Hello!
My name is Joshua, I was born in Brooklyn, NY near Brighton Beach, and moved to NJ when I was 14. But even in the concrete jungle, I would make my way to Coney Island and Brighton Beach, don my mask and snorkel and watch/catch hermit crabs, catch/eat blue claws (probably not the cleanest source) and spend my summers wandering around upstate NY, the Delaware water gap, and PA. We moved to Atlantic Highlands literally because my Dad saw a striper article in a fishing mag mentioning Sandy Hook. It was great, Monmouth county really showed me why they call NJ the garden state, and except for a bit of a culture shock for 14 yo me in a new High School, I loved it. I had the woods, a clean source of blue claws, and plenty of space to wander...
I always loved animals in general, I have a degree in Biology from NJIT/RUTGERS, and I work for an environmental/chemical engineering firm doing clean-ups via the SRP (Site Remediation Program) via the EPA & NJDEP. Needless to say, work is
a-plenty in NJ...
I have had ferrets, dogs, cats, birds, turtles, and of course, a fish tank. I always loved SW tanks, and seeing Amano's planted tanks really flipped my lid; but they seemed to much to get into, out of my reach, both monetarily and time wise. But, now, out of school and working, the tides have changed, no pun intended....
About 3 months ago, I lucked out even further, as someone whose visa had run up was selling his 40 gallon tank on Ebay, and he happened to be from NJ... and I have a great old friend who has been mentoring me through the first few months of "learning on the job".
I have a few colonies of 6/7 different types of palys/zoas, Whamming Watermelons, Nuclear Green Paly's and 5 or 6 other types with weird funny names, I have some corals I don't the name of (yet...), a clownfish pair, 1 damselfish, a peppermint shrimp, a watcher goby and his buddy, nausicans or whatever the white walker version of a snail is called lol, and a couple large snail, a brittle starfish, hermit crabs, a red shrimp isopods, a sea cucumber and maybe by next week I'll have some other creature I had no idea lived in my tank.
I could go on forever, but I'm leaving home from work now, when I get there I suppose I'll continue in a tale of my tank.
I look forward to being part of a like-minded community!
welcome man