For nic.b ....

[elton]

.... I mentioned in another thread about a reef tank (before it leaked) and nic asked for a photo - so here it is.

This photo was taken in December 1998 and shows the tank as it was just beginning to get established. The leak occurred in 2001 and while I did not lose my stock because of it, I technically lost the lot because while we conducted repairs to the bungalow (circa 60 gallons of salt water through the carpet and into the slab is just wonderful - Ah, I can almost smell it now!) the corals, sponges, anemonies, invertibrates etc, were being cared for in a local aquarist store who promptly sold them before going bust! Just dandy.

Regrettably, the detail is lost in the photo but you'll get the drift of it!

For scale I'll post another pic with my daughter standing next to it.

 

[elton]

Picture 2

.... and there's more ...

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

wowwwwwwwwww!!!!!! :D

just wow, elton. what a labour of love, and that must have cost a small fortune to import all those live corals and... sea anemones?

what else did you have in there, btw? i recognise some of those reef fish from pictures and from snorkeling, but i've forgotten the names.

what a damn shame about the leak.

i really enjoyed my time decades ago having aquariums and i still read up about undersea life from time to time. oh well, maybe one day in the future- but then a parrot will hopefully come before then.

 

[elton]

Even though the tank was very well filtered with 3 large external filters the balance between coral and fish is a very tentative affair with even the smallest amounts of waste being detrimental for the health of the reef. Subsequently there were only about 8-10 small (that would remain small) fish in the tank of 150 gallons of water. Although with a largish tank the marine balance (salinity, Ph and temperature) are easier to preserve.
If memory serves me right (and it has been known to be wrong!) there was a blue damsel, 2 clownfish, a flame angel, an anthias, an Eibl's angelfish, a dragon wrasse, a longnosed hawkfish and a psychedelic manderin. There were circa 5 shrimps, many anemone and hermit crabs and sea slugs. Bubble, brain and sun corals, many tube filters, mushroom and green/purple polyps that came in on live rock and a whole host of other stuff that just grew out of the stuff. That's the thing with living rock you never know what you're going to get (if anything at all).:)
The great thing about sea anemones is they move around to a place where they are happiest - you look at the reef and decide there's an emptyish spot that could use something. You buy an anemone and it looks great. Then next morning the bloody things gone walkabout!
It's a wonderful, albeit expensive hobby, but if you buy very small examples and grow on it's doable on a much smaller budget - but with a large tank it does mount up. Yeah, the whole thing took years and mucho $ to get to this state, so it was a real shitter when the leak and subsequent events occurred. Oh well. That's life, and an expensive lesson to be learnt about hoseclips that was 100% my fault and very avoidable.
The saddest part was that the store was owned and operated by a close friend who subsequently went to ground and has managed to avoid me for years!
Discussing this again makes me yearn for a return - but 3 US holidays over the past 5 years have taken over the cashflow totally, with a 4th planned for 2008 ther will be no fishkeeping for quite a few years yet - there'll be plenty of time again when the children leave home. :D

 

[elton]

By the way nic - you can keep the bloody parrot! Far too noisy and messy in the water LOL :D

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

damn, that sounds awesome. btw if you like talking about animals you should cruise by SWIFTPARROT sometime. :)

http://www.fishtaxidermist.com/unique.htm (Unique Species Florida Fish Mounts Florida Taxidermy Mounted Fish by Rick Hardy)​

The Parrot Fish. Common name for brilliantly colored fish found in tropical waters from the South Pacific to South America. Parrot fish feature large heads, short necks and strong fins. They are long lived species and adults measure anywhere from 3.5 inches to over 3.5 feet. Most Parrot Fish can mimic speech and have been known to pop up out of the water and hurl insults at fishermen. This trophy size fiberglass-resin replica comes with a solid wood bracket for wall mounting.

 

[tiltjlp]

So Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band could have been Parrot Fish instead of Parrot Heads? Weird indeed.

 

[elton]

Oh yeah ....

.... I don't remember them John, but they sound funny enough.

I did once have a tropical Cichlasoma psittacum (parrot cichlid) before I upped the stakes and moved to a marine tank. You can just about see him with a Cichlasoma friedrichsthali and Cichlasoma dovii in this picture. Would give you a nice little nip too if you weren't careful at feeding time. LOL

Not as pretty as nics picture but he lasted a damn sight longer! :D

 

[tiltjlp]

You must lead a sheltered life Elton, if you've never heard of Jimmy Buffett. But then there are a lot of singers and groups I've never heard of either, and yes, I know I live a sheltered life. I thought everyone knew Jimmy Buffett and his cool sounds. So you've never had a Cheeseburger In Paradise?

 

[elton]

Not sure about the sheltered life bit, but I've never heard of him - so can't vouch for him or his music/songs But a voice in my head says (for some reason) that I'm not missing much either.

Also, and probably the only guy on the planet apart from some inhabitants of a lost continent or desert island, to never had a cheeseburger, hamburger or beefburger either; in paradise or anywhere else. If you can't imagine the animal it came from - don't eat it is my motto!

Add to that a hot dog too :D

They all look so awful!

 

[tiltjlp]

Not sure about the sheltered life bit, but I've never heard of him - so can't vouch for him or his music/songs But a voice in my head says (for some reason) that I'm not missing much either.

Also, and probably the only guy on the planet apart from some inhabitants of a lost continent or desert island, to never had a cheeseburger, hamburger or beefburger either; in paradise or anywhere else. If you can't imagine the animal it came from - don't eat it is my motto!

Add to that a hot dog too :D

They all look so awful!

I don't eat much red meat at all myself nowadays, and never a hot dog. but as I remember, they did taste good. But I can't imagine anyone not liking Jimmy Buffett's music, but to each his own.

 

[elton]

I love red meat and eat plenty of it but in cuts from the animal in lumpy form (for want of a better description) and not minced into a pulp then shaped! LOL. Then the meat shall be shown to a brief heat source and served bloody as hell! It's cooked right if a good vet can still bring it back to life LOL :) Mmmmmmmmmm ..... delicious. Will look for a Jimmy Buffett track (somewhere) and advise on my findings. Now where did I leave that runny fillet ...

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

i remember helping my step-dad gather bushels of apples off the ground a couple months ago. at some point there was a conversation something like this:

stepdad: ...and it was just like that jimmy buffet song.
me: i hear his name mentioned sometimes but i'm not exactly sure who he is.
SD: well, do you know that song "something-caribbean-something"?
me: no.
SD: <he sings a couple verses>
me: oh sure, i guess i do know that one. so it turns out that was a jimmy buffet song?
SD: yup. and do you know this one? <sings verses from another song>
me: yeah, i've heard that one, too. so those songs are fairly representative of his work?
SD: yeah, pretty-much so.
me: wow, then i still don't understand why some people think of him as a cult hero.
SD: <shrugs>
me: <under my breath> one should never underestimate the ability of unimaginative people to elevate the mundane into the sublime.
SD: <stepdad who didn't hear me fails to react>

well, heh. the last two lines didn't actually happen. but they could have happened. :) actually i think he might have said something about the guy having a faithful audience following which made the concerts into 'events' sort of like the grateful dead phenomenon. that counts for something.

btw, elton, you've got me hungry for some raw meat now now. i eat vegetarian 90% of the time, but it's nice to eat like a caveman every once in a while. :) still, i hope you're very careful- people can easily get parasites from eating undercooked meats. possibly all the sashimi eaters are spared this because fish parasites are rarely evolved to continue their lifecycles in mammals.

 

[elton]

You've temporarily turned me off my 'blue' fillet with all that parasite talk - but it's okay, my appetite will return shortly. There is nothing on this earth that tastes like 'raw' beef. As for parasites, I don't eat pork in the sense of chops or roast. Just don't like the taste. But bacon and ham is a very different affair! Bring it on!
I reckon my taste is steered (no pun intended) by the caveman in me. You know, in one of my previous lives, I was the caveman in the cave next door to the guy who invented fire and have been cursing ever since because, from that day onward, all the food was overcooked and ruined! True. Would I lie to you

Okay, appetite back now where has that filet walked off to ....

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

is your blood type "O" by chance?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_type_diet

and yes, i recall having steak tartar in paris- a unique experience.

 

[elton]

He he ...

... a unique experience - too bloody right! Ruined steak - typical of the French! It was probably horse anyway you poor thing. Some 'orrible sauce all over it. Yuck.
Steak comes with its own sauce - blood! It's all that's needed to experience the true flavor. Personally, I prefer grain fed cattle rather than grass fed. I think the texture of the meat is better. Not that a butcher would necessarily agree with me. But hell! It's my tastebuds and they know what they like.
Anyway, if it's not bloody as hell, what do ya dip your chips (sorry, french fries) in!

And yes my blood is O but I agree with just about nothing in the link!

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

lol, elton.

man, it's going to be awhile until i have steak again. right now i'm so broke that i'm cutting thin potato slices and throwing them in a pan of hot oil because i need a potato chip diversion from the beans, rice and pasta that i've been living on the last month or two. >_<

 

[destruk]

oooh! Ramen Noodles!!! YUMMY!

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

lol, thank god it's actual pasta- angel hair, vermicelli and capellini.

i think i'd rather blow my brains out with the nearest blunt object than eat ramen for dinner like in the old days.

 

[elton]

Sounds bloody desperate nic. I'd personally take ya out to a steak lunch if I was anyway near your area - but regrettably, it's a little too far for me to travel.

We'll have to start a "Save nic from the hunger monster" campaign, or "nic needs nourishing - give NOW" (Okay I couldn't find a suitable verb beginning with n but it's still kinda catchy)

I wish I was a cartoonist that could capture the imagery of you "blowing your brains out with a blunt object"

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

lol thanks, but if i can ever get the state disability funding sorted out my life will be a lot easier.

of course this would have been a lot easier to complete before the wacko bush administration started spending our country into massive debt. this might mean a couple more years of beans and pasta, but hey- there are plenty of people starving in this world and i'm not one of them. :)

btw how do you cook your steaks- some kind of grill assembly or something else?

 

[elton]

Use an grill myself. With the gril pre heated to quite hot, show the meat for perhaps a minute or two a side - if that. Reallly, it comes down to looking at it and general experience. Much of the time the outside is sealed but the inside is literally uncooked and still cool! It's an acquired taste.

 

[Greywolf]

"Run it past the candle a couple times and hand me a knife."

 

[elton]

Absolutely spot-on. Wouldn't want to ruin it! LOL

 

[elton]

You know it's ready to eat if a good vet can still bring it back to life! :)