Tank turned 49 this year

[saintsreturn]

Ha! yeah yeah.... My favorite canned response was always "at least i scored high enough to choose."

But seriously, I planned on flying heavys back in the day, but couldnt due to depth perception. So now i just talk **** with my buddies from all branches and love having a beer with folks of common interest.

Paul, I get that! Curacao was my favorite diving so far, but this Texas mud does not compare to anything i care for. I havent dove in a while since i am against warm water much diving. I prefer to know that gators and large aggressive turtles have their habitat without me in it. So when i go home to Florida i always try to log in some dives. It is amazing to me how different the areas of this country are for something so many of us enjoy.

 

[Nobbygas]

The vast majority of my diving has been in the Red Sea, from the Straits of Tiran in the North, to the coast of Sudan. It's the easiest and quickest place to get to for quality diving from Europe. I've also dived the Barrier Reef, Belize, Mozambique, South Africa and Bali. I like the water to be warm
So many fantastic dive sites in the Red Sea including Sha'b Rumi (off Sudan), which is where Jacques Cousteau built one of his underwater living villages. Most of the construction is now gone but there are a few small bits left. In the world of scuba diving a truly historical dive site. Another great dive is the SS Thistlegorm, a sunken WW2 British cargo ship, which still has vehicles, guns, ammunition, aircraft wings, rubber boots, motor cycles and even a steam train !
It was diving that gave me the need to have a reef tank in my home.

 

[Paul B]

When I started diving and did the most diving there were no computers, much less dive computers. WE had a plastic chart that we had to take down with us and a slate that we had to do the decompression stop math on. I am lucky I never killed myself.
And when you get certified here in New York, tropical diving doesn't even count as experience because it is so easy when you can see more than a few inches.
In New York Harbor the viability is literally zero, or maybe a couple of inches and everything is by feel.

 

[Nobbygas]

When I started diving and did the most diving there were no computers, much less dive computers. WE had a plastic chart that we had to take down with us and a slate that we had to do the decompression stop math on. I am lucky I never killed myself.
And when you get certified here in New York, tropical diving doesn't even count as experience because it is so easy when you can see more than a few inches.
In New York Harbor the viability is literally zero, or maybe a couple of inches and everything is by feel.

Yeah, I started with those ridiculous charts as well. It's so much better with the dive computers.

 

[saintsreturn]

I was very fortunate. I am at that age where i got to learn things the "old way" and then transition into the easy way. Dive computers were just coming out when i started and they were to rich for my blood. I got SSI certified in Florida and spent most of my time in springs so i could cool off. My first few ocean dives were miserable (even in Hawaii) because i was not used to them.

I got lucky and damn near stole my first dive computer, which i still have to this day. I still keep all of my paper logs and print the electronic ones when i dive, but there have been several i just didnt log. Lucky for me, i also prefer the 25-45ft mark, so deco is relatively easy to track. That said, i believe in higher powers if for no other reason than that i am not dead yet. My first couple trips to 100+ were before computers and utilized some piss poor math...

 

[Paul B]

We are having some company tonight and I am making one of my favorite meals. Manhattan Clam Chowder. We live in New York so we don't make much New England Chowder which is actually a lot easier to make. We have to drive 20 minutes to find a good Italian market because regular supermarkets just won't do.
This chowder comes out so good that if you tilt your head, your brains will fall out. No really. It's really good.
I saved one clam for my fish :agree:

 

[saintsreturn]

This is one of those dishes that us southern folk just dont have good access to. Shame really, because i have had some that were amazing.. i also tried some ones you can tell short cuts were taken. Enjoy!

 

[Paul B]

Here where I moved it is harder to get good food. My last home was in a slurry of good Italian stores but here is like the south. Even though we are on an Island, good seafood, I mean raw seafood is a little distance away. There are plenty of good seafood restaurants, but I love to cook. The closer you get to New York city, the easier it is but now I am about 70 miles away and this is farm country.

We go about 25 minutes every week now to visit Uncle Geusipies Italian Market where they have pretty good stuff. You can't get the right cheeses, fish or much of any of the stuff we like here.

I was brought up in a very Italian house and need the right food, for us anyway.
I also make a mean stuffed calamari.
Can you get any fresh fish, maybe from the Gulf? Or even frozen clams? If not, there is nothing you can do and you have to move.
Of course you can visit me and I will make you some.

 

[Nobbygas]

How is your fish with spots coming along?

 

[Paul B]

She is fine. Still eating and smiling. I think she will get over it and go on to live her life and lay many eggs.

 

[Paul B]

My bluestripe pipefish is more pregnant than I have ever seen a pipefish and I assume that either last night or tonight should be their birthday. I will look at the tank before the lights come on with a flashlight to see if I can find any fry.

The weird thing is the female bluestripe thinks she is mated with the much larger Janss pipefish as they spend all their time together while the poor pregnant male sulks in a hole waiting to give birth.

Here are the pipefish, the male is pregnant but this was a different pregnancy and he is much more pregnant now.

This is the Janss when I got him about a year ago. He looks sad. Now his colors are fluorescent looking and very bright and he has little protrusions on him like a sturgeon. A really nice looking fish which is probably why the female bluestripe dumped her old man.

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[Paul B]

My Man Cave/Fish room/Workshop is coming along.

 

[Paul B]

My clown gobi is all healed, no spots, no rashes, no hives, nothing but bright yellow. And I didn't have to fresh water dip her, prixapro, chloriquin sulfate, or shut his lights off. He (or she) is fine and will live out her life for another 8 or 9 years in Bliss.

Of course if I would have quarantined her, then put her in a hospital tank, the ich would have gotten worse, then I would have had to put her on life support and go on the disease forum (God forbid) then a few days later she would have croaked and I would have had to blame the store, wholesaler, shipper or the poor guy in the canoe who collected her. ​

 

[Paul B]

Yesterday I was looking at my tank which I sometimes do. 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. 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.)

 

[DaveK]

It is amazing just how much life is in a reef system once you start looking for it. Makes you realize just how complex the ecosystem is insice a reef system, let alone the ocean.

 

[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. ​

 

[DaveK]

Tou sure are getting some unusual fish. I don't think I've ever seen gumdrop gobies or gecko gobies offered for sale and any LFS. Although I don't run around visiting them as I once did. I even had to check online to make sure of the exact species you were talking about.

Gobies are great fish, but as you point out, most of them are going to be seem on their terms. This makes them ideal for someone seriously into the hobby, but you sometimes have to explain why your tank seems to have no fish in it.

In the FW hobby, I once had a large tank stocked mostly with killiefish. They would hide in the plants and you really had to look for them. As usual, the tank looked devoid of fish to most non-aquarium people.

 

[Paul B]

Dave, thats true, sometimes I can't hardly see any fish. My possum wrasse, 2 Gecko Gobies, 2 Bluestripe pipefissh, Janss Pipefish, Mandarin and this Gumdrop Gobi don't come out much.
But I don't care what other people see, I just want to know they are there and happy.

I ask the LFSs to call me when they get in something odd.

 

[DaveK]

I tend to keep a mix of fish in the tank. I like having a few that will be out most of the time, just so the non-aquarium people have something to look at.

You bring up a good point though. If you have a tank well over grown with coraline algae, and other things that live on live rock, it's amazing how a highly colored fish like a mandarin can disappear while in plain view.

 

[Paul B]

I would like to get another circulation pump because this tank is bigger than my last one but I don't like what I see. I really don't like Korilia's because they are really cheaply made and get covered in growth to fast. I like the Gyre's but they are all programmable and I don't want to or have no idea why you would want to program a pump. I want to plug it in and it goes on and lasts for 25 years with no maintenance so I can leave it alone and go to the Caribbean or Tahiti and not think about it. My original pumps were like that and were not made in China. I have 4 or 5 Korilias and I am tired of cleaning them. I only have 2 of my original pumps still working and I think they still sell them so I may get another but I would like more flow.

I think I will have to look into antiques some place to get what I want.

This one connected to my vintage surface skimmer is probably over 30 years old and after running 24/7 all those years still works flawlessly.

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