Micki
Premium Member
How this Geezer did it in the beginning
- Thread starter Paul B
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DanaC
New member
Sort of reminds me of stories my Dad used to tell (when Mom was not around). He was born in 1928 and was a little too young to get drafted in WWII.
However he said that during WWII there were so few men around that women used to ask him out all the time even though he was younger than most of them, sometime by a lot.
However he said that during WWII there were so few men around that women used to ask him out all the time even though he was younger than most of them, sometime by a lot.
Paul B
Premium Member
My Grand Daughter Greta is coming boating today, she is 6, 6 weeks old. As I said I am getting older, (just a little) and I want to teach her about the sea. At her age she may have a little difficulty learning between sleeping, burping and pooping but I will do my best.
I always taught my Daughter about sea creatures as much as I could because we have always had a boat and she grew up on the water and is also a diver.
I remember once when she was about 4 or 5 she was sleeping in the water next to our boat in about 6' of water when all of a sudden she started to scream. This was around the time "Jaws" came out so I jumped in the water with my clothes on to get her. She was screaming uncontrolably so I figured something bit her. I felt for her arms and legs and checked for blood but I couldn't see anything wrong.
Then I saw this one foot wide, blood red jelly fish that she was kicking and it was stinging her.
I handed her to my wife and started for shore. I called the police and they rushed over to my boat and one of them jumped on. He told me to go full speed to the beach which I did.
The other police were chasing me because it was a 5 mile per hour zone but he called them on the radio to say what happened.
At the dock the ambulance was there and they rushed her to the hospital.
I had to stay with the boat which was on a public beach surrounded by perplexed bathers and a mad lifeguard.
That boat was small and I used to trailer it so I put it on the trailer and went to the hospital. I had a very hard time convincing the guard at the entrance of the parking lot to let me in with the boat but he finally let me go.
I met my wife and Daughter in the emergency room where she was fine, the pain went away and we just quietly left without even seeing a Dr.
Now of course we keep vinegar on the boat for jellyfish stings which of course will never happen again now that I have vinnegar.
But to get back to teaching, I tried to teach my Daughter about the sea but she never had a real interest. Her main interest in the sea is to sleep in the cabin of the boat. She likes nudibranch's and does a nudibranch dance for me when she sees my reef.
She is now 35 years old.
My own Dad knew everything about the sea and if he would have lived a little longer I would have had an easier time learning about this stuff.
Learning without the internet is much slower but much more thorough.
I think I learned so much more about moorish Idols by spending time with them in the sea then reading about them from hobbiests on the net for many years.
It always amazed me that a simple animal like a hermit crab can live in the sea with predators all over the place, a place where the waves throw it all over the place, an animal that doesn't even grow it's own shell and the thin shell it does have, it has to shed in a place that is filled with predators, has no place to hide and has nothing as far as I can see to eat and that little New York hermit crab will not live in my reef.
My avitar is one of those NY crabs, I took that picture on a night dive, he was about 1/2" long. Of course a hermit crab is cold blooded as are all the animals we keep unless someone has an elephant seal. :hmm3: Cold blooded animals internal organs are completely dependant on the water temperature and can not adjust that at all. When they are cold, they slow down, when they are warm they speed up. Their heartbeat and lifespan also speeds up with increasing heat.
Just some wierd things I think about.:smokin:
I always taught my Daughter about sea creatures as much as I could because we have always had a boat and she grew up on the water and is also a diver.
I remember once when she was about 4 or 5 she was sleeping in the water next to our boat in about 6' of water when all of a sudden she started to scream. This was around the time "Jaws" came out so I jumped in the water with my clothes on to get her. She was screaming uncontrolably so I figured something bit her. I felt for her arms and legs and checked for blood but I couldn't see anything wrong.
Then I saw this one foot wide, blood red jelly fish that she was kicking and it was stinging her.
I handed her to my wife and started for shore. I called the police and they rushed over to my boat and one of them jumped on. He told me to go full speed to the beach which I did.
The other police were chasing me because it was a 5 mile per hour zone but he called them on the radio to say what happened.
At the dock the ambulance was there and they rushed her to the hospital.
I had to stay with the boat which was on a public beach surrounded by perplexed bathers and a mad lifeguard.
That boat was small and I used to trailer it so I put it on the trailer and went to the hospital. I had a very hard time convincing the guard at the entrance of the parking lot to let me in with the boat but he finally let me go.
I met my wife and Daughter in the emergency room where she was fine, the pain went away and we just quietly left without even seeing a Dr.
Now of course we keep vinegar on the boat for jellyfish stings which of course will never happen again now that I have vinnegar.
But to get back to teaching, I tried to teach my Daughter about the sea but she never had a real interest. Her main interest in the sea is to sleep in the cabin of the boat. She likes nudibranch's and does a nudibranch dance for me when she sees my reef.
She is now 35 years old.My own Dad knew everything about the sea and if he would have lived a little longer I would have had an easier time learning about this stuff.
Learning without the internet is much slower but much more thorough.
I think I learned so much more about moorish Idols by spending time with them in the sea then reading about them from hobbiests on the net for many years.
It always amazed me that a simple animal like a hermit crab can live in the sea with predators all over the place, a place where the waves throw it all over the place, an animal that doesn't even grow it's own shell and the thin shell it does have, it has to shed in a place that is filled with predators, has no place to hide and has nothing as far as I can see to eat and that little New York hermit crab will not live in my reef.
My avitar is one of those NY crabs, I took that picture on a night dive, he was about 1/2" long. Of course a hermit crab is cold blooded as are all the animals we keep unless someone has an elephant seal. :hmm3: Cold blooded animals internal organs are completely dependant on the water temperature and can not adjust that at all. When they are cold, they slow down, when they are warm they speed up. Their heartbeat and lifespan also speeds up with increasing heat.
Just some wierd things I think about.:smokin:
Paul B
Premium Member
As soon as she understands we are going to be spending plenty of time in the mud at tide pools. I would like to try to spark an interest of the sea in her being that her heritage is from seafaring people. She lives in Manhattan so this is going to be a challenge.
Getting back to starting fish tanks I remember when I just started my tank, I went to a boat ramp in Queens New York near where I lived and slogging around in a muddy tide pool I noticed all these black, very porous "rocks". I could break them apart with my hands and they were teeming with amphipods. These "rocks" turned out to be asphalt that the towns use to prevent erosion of the beaches. The stuff is all over the place and has been underwater for over fifty years. Asphalt is very poisonous being made of crude oil so I would not normally put it in a tank unless I was sure it was under salt water for at least that long. I would take it and swirl it in a bucket of saltwater and collect hundreds of amphipods. I have always added these to my reef and they seem to live well as I still find them in my tank in the spring, months after I collected them.
I have found there are two kinds of them. One type looks the same but is larger and live on the sand just above the high tide mark. These "sand fleas" don't do well in a tank because they are an intertidal animal and spend most of their time on dry land. They also jump so if you put them in a tank, they climb up and jump out. You need to get amphipods that are completely underwater when the tide is up, like the ones you find under rocks. I am going to get some today.
Another cool intertidal animal is fiddler crabs. You also can't keep them underwater all the time because for half of their life, they are on damp sand between the high and low tide. I made a tank for them that is half sand and half water. You can keep mudskippers with them but it has to be a large tank with mostly sand. The skippers may also eat the crabs.
Bucket of amphipods
Fiddler crab
Rock crab
Nerd in a tidepool with a net.
Getting back to starting fish tanks I remember when I just started my tank, I went to a boat ramp in Queens New York near where I lived and slogging around in a muddy tide pool I noticed all these black, very porous "rocks". I could break them apart with my hands and they were teeming with amphipods. These "rocks" turned out to be asphalt that the towns use to prevent erosion of the beaches. The stuff is all over the place and has been underwater for over fifty years. Asphalt is very poisonous being made of crude oil so I would not normally put it in a tank unless I was sure it was under salt water for at least that long. I would take it and swirl it in a bucket of saltwater and collect hundreds of amphipods. I have always added these to my reef and they seem to live well as I still find them in my tank in the spring, months after I collected them.
I have found there are two kinds of them. One type looks the same but is larger and live on the sand just above the high tide mark. These "sand fleas" don't do well in a tank because they are an intertidal animal and spend most of their time on dry land. They also jump so if you put them in a tank, they climb up and jump out. You need to get amphipods that are completely underwater when the tide is up, like the ones you find under rocks. I am going to get some today.
Another cool intertidal animal is fiddler crabs. You also can't keep them underwater all the time because for half of their life, they are on damp sand between the high and low tide. I made a tank for them that is half sand and half water. You can keep mudskippers with them but it has to be a large tank with mostly sand. The skippers may also eat the crabs.
Bucket of amphipods
Fiddler crab
Rock crab
Nerd in a tidepool with a net.
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joewallace2008
i brought the ocean home
Hi Paul B I'm very new to this,And thanks to you and this site this is absolutely the best read on this site ,very informative and helpful some one could only be so lucky to chat with someone with so much knowledge congrats on your grand daughter
Paul B
Premium Member
Joe, Thank you. I hope you are not as new as My Granddaughter Greta.
I wish I remembered all the things I went through at the beginning of this hobby but it spans over 40 years so it is a lot of time to cover.
Everything was new and there was no information so every day was a challenge and it was fun. All of the creatures were new and no one knew how to care for them.
It was exciting for me. Now it is much simpler and I rarely see a fish that I have not seen or kept before. But I still love the hobby and have as much interest in it as I have had all my life. Of course I also have a life with a wife, Daughter, Son in Law and Granddaughter. And I can't forget my boat. I have had a good life and I would not change any of it.
I am glad you are enjoying the thread.
I am a little sad today because it is 9/11 and I am remembering the victims and friends I lost on that day in 2001.
Take care,
Paul
I wish I remembered all the things I went through at the beginning of this hobby but it spans over 40 years so it is a lot of time to cover.
Everything was new and there was no information so every day was a challenge and it was fun. All of the creatures were new and no one knew how to care for them.
It was exciting for me. Now it is much simpler and I rarely see a fish that I have not seen or kept before. But I still love the hobby and have as much interest in it as I have had all my life. Of course I also have a life with a wife, Daughter, Son in Law and Granddaughter. And I can't forget my boat. I have had a good life and I would not change any of it.
I am glad you are enjoying the thread.
I am a little sad today because it is 9/11 and I am remembering the victims and friends I lost on that day in 2001.
Take care,
Paul
3rdimension
New member
Great stories old timer. Always love to hear how things start out.
Paul B
Premium Member
Thanks, I'm curious to see how it ends.
If I look through my closets and archives I come across so many inventions, creations, Mishaps, and devices, some that worked well and some that just didn't make it. I have fish traps, skimmers, ozonizers, chillers, lights, dosers, feeders etc. of all types and descriptions in all sorts of disassembly. I would not think to buy one of those things. Many were taken apart to be re made into something else. Just today I built a new type of algae filter that is a material belt about 6" wide that slowly turns on a shaft, picking up water about a foot over the tank where it is exposed to LEDs and then the belt returns it to the tank. I have a theory that algae will grow much faster if it is out of the water and on a damp piece of material.
I am testing it now. My house is filled with this stuff, not just for fish but also for my boat, cars and house. This stuff drives me crazy and I can't stop inventing. I hate the way most things are designed so I have to keep striving to make them better.
Thats why my tank keeps evolving and I view it as an experiment. It is easy to keep things alive, I want to do it easier and keep the inhabitants healthier while making it fun. :celeb1:
spamreefnew
New member
maybe you could use a paddle wheel to drive the belts pulley ,then it could still operate on gravity?
tripdad
Frustrated Stick Gardener
Paul, just found this thread and have found it very entertaining. Have not read it all but I will get there. I am reminded of the problems that my wife and I went through when we started keeping saltwater fish in 1979. On one of our first trips to Hawaii to visit family we went snorkeling and thought "wow, look at all these free fish. Lets take some home to Chicago." Well we caught 1 puffer that we decided to take home, so..... We put it into a tupperware container with nsw, plumbed a battery operated air pump and put the whole thing in a camera bag. Off to the airport we went, checked in, put the bag thru a security check where they opened the bag and saw the batteries and wires and heard the pump humming away, they zipped it up and sent us to the gate where we boarded our flight and flew home with the "package" happily humming away. Wow!, have things ever changed. I would probably be roomates with a strange man in Guantanamo nowadays! Ahh, the good old days. Thanks for the memories your sharing.P.S. The puffer lived for years and would greet us upon arriving home by spitting water at us over the rim of the tank. I miss him!
Paul B
Premium Member
Today is my 39th wedding anniversary. I still look exactly like the day I got married. :lmao:
I already had my salt water tank for 2 years then.
TripDad, we took our Honeymoon in Hawaii. 4 Islands. We have not gone back there yet, maybe next year. There are still a few places we have not been.
I brought my rock back on planes, you could just put it on your lap on the plane.
They just looked at you funny.
In those days airline Stewardeses all looked like Supermodels. They had to look great and were not allowed to gain weight. Was it discriminatory? Of course, was it right? Of course not, do we want to go back to that? Of course. OK, so I still like looking at beautiful girls, shoot me. When I stop looking at them, thats when I am in trouble.
I am just not allowed to touch them. I did get my share of looking though when I helped build the NY Playboy Club. I would have worked there for free. They always wanted to give my wife a job. She was about 19 then.
When I was sent to Viet Nam in 1970 I was on a TWA plane. All the way to Japan the Hostesses were beautiful, but from Japan to Viet Nam they hired Aunt Bee.
I have nothing against Aunt Bee but being my home for the next year was a clearing in a jungle with no cell phone, SKYP, MP3, Facebook or a roof the very least they could have done was keep the Supermodel Stewardeses on the flight. I guess I was asking a little too much and anyway, Aunt Bee was very nice as she handed out baloney sandwiches on white bread with nothing else on them.
Delicious.
I already had my salt water tank for 2 years then.
TripDad, we took our Honeymoon in Hawaii. 4 Islands. We have not gone back there yet, maybe next year. There are still a few places we have not been.
I brought my rock back on planes, you could just put it on your lap on the plane.
They just looked at you funny.
In those days airline Stewardeses all looked like Supermodels. They had to look great and were not allowed to gain weight. Was it discriminatory? Of course, was it right? Of course not, do we want to go back to that? Of course. OK, so I still like looking at beautiful girls, shoot me. When I stop looking at them, thats when I am in trouble.
I am just not allowed to touch them. I did get my share of looking though when I helped build the NY Playboy Club. I would have worked there for free. They always wanted to give my wife a job. She was about 19 then.
When I was sent to Viet Nam in 1970 I was on a TWA plane. All the way to Japan the Hostesses were beautiful, but from Japan to Viet Nam they hired Aunt Bee.
I have nothing against Aunt Bee but being my home for the next year was a clearing in a jungle with no cell phone, SKYP, MP3, Facebook or a roof the very least they could have done was keep the Supermodel Stewardeses on the flight. I guess I was asking a little too much and anyway, Aunt Bee was very nice as she handed out baloney sandwiches on white bread with nothing else on them.
Delicious.
ska d
New member
Hi Paul, only been on this forum a few times and have seen your name around. First thing: congrats on becoming "Opa" (German for grandpa) what a sweet heart of a girl. She is so lucky to be a part of such a loving family. She will learn so much from her Opa and will probably know more about this hobby than most of us before she's ten.Second: Being from Toronto I dont know much about Vietnam, but know that your courage is to be commended. I'm extremely proud of our troops that go into combat (even when they are deployed with the wrong color uniforms).
I've been trying to come up with a good question for you, but I've already gained so much knowledge from this read. So I'll just thank you for your contribution to this hobby/passion. Without folks like yourself I'd be stuck listening to all the modern day educated know it alls. Nothing wrong with being educated but I'll take experience over text book regurgitation any day. I think I read a few pages back you were starting a thread with some new ideas. Im going to go check out what crazy thing you have come up with, if only to be inspired to try something new myself. Thanks again and enjoy every moment (as I'm sure you are, judging by the smile on your face in those photos.) with Greta. They do grow up fast.
I've been trying to come up with a good question for you, but I've already gained so much knowledge from this read. So I'll just thank you for your contribution to this hobby/passion. Without folks like yourself I'd be stuck listening to all the modern day educated know it alls. Nothing wrong with being educated but I'll take experience over text book regurgitation any day. I think I read a few pages back you were starting a thread with some new ideas. Im going to go check out what crazy thing you have come up with, if only to be inspired to try something new myself. Thanks again and enjoy every moment (as I'm sure you are, judging by the smile on your face in those photos.) with Greta. They do grow up fast.
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