Paul B's thread

Saw a bunch of tiny fiddler type crabs and thought of you.
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To update my copperband is doing fine and he seems to think he died and went to heaven. I notice a lot less aiptasia but I have a few very large ones and one that is bigger than my copperband and he is actually afraid of it. I would be too.
The thing is like the Godzilla's of aiptasia's and probably thinks it is a carpet anemone andI think my fireclown will host in it soon. ;Bored

I injected it with all sorts of things but I may have made a mistake and injected it with Regain which would account for it's unbelievable growth. I rubbed some Rogain on my head and have started to grow aiptasia out of my ears. :oops:

My Janss pipefish I think is way older than it's lifespan is supposed to be but I have no idea what that is.
My bluestripe pipefish is still trying to mate with him but being the Janss is three or four times larger, he is way out of her league.

My rainsfords seem to be constantly spawning and my watchman goby female has not come out of her burrow in a couple of months so she is also probably tending multiple batches of eggs. I can see her in there and she seems to be very content but the male doesn't allow her out so I "shoot" worms in through the back of her cave so at least she can eat. Being married to a fat bully who won't let you come out to have some fun is just mean. He seems to want to keep her barefoot and pregnant. Or bare finned and pregnant. ;Wideyed
I am not sure what to call a Watchman female, maybe a Watchgirl, or a Watchbabe I don't know.

My SPS for some reason are growing like that aiptasia and reaching for the stars as are "most" of my LPS. One LPS I think it was an elegance go completely covered my a Hammer coral which seemed to grow overnight. Now the thing is touching the front glass as is a very old gorgonian.
Last week I "Very gently" pushed the entire reef structure back from the glass a few inches because I was hitting some montipora that was making it hard to clean the front glass.
I need to do it again but I hate to do that as I hear things breaking and I don't like the sound of that.

I don't do much to my tank so I have no idea why some things are growing so good, but I have been playing quite a bit of Vintage Linda Ronstadt lately. I have to clean the front glass every day and really could clean it twice a day. I don't get it.

My tank is not all great, I also have some bristleworms that almost qualify to be moray eels. I really need to trap some of the ones over a pound.

This is my Daughter and has nothing to do with this post, but neither does anything else.

 
As I was sitting in my workshop/Man Cave a little while ago, this woman walks in. (I have my door open so people out on the street can see me)

She was a nice looking woman maybe fifty or so so I figured she wanted to date me, take me out to dinner or sue me.
It turns out she is starting a salt water fish tank and a neighbor told her that I have fish.

So we talked for about 45 minutes and she has a small, like 30 gallon tank and unfortunately is listening to LFSs and is having all sorts of problems and really wants someone to explain to her what she should do.

I hate to start Noobs on this because I can tell that she wants a tank full of corals, moorish Idols, achilles tangs, SPS corals and she wants it all by 2:00 Tuesday.

Well, she wants a couple of damsels anyway.
I went through the entire speech of the no dry foods, no corals, now anyway, no whale sharks etc. I think she is getting it and she wanted to borrow my book, which I gave her even though it is my own and only personal copy. I also told her that it is not for Noobs which it says near the beginning of the book.

In a couple of weeks I am taking her water collecting because she lives behind my house so she is on the same beach and didn't realize you could collect water. Of course the LFS told her she couldn't do that because she is buying water from them.

I will also give her some rocks and bottles from my tank because she is using bacteria and ammonia from a bottle. I told her that is OK if you get your fish in a bottle otherwise that is not my method and she can choose which way to go. But she loves my tank so she is going with my system.

(which of course may be a problem unless you look like me, and she doesn't)

I am thrilled to know someone with in fifty miles of my house with a salt tank. I will let you know how this goes. :rolleyes:
 
I have two of these little gobies and they always hated each other. Now all of a sudden they "like" each other, "A Lot" and this one is pregnant as all fish should be. They will spawn soon as all healthy, paired fish will.

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I love these Janss Pipefish and I have had this one for 5 or 6 years. These guys are very colorful and can eat surprisingly large prey. This one only eats frozen Mysis. He occasionally tries to eat a live worm but always spits it out. I would also. :sick:

Most pipefish have tiny mouths where only the front opens, but this one's mouth opens like a Barracuda and the entire snout opens.

I wish I could get more of them but I have only seen them in a store once,and I bought him. I am not sure if they are rare of if stores just don't order them. Maybe they are considered difficult. I don't think he was very expensive, maybe $25.00.

I go in these stores with a pocket full of money but they all have the common tangs, angels and wrasses.

I had two of them but they were probably both males as this one killed the other one quite quickly and he also killed my male blue striped pipefish bu almost biting him in half.

My female pipefish keeps trying to spawn with him, but that ain't gonna happen as she is like 2" and he is about 7" .
 
She was a nice looking woman maybe fifty or so so I figured she wanted to date me, take me out to dinner or sue me.
...In a couple of weeks I am taking her water collecting because ...
I am wondering how you are going to explain to your wife that you are taking this nice looking young lady to the beach... to collect water,,,
 
My wife and I have been married for about 47 years and there is no jealousy in our marriage. If I say we are going to collect water, that is what we will be doing. When I re built the New York Playboy Club in the 70s I used to take the girls to lunch all the time. My wife thought it was funny.

In 71 years I have had many chances to cheat on her. Remember, I didn't always look like this. :rolleyes:

I even spent a couple of nights in our single girl friends house in Florida while I was checking on the Majano Wand factory. I am not the kind of man to fool around and my wife knows that.

If your wife is suspicious, maybe she has a reason to be. ;)
 
Yesterday I threw about 25 small mud snails in my tank. Today,I can't find even one. :cool:
I am waiting to go out to dinner and I was watching my tank with the room lights off. (Yes,i am weird)

I noticed my new, smaller 6 line wrasse which I have not seen in the week or two since I added him. If you have a pair of fish it is hard to know if you have two unless you see the both of them at the same time. In my tank I can go months before that happens as the structure is a huge system of caves that go from one of the tank to the other.

The smaller 6 line wrasse looks pregnant although I didn't think she was old enough to spawn.

I also found my new little bi color bleeny but I am pretty sure she is to young to spawn. A few more months maybe.
I am pretty sure my Rainsford gobies are spawning as they "live" in a hole in the gravel next to an undergravel filter tube. They may even be going under that filter plate but I am to stiff to get under the tank with a flashlight to look for them.



I don't have pictures of the 6 line wrasses because they are to fast, but these guys are also spawning.

 
Today I collected water and while that was being diatom filtered my friend helped me trim sponges. He actually removed a few pounds of them and I am very happy. I can't do it because I have two fingers bandaged up and I can't get them wet.
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When you cut this sponge it exudes a milky stuff that makes the skimmer go nuts and it kept overflowing on the floor.

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I collected water from here and we had a huge storm last night so it was filthy which is why I have to filter it.


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This is what it looked like in the bucket during collection. Not exactly pristine coral reef water.

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All my thousands of brittle stars climbed up to the highest point and spawned making my water milky.
Them and urchins do that when you change the temp, water conditions or when I walk in front of the tank in my Speedo.

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Of course as I was filling containers with filtered water we got side tracked and it overflowed on the floor. Twice. It looked like Noah's flood and now my floor is very dull because the salt dried on it. I can't clean it until I get my stitches out.
 
I like the description about the reason for your mass urchin/star spawning!
I have had the same thing occur during water changes.
Not all the time, but randomly with the local seastars we keep for my wife’s classroom. Good to see the collection going well. I have been using NSW and with great success as well.
 
I see questions about mandarins every day. Can I keep a Mandarin in a Coke bottle? Can I get it to eat Cheerios?
How many pods do they eat in 7 1'2 hours? Will Mandarins live with moray eels and swordfish? etc.

A mandarin is the easiest, least problem, no disease, no maintenance fish there is. You throw it in a tank it they live about ten years. Eleven if you don't listen to Rap music. But it has to be in the right tank! The right tank is not a 15 gallon tank stated Tuesday with dry rock and fake, bottled bacteria I don't care if you put a wheelbarrow of pods in there every 5 minutes.

A mature, natural tank that makes it's own food is what it needs. I have been keeping and spawning mandarins since they invented the things during Noah's flood. They were swimming underneath the thing.

Wait until your "large enough" tank is "mature enough" which will take years, not weeks or months.
A natural tank will grow it's own food but you can't just be feeding flakes, pellets or freeze dried watermelon.
Feed the tank clams along with the clam juice. If you live in Idaho and can't get that, keep guppies or tangs and feed them avocados.

Pods will reproduce on their own and you can't stop them from reproducing. Forget about buying them. They will double in numbers in a couple of weeks but they need to eat. Stop cleaning every bit of detritus and algae.
See this mandarin? he was about 10 years old in this picture and spawned many times.

OK forget the fish, look at the rock he is on. See the mulm and stuff growing? Thats what pods love. They think they are in central park without the pigeons. If you have that stuff growing, mandarins will take an Uber to your house and do the macarana without buying pods. Forget buying anything. Most of the stuff in this hobby we don't need to buy.



Take your girlfriend out to a nice Italian restaurant so she don't think you are a cheap you know what. Your Mandarin is a fish. Your girlfriend is more important, trust me you will be happier if your girlfriend is happier than your fish. The mandarin will be fine if you do as I just said.
 
:)
Good advice. Maturity is very important in a tank.
Letting it grow and not getting your hands in there all the time is so important. Nature finds a way. Start with some real critters, quality food. Then let it go!!! Of course, while changing a bit of water fairly regularly... and maintaining your equipment. Patience goes a long way in marine tanks.
 
As always Paul I love your insight. Not just that but the way you explain it is most of the enjoyment I get form your posts.

Please keep passing on the knowledge!! And the stories!!
 
Paul’s book is excellent.
Everyone starting a tank with no prior experience would benefit from reading it more than any other text I have read on this subject.
Their wallets would also benefit!!!
 
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