Hello, Geezer coming back to this forum. Paul B
- Thread starter Paul B
- Start date
Vinny Kreyling
Premium Member
Tell her Happy Birthday from us all here @ RC.
And-- the deer probably never saw a creature like you in your cold weather garb so it ran away.
And-- the deer probably never saw a creature like you in your cold weather garb so it ran away.
itsjimmystark
New member
Wow this is so nice to seeing your friends around you. I did that too with my kids and wife.last night we had a Christmas/Birthday pajama party. (my birthday is Christmas. We had 22 friends, here are some of them.
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itsjimmystark
New member
Glad to see so many happy souls around! God Bless you all!
I still got some of my test kits that came in boxes too. Don't know if they've turned to tar, haven't used them in almost forever (or I guess since you were middle age).So 2 weeks ago I bought a small urchin. It croaked. Then I bought another one...It croaked. Urchins normally live forever in my tank and this one lived about 12 years.
. . . I rarely test anything, and my test kits are old, so they came in wooden boxes. Most of them, I can't get the reagents out of the bottles because they turned to tar. . .
Hope your wife had a great birthday!
Paul B
Premium Member
On my morning walks in the winter I normally pass this church.
The thing was built right in the middle of George Washington's Presidency. It must have been a very wealthy parish because of one important and historical fact. It is covered in aluminum siding and I had no idea that Home Depot even carried aluminum siding almost 300 years ago.
1791, thats even a few years before I was born.
Maybe George even worshipped there as he didn't have much to do because just a few years prior to that we threw out the British.
They were annoying anyway always walking around with those bright red coats while drinking tea.
The Americans didn't like tea as we preferred coffee or Red Bull and the British didn't like that so they called us savages. The tea was loose, and you had to mix it with hot water that you boiled over whale oil but then you had to pick out all those stringy, soggy tea leaves before you could drink it.
So to spite the British we dumped it all in Boston Harbor and had a big party.
That really got them mad so we forced them all back on their ships by blasting Rap music and sent them back to their Queen and all her unemployed friends who spent all their time dancing the Minuet to the tune "Penny Lane".
But now we had a harbor full of floating tea. (on a side note, thats why even today, all the fish in Boston Harbor are brown)
The tea was tangling up our fishing lines and getting stuck on the snouts of fish like Copper Band butterflies that were the predominant fish there so we had to do something.
The Women in Boston, when they weren't making American flags got together and formed a knitting club.
They made these very fine fishing nets that were then dragged over the surface of the harbor to collect the tea. Then they laid it all out in large sheets to dry in the sun.
Instead of wasting all that tea the Ladies decided to sell it in small batches. One woman was in charge, I think her name was Mrs Lipton. The problem was that it was all tangled up in that fine netting so they delicately cut off the netting leaving a little string hanging off each tiny bundle of tea and thats why today our tea has that little string hanging off of it.
Just a little morning history as I am waiting for my wife to get up.
The thing was built right in the middle of George Washington's Presidency. It must have been a very wealthy parish because of one important and historical fact. It is covered in aluminum siding and I had no idea that Home Depot even carried aluminum siding almost 300 years ago.
1791, thats even a few years before I was born.
Maybe George even worshipped there as he didn't have much to do because just a few years prior to that we threw out the British.
They were annoying anyway always walking around with those bright red coats while drinking tea.
The Americans didn't like tea as we preferred coffee or Red Bull and the British didn't like that so they called us savages. The tea was loose, and you had to mix it with hot water that you boiled over whale oil but then you had to pick out all those stringy, soggy tea leaves before you could drink it.
So to spite the British we dumped it all in Boston Harbor and had a big party.
That really got them mad so we forced them all back on their ships by blasting Rap music and sent them back to their Queen and all her unemployed friends who spent all their time dancing the Minuet to the tune "Penny Lane".
But now we had a harbor full of floating tea. (on a side note, thats why even today, all the fish in Boston Harbor are brown)
The tea was tangling up our fishing lines and getting stuck on the snouts of fish like Copper Band butterflies that were the predominant fish there so we had to do something.
The Women in Boston, when they weren't making American flags got together and formed a knitting club.
They made these very fine fishing nets that were then dragged over the surface of the harbor to collect the tea. Then they laid it all out in large sheets to dry in the sun.
Instead of wasting all that tea the Ladies decided to sell it in small batches. One woman was in charge, I think her name was Mrs Lipton. The problem was that it was all tangled up in that fine netting so they delicately cut off the netting leaving a little string hanging off each tiny bundle of tea and thats why today our tea has that little string hanging off of it.
Just a little morning history as I am waiting for my wife to get up.
Vinny Kreyling
Premium Member
"History according to Paul", not what we learned in school but a good read to be sure.
Paul B
Premium Member
So today I had to go to a pain Management doctor to see if I need another back surgery. I don't.
But while I was there I wanted her to take care of two trigger fingers I have. I already had nine surgeries for trigger fingers because for some stupid reason, I am prone to that.
Maybe it's from all my bungee jumping.
Anyway, to fix this she gives you a shot in the palm of your hand near the affected finger. This feels like you are getting a colonoscopy through your finger and one of the most painful things I have ever done and I had 36 surgeries, kidney stones and broke many of my bones and tore most of the things holding my bones together. I didn't have a sissy job sitting behind a computer while throwing pencils up into the ceiling to see if they would stick in the ceiling tiles.
Being this shot is so painful, first she gives you shots of Novocain, just like a dentist but a dentists chair is more comfortable.
The Novocain shot is more painful then the real shot so before she gives you that, she freezes it.
Her assistant, (who looks like he just got out of high school) came in with the can of freezing stuff and he was reading the can. The doctor said to him "Did you ever do this before?". He said "No".
So I said, then you are not going to do it now. The doctor showed him how to do it anyway because he had to learn on "someone".
She gets this gel stuff and dumps a glob of it on my hand. Thats for the sonogram thing like they do for pregnant Ladies, and it lets her see exactly where she has to put the needle because if she misses, the stuff could come out your ear or some other orifice.
OK, now she knows exactly where to shoot me and she aims the numbing needle at my hand and tells the assistant to freeze my hand in that spot.
Just then, her phone rings. It's tripple A and it turns out she has a flat on her Tesla outside and they need to get in her car. Apparently, Tesla's don't have spare tires or a key and they need your phone or a code to get in.
Still holding the needle centimeters from my palm, she tells the assistant to hold the phone on her ear. While she is speaking to the car guy, she tells the assistant to feeze my hand.
He pulls the trigger and fumbles with the phone and shoots the freeze stuff all over my arm almost giving me frostbite elbow. Everything is frozen except the part on my hand where she is about to stick the needle.
The guy with the car yells, the door didn't open. Now the assistant gets a new can of ice and shoots the right place. My hand and arm was so frozen that Jo Jo Starbuck could have done a triple axel on it.
She sticks the Novocain needle in and the pain was so severe, my wife screamed and so did her cousin who was sitting at home watching Naked and Afraid.
The car guy yells, I can't open the door. She yells back, "I'm with a patient and can't come out".
He says, "I need to go to another job. She says "Wait" and tells me that she has to go outside. But she pulled out the needle before she left so I am sitting there with Ice man.
She comes back and apologizes and gets back to sticking things in me. Now she sticks the thing in my other finger. Same reaction.
Now she fills another, much larger needle which looked more like the baster I use to feed my fish with and tells me "I'm sorry, but this is going to hurt.
I said, "Lets try it on ice man first".
But he was already in Dominoes. She plunges this tire iron in my palm and I tried not to scream to loud because she is kind of young and pretty so I didn't want to look like a Jiboni. But dam, it hurt.
As she pushed in on the plunger, I could feel this fire going all the way to the end of my fingers and I even think some of it went into my big toe.
I drove home with a really swollen hand which was totally numb.
I went to look at my fish to relax me and right in the front of the tank, I see a big dead fish.
I never get a dead fish and don't even know which fish it was. It was a big fish, as large as a watchman goby and had the same markings so I assumed it was my watchman. But he was there smiling at me.
I looked at all my fish, almost 50 of them and can't tell which fish it was. It was kind of half eaten. It may have been something that was in there growing in a cave and I didn't even know I had it.
It was a very weird day.
But while I was there I wanted her to take care of two trigger fingers I have. I already had nine surgeries for trigger fingers because for some stupid reason, I am prone to that.
Maybe it's from all my bungee jumping.
Anyway, to fix this she gives you a shot in the palm of your hand near the affected finger. This feels like you are getting a colonoscopy through your finger and one of the most painful things I have ever done and I had 36 surgeries, kidney stones and broke many of my bones and tore most of the things holding my bones together. I didn't have a sissy job sitting behind a computer while throwing pencils up into the ceiling to see if they would stick in the ceiling tiles.
Being this shot is so painful, first she gives you shots of Novocain, just like a dentist but a dentists chair is more comfortable.
The Novocain shot is more painful then the real shot so before she gives you that, she freezes it.
Her assistant, (who looks like he just got out of high school) came in with the can of freezing stuff and he was reading the can. The doctor said to him "Did you ever do this before?". He said "No".
So I said, then you are not going to do it now. The doctor showed him how to do it anyway because he had to learn on "someone".
She gets this gel stuff and dumps a glob of it on my hand. Thats for the sonogram thing like they do for pregnant Ladies, and it lets her see exactly where she has to put the needle because if she misses, the stuff could come out your ear or some other orifice.
OK, now she knows exactly where to shoot me and she aims the numbing needle at my hand and tells the assistant to freeze my hand in that spot.
Just then, her phone rings. It's tripple A and it turns out she has a flat on her Tesla outside and they need to get in her car. Apparently, Tesla's don't have spare tires or a key and they need your phone or a code to get in.
Still holding the needle centimeters from my palm, she tells the assistant to hold the phone on her ear. While she is speaking to the car guy, she tells the assistant to feeze my hand.
He pulls the trigger and fumbles with the phone and shoots the freeze stuff all over my arm almost giving me frostbite elbow. Everything is frozen except the part on my hand where she is about to stick the needle.
The guy with the car yells, the door didn't open. Now the assistant gets a new can of ice and shoots the right place. My hand and arm was so frozen that Jo Jo Starbuck could have done a triple axel on it.
She sticks the Novocain needle in and the pain was so severe, my wife screamed and so did her cousin who was sitting at home watching Naked and Afraid.
The car guy yells, I can't open the door. She yells back, "I'm with a patient and can't come out".
He says, "I need to go to another job. She says "Wait" and tells me that she has to go outside. But she pulled out the needle before she left so I am sitting there with Ice man.
She comes back and apologizes and gets back to sticking things in me. Now she sticks the thing in my other finger. Same reaction.
Now she fills another, much larger needle which looked more like the baster I use to feed my fish with and tells me "I'm sorry, but this is going to hurt.
I said, "Lets try it on ice man first".
But he was already in Dominoes. She plunges this tire iron in my palm and I tried not to scream to loud because she is kind of young and pretty so I didn't want to look like a Jiboni. But dam, it hurt.
As she pushed in on the plunger, I could feel this fire going all the way to the end of my fingers and I even think some of it went into my big toe.
I drove home with a really swollen hand which was totally numb.
I went to look at my fish to relax me and right in the front of the tank, I see a big dead fish.
I never get a dead fish and don't even know which fish it was. It was a big fish, as large as a watchman goby and had the same markings so I assumed it was my watchman. But he was there smiling at me.
I looked at all my fish, almost 50 of them and can't tell which fish it was. It was kind of half eaten. It may have been something that was in there growing in a cave and I didn't even know I had it.
It was a very weird day.
Paul B
Premium Member
In the last 3 weeks I lost 3 fish. One is dying now and I am at a loss. I am losing this 6 year old Sunburst Anthius and his partner. Two of the same species is really odd.
They look perfect, except for the dead thing.
This is weird because I almost never lose a fish and of course I am going away tomorrow so I have a horrible feeling I will lose all the fish before I get back.
No spots, sunken belly, scratching, sores, fast breathing, swimming weird, cross eyes, loss of color, crazy pooping, nothing. All my fish look perfect and all are eating, some are spawning.
This never happened before.
This Anthius is still alive, but barely.
They look perfect, except for the dead thing.
This is weird because I almost never lose a fish and of course I am going away tomorrow so I have a horrible feeling I will lose all the fish before I get back.
No spots, sunken belly, scratching, sores, fast breathing, swimming weird, cross eyes, loss of color, crazy pooping, nothing. All my fish look perfect and all are eating, some are spawning.
This never happened before.
This Anthius is still alive, but barely.
I am sorry for your loss! As an indicator of how misanthropic I am some fish deaths bother me more than the loss of friends or family (but not as much as my cats).
Couple thoughts, not that they may help much. First, 6 years for an anthias is pretty good in my experience and better than I've achieved.
Second is an experience I had a long time ago with my maintenance business. I got 10 Naso tangs in a shipment. QTed them together in the same FOWLR QT system with an oversized UV. They all ate well,were active and quickly acclimated. They were distributed between 9 systems. Between months 5 and 6 of being in my clients systems they all died. There were no outward signs of problems, they were all eating well and there were no other deaths in the systems. I still don't have any clue what their problem was.
Couple thoughts, not that they may help much. First, 6 years for an anthias is pretty good in my experience and better than I've achieved.
Second is an experience I had a long time ago with my maintenance business. I got 10 Naso tangs in a shipment. QTed them together in the same FOWLR QT system with an oversized UV. They all ate well,were active and quickly acclimated. They were distributed between 9 systems. Between months 5 and 6 of being in my clients systems they all died. There were no outward signs of problems, they were all eating well and there were no other deaths in the systems. I still don't have any clue what their problem was.
Paul B
Premium Member
I have no Idea what it was but I doubt two fish could die of old age minutes apart. I had them for almost 6 years but they may have been 2 or more years old when I got them as adults. Most fish live quite a lot longer than 6 years and this is not the way fish die of old age.
We went for an overnight and just got back. Everything seems fine and I have no idea why those fish died. It's an enigma. I posted an article years ago as to how fish die of old age.:
How to tell if a marine creature is dying of old age.
We as aquarists try very hard to keep our animals living as long as possable for a few reasons. Yes, we are caring people and don't want to see them hurt. And, yes, they cost us a lot of money, how much money depends a little on us. If we buy a purple tang for $100.00 and it lives for ten days, then that fish cost us $10.00 a day to enjoy so I would say that is an expensive fish. But if that same fish lives ten years, then that fish only cost us maybe 3 cents a day (I didn't do the math, but you get my point) So then, it is a very cheap fish.
We should all try to keep our fish long enough so that they die from nothing except old age. If our fish keep getting sick, we are doing something wrong as our fish should "never" get sick except for the occasional headache or upset stomach.
Most medium sized ornamental aquarium fish live for about 12-15 years as that is their natural lifespan. That is a general statement because some fish such as clowns live well into their 20s. Smaller fish such as clown gobies, small bleenies, pipefish and seahorses may live for 5 or 6 years and some tangs will live into their 20s and groupers may reach 50. These are generalizations as different fish have different lifespans and many of them do not reach their life span in captivity. I do feel that most fish in a tank can live longer than their wild counterparts just due to the fact that they don't have enemies in our tanks and no one is trying to catch them with huge nets where they will be sold for food.
A fish is an animal that can only look forward to a peaceful death if it is in a very good aquarist tank. Virtually all wild fish die by being eaten alive or suffocating on the deck of a ship.
How do we know if a fish is dying of old age? Actually it is relatively easy. First of all the fish should be full grown. That is easy. Next we should have an idea how long that type of fish would normally live. I gave some examples above. A fish that has lived to the full extent of it's lifetime displays symptoms that are easy to spot. I had many fish die of old age and they all do it about the same. About the last couple of weeks of it's life, it will start to slow down but not exhibit any signs of disease. They will not be the first one to feed any more and may not even try very hard to eat. In a few days, they will stop eating and may rest in a corner. Eventually other fish will pester them and take nips at them. At first, they will try to get away or bite back. Right near the end, they will stop fighting back and their fins will become torn, They may get some spots as their immune system is no longer functioning, they will then get very lethargic and we will find them dead in the morning.
There is nothing we could have done for such a fish except pat ourselves on the back for allowing such a beautiful creature to exist for as long as possable.
We don't have to worry about that for corals as they are imortal. Yes, corals live forever, sort of like politicians. The actual coral polyp is not imortal, but the colony is. Each coral colony is composed of numerous polyps and as new polyps are born, they settle on top of older polyps and in that way, make the colony larger. Entire coral colonys do die because if they didn't, the world would be full of corals.
This watchman is dying of old age at about 12 years old. I got her as a baby.
We went for an overnight and just got back. Everything seems fine and I have no idea why those fish died. It's an enigma. I posted an article years ago as to how fish die of old age.:
How to tell if a marine creature is dying of old age.
We as aquarists try very hard to keep our animals living as long as possable for a few reasons. Yes, we are caring people and don't want to see them hurt. And, yes, they cost us a lot of money, how much money depends a little on us. If we buy a purple tang for $100.00 and it lives for ten days, then that fish cost us $10.00 a day to enjoy so I would say that is an expensive fish. But if that same fish lives ten years, then that fish only cost us maybe 3 cents a day (I didn't do the math, but you get my point) So then, it is a very cheap fish.
We should all try to keep our fish long enough so that they die from nothing except old age. If our fish keep getting sick, we are doing something wrong as our fish should "never" get sick except for the occasional headache or upset stomach.
Most medium sized ornamental aquarium fish live for about 12-15 years as that is their natural lifespan. That is a general statement because some fish such as clowns live well into their 20s. Smaller fish such as clown gobies, small bleenies, pipefish and seahorses may live for 5 or 6 years and some tangs will live into their 20s and groupers may reach 50. These are generalizations as different fish have different lifespans and many of them do not reach their life span in captivity. I do feel that most fish in a tank can live longer than their wild counterparts just due to the fact that they don't have enemies in our tanks and no one is trying to catch them with huge nets where they will be sold for food.
A fish is an animal that can only look forward to a peaceful death if it is in a very good aquarist tank. Virtually all wild fish die by being eaten alive or suffocating on the deck of a ship.
How do we know if a fish is dying of old age? Actually it is relatively easy. First of all the fish should be full grown. That is easy. Next we should have an idea how long that type of fish would normally live. I gave some examples above. A fish that has lived to the full extent of it's lifetime displays symptoms that are easy to spot. I had many fish die of old age and they all do it about the same. About the last couple of weeks of it's life, it will start to slow down but not exhibit any signs of disease. They will not be the first one to feed any more and may not even try very hard to eat. In a few days, they will stop eating and may rest in a corner. Eventually other fish will pester them and take nips at them. At first, they will try to get away or bite back. Right near the end, they will stop fighting back and their fins will become torn, They may get some spots as their immune system is no longer functioning, they will then get very lethargic and we will find them dead in the morning.
There is nothing we could have done for such a fish except pat ourselves on the back for allowing such a beautiful creature to exist for as long as possable.
We don't have to worry about that for corals as they are imortal. Yes, corals live forever, sort of like politicians. The actual coral polyp is not imortal, but the colony is. Each coral colony is composed of numerous polyps and as new polyps are born, they settle on top of older polyps and in that way, make the colony larger. Entire coral colonys do die because if they didn't, the world would be full of corals.
This watchman is dying of old age at about 12 years old. I got her as a baby.
Paul B
Premium Member
We just came back from an overnight out east at the end of the North Fork of Long Island. It's about 25 miles east of where I live and I assume the water is cleaner as it is right on the Atlantic.
I took my wife there for her birthday but this time of the year it is pretty dead there. We stayed at a really nice Spa Hotel (whatever that is) and this morning when we checked out, it was snowing. This was a cafe in the small hotel.
On our way out there we passed a few beaches so I figured I would collect some sea water. It was about 25 degrees and windy.
I backed up as far as I could to the sea and put on my rubber boots. Too a 5 gallon bucket out of my Jeep and walked into the surf. Immediately the wave crashed over my boot freezing my foot.
I grabbed some water from very shallow water so I got almost as much sand as water. I dumped it into one of the 10 gallon pails in the back or my Jeep.
I took another bucket, then another, then I stopped. I only collected 15 gallons but had capacity for 30 gallons. It will have to do because the water temp was probably 35 degrees and my fingers were about to fall off.
Now I am filtering out some of the sand and the water is kind of green and muddy because of the surf.
This is the beach. Most of the beach was inaccessible because in the winter they bulldoze piles of sand near the high tide mark to keep the sand from washing away in the rough winter but they left this cut in the sand so I could get through.
A cop stopped near me, saw me collecting and just shook his head while driving awa
I took my wife there for her birthday but this time of the year it is pretty dead there. We stayed at a really nice Spa Hotel (whatever that is) and this morning when we checked out, it was snowing. This was a cafe in the small hotel.
On our way out there we passed a few beaches so I figured I would collect some sea water. It was about 25 degrees and windy.
I backed up as far as I could to the sea and put on my rubber boots. Too a 5 gallon bucket out of my Jeep and walked into the surf. Immediately the wave crashed over my boot freezing my foot.
I grabbed some water from very shallow water so I got almost as much sand as water. I dumped it into one of the 10 gallon pails in the back or my Jeep.
I took another bucket, then another, then I stopped. I only collected 15 gallons but had capacity for 30 gallons. It will have to do because the water temp was probably 35 degrees and my fingers were about to fall off.
Now I am filtering out some of the sand and the water is kind of green and muddy because of the surf.
This is the beach. Most of the beach was inaccessible because in the winter they bulldoze piles of sand near the high tide mark to keep the sand from washing away in the rough winter but they left this cut in the sand so I could get through.
A cop stopped near me, saw me collecting and just shook his head while driving awa
Tangerine Speedo
New member
Paul B
Premium Member
We went to Hutchinson Island in Florida. We were gone for a week. This morning I went downstairs to see my fish. As soon as I opened the door to my Man cave I get that horrible smell of dead, rotted fish. OOOOoohhhh NNooo. What could be dead? Could it be everything!. OMG, I rush over to the tank thinking everything would be dead and the corals would be balls of slime.
I opened my eyes to see................................Everything looks great. They are all smiling at me and wagging their tails. Well, they always do that. So I looked around the floor to see if I could find something dead. But no. The floor is clean.
AhHa. I had an automatic frozen fish feeder on the tank and didn't freeze to good so it automatically turned the weeks worth of food in it to snot.
OMG....I got out the bleach and soaked the thing in it.
Luckily, I had the foresight to put pre packaged frozen food in the freezer for my neighbor to use.
Now I am using my diatom filter because although everything looks great, there is seaweed growing on everything and I was thinking of opening a produce stand. While my diatom is trying to suck out algae and detritus, I needed to move my car which is outside in the snow.
It is totally dead. No lights, nothing. This is a new battery so now I need to see what killed the battery. Unfortunately, I think I cracked my hip or something near it so I can't walk to good. I also need a car inspection and the "Check Engine" light is on so I have to replace the thermostat to get the light off so I can get the thing inspected.
With my screwed up hip I need help to remove the battery to get the thermostat out. Of course my wife needs a lot of help so I am having trouble keeping up with my tank.
I opened my eyes to see................................Everything looks great. They are all smiling at me and wagging their tails. Well, they always do that. So I looked around the floor to see if I could find something dead. But no. The floor is clean.
AhHa. I had an automatic frozen fish feeder on the tank and didn't freeze to good so it automatically turned the weeks worth of food in it to snot.
OMG....I got out the bleach and soaked the thing in it.
Luckily, I had the foresight to put pre packaged frozen food in the freezer for my neighbor to use.
Now I am using my diatom filter because although everything looks great, there is seaweed growing on everything and I was thinking of opening a produce stand. While my diatom is trying to suck out algae and detritus, I needed to move my car which is outside in the snow.
It is totally dead. No lights, nothing. This is a new battery so now I need to see what killed the battery. Unfortunately, I think I cracked my hip or something near it so I can't walk to good. I also need a car inspection and the "Check Engine" light is on so I have to replace the thermostat to get the light off so I can get the thing inspected.
With my screwed up hip I need help to remove the battery to get the thermostat out. Of course my wife needs a lot of help so I am having trouble keeping up with my tank.
