Discussion - When you first....

Niko, last night I was trying to type nearly my whole history in the hobby from day one, when back in 1944-45 I won a goldfish bowl which started me off. But after trying to type it, I took to understand you that you not wanted any history facts, but just what we thought we gotten out of the hobby itself. At first, I not known what was to be expected from it, but later on I became a crazed person in the hobby, and I loved it ever sense I won that goldfish bowl which I won at some fair grounds.

Buddy
 
Buddy, as vast as your aquatic history is, i would love to hear it all ( or rather read, you know what i mean )...If you feel up to typing it all, then go for it...it would make a superb read...
 
Reefscape said:
......entered in to the hobby of marine fish keeping, what did you expect to get back out of the hobby?

Is it what you expected it too be?

What were your aspirations for your very first marine tank, and did it turn out the way you had planned it too?
Click to expand...
Me entering the hobby actually had nothing to do with wanting to keep marine fish initially....my tank is a tribute of sorts to my late brother, since it was his. I thought it would be kinda cool to set it back up since it had been torn apart for many years. Once I started researching and visiting my LFS, I was hooked by the colors and variety of the fish. I didn't expect too much out of the hobby, only the hope that my tank would look as good as I remember it did when he had it.
My tank is now to the point where I can say that I enjoy watching it as much as I did fifteen years ago. I love the purple and green rocks and watching the fish dart through them...it is incredibly relaxing. I really have gotten more out of this than I ever thought I would-like someone else wrote, it's my own little piece of the reef (well, without the corals :D ) and it is very special to my family and I because of it's history.
Robbie
 
OK, I will try to type it, i wish I had grims who was to assist me in my blog to help edit my poor grammar due too the problems I have, like the other day, I sent a email to my daughter and I had extreme problems in saying precisely what I really wanted to say, she had some difficulties and im really better off if I could talk to the other person, other then trying to type my words. My problem in this goes back to the Korean War and my mind seems to forget at times what im doing at certain moments, my mind drifts and its feels like im stun for a moment when trying to remember exactly what I was trying to say. Its no different now, even during the time in typing this message, it happens.

And sense I not will have the help from Grims to help me edit my log/blog thread, I will just then have to keep it as short and sweet as I can. As is, my physical problem in this changes from time to time, it seems that I cannot put my mind through so much thoughts/thinking, it causes my mind stress and is why the problem be what it be. I ran one day into a old marine buddy from my unit and he too been having the same problem as I. So you might understand just how bad my mind drifts on me, it took me nearly one half hour to typed this paragraph. In this drift as im saying it is, my mind seems to go blank for the moment, and then it takes me a little while to regroup my thoughts, I become lost for a short while when this happens.

As is, I take three type of medications, one is for my high blood pressure and the others are for arthritis and stress, so im a bit mess up I guess, lol Like one time, my blood pressure was 170 over 90, yes, I lived. What is a good thing for me is that my lungs and heart are strong, at lease it is according to my doctor, I even gone through a stress test where im laying down, and they hook me up with some injection and this was about 6-7 years ago. I a follow up coming in June, I will ask my doctor for this test again, its been a while, I need to know and understand where my limits are due too the my grandchildren. My blood pressure medication was upgraded a good deal a few years ago. the old medicine cost me under $15, today it runs me $70, each month.

This message I began typing last night, and just finished to where it is , this afternoon, at times I feel this problem has became much worst then its been in years. So if worst comes to worst, when I start my on line log for the 240 gal reef tank, I will do little to no typing at all. Only dates when I bought a coral or fish, and their updates and such, and i will be keeping a personal log as well, of course other things such as water quality and equipment and maintenance.

Buddy

I still can manage on my own:dance:
 
I am going to be honest and admit to having seen "THE" film with my two small children and thinking i could give them the dentist's aquarium in our own house,:banhim: so i set about finding Nemo and did a lot of research on Ebay to make sure i got a good deal then as luck would have it I won a hobby tank for just less than £300 complete with fish live rock filter and powerheads.
I enlisted a fishy friend who kept trops to help with collection and set off for a 80 mile return journey.
On arriving at at the sellers house we were greeted by an old drunk man (it was 1030am on a bank holiday morning !) who was shouting obscenities at a young man and an elderly woman, on letting us into the house he threw his empty can out onto the front lawn/dirt and announced he was off to get some F#@~i@g more as he couldn't help in his condition lol.
The tank was filthy the floor was wet and everything was already packaged in bags and polystyrene transport boxes with the water in 5gallon containers, I felt I'd been done but it was to late to back out and i knew they would all be better off with me and my limited knowledge than being left behind so we loaded it all up, i had great hopes..

I spent all of the afternoon cleaning the tank,equipment which i thought was a lot of time, but I am through, then positioned the cabinet and tank filled it with the water let the dust settle put in the rocks (three times) then the fish.

It all looked fantastic, friends where coming for tea and the whole conversation revolved around the tank,I was as proud as punch.

This was just the beginning as three days later the tank split and at 1100pm we heard the first drops of water hitting the floor and by the time i had stopped cursing we were paddling,:swear: we kept the fish over night in a 2 gallon plastic tank with a heater and a small piece of live rock.
The fish at that time were:-
2x common Clowns (still have)
2x Yellow Tailed Damsels
1x scotter Blenny
1x Splendid Leopard Wrasse
2x Blue leg hermits
1x crab
After a call to work in the morning to excuse myself for the day i set off in search of a tank bringing back a Rio 180 and a cut piece of board to go on top of the old cabinet to save on the cost of a new cupboard and a verbal off the less than now impressed wife who was still mopping up water from our now non working electric floor.
As we filled the new tank it became very obvious i had not got enough water to get the filter or powerheads working, so i set back off to buy some as quick as i could as the fish had been in the 2 gallon for over 12 hours by now without filtration or water movement.

I chose i shortcut back to the lfs for added speed and rounding a corner found a set of temporary traffic lights at some unexpected roadworks on hitting the brakes hard I watched as the child seat that was now in the front having been removed from the back to make room for the new tank flew in slow motion into the front windscreen smashing it from the inside out (oh joy) :mad2: undeterred i carried on and got the tank up and running just before calling my car insurance for a replacement window at only £80 excess.

If the first week was tough, stressful or even draining on the finances the 5 years since have been a steep learning curve on which i have learnt a great deal and made some fantastic friends both online and in shop, as for my expectations, I'm not sure after the 3rd day whether i had any, my main concern was then and more so now, keeping everyone and thing alive best i can.

I still get a huge buzz from seeing friends faces when they see the tank/aquarium and ask " are they easy to keep?" to which i reply yes their not too bad! :lipssealedsmilie: Having spent the previous night doing a water change, tests, glass cleaning, rinsing one external, replacing rowaphos, etc, etc, etc..so that it looked it's best :perv:

I have enjoyed my small piece of ocean a great deal and today secured its future funding after work which looked less than promising for a while took a turn for the better, so all's good, as for is it what i wanted or expected well no, it's not, but then who doesn't want a bigger more colorful one or just one more fish...........:headbang2:
 
Now we will see why grims was going to assist me in editing my blog log>

OH-Boy, How does one tell of their history during their marine hobby? It would be however much more easier if I spent but only a few years or so, but decades of doing the hobby is something else. Of course, my day will end in time, but not to soon from now, I still however would like to enjoy my grandchildren and watch them grow and become somebody.

My start in the hobby, was nothing short of by chance, for just before turning eight, I won a goldfish bowl at some fair ground. Sure, the goldfish died and got another but it some how touched off a long lasting carrier such as i not dreamed or thought of, and im not talking about a paying job.

Much before i turn nine, i had my first freshwater tank, im not so sure of what size it was, but being a small kid, it looked to be larger, but either 20 or 30 gals. I not done well in the first year, I lost so many fish I lost count, but soon after my parents talk to me that the tank will have to go if I couldn't manage to keep the fish alive, this im afraid caused me some great concern, for i not known why, but I just knew that I had to keep this tank. Also my father had made me a type of agreement, for I wanted those brighter color looking fishes as well.

He told me that if I shown that I could keep the fishes alive and keep better water, that he would get for me a saltwater tank, nobody much back then called it a marine tank. So at nine of age, at X-mas time, I gotten what I think was a 55 gal tank, there were not any skimmers back then, if there were, i not knew about it.

Anyway, I had to better myself, was to go to the lfs after school was out and i stood around there listening and watching what each of the store workers did or say. And as it went on, I began to taking notes and soon enough learn that they are not spoken the same information to everyone.

I became aware of those who I could trust for some opinion to where others I wouldn't ask anything at all, to which is about the way it is today. And do take into account that their were no Internet or books, some books, but they told you nothing to what you wanted to personally learn about. So like one member here at AC asked me if I not done what he wanted to do, try and watch for the results, and i told him he not have to test it out to what if it would work or not, because today his others who has the knowledge to what he wanted to do.

The best thing here at AC is, people look to really help the other who is seeking certain knowledge, like in the past day in the freshwater forum on a type of eel one wanted to get for his 55, others in other links who protrays themselves as a professional hobbyist/expert, that person turns to bashing the beginner/novice hobbyist for his or her persistence in wanting to still do what the first started out saying. I mean like after all, others learn nothing if others are simply bashing them for their lack of knowledge.

In three other forum links, twice in RC and another link which isn't around anymore, I twice requested that they both revoke my membership and the link that is no more, email me asking that I return, but they were rude people and as well, many of their members were as well.

Sorry for getting off the topic a little, sue me, LOL

Anyway, I gotten my first marine tank back in the year 1947 and I mostly for the first year or so, kept damsels, crowns or so and at the age of ten, I gotten a SFE, and things really began to change after that. It was maybe not even two years later that I changed in the sfe to get a goldentail moray. the goldentail eel was the first and last eel I lost due to any reason of my own mis-doing, it went carpet surfing.

Lets now jump a bit into my mid teen years, at the age of 16, I setup a larger tank, was supposed to been a 240, I gotten then the Tesselata Moray in which if today I wanted this eel again, the tank would have to be not smaller then 2,500 gals. I had this eel I think it was for 8-9 years, and it still had growing to do. Info back in those days wasn't reliable at all, for you need to understand that the eels fresh cannot outgrow the eels skeleton structure. Later, I donated the eel to a city aquarium zoo.

In any case of all this, I became aware with myself that I had a great passion for eels and in the next few years, I began a plan for a project to have a number of tanks, I not knew just how many, but i knew for sure that it was to be more then 3-4 tanks in total. In short, just for housing eels, I had seven tanks in all just for eels, and I had a few others with F/O and corals, but corals really didn't come in the picture until I was 25 I think. Also in the early stages of these tanks, I had three 55 gal tanks, just to run tab water through with carbon and water conditioners to what was then available. I not remember how long that went on like that, but when the first skimmer came out, I not stop the idea in what I was doing within the three 55 gal tanks.

I will however be extremely horrible in giving any exact dates, as is, these days i forget things from one week to the next, but not everything. As the years gone by, I had seven tanks to where i first started with six tanks for housing only eels and i had two other tanks with FO. Later was added a 125 gal reef tank.

The idea in those tanks for the eels was that I couldn't keep so many together in so closed up system, as is, the differences in sizes and aggression. As well, there some eels in which contains a toxic mucus and they I had to keep it by it self. So the idea came to be was that I turned in some eels where as I had for not less then three years and I had little to no interest in them, then I had many connections with city aquarium zoos around the country who might been interested in having the animal.

Not all the eels I look to exchange after three years, a number of eels I kept for 7-8 years, and these were the species that I gained much interest in. So I done this idea in the hobby for about 30 years and while I was still having a number of eels, I later as well began another idea, it was a 2500+ gal tank, that I housed depending on the temperature I had to maintain, a variety of small sharks and sting rays species. Here too, I sold and donated to city aquariums, as well I sold to private aquarium owners as well, but only if they had the required tank size.
Only one time did I gotten a nurse shark, it was for a city zoo aquarium. It was funny in a way that I had back then better resources then most city zoos. One time in RC, I posted about something in this that one place out in Long Island, I sold many blacktips and other sharks to, I not remember the name then, and i not remember it now. But another member at RC knew of the place I was talking about, and he told me that their shark and ray system had crashed and that only one shark survived. I was already at that time, living down here in NC.

The 2500+ system had two large main sumps on both ends of the tank, with a chiller and skimmer and being that I couldn't have much LR in the tank itself, I had a large tank for holding the tanks bio filtration system, I not remember the exact tank size of it, but it was I remember, seven foot long. This system was up and running for I think it was 22-23 years only, I became injured and then after that, I couldn't manage to transport the sharks anymore myself, as well, I had two others who assisted me in this. But for me, the major thing for me was the eels I kept. I not lost a single eel due to any issues many others developed problems due to any number of reasons.

These days, i still get email from others asking about their eels. I remember one who had a spotted moray, even that the eel was a small size yet, in what would be to small a tank for it later. But he not knew why his eel was acting crazy like, trashing around and all. After hear him of his setup, I right away seen that he had far too strong water currents, i told him that he needed to reduce the gph so that he would have a mild currents to where the eel will be most of the time. Like not even two weeks later, he email me back saying to me on how stupid he was to listening to so many others on having as strong a water current he could get.

For me, F/O tanks ended about ten years ago, I have no wish anymore to have simply a F/O tank. Eel only tanks is another matter, they I never could get tired of. But for my starting years, I still after i gained much control in my abilities to maintain the fish I kept, lost but a few. the last number of fishes i kept was a 12" golden pufferfish, and a Queen trigger which I had from the time she was 2", and up to the time she reached the size of 12", she had grown 1" a month. The Queen trigger was also the last fish I treated for ich, she responded extremely well, and the ich cleared up inside of the first 24 hours, but I still done the full treatment time in a QT.

I know that there be many years in between all these projects, but I just remembered another project that i put on hold until my kids were older. I later gotten me a Synanceia verrucosa, this was somewhere around 40 or so years ago.

I as well need to tell you all about something other then what I done in the hobby, as many know, I had a great deal of background knowledge to do within moray eels. Studies on eels were happening more then 100 years ago, you be surprised to know that. Like any number of things I learn are as well from others, mostly others. Now i made a thread on the idea in detailing a topic on the eel, species and detailed data on bodily functions, internal organs and diseases.

I spoken of this to one other who I known to have a great deal of knowledge in the eel, his name is Dr. Marco Lichtenberger. I had a number of discussions with him and everyone of them became more interesting then the first. I later concluded that Marco (Dr. Marco Lichtenberger) happens to be the only person I know who of who knows as much as myself, I even paid him a honor to where if we weren't equals in our knowledge, he as well all most likely surpasses my knowledge on eels, I reached that understanding from our personal discussions.

Marco and myself have the same thoughts and understandings of the toxicity of moray eels must have, a matter a fact, i will later contact him again on certain eel books he was thinking to translate into English.

I was about to say something on the idea of a article on eels, I spoken to Marco of this and everything that I wanted to speak of is in a certain book that he mentioned to me, i not even known about the book being on sale, it was only on sale for a few years, but i guess that because the book is $200, you find that few if any would be of interest for such a book. Being that I learn of this book, it wasn't idealist somehow to write a article of the things I was to mention.

Niko, I began this response to your request prior before I post the last one, I began this one right after you post this thread.

Sorry for all the mispelling there must be :eek:

Buddy
 
I was not able to edit the post to add this :werd:


I left out one little item in this story, after moving down to NC to be near my daughter I began right away the 130 gal tank, and gotten myself a pair of H. Dragon Morays and about 7-8 years ago, we had here in NC a bad ice storm which left us without power for a week, I lost one of the dragon eels due to that, but replaced it right away, I had the pair with the replacement female I think it was for more then 14 years. I later after sold the pair to a zoo. I then later on gotten the idea to have a pair of Ribbon Eels, and this idea hasn't change any at this time.

Buddy
 
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