On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 15:54:21 GMT, "ParrotRob" <parrotrob@yahoo.com>
wrote:

We always joked about how much this little guy cost us. I got him in New >York City from a little old man in Chinatown sitting on a street corner >selling them when they were about silver-dollar size. I passed him on the >way to work one day and I said to myself if he was still there after work I >would buy all of them. So after work, sure enough he was still there with >one poor little turtle left. So I bought him. He was so small he rode back >home with me, on an Amtrak Metroliner, in the bottom of a plastic cup I took >from the hotel room, stuffed in the seat pocket of the seat in front of me. >That little $5.00, 1" long turtle is now an 11" behemoth with about $1000 >worth of aquarium, cabinetry, lighting, filtration, etc, etc, etc. And that >was BEFORE the new floor.

Sorry to learn about your floor, but at least you did discover the
problem before any lives were lost.

My wife also bought a slider on Canal Street. Brought him to work on
the LIRR. He did well there, but didn't grow. After about six months,
she brought him to live in our forty fresh populated mostly with wags
and cories. We lowered the water level and put in some wood floats,
along with a reptile light. He seemed to do well, but then died one
afternoon, never having gained any weight or size in the year or so we
had him.

Anyway, minor horror story was that the wags went Malthusian on that
tank, breeding and breeding and breeding. I'd bring a couple dozen to
the LFS every month or so. Finally we broke down the tank, took all
the fish to the LFS, then restarted with six Angels and about ten
small cories. Two of the angels have paired and lay eggs, but none has successfully hatched ...:-)

Real horror story?

About twenty years ago, my wife and I decided to start an aquarium.
I'd had small ones as a kid, so I said this time let's try marine.
Okay. We bought a used 150 in good condition with lots of equipment.
Needless to say, however, all of it had been used in a fresh water set
up and none was up to the demands of salt. So we upgraded everything:
new air pumps, new filters, stones, the works. Cost a fortune and put
us hopelessly in the red for quite a while. Meanwhile we had some
great fish: raised a lion from maybe 3" to 8" or 9", dog-faced puffer,
rays, eels. We got to the point where we also had a twenty fresh just
for feeder goldfish.

There were, however, some mysterious, unexplained deaths, particularly
of the bottom-dwellers. Then we had a guy from the LFS come in to
advise us on filtration and he spotted the problem: the gravel we used
we had just bought, and it was intended for fresh water use. It had
too much iron for marine. So, in addition to a complete new
undergravel, reverse flow system, we put in new sand, good quality
(ie, not cheap) ground coral. The tank now looked as good as our
finances looked horrific.

About a month later, I heard the unmistakable sound of water running
in the living room ... you guessed it, that used tank had come apart
at the seams. A neighbor happened by, and he helped me hold it
together while Lisa scrounged buckets for the fish. This was late at
night. Come morning, some had died, including a brand new nurse shark
(which we had no business buying in the first place, it turns out, he
would have outgrown the tank in no time at all), but most survived and
these we returned to the LFS, keeping only our original dog-faced
puffer and lion in a twenty we'd set up as a hospital tank. The 150
was junk.

After a few months, I even returned the dog-faced puffer and lion to
the fish store, our heart went out of the hobby.

About ten years later, however, our then three year old son won a
goldfish at some local fair ... yup. Before we knew it we had six
tanks in our three bedroom apartment in South Texas (all of the
foregoing had taken place in LA, our hometown). The last was another
marine tank, a 100 gallon. This time, however, we only had time to put
in one small puffer when my wife's work dictated a transfer to NYC. We
left the tanks to a friend.

Now, with admirable discipline--not to mention *very* rickety floors
in a second floor apartment that rents for an amazing amount of
money--we've stuck with a single forty gallon for the past five years.
Just fresh water, simple fish, plants and an overly-large Eheim

However, we just found in an abandoned closet, someone left behind a
ten with all the fittings .....

Andy Katz

____________________________________
I sentence you to kiss my ass!

The Simpsons


amk@interport.net
Andrewk271@aol.com

Bastard Nation
http://www.bastards.org
---
■ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXPost V1.14 at BBSWORLD * Info@bbsworld.com

---
* RIMEGate(tm)V10.2ß * RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS
* RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 2/10/04 11:54:03 AM
* Origin: MoonDog BBS, Brooklyn,NY, 718 692-2498, 1:278/230 (1:278/230)