should get over that if we want healthy fish. Deal with nitrates separately if you care about that, but don't starve your fish as most fish in captivity are starving. Like I always say, healthy fish are spawning fish as fish in the sea "always" spawn. I mean constantly. And if they are not in spawning condition, they are not very healthy as that is a totally un natural condition for any fish to be in. Unless of course it is a male. Then he should be chasing girls.  :wub:
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I was thinking about your theory about gut bacteria and small exposures to disease while healthy to help build immune system (like flu shots for humans right). Would you ever ask your LFS (or Petco) for a few recently dead marine fish and chop them up and feed to a healthy tank? Assuming the fish died of disease, do you think this would help yours, or just be Russian Roulette?

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I don't think it would do anything.  I know it would not make my fish sick because I can add fish with parasites with no problems.  Live or dead.  The live worms I add every day contain live gut bacteria and the items I add from the sea in the summer also contain live bacteria.  Any corals or fish I buy go right in and I have been adding sponges and gorgonians all the time lately (which is why I have to many)..  Remember I am not talking a few months or 10 years.  I am talking 35 years.  That is about how long my tank has gone without any diseases.  I  feel it is the bacteria and parasites in the things I add and all my research leads to that conclusion.  I can't think of any other reason why my fish stay healthy.  So many people have so many problems with diseases and I don't know why.  Many tanks that follow strict quarantine procedures crash.  Just search for them.   I like the fact that I can add anything without thinking about it.  I have been writing about my theories for many years so it is not a secret.  So far no one has come up with any other answer. :cool:

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I tend to agree with your approach. I have years of experience in the hobby but have been dry for a while and am now planning my next tank. In addition to feedi g fresh foods (especially clams and blackworms), what would you recommend to someone who will be starting "fresh" to build the immune responses of healthy fish? That's what made me think of the dead fish idea.

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I "think" that fish come to us already immune as that is the condition they are in while in the sea.  They are also probably pregnant (if female).  While they are being held for shipping and being shipped, then spend time in a bare wholesaler's tank, then to a store they are so stressed that their immunity, which they still have is just overwhelmed and they will be susceptible to everything.  Don't forget, they are also shipped in either copper or some other parasite medication which is a poison.  The only reason it doesn't kill the fish is because of the dosage.  If we can immediately get real food into them I believe their immunity will strengthen and if the fish is not near death, they should recover and re gain their full immunity as long as live bacteria is offered to them constantly.   I very rarely lost a fish from disease just after I add it to my tank unless it was almost dead when I got it.  It seems that a fish will re-gain it's immunity after only a few days on the correct food.  The correct food is not something dry which will do nothing to boost their immune system. 

Of course if your tank is very new, the fish will never get over their stress as fish hate sterile tanks.  It really needs a layer of mulm and a little algae growing.  It seems tanks with all the tweeking, siphoning, testing and water changing have the most problems as you can find those threads more than any others.  Seawater is very stable as long as you don't mess with it.

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My Bangai cardinals are full size. Actually a little larger than what their adult size of 3" is supposed to be according to Wikipedia encyclopedia. His dorsal streamer that goes off the picture is about 3" long. These fish are about as healthy as they can be in a tank. I can determine that by the fact that they are spawning, they are immune and they are old. These fish do look a lot better when they are young because their fins are longer. As they grow, their bodies grow faster than their fins. They are a very nice fish and about as peaceful a fish as you can get. I wish they would breed more of them commercially because they are so easy to breed and even the babies are very easy to grow. Probably the easiest fish to propagate sort of like guppies.

They do require a lot of meaty food and it is hard to feed them correctly in a tank with coral because of this fact. Their huge mouth can fit large pieces of clam which is what I normally feed them but they will eat anything meaty. They are a very slow fish and you really should put their food right near their face. I also think this one may be getting cataracts or the fish equivalent. This happens to a lot of fish with big eyes in a tank. Squirrelfish and puffers are susceptible as they age too because in the sea they spend most of their time under overhangs. (Squirrelfish are almost always under something) If you keep them in a dimmer tank for a while it seems to clear up. I Don't think it is severe and I can't catch these fish so I will just let them live out their life as they are. I am not sure how long they live but I would imagine (and this is just a very wild guess) 8 or 9 years for a cardinal this size. If someone has them for a long time I would like to know as I can't find that out. have had these types of cardinals since they were discovered but I don't keep records and the fishes memory is probably better than mine.

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I "think" that fish come to us already immune as that is the condition they are in while in the sea. They are also probably pregnant (if female). While they are being held for shipping and being shipped, then spend time in a bare wholesaler's tank, then to a store they are so stressed that their immunity, which they still have is just overwhelmed and they will be susceptible to everything. Don't forget, they are also shipped in either copper or some other parasite medication which is a poison. The only reason it doesn't kill the fish is because of the dosage. If we can immediately get real food into them I believe their immunity will strengthen and if the fish is not near death, they should recover and re gain their full immunity as long as live bacteria is offered to them constantly. I very rarely lost a fish from disease just after I add it to my tank unless it was almost dead when I got it. It seems that a fish will re-gain it's immunity after only a few days on the correct food. The correct food is not something dry which will do nothing to boost their immune system.

Of course if your tank is very new, the fish will never get over their stress as fish hate sterile tanks. It really needs a layer of mulm and a little algae growing. It seems tanks with all the tweeking, siphoning, testing and water changing have the most problems as you can find those threads more than any others. Seawater is very stable as long as you don't mess with it.

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I "think" that fish come to us already immune as that is the condition they are in while in the sea. They are also probably pregnant (if female). While they are being held for shipping and being shipped, then spend time in a bare wholesaler's tank, then to a store they are so stressed that their immunity, which they still have is just overwhelmed and they will be susceptible to everything. Don't forget, they are also shipped in either copper or some other parasite medication which is a poison. The only reason it doesn't kill the fish is because of the dosage. If we can immediately get real food into them I believe their immunity will strengthen and if the fish is not near death, they should recover and re gain their full immunity as long as live bacteria is offered to them constantly. I very rarely lost a fish from disease just after I add it to my tank unless it was almost dead when I got it. It seems that a fish will re-gain it's immunity after only a few days on the correct food. The correct food is not something dry which will do nothing to boost their immune system.

Of course if your tank is very new, the fish will never get over their stress as fish hate sterile tanks. It really needs a layer of mulm and a little algae growing. It seems tanks with all the tweeking, siphoning, testing and water changing have the most problems as you can find those threads more than any others. Seawater is very stable as long as you don't mess with it.

Sorry for the double post.

This makes a lot of sense.

Thanks Paul.

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