THE OFFICIAL ASK ALBERT THIEL THREAD

[atoll]

A COUPLE OF PIC'S TAKEN TODAY OF MY GREEN BUTTON POLYPS AND FAVIA. NO PHOTOSHOP HERE.

 

[albertthiel]

A COUPLE OF PIC'S TAKEN TODAY OF MY GREEN BUTTON POLYPS AND FAVIA. NO PHOTOSHOP HERE.

 

 

Very nice Les .... Looking good ...

 

Albert

[Paul.b]

Here are some sights at the tide pool where I collect and just hang out. You kind of need a boat to get here and there is never anyone here. I have been going here for most of my life and I anchor just off here every weekend to party which is where we were an hour ago.

Mud snails I could collect by the millions

 

 

I love to put rocks covered in barnacles in my tank as I feel they look so natural. I can also collect these all day.

 

These invasive Japanese shore crabs used to be all over the place with a few under virtually every rock but not to many this year which is a good thing.

 

 

[albertthiel]

Here are some sights at the tide pool where I collect and just hang out. You kind of need a boat to get here and there is never anyone here. I have been going here for most of my life and I anchor just off here every weekend to party which is where we were an hour ago.

Mud snails I could collect by the millions

 

 

I love to put rocks covered in barnacles in my tank as I feel they look so natural. I can also collect these all day.

 

These invasive Japanese shore crabs used to be all over the place with a few under virtually every rock but not to many this year which is a good thing.

 

 

 

Super Paul ... thanks for sharing those images and it must be a real thrill to go out there and enjoy the area and collect what you want when you feel like collecting.

 

Amazing how many mud snails there are in that image .. wow ...

 

And a good thing those invasive Japanese crabs seem to have greatly diminished in numbers from what I see and what you say.

 

Thanks

 

Albert

[Paul.b]

Albert those mud snails go on like that forever sometimes covering the mud so you can't even see any mud between the snails. They live for quite a few months in a tropical tank. I am waiting for the horseshoe crabs here to spawn as they also cover the mud with tiny babies no more than 3/16th of an inch.

I don't take those but they are such interesting creatures I just like to see them every year.

 

[albertthiel]

Albert those mud snails go on like that forever sometimes covering the mud so you can't even see any mud between the snails. They live for quite a few months in a tropical tank. I am waiting for the horseshoe crabs here to spawn as they also cover the mud with tiny babies no more than 3/16th of an inch.

I don't take those but they are such interesting creatures I just like to see them every year.

 

 

Yes I can imagine they do Paul ... and not surprised ... and on the Horseshoe crabs I agree they are the most interesting creatures to watch and it will be interesting when the "babies" are there and you get some pictures of them.

 

Btw remember those snails you sent me .. maybe 7 or 8, well I have at least 5 of them left that are doing just fine ... They dig in the sand but climb up the glass panes of the tank they are in too .

 

Albert

[Paul.b]

So I took the "Ladies" out for the moonlight cruise last night then dropped them off at my marina where they had dinner. It was Lobster night. I sat at the bar and ordered a hamburger. I wanted the Ahi Tuna burger but that was $22.00 so I went with the $18.00 hamburger. Yeah, I know. So the guy brings out this huge burger and a few feet to the right of me on the bar is a red squeeze bottle of "ketchup", so I grab it and squirt it all over my burger.

 

 

The "ketchup" is fluorescent green. So I say to the bartender, "Is this some new kind of ketchup?".

 

 

He says NO, THATS SOAP. I said, "Soap?" What kind of soap? He said he does the glasses with it. So I said "So you keep dish soap in a red squeeze ketchup bottle that virtually every diner in the United Stated keeps ketchup in, and you leave it on the bar where probably half the people coming in and sitting at the bar are eating hamburgers".

 

 

So I got a new hamburger sans the soap.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, the "girls" had a great time.

 

 

Getting back to fish, I am amazed that almost no one autopsies their fish after they die.

 

 

I remember once on the news they asked this doctor, how many autopsies he performed on dead people? He said "all the autopsies I perform are on dead people".

 

 

 

 

 

OK getting back to fish, I promise. If they find a dead person, and here in New York and especially in Manhattan they find a lot of dead bodies, they just don't look at them and say "Oh well, he has no spots so we don't know why he died?"

 

 

They don't do that because there is very little you can tell from looking at someone as to how they died. Of course if they have to pry pieces of him from in between the subway car wheels that would be an indication as the cause of death, but most of the time, they find someone laying there with a nice suit on, decent hair cut, healthy looking, but dead. That calls for an autopsy. Fish autopsies are simple and if you screw it up, most of the time the family won't complain. And, different from people, you don't have to put the dead fish body back together again to make it presentable. You can fed it to your cat so it is like recycling.

 

 

If you find a dead fish and it is not yet eaten up, just take a razor knife and cut the thing open starting at the bottom, the soft parts. Lay out the parts and look at them while trying not to squash anything as fish parts are rather delicate. You should find the swim bladder, stomach, liver and most importantly the gills. Get yourself a jeweler's loupe of at least a magnifying glass and if the fish just died you may see parasites in it's gills. Usually that is accompanied by tears in the delicate gill tissues that should look like feathers. You may also find blood in the muscles near the tail. I find that a lot in skinny fish such as copperbands or tangs and I think it comes from collection because to me I think those very sharp ribs sometimes puncture blood vessels. If you see a dark area on the side of a thin fish, that is usually internal bleeding and the fish rarely, if ever recover and Obamacare won't save them. People tell me that autopsying fish is to complicated for the average hobbiest to perform. Yes, if you are a Sissy you won't do this. But I eat fish almost every day and virtually every one of them suffocated on the deck of a ship and by me eating them or autopsying them didn't make their life any easier or harder. But if I find out why it died, I can maybe better be able to prevent it in the future. "Or" I could just flush the thing and chalk it up to the Moon God and buy another fish.

 

 

 

 

 

You can see an area on this copperband where it is just starting to show. You have to look at these fish closely but don't put your head so close to your monitor that you get grease on the screen. Below the black dot near his upper rear you can see a slighter darker area that may just look like some raised scales. That is how it starts, then it becomes darker and sometimes protrudes a little. This is very common on thin, newly collected fish.

 

 

Don't buy fish with this condition as even though it looks benign, it is caused by internal bleeding as this fish died and I autopsied it. I have seen this many times.

 

 

Those fish should have no marks or raised scales especially along the ribs.

These are 2 different fish with the same problem. Look closely

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[atoll]

Just fed both my tanks with gnat or mosquito larva not sure which I breed in a couple of buckets in my yard . Fish are going mad for them stuffing themselves with as many as they can.

[atoll]

My yellow polyps coming on nicely. Just taken this pic of them.

[albertthiel]

So I took the "Ladies" out for the moonlight cruise last night then dropped them off at my marina where they had dinner. It was Lobster night. I sat at the bar and ordered a hamburger. I wanted the Ahi Tuna burger but that was $22.00 so I went with the $18.00 hamburger. Yeah, I know. So the guy brings out this huge burger and a few feet to the right of me on the bar is a red squeeze bottle of "ketchup", so I grab it and squirt it all over my burger.

 

 

The "ketchup" is fluorescent green. So I say to the bartender, "Is this some new kind of ketchup?".

 

 

He says NO, THATS SOAP. I said, "Soap?" What kind of soap? He said he does the glasses with it. So I said "So you keep dish soap in a red squeeze ketchup bottle that virtually every diner in the United Stated keeps ketchup in, and you leave it on the bar where probably half the people coming in and sitting at the bar are eating hamburgers".

 

 

So I got a new hamburger sans the soap.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, the "girls" had a great time.

 

 

Getting back to fish, I am amazed that almost no one autopsies their fish after they die.

 

 

I remember once on the news they asked this doctor, how many autopsies he performed on dead people? He said "all the autopsies I perform are on dead people".

 

 

 

 

 

OK getting back to fish, I promise. If they find a dead person, and here in New York and especially in Manhattan they find a lot of dead bodies, they just don't look at them and say "Oh well, he has no spots so we don't know why he died?"

 

 

They don't do that because there is very little you can tell from looking at someone as to how they died. Of course if they have to pry pieces of him from in between the subway car wheels that would be an indication as the cause of death, but most of the time, they find someone laying there with a nice suit on, decent hair cut, healthy looking, but dead. That calls for an autopsy. Fish autopsies are simple and if you screw it up, most of the time the family won't complain. And, different from people, you don't have to put the dead fish body back together again to make it presentable. You can fed it to your cat so it is like recycling.

 

 

If you find a dead fish and it is not yet eaten up, just take a razor knife and cut the thing open starting at the bottom, the soft parts. Lay out the parts and look at them while trying not to squash anything as fish parts are rather delicate. You should find the swim bladder, stomach, liver and most importantly the gills. Get yourself a jeweler's loupe of at least a magnifying glass and if the fish just died you may see parasites in it's gills. Usually that is accompanied by tears in the delicate gill tissues that should look like feathers. You may also find blood in the muscles near the tail. I find that a lot in skinny fish such as copperbands or tangs and I think it comes from collection because to me I think those very sharp ribs sometimes puncture blood vessels. If you see a dark area on the side of a thin fish, that is usually internal bleeding and the fish rarely, if ever recover and Obamacare won't save them. People tell me that autopsying fish is to complicated for the average hobbiest to perform. Yes, if you are a Sissy you won't do this. But I eat fish almost every day and virtually every one of them suffocated on the deck of a ship and by me eating them or autopsying them didn't make their life any easier or harder. But if I find out why it died, I can maybe better be able to prevent it in the future. "Or" I could just flush the thing and chalk it up to the Moon God and buy another fish.

 

 

 

 

 

You can see an area on this copperband where it is just starting to show. You have to look at these fish closely but don't put your head so close to your monitor that you get grease on the screen. Below the black dot near his upper rear you can see a slighter darker area that may just look like some raised scales. That is how it starts, then it becomes darker and sometimes protrudes a little. This is very common on thin, newly collected fish.

 

 

Don't buy fish with this condition as even though it looks benign, it is caused by internal bleeding as this fish died and I autopsied it. I have seen this many times.

 

 

Those fish should have no marks or raised scales especially along the ribs.

These are 2 different fish with the same problem. Look closely

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very interesting Paul and hopefully this will result in more Hobbyists performing autopsies on fish that die in their tanks ...

 

And thanks for the info on the internal damage and bleeding, I think that not too many Hobbyists pay attention to it and will from now on.

 

Sorry to reply belatedly but have not been feeling well for the last few days and neither has my wife (who was in the Hospital for 6 days and was discharged about a week and a half ago).

 

Taking it easy till I feel better

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

Just fed both my tanks with gnat or mosquito larva not sure which I breed in a couple of buckets in my yard . Fish are going mad for them stuffing themselves with as many as they can.

 

Nice ... and I guess you have plenty more to feed them ...

 

How long are they surviving in the SW ?

 

Thanks Les

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

My yellow polyps coming on nicely. Just taken this pic of them.

 

They are looking real nice indeed Les ...

 

Thanks for sharing

 

Albert

[atoll]

They swim until they are eaten which is a very short time given the fish eat them up as fast as they can Albert. I don't know how long they would survive in SW if left uneaten though.

Nice ... and I guess you have plenty more to feed them ...

 

How long are they surviving in the SW ?

 

Thanks Les

 

Albert

Hhere is a short (ish) article I wrote some years ago I came across the other day so I thought I would share it with you.

Reef Watching.

Now this might sound very strange to many on first reading it which is not at all to be unexpected after all who needs to be told how to watch their tank right? Nobody would tell you how to watch you TV for instance so why your reef tank? However in the 35years I have been keeping a marine aquarium on and off (mainly on) I firmly believe many people don’t have much of a clue how to really watch their reef aquarium to get maximum pleasure out of it. How many people spend more than a few minutes watching what is going on in their aquarium?

 

IMO many people spend more time with their hands in the tank, doing maintenance and fiddling with it one way or another than actually watching their aquarium. There can be many reasons for not taking in the pleasures of watching our reefs ranging from not enough time in the day to not watching their reef aquarium because they simply don’t know how to. Very strange, well maybe not as much as you might think.

Many years ago and before the net was nothing more than something you used to catch your fish in I wrote an article for a club magazine which I still have in my loft with a pile of other old fish keeping magazines about watching our reef aquariums. I wrote it for the B.M.A.A’s (British marine Aquarists Association) mag “Marinews” which caused quite a stir. There maybe a few of you who remember the old B.M.A.A and its quarterly magazine “Marinews” on here who knows. Anyway I digress. So what I would like to do is give you my idea of how to watch your tank/reef not that I want to patronise people on here you understand. I just want to give some people an idea or three on what should turn out to be a very enjoyable hour or two watching their aquarium.

 

So let’s get on with it.

Firstly and most importantly we need to pick an evening (preferably) when we are not expecting visitors ideally an evening when we are on our own. If that’s not possible then a period after the kids are in bed and the Mrs will be watching her favourite soaps or whatever. (sorry I didn’t want to sound all Jeremy Clarkson (well known sexist and bigot here in the UK) UK here) Better still if she is in another room unless you are going to do this together and why not. Right got the idea? OK the time to tank watch is at least half to an hour prior to your lights going out or at least going into night mode. We will need a few essentials like. Your favourite tipple (could be a four pack) sweets, crisps or whatever. A comfy chair (oh no NOT the COMFY chair! A la Monty pythonesk) well you are going to be sitting in it for a while so comfort is definitely a requirement. If you feed your fish or corals before lights off have the food ready by your side. You may also want to have a pen and writing pad near you so you can make notes if you wish.

Now we need to take a little time familiarising ourselves with our aquarium. By that I mean spend some time just looking over your reefscape and corals in detail checking out each and every nook and cranny and inspecting each coral both close up and from our chosen chair. Now we need to darken the room we are in as much as possible. The brightest thing in our room will be the aquarium anyway but we need to switch off all the main lights in the room and reduce light pollution as much as possible. Maybe just have a small low wattage table lamp low down and close by. The reason for this is so our fish can’t see us or any movement outside of their own environment. What they will mostly see is a mirror image and their own reflections in the front glass without seeing any movement outside the tank which is most important. Any movements by you should be slow, nothing sudden and with as little noise as possible.

Settle back in your chair and watch. You can concentrate on say a single fish at a time, a shoal or even a single coral at a time. You can simply concentrate and watch one area of your tank for say 10 minutes or so. Maybe just watch what is going on in and on the living rock or that single coral for a while.

 

Watch out for any change in behaviour of fish and corals as dusk falls upon our aquarium. While the light gets dimmer and dimmer you will often (hopefully) see a change in certain fish and corals. Possibly the appearance of animals you didn’t know you had may appear out of the rock work. various worms, copepods, amphipods etc and god forbid the odd nasty may surprise us. Check out the surface of the living sand if you have it and you should begin to see lots of little animals appear as the tank gets darker by the minute.

Feed your fish and or corals as you would normally that’s if you do. It may be a good idea to feed and see what emerges from the rock work and sand anyway. If you have some form of red light then of course switch this on at the normal time and after the all lights have gone out, switch off any blue night lights to use red lights. Most of you will know fish etc do not see red light and so to them the tank appears dark. When the main lights go out and the tank dims many fish will go into night mode. Many will drain of colour; many will seek out their favourite sleeping place and become less active even disappear into the substrate.

 

By this time you should be on your final can of beer and not as observant as you were when you started. This is the time to drink up and go to bed or down to the pub for last orders that is if the Missus will allow you.

I am sure many could add to the above so why not feel free to do so. Happy reef watching I hope you found it enjoyable.

 

Les.

[albertthiel]

They swim until they are eaten which is a very short time given the fish eat them up as fast as they can Albert. I don't know how long they would survive in SW if left uneaten though.

 

Hhere is a short (ish) article I wrote some years ago I came across the other day so I thought I would share it with you.

Reef Watching.

Now this might sound very strange to many on first reading it which is not at all to be unexpected after all who needs to be told how to watch their tank right? Nobody would tell you how to watch you TV for instance so why your reef tank? However in the 35years I have been keeping a marine aquarium on and off (mainly on) I firmly believe many people don’t have much of a clue how to really watch their reef aquarium to get maximum pleasure out of it. How many people spend more than a few minutes watching what is going on in their aquarium?

 

IMO many people spend more time with their hands in the tank, doing maintenance and fiddling with it one way or another than actually watching their aquarium. There can be many reasons for not taking in the pleasures of watching our reefs ranging from not enough time in the day to not watching their reef aquarium because they simply don’t know how to. Very strange, well maybe not as much as you might think.

Many years ago and before the net was nothing more than something you used to catch your fish in I wrote an article for a club magazine which I still have in my loft with a pile of other old fish keeping magazines about watching our reef aquariums. I wrote it for the B.M.A.A’s (British marine Aquarists Association) mag “Marinews” which caused quite a stir. There maybe a few of you who remember the old B.M.A.A and its quarterly magazine “Marinews” on here who knows. Anyway I digress. So what I would like to do is give you my idea of how to watch your tank/reef not that I want to patronise people on here you understand. I just want to give some people an idea or three on what should turn out to be a very enjoyable hour or two watching their aquarium.

 

So let’s get on with it.

Firstly and most importantly we need to pick an evening (preferably) when we are not expecting visitors ideally an evening when we are on our own. If that’s not possible then a period after the kids are in bed and the Mrs will be watching her favourite soaps or whatever. (sorry I didn’t want to sound all Jeremy Clarkson (well known sexist and bigot here in the UK) UK here) Better still if she is in another room unless you are going to do this together and why not. Right got the idea? OK the time to tank watch is at least half to an hour prior to your lights going out or at least going into night mode. We will need a few essentials like. Your favourite tipple (could be a four pack) sweets, crisps or whatever. A comfy chair (oh no NOT the COMFY chair! A la Monty pythonesk) well you are going to be sitting in it for a while so comfort is definitely a requirement. If you feed your fish or corals before lights off have the food ready by your side. You may also want to have a pen and writing pad near you so you can make notes if you wish.

Now we need to take a little time familiarising ourselves with our aquarium. By that I mean spend some time just looking over your reefscape and corals in detail checking out each and every nook and cranny and inspecting each coral both close up and from our chosen chair. Now we need to darken the room we are in as much as possible. The brightest thing in our room will be the aquarium anyway but we need to switch off all the main lights in the room and reduce light pollution as much as possible. Maybe just have a small low wattage table lamp low down and close by. The reason for this is so our fish can’t see us or any movement outside of their own environment. What they will mostly see is a mirror image and their own reflections in the front glass without seeing any movement outside the tank which is most important. Any movements by you should be slow, nothing sudden and with as little noise as possible.

Settle back in your chair and watch. You can concentrate on say a single fish at a time, a shoal or even a single coral at a time. You can simply concentrate and watch one area of your tank for say 10 minutes or so. Maybe just watch what is going on in and on the living rock or that single coral for a while.

 

Watch out for any change in behaviour of fish and corals as dusk falls upon our aquarium. While the light gets dimmer and dimmer you will often (hopefully) see a change in certain fish and corals. Possibly the appearance of animals you didn’t know you had may appear out of the rock work. various worms, copepods, amphipods etc and god forbid the odd nasty may surprise us. Check out the surface of the living sand if you have it and you should begin to see lots of little animals appear as the tank gets darker by the minute.

Feed your fish and or corals as you would normally that’s if you do. It may be a good idea to feed and see what emerges from the rock work and sand anyway. If you have some form of red light then of course switch this on at the normal time and after the all lights have gone out, switch off any blue night lights to use red lights. Most of you will know fish etc do not see red light and so to them the tank appears dark. When the main lights go out and the tank dims many fish will go into night mode. Many will drain of colour; many will seek out their favourite sleeping place and become less active even disappear into the substrate.

 

By this time you should be on your final can of beer and not as observant as you were when you started. This is the time to drink up and go to bed or down to the pub for last orders that is if the Missus will allow you.

I am sure many could add to the above so why not feel free to do so. Happy reef watching I hope you found it enjoyable.

 

Les.

 

Indeed Les watching the aquarium for a good length of time and watching all areas of the tank is a very good practice so thank you for bringing that up in a humorous manner.

 

I like the last part too btw after the watching is done and a trip to the pub is in order

 

Albert

[atoll]

Thank's Albert. I will be taking such a trip later on this evening for my regular Friday night ...ermmm medication. I only drink for medicinal purposes you understand as I can't stand the stuff (beer) but needs must.

[albertthiel]

Thank's Albert. I will be taking such a trip later on this evening for my regular Friday night ...ermmm medication. I only drink for medicinal purposes you understand as I can't stand the stuff (beer) but needs must.

 

A few pints of bitter never hurt ..

 

Enjoy

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

For those who have not seen a review of my Nano Reef Aquariums Book, you can go here : (with an internal link to our Web Site)

 

http://reefbuilders.com/2013/06/14/albert-thiel-nano-reef-aquariums

Albert

[atoll]

Albert I have seen on other forums 2 people asking where they can buy your book one even PMd me asking me if I knew anybody selling your book. I informed both your book is now out of print and that it probably not be reprinted but could be had as an e book from you. However both are looking for a hard copy. I think I was right in suggesting there would not be a reprinting of your book but let me know if I am wrong. Thanks

[albertthiel]

Albert I have seen on other forums 2 people asking where they can buy your book one even PMd me asking me if I knew anybody selling your book. I informed both your book is now out of print and that it probably not be reprinted but could be had as an e book from you. However both are looking for a hard copy. I think I was right in suggesting there would not be a reprinting of your book but let me know if I am wrong. Thanks

 

You are correct Les but the e-Version is available and is quite popular thanks to the LOW price that it is being sold for ($20.00)

 

Thanks for passing that information on to those who emailed you or got in touch with you. I appreciate it.

 

Albert

[atoll]

Good news for those with larger aquariums wishing to employ an Oxydator. The large Oxydator "W" is now available from Seahorse breeder in the UK. The "W" version of the Oxydator will do a marine aquarium I estimate of around 500 gallons maybe more depending on the concentration of Hydrogen peroxide used and the number of catalysts used. Here is a pic taken from Adrian's eBay shop.

[albertthiel]

Good news for those with larger aquariums wishing to employ an Oxydator. The large Oxydator "W" is now available from Seahorse breeder in the UK. The "W" version of the Oxydator will do a marine aquarium I estimate of around 500 gallons maybe more depending on the concentration of Hydrogen peroxide used and the number of catalysts used. Here is a pic taken from Adrian's eBay shop.

 

That is good news indeed

 

Pity it is not available in the US (still not - not even the smaller units)

 

Wonder when they "will" be available

 

Albert

[atoll]

That is the million dollar question and a complete mystery to me Albert. In fact I only stumbled on the "W" completely by accident. I have PMd Adrian telling him off for not announcing it being available lol.

[albertthiel]

That is the million dollar question and a complete mystery to me Albert. In fact I only stumbled on the "W" completely by accident. I have PMd Adrian telling him off for not announcing it being available lol.

 

Yes indeed Les .. who knows when or whether they will be available here ....

 

And good of you to send Adrian that note

 

Albert

[atoll]

A question posed on another forum about Oxydators and the risk of a leak with my answer below.

"If the container leaks, for whatever reason, Are you in danger of a tank crash ?"

The chances of a container leak are less than your tank leaking somewhere. The container (acrylic) is sealed with a screw stopper. I have never heard of one of the screw stopper Oxydators ever leaking. There are lots of things more likely to crash your tank than one of these leaking. If your poured 1/2ltr of peroxide into your tank or it leaked quickly then of course it would probably crash your tank. However I can't honestly see one of these leaking. I have head of the lot smaller "D" version leaking as the user didn't put the PUSH cap on it properly but it didn't crash his nano tank.

[atoll]

An interesting article on Redox by Randy Holmes-Farley.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/rhf/feature/