Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

[Paul B]

I don't have to much to report today except that I volunteered at the Long Island Aquarium yesterday (Atlantis)
It was my first day volunteering. First they had me washing the sharks, then I painted murals on the sea turtles. OK, I didn't do any of that. I did have to stand by the sting ray pool and tell the two year olds how to feed the rays. The rays have this weird nose apparatus that all the kids insist on putting the food. But that just makes the Rays sneeze as their mouth is way down under their body. That was fun.

Then I was at the touch tank where the little kids can touch the "sea stars" (we can't call them starfish any more because the starfish complain that it is not PC because as they are not fish)
It was a Wednesday so only two kids came over to touch anything and they were both to scared to stich their hands in the water.

After that I stood for an hour in a corridor doing nothing, but it was great because there was a bench there and I have to rest my aluminum knee occasionally. I was supposed to tell the people how they rescue turtles and sea lions for rehabilitation so they can be released to the sea. They have a full hospital now as about 200 cold stunned turtles were found and saved.

The bird exhibit was not for me. The birds squalk to much and I have tinnitus from Nam so I can't take that high pitched noise (It feels like Philip screwdrivers pushed through my head) so they put me in the butterfly and bug room. I liked that as it was quiet. Butterflies may make noise but if they do, I couldn't hear them. No one was in there but me and the beautiful butterflies. I just had to move the butterflies off the walkway and pick up the ones that croaked. They only live a week or so, so they drop like flies, or butterflies.

Then it was off to the shark tank where I learned that the smaller nurse shark, which is about 5' belonged to Tracy Morgan from SNL. He got it from those guys on that show "Tanked" who thought it would be a good idea to put a nurse shark in a home aquarium. They get like 10' long.

So it was fun and I will go there again when I get some time.

 

[diana a]

Ha! Starfish complaining...not PC...PC has really gotten out of hand these days.
It's great they rescue animals. That's a lot of turtles at one shot.

 

[Paul B]

I was amazed they rescued that many

 

[Paul B]

I just fed my tank and unfortunately I have nothing to write. I wish something would have a spot or a black area, sucking air from the surface, tumor, strange growth from it's ear, Carpal tunnel syndrome, irritable bowel disease, something. But I got nothing. My mandarins are still fat and doing what they do. Burping. The 3 pipefish are still having pipe dreams and they seem very healthy. The anemone crabs are doing anemone stuff, filtering stuff out of the water. The water seems fine, the algae isn't growing over the corals, the cyano is just a tiny bit, the snails are bored to death and the pods must be partying, as I can just about hear the music.

I also fed my whiteworms today. They eat a slice of whole wheat bread with yogurt every week and they also seem fine as they re-produce quite a lot. They probably learned from my Fireclowns that breed like Kangaroos.

Maybe one of them will get mononucleosis soon so I have something, anything to report. ​

 

[Paul B]

Tomorrow I have an emergency visit with my knee doctor. At this point I am supposed to be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, or at least walk around a Hardware store looking for a nose ring. But after about 50 yards, the thing locks up and I start walking like Neil Armstrong on the moon, and that was way before Michael Jackson invented Moon Walking.

I think maybe he left a loose toggle bolt or put the thing in backwards because I can walk backwards pretty good.

I hope he doesn't have to tear the thing out because I think he threw away my old knee so he can't put that one back.
I have a Caribbean trip coming up soon and I need two knees to dive. If you dive with only one knee working, you tend to swim in circles. ​

 

[diana a]

Good luck tomorrow!

 

[Paul B]

I just came back from the Knee guy and it seems only 1 or 2% of his patients get this. Guess which percent I am?

He said it is rare and I got a bad case of it. Thats Great!!!.
I wanted to be in the One percent with this.

It seems that a ligament that runs along side your knee is rubbing up against the titanium implant and it doesn't like it so it is irritated. So am I.

Now I have to take this heavy duty steroid and one of the side effects is Knee pain. You can't make this stuff up.

Then I have to go for knee injections. I thought the reason for getting a knee replacement was so you don't have to get any more knee injections.

But I guess this time the needle is filled with WD-40.

 

[diana a]

ouch. So sorry to hear

 

[Paul B]

I should have done this myself because this is what happens when you hire someone. If you want it done right, you should do it yourself.
The only reason I didn't do that is that I need two hands to use the saw to cut out my old knee and I also need two hands to put my fingers in my ears because my screaming may scare me.
I also would have installed a grease fitting and maybe an adjustment screw. I would have gotten a good American made adjustment screw and not one from Home Depot where their screws come from China and are made out of old I Phone 3s.

 

[Paul B]

We are in this new home and our tastes changed a lot since we were young during the Cretaceous period. We always had modern. I wanted my house to look like the StarShip Enterprise. I already look like Capt. Picard so what the heck.
But now we are going for more industrial/Steampunk.

We were looking for an vintage factory window for my wife's bathroom and we just received it. The frame is in very bad shape but I will not replace it as I am looking for that. I need to stabilize it so it doesn't fall apart as it is even hard to pick up because pieces fall off. The wood that doesn't fall off is cracked so much like an alligator that one neighbor ran away as I was carrying it in.

It has some design etchings in it and the center pulls open. I will install it in the room with LED strips behind it.

I am painging the frame black but I "alligatored" the paint on the frame so it still looks very old. I did some test pieces of wood to see what looks best. I don't want it to look like it was just painted but I also can't use the existing frame color which is sort of like the bottom of Columbus boat. It just doesn't go but they thing should look very cool.

This side of the frame is the "Good side"

 

[Paul B]

Yesterday we went to the City to see the Grand Kids. That was uneventful, but when we got home My package arrived. It was a strip LED light for over my kitchen cabinets. (not everything is for fish tanks)
I ran the electric up there a few days ago (I know an electrician )

So I installed the thing and it really looks beautiful. It can change colors and also makes a nice night light when we watch Re runs of
the Sonny and Cher show.

Anyway, as we were watching Siren on TV (very cool show about Mermaids) my wife asked me to put it louder which I did.
The over the cabinet LEDs changed from white to blue. I did it again and they went to red. Every time I change the volume on the TV, the light changes color. This is very weird especially because to change the color with the supplied LED remote, you have to aim the thing at the light. But I have to aim the volume adjuster at the TV and the color changes.
I didn't go downstairs but maybe the fish tank is also changing colors, if it is, my fish will get PTSD

Now what do I do?

 

[Paul B]

I just finished my new motorized Steam Punk lamp. It has a "fire" inside and when you turn the valve handles, it winds the mechanism on the Grand Fathers clock and spins the gears and tiny bicycle chain for about 5 minutes. The right valve handle moves the gong hammer. It can be dimmed.

Video

 

[diana a]

very cool

 

[Paul B]

So I went away for 2 days and last night after I came home I found my male Mandarin dead. This is very unusual because I never find a dead fish and my fish don't get sick. I "think" I saw him eating a few days ago but I didn't notice anything weird with him as he was full bodied and smiled a lot.
I did notice that he hasn't paid any attention to the really good looking female mandarin in a few months.
I also have not used my Mandarin feeder since I moved here 8 months ago because I just have not had time to set up my brine shrimp hatchery. But he was not thin at all so I don't think I needed it and there are bluestripe pipefish and a scooter bleeny that are also fat and fine after a few years.

I am not sure how long Mandarins live and I don't remember when I got this one so it could have been ten years or more ago. He outlived two females, one died from being egg bound and I think the other one jumped out. Maybe he broke her heart. I do have a lousy memory and have not kept a log book in decades. He was dead to long to do a necropsy but I am sure it would not show anything.

Normally when other fish die of old age, they stop eating for a few days and hide a lot. He was not eaten by bristle worms but Mandarins have a thick slime that keeps other fish from eating them and maybe bristle worms don't find them tasty. I have bristle worms that could finish off a halibut in a few hours.
​

 

[diana a]

I am so sorry. When I opened your thread and saw the Mandarin, I said to myself before reading what you posted...that is a beautiful fish...btw I have never thought that of any fish

 

[Paul B]

Services will be held at "Mandarins Only Funeral Home" at 6:00pm in the back of the New York Aquarium.
He will be interred in the Long Island Sewer system with all the appropriate honors of a fish with such distinction. He was a faithful and loyal friend.

 

[Paul B]

I have been feeding an awful lot since I moved and now my nitrates creeped up to about 20, which is fine. Before I moved here I built a Sulphur denitrator just for an experiment but I never used it. It is a cool looking thing and I think, if I get time I will fire it up as an experiment.
I love to experiment. I live near the sea and can easily change as much water as I like especially now when the sea is full of ice bergs.

I built this thing out of some sort of reactor, calcium I think. I couldn't install it sooner because my tank had no measurable nitrates. Now I have been feeding this stuff (I forget what it is) but it is red and mushy. I use it for my pipefish and anthius that don't eat larger food. The corals also seem to eat it. But it makes a mess and just this week I started rinsing off the "juices" from the stuff.

I think it is the cause of my fast nitrate spike. The nitrates are good because now, I can try to lower them with this thing. Or, of course, it may crash my tank and I will have to dump out all my dead fish and use the tank for duck billed platypuses.

​

 

[Paul B]

A little while ago I took out my bicycle. I am supposed to ride the thing to exercise the knee, and the rest of me. I used to swim 3 times a week then after a few silly, but manly surgeries I had to give up swimming. Now I can do it again, but it is 20 degrees and my boat is in a snow drift.
So I rode the bike for about a mile or so and it was much easier than I thought. Then I noticed it was mostly down hill. Coming back was another story and I was straining to get back. My ears were also getting frostbite. So I was peddling and peddling, working harder and harder and I thought I was going to get a heart attack. If my lips were bigger I would have put them over my nose and given myself CPR.
Since my knee operation I haven't exercised to much and I need to get back into shape so I can resume my job as a Male model.
If my bicycle would have fit in an ambulance I would have called 911.
But I made it back. Sat down and had a nice glass of Grand Marnier and a piece of dark chocolate just for medicinal purposes of course.

 

[Mark_C]

Paul,

As a doc I recalled a paper on workout recovery posted a few years back.
Managed to dig it up...

 

[Sponge]

Paul.
You are hilarious. I could read your posts all day. You have a particularly sharp Witt that I find interesting and funny to read. Just felt I should let you know I appreciate all the sharing you do. Thank you and hope you feel better