April 26, 2007

• That gives me the creeps! I use to maintain a small salt water aquarium displaying some of the local creatures in my area. I found it quite enjoyable, more so than fresh water aquariums.
• *shudders* Freshwater fan here... i have an Amazon tank. Salt is expensive, time consuming, and predatory! I did have a 4" Kuhli loach that used to love to jump from tank to tank, tho...
• My salt water tank was actually very inexpensive and didn't require much time on my part, aside from driving to the beach on occasion and hauling large buckets of fresh ocean water back home. Admittedly, most people aren't able to maintain salt water aquariums as such. I had some sea squirts and a very charismatic blenny.
• you're lucky. my partner used to have a 700 gal. salt water tank with all native (and natively harvested) fish and coral when living back in Fl... when he moved out here, he donated it to an aquarium, b/c he had collected species before they were no longer legal to collect, and they were missing them from the collection. Bay Area fish ain't too special, unfortunately, but Monterey Bay does have a nice display aquarium set up of local stuff.
• I would imagine that maintaining a 700 gallon salt water aquarium would not be a cheap "hobby"!
• well, he did something clever for the lighting, saving a lot of money, which was to install these light collectors on the roof which then channeled sunlight down into the house, in a form he could direct at the tanks. Also, heating/chilling costs were low because of the temperate climate in Florida. All in all, he says it wasn't so expensive, because he built the entire thing himself, filtration system and all, from scrap parts... he's reasonably resourceful like that.
• I wish I had the space and time to take on a project like that. The lighting setup that you mention sounds amazing. I mean, it would seem that it would make the aquarium even more natural - using sunlight rather than artificial lighting. What in-the-heck did he use to "channel" the light down into the house? Optics?
• it's a product that is no longer widely available, it was never particularly viable, unfortunately, as it would only work in a limited range of areas based on light intensity, but he was able to get some through a friend. Basically it was a series of mirrored light pipes, with collectors on the roof that would reflect and bounce the light down the pipes. However, it required big holes to be cut in the roof to collect the light, and I doubt everyone is as relaxed as he was about cutting big holes in their house...
• I had to review this video for work. I can't look at a worm without getting the "Worm Mating Song" stuck in my head for days.
• He doesn't say what species (they can be damned hard to identify). Definitely segmented,undoubtedly an olgocheate of some sort. It looks cileated, so probably a Tubifex worm. I used to keep freshwater fish, until a spend a year and a half working in fisheries research. After that maintaining a tank has always seemed too much like work. I'm always very impressed by salt-water habitats since when I was working we simplified matters by pumping our water out of the Bay of Fundy.
• He doesn't say what species (they can be damned hard to identify). Definitely segmented,undoubtedly an olgocheate of some sort. It looks cileated, so probably a Tubifex worm. I used to keep freshwater fish, until a spend a year and a half working in fisheries research. After that maintaining a tank has always seemed too much like work. I'm always very impressed by salt-water habitats since when I was working we simplified matters by pumping our water out of the Bay of Fundy.
• That was really bad editing. It should read: "I used to keep freshwater fish until I spent a year..."
• i feed my freshwater fishies tubifex... thank Xenu none of them have grown into that nasty beast.
• I did a little more poking. Tubifex seem to top out around 10cm or so, so it isn't that. I'd also forgotten that they live in tubes (hence the name). I'm obviously wrong, and that monster must be something else. Apparently 12 years away from acquatic biology has caused softening of the brain. Hopefully not caused by worms!
• ACKK! No worms, pleze.
• When I moved into the small building where I have my office, it came with a salt-water tank. I liked how it looked, so I figured I would try to keep up with it. There were ten or fifteen things living in there when I got it. Every few nights or so, one would go mising or turn up dead. I knew that I had a salt-water serial killer on my hand. I tried to watch the tank closely when I could. I looked suspiciously at the remaining life. I gave the aquarium to a woman who worked at a local pet store once I conclusively determined the identity of the serial killer: my complete incompetence and lack of understanding about how to maintain a salt-water tank.
• Murderer! In your defense, have heard that salt water tanks are tough to care for. Some people just know what they're doing, I guess. See GARF Boise, Idaho. Go figger. Pretty extensive website. These people started out of their home with "just a tank or two."
• Reason #139.234 why I have a freshwater tank.
• you do?