Reef 35 years old this month

[Paul B]

Hello again.
I thought I would update again.
My tank is filled with mostly various gobies, some of which I have not seen before. It is also filled with codium that I collected this this summer out in Montauk on the east end of Long Island. I love that stuff.
I have been trying to get the gobies to breed but the only thing spawning are the bangai cardinals and starfish. I don't think I have a pair of gobies yet but I will get more soon. I seem to keep picking the same sex.
With gobies it is hard to tell. I don't know how they tell each other apart :shock:
The water seems OK now and since I am getting ready to retire in seven weeks most of the new tank stuff will have to wait. We don't know if we are going to move yet and I am starting a new part time career.
Hopefully, in a few more months things will settle down and I can concentrate on the tank.
My PC ballasts died and my MH lights are way out dated so I really need some time which I will have soon.
Take care.
Paul

 

[DonW]

Congrats on the retirement. In the next year or so I hope to start a new part time career also. I cant decide wether I want to be the greeter at Walmart or Lowes tough decision.

Don

 

[TRANSMATT]

Fire clown for sure. I had 1 from a tank I pick up on reef central . Stupid me gave it away before I realized what he was!

 

[Reefergeorge]

Wow, that is a real accomplishment.

 

[Paul B]

This fire clown is now my oldest fish but I have had fish longer. I find that old fish never die of old age, unfortunately, it is always by accident.
These delicate glass cages we keep are subject to all sorts of detrimental happenings. I once had a bar of soap carved into the shape of a fish. It fell in the tank and was in there all night. I had brackish fish then, it diden't kill them but they were squeeky clean for weeks :lol:.
Then we have power outages, family tragedys that keep us away, chemical poisoning from insecticides or cleaning solutions, pump malfunctions, heater disasters and the list goes on. I personally have had three large animal kills since I started this which killed most of my livestock. It seems that the longest I can go with no problems is about ten years then some un forseen thing happens and I lose my favorite stuff. My 18 year old cusk eel died in an accident as did my moorish Idol, mandarin and copperband butterfly. I hope they forgive me.
Have a great day.
Paul

 

[Paul B]

I had to remove a bunch of rock to move everything back and make more room for the corals and give some swimming room to the fish and this bottle I noticed had a huge bristle worm in it. When I dumped out the bottle to remove the worm I discovered the hard way that the bottle was filled with hydrogen sulfide. It can stink up a medium size house with no problems. This bottle has been in there for decades and usually the bottles pose no problems but if you don't clean out the detritus every few years it builds up and does not let oxygen in. This bottle was in the back hiding so I didn't even notice it. I am surprised the worm was even able to live in it but he seems fine and is in his new home in my local NY tank.
In doing this of course I had to Re-Re aquascape as I have been doing this a while.
I don't have time to do it correctly by removing most of the rocks so I am trying to do it in small sections. This does not work well in my tank because some of the rocks are 2' long and one is 3' long so what happens on one side of the tank, upsets the other side. I have it fairly good now and the rocks are tied up to the ceiling to keep them from falling forward. Three large gorgonians are stuck in the gravel because I am waiting for their bases to set so I can stick them on bottles and rocks. I don't like them in the gravel.

 

[Paul B]

I finally took a picture of this guy

I got both of them in here, the long nose and dragon wrasse.

And another lousy picture of the blue stripe pipefish