I took some shots of some of the displays that are around the fish tank to give a backdrop of what people will see in the immediate vicinity of the tank. The first one is directly behind the tank
this is megamunch the animatronic trex very cool, press a button an he roars to life
last night on the way there we caught a very serene sight. Hundreds of birds on the fast melting ice of wascana lake sleeping for the night. Hope my camera was good enough to show it
One very cool thing that happened was this. As I was doing some investigating of this site to see what I was getting myself into, I got a very clear sensing from the amount of stuff that is there that there must have been a very knowledgeable keeper who started this fish journey for the museum because when I opened one closet I found this.
a very well kept collection of tropical fish magazines dating from the mid 40's to early 90's, which told me very clearly that up till the early 90's that the person keeping the tanks was very experienced and very passionate about wildlife.(I will list the magazines later). Then I surmized that for some reason said person ceased to be the keeper and either the person I am replacing laid waste to the whole thing or a series of people did.
When I spoke with the designer about my thoughts, he told me yes there was a avid keeper who passed away very suddenly and the successive keepers started a downhill slide. Man I would have loved to have met the first keeper, he sounded as if he was an icon. He even wrote a great many of the actual descriptives that are on the walls describing the displays. When I asked them about the magazines I was told that they would love for me to have them rather than see them sitting in a cupboard not being used.
Now the task at hand of maintaining this tank for the museum takes on a whole new meaning. Almost like finding a treasured antique car and returning it to it's glory
When I began to break down the tanks that are going to be removed from the fish room, it was like the air went toxic. Both my daughter and I could feel it an itch to the skin and a smell I just cant put my finger on, so I sent my daughter out of the room and masked up to do the job and she got camera happy
here is what was in that tank poor fish
I felt like I was on a archeological dig combined with the feeling of unearthing a tomb.
Taking apart the turtle coffin, I felt like I was doing a csi. What sucks so bad is that I was looking forward to giving this huge old red ear slider a forever home. What I am wondering if you turtle keepers can tell me, is it normal for turtle shell scales to be in the bottom of the tank see pics below.
when I first surveyed the job ahead, I made a decision to push for an agressive clean and overhaul of the fish room, and the museum concurred. So much wrecked aquarium stuff that had just been piled up. Well after 6 hours the room looks like this
tried to get some pics of how outdated some of this stuff was but the test kits alone were 19 years old, I did the tests with my own kits.
So the bichir they have been trying to grow to add to the gar tank has been in an unheated, unfiltered tank for however long its been there. I fixed that by adding a heater and aquahob, but, saddly it seems the bichir has a curve to its spine
and there is this little yellow fish looks kinda like a birchardi if I got the name right but heres a pic if anyone can id
I tried to do a good water change on the gar tank last night but the sump would not activate so gonna get that fixed today, even if I have to carry 100g of buckets through the museum a couple of times this week I will have that water changed 3 times over in the next week.
To finish off with this post, here is a saying that I got from someones sig that perfectly describes the way I see fish keeping:
"Fish keeping isn't a hobby it's a way of life. 2 different types of life form unite, to have one incredible explosion of creativity and love. because one can't live without the other-Edwin G. Auhar" (I hope I got the name right my paper is water smeared)
