Adventures in Fishkeeping or A Fish Tale

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Apr 2, 2002
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And now for something completely different.

I watch/listen to baseball. Mostly to NY Yankee games. The past 4 games were against the Seattle Mariners. In one of these games the Seattle batter coming to the plate was Ty France. The Yankees had just brought in a relief pitcher named Zak Britton. And the announcer said, "Britton is pitching to France."
 

fishorama

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Jun 28, 2006
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Spam, spam, spam! LOL, very cute!

My husband was so happy to see Philly beat the Mets 3 x this week on our tv. We still have a touch of Yankee hate from our Boston years. I'm not too much of a baseball watcher but a Phillies phan more so than other teams.
 
Apr 2, 2002
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I cannot find enough time to post in this thread. I am busy working on selling fish and keeping up 26 tanks I now have. And they are spawning still. My super white 236 are now in power mode. That means they are like a factory with regular spawns. i see lots of fry when I do wcs and I flashlight caves regularly,

We have been getting some good rainstorms this summer and even in the spring and the fish are doing what that means.

I am bummed. I lost one of my 4 largest clown loaches this year. I got a call from a gent from whom I bought a couple of big ones last year. He has two for sale at about 10 inches, the price was good and I wanted them, but I turned him down. He is close by too. I may have to reconsider. But I cannot Q them. Just what I need, more fish.

I have sold 7 of my largest F! 173 to a gent in Boston. He is coming here to pick them up in about 2 weeks. He bough 4 altums from the same breeder from whom my recent purchase came. I am taking his 4 altums in trade as partial payment. They are a lesser quality Altum, but still very nice. *sigh* Somebody shoot me, please.........

The harder I try to let fish go out, the more I seem to get. There is something wrong with this picture.........
 
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fishorama

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Jun 28, 2006
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SF Bay area, CA
You know I'm an fish enabler. If the loaches have been in a tank with no new additions in quite a while I think I might risk no QT. He may have had them a long time...Maybe he'd like some plecos too, lol, so you could get the loaches & some more cash too.

Will you be able to QT the altums? I know you lost 1 or 2 this year & "need" more for your group.
 
Apr 2, 2002
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I did not Q the 9 altums I got. At this time O cannot Q- no space. But with the clowns I would need a big Q. 10 inch clowns need space. I know the breeder of the Altums and I put those 9 little guys into the tank with the last surviving adult and lone rummynose.

The 4 new ones coming in trade are from a gent who already has 5 of my L173 and is buying more. He also keeps zebras. I realize this is not risk a risk free thing to do, but if i must skip Q, I will only do so when I am a sure as I can be that is will be safe. Nothing is perfect and I know this too.

The reason I said no is that I am trying to downsize not the reverse. I have 26 tanks going and 6 are full of fish for sale and outdoors. They have to be empty in the near future. I am going as fast as i can to make that happen. But I chose to work with pricey fish and that means the universe of potential buyers is fairly limited.

One of the best quality breeding operations for rare Hypancistrus is in Indonesia. They breed the 173 among other fish. For their top quality 173 at a smaller size (3 - 3,3 cm or about 1.5 inch) the price is $500/fish and you must buy 50. You will pay about another $1,200 to get them into the country . Even the smaller size lesser quality ones at that size were on sale (30% off) for $210 for a box of 50. A 3.35 inch fish they sell for $320 (not top grade).

I am selling my fish for less than the above numbers. So you can import 50 top grade fish for for about $26k or if you just want 5 I had listed 5 of these at 2.25 - 2.75 inch TL on Planetcatfish for $1,200. For that you also get a bonus 6th fish at about 1.5 - 1.75 and I will also donate $120 of the proceeds to PC. They sold pretty fast. Plus I post pics of the exact fish one will receive, it is not a box filled with fish one has never seen until they arrive. So you tell me, am I greedy?

I sell quality hard to find fish for less than they can be bought wholesale. I donate some of the proceeds to help support a site or org. which has been an asset to hobbyists for decades. Here is a clue as to what it takes me to be able to do this. I spent years learning about keeping fish. I spent money for tanks, filters etc etc. to house the fish. This doesn't include the time involved. But the real cost is the fish themselves. These can cost anywhere from $400 - $1,000 each depending on rarity and size.

Bear in mind that if you buy such fish there is no guarantee none will die or that they will spawn for you. So, imo, if one puts out thousands of dollars for fish, you are entitled to get a fair price for the offspring should you get them.

This is not meant as an advert for what I do or a solicitation to buy my fish. I would post some on AC but they are not the sort of fish most of the members here keep. I posted on this site asking if anybody wanted me to list my fish for sale here and got 0 requests. So I am not listing them on AC.

I am a sucker for the black and white Hypans. It is my weakness. I keep all sorts of fish. I have plenty of fish for which I spent under a dollar wholesale or imported. I happened to be lucky in whom I know and have been able to piggy back orders and get the whole box price for just a part of the of the total fish in the box. I have bought fish retail as well.

IMO, two of the cutest things one might see in a fresh water tank are newly free swimming corys or plecos.

 
Apr 2, 2002
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New York
That was an AquaDine wafer. It is a small sized wafer and pricey. I dropped it into the tank having set up the camera to take that pick as soon as they came out to eat. I never ordered more once they were gone. I preferred frozen Cyclop-eeze, which is also now gone as the lake from which they came crashed. I got the wafers along with their parents.

I am wondering how many who might read this have ever seen the 1980 film, "The Gods Must Be Crazy" I saw it in a theater and it is on my list of favorite moves. You can still see it today. I mention it because it keeps popping into my head like a song you can't get out of your head.

I am overrun with rare plecos I chose to keep and spawn. I am also wanting to greatly reduce my stocking as I am getting too old. I am fairly regular at monitoring my tanks and checking caves. I just began my first cave checking in a tank where I don''t get many spawns and the first cave into which I looked, there was a dad on eggs. I already was aware of 4 dads for sure and a couple more i suspect but cannot confirm because they won't let me see and the caves are a tight fit.

The gods must be crazy. At least the fish gods must be...........
 
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