Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

[Paul B]

I fixed my ozonizer. I probably should not have tested it by putting the outlet hose in my nose but it is fixed. An instant headache proves that it works and the fact that I almost had to call the EMS with the paddles proves that it works great.
Yesterday I fed my fish and I heard a big splash. My banana fish jumped into the algae trough, then back into the tank, then out of the tank on to my foot then on the floor. Then as I was trying to catch him he went left, I went left, he went right, I went right. I didn't have any music playing but I would swear he was doing the macarana. I finally caught him and threw him back in the tank. Now he is sitting there with a big smirk on his face and is eating like a pic as if this happens to him every day. He thinks he is a big shot now.

 

[Paul B]

This is the first time in decades that I don't have a Hippo Tang in my tank. I also don't have any percula clownfish. I just don't like percula's and have had to many of them. Besides my fireclown would chase it out of the tank. I do like hippo tangs but after a few years in my tank they always get HLLE and look like dirt. They live forever but always get that after 5 or 6 years. I gave up carbon a few years ago and that is one out of a hundred theories about what is the cause of HLLE so maybe the next time I go to a LFS I will get one. I now see loads of them as large as a guarter or smaller and I like to get fish as babies. I think hippo's, copperbands and moorish Idols are the three nicest looking fish there is. Lately I have been in a pipefish mode and have a few of those, Also for the last 15 years or so I have been going for more interesting, smaller fish. I don't particularly like tangs or angels (except for hippo's) If I see a shrimpfish, clingfish, lanternfish, or pinecone fish I have to have it but you rarely see those.

 

[Juano908]

Paul I love copperbands too, have had one but no luck, I was never able to get him to eat.....I'd like to get another when my new setup is done but I'm afraid same thing happened again......beautiful pic of your by the way.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S5

 

[Paul B]

I looked back at a book I started (and will never finish writing) in 1971 and at that time, or a couple of years later I started keeping copperbands. They are a great fish with a lot of personality. But if I could not get live blackworms, I would not keep one.
Here is a video of the one I have now.

 

[Paul B]

Today I went to my favorite LFS to see if they got in a female dragon faced pipefish but no luck yet. I want to spawn mine and he looks depressed. On sunday they are supposed to get in 4 corythoichtys which are very cool but have a weird name. They are pipefish that look similar to dragon face pipefish so if they get in a pair, I will get them. You need to buy pipefish right out of the shippers bags because if they go into the store's tank for a day, forget about it as stores never feed them. You need to hatch brine shrimp for that and in a store that ain't gonna happen. I think my blue stripes will breed soon and they are always my favorite. There was a pair of those at the LFS today but I can't put in 2 pairs as the males fight. The females just gossip and talk about stretch marks and cellulite.

 

[mrehfeld]

He needs a couple of supermodels

 

[Paul B]

I love pipefish

 

[Paul B]

When I get time I need to build a much larger brine shrimp hatchery, the one I have can't take the volume as it was built a long time ago for one mandarin. I still have the hatchery/auto feeder for vacations which continousely hatches how many I want but it will only work well for a week or so. Now I still need a vacation feeder to feed live blackworms which is a little more difficult but not insurmountable. If I can make that, I would not need a tank sitter any more.

 

[Paul B]

You can see 3 of the 5 pipefish here

And helping PopPop feed worms.

And vacation hatchery and feeder.

Just because I can

 

[Paul B]

I took some pictures.

 

[Paul B]

I just realized that I can't properly maintain my tank now that I have so many pipefish. Normally once a year I stir up the substrait where I can reach and suck out everything with a diatom filter but I can't do that with the pipefish, especially the blue stripe pipefish as they never live through that. I assume their tiny gills get clogged as I have always lost them when I make those needed typhoons. I will have to forego the typhoons as long as I have the five pipefish and see how it goes. The tank is running very well with the corals growing nicely so there is no rush to do any maintenance even though I think it has been well over a year since I did any. I can tell when a typhoon is needed and so far all is well.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Maybe you could give them a vacation for a few hours/days by moving them to another tank?

 

[Paul B]

Good luck catching them in there.

 

[JRWOHLER]

I figured you would have a sweepstakes with supermodels that they would try to enter.

 

[Paul B]

A friend of mine is giving me 4 local pipefish that he collected in the summer and has them in a bucket. He says they eat flake food which is something I have never seen before. I don't have a lot of luck with local pipefish but I will throw them in my tank and hope they get used to eating new borm brine shrimp as I don't have flake food.

 

[Paul B]

I have been collecting pipefish in New York all my life but these seem different. A friend of mine collected these on the south shore of Long Island and he kept them in a bucket for over a month. He gave them to me because my tank is set up for pipefish already and he didn't think they would make it in his tank with his powerheads. I have them in a small tank just to see how they eat and they are sucking down new born brine shrimp as fast as I can hatch them. After they fatten up a little on shrimp, I will put them in my reef. Probably in a day or two. The ones I collect look different and I never had luck with them so I hope these four make it.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Pretty cool lil buggers. Good luck with them Paul!

 

[Paul B]

My pictures never come out well because I don't do photoshop so my pictures are what my tank looks like. I know many people "enhance" the colors of their corals because from many years of SCUBA diving I know what colors corals are and very few of them are neon, fluorescent colored. Some are fairly colorful but we have all seen pictures of tanks that look like Disney movies such as the Little Mermaid. (I love that movie)
My tank is doing very well and I never seem to have problems, I am not sure why. I am also not sure why so many people have so many problems. Maybe after so many years a tank just knows what it is supposed to do. Maybe it's the reverse UG filter or the retired Supermodels that I have come over to help me take care of the tank. (I wish)
I have been writing a book because I am sure in a few years I will start to forget everything and since I started this just when the salt water hobby started, I want to pass on some of that information.
Also my wife of 41 years has MS so I am not sure what the future brings or how long I will be able to take care of the tank as I will have other, more important tasks to do.
Most of my fish are still spawning, my worm keeping device is working well as is my brine shrimp hatchery that I use every day. The flock of pipefish I have are all doing well and they are the most challenging. The rest of the fish can take care of themselves and if they could reach the freezer door, I wouldn't even have to feed them. This week I changed 25 gallons of water, that is the most water I have ever changed at once. I changed that much because I dropped to much salt in the bucket so I had to add water. The corals didn't mind.

 

[Paul B]

Just hanging out at his feeder.

 

[Paul B]

I got another torch today, I couldn't help myself