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THE OFFICIAL ASK ALBERT THIEL THREAD

ZephNYC

By ZephNYC,
in General Discussion

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  • albertthiel

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Christopher Marks
Christopher Marks

Your message did not go unnoticed. I felt that your personal announcement of his passing was more appropriate than anything I could say, it only seemed fitting that it should come from a friend in the

flypenfly
flypenfly

Baby stingrays, just because.  

albertthiel
albertthiel

So Here is What the Book will Look Like ....         Nicely done indeed as this is a rendering based on the cover I posted ! And it was done by Brad in the UK ! Thanks Brad !   Albert

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albertthiel

albertthiel

Posted
Posted

My closest friend and dive partner, Richie Natoli just moved to Key Largo and here is a couple of pictures he sent me,

Below water

Fish%20in%20Mangrove_zpsd99p2bgw.png

And above

Mangrove%20tree_zpsqcphe30a.png

Very nicePaul

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atoll

atoll

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Posted

Just did another reply well last night to that post you made Paul on Saltwater Smarts but I had been out with friends for a few beers before I posted it lol

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StinkyBunny

StinkyBunny

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Posted

Oils or EFAs are the best things for fish or humans. Like Paul, I take krill and fish oils every day. I couldn't function without it with my RA being as bad as it is. I feed my fish a lot of mysid shrimp, plankton, krill and what we call down here jumping mullet, a very oily fish and they love it. You couldn't pay me to eat them, but the fish love them, now calamari is a different story.

 

Edit:

I have all sorts of watchman gobies, Antenna, Harbour, spotted as well as their pistol shrimp commensals. If you have a small tank, they're great, the pistol shrimp keeps the sand turned over as they never stop building and repairing their tunnels.

 

This is Sarge and Digger Dan, my wife named them, lol.

 

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StinkyBunny

StinkyBunny

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I have some fresh calamari we caught at the Indian River Inlet just north of Ocean City, Md that I need to get out and stuff with crab meat. We need to have a get together some time Paul. I'll swing down to NC to a friends and get 50 lbs of shrimp and some fresh picked crab meat. I have a guy for that, lol.

 

Here's a picture of the yellow watchman that came in in the last shipment.

xqQAaie.jpg

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albertthiel

albertthiel

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I have some fresh calamari we caught at the Indian River Inlet just north of Ocean City, Md that I need to get out and stuff with crab meat. We need to have a get together some time Paul. I'll swing down to NC to a friends and get 50 lbs of shrimp and some fresh picked crab meat. I have a guy for that, lol.

 

Here's a picture of the yellow watchman that came in in the last shipment.

xqQAaie.jpg

Very nice

 

Albert

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Paul.b

Paul.b

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I finally found a use for the waste water from RO/DI. It was looking me in the face for years and all of a sudden as I was looking at my worm tank I said. "Like Duh". I am wasting all this water and my blackworm tank is right under my RO unit. So now the waste water goes into the worm keeper, then to a drain. My tank evaporates about a gallon a day so that makes about 4 gallons of waste water. My worm tank only holds about 2 gallons so it is a win win situation.

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albertthiel

albertthiel

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I finally found a use for the waste water from RO/DI. It was looking me in the face for years and all of a sudden as I was looking at my worm tank I said. "Like Duh". I am wasting all this water and my blackworm tank is right under my RO unit. So now the waste water goes into the worm keeper, then to a drain. My tank evaporates about a gallon a day so that makes about 4 gallons of waste water. My worm tank only holds about 2 gallons so it is a win win situation.

 

Great idea Paul

 

Albert

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Paul.b

Paul.b

Posted
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Two Methodologies to keep a reef tank

 

There are actually two very different methodiologies to run a reef tank. I am not talking about dosers, controllers, bio pellets, etc. I am talking about either qurantining everything or not quarantining anything but keeping everything immune. There are advantages and dis-advantages of each method.

I will start with the benefits of quarantining. Of course the theory here is to keep disease organisms out of our tanks by keeping the fish, corals and every thing else we put in our tanks seperate from the rest of the livestock for a long enough period where we think parasites would live out their life cycle. At the end of the parasite's life cycle, if we don't see any new parasites, we assume there are none and the fish can be acclimated to our tank. In a quarantine tank we will also examine the occupants to see if we notice any disease organisms or problems so we can then medicate for that particular problem. Some people medicate the quarantine tank for parasites and bacterial infections just to make sure the creature is healthy before exposing it to the existing livestock. ( I used to do that years ago) Many people believe that a new fish is stressed and life in a quarantine tank would be better because that fish can be hand fed and kept away from possable bullies. The fish can be fattened up without having to contend with faster fish that were in the tank longer and would steal all of the food. That, as we all know is the theory of quarantining.

Now for the disadvantages of a quarantined tank. Virtually all quarantine tanks are much smaller and less decorated than a real reef. The hiding places will be something like PVC elbows, glass, flowerpots or pictures of your girlfriend. The circulation will be much different than the fish is acustomed to as will be the lighting. We will "dote" on the fish more and no matter how good looking we think we are, the fish do not like looking at us all the time with no where but a PVC fitting to hide in. The fish will have no place to forage or feel secure. They will also have to stay in this small tank for a long period of time, usually 72 days. Almost all fish like to look for food continousely, even if they just ate. But if kept in a smaller, bare tank for an extended period, they stop looking for food as they know there isn't any. They will develop a blank look on their face from boredom. OK, stop laughing. If you don't believe me, lock yourself in your bathroom for 72 days with just some PVC elbows to look at. Then look in the mirror and see what you look like.

The main disadvantage of quarantined fish, is they lose some or all of their immunity from everything. Immunity only lasts so long if the fish is not exposed to a disease organism. This immunity varies with the species. This may not be much of a disadvantage in a tank where everything is quarantined because the fish should never be exposed to a disease organism in such a tank. But the fish will "never" be as healthy as it could be because a fishes immune system helps the fish stay healthy even if it is not exposed to a pathogen. Also when a fish spawns, the female fish passes that immunity to it's fry to keep it safe until it grows it's own slime with it's associated immunity just as our babies also pick up immunity from their Mothers which protects them until they are exposed to pathogens and can develop their own immunity. Also fish, like us depend on bacteria in their guts to digest food. It has been shown recently that fish (and us) depend on that gut bacteria for general health. A quarantined fish will only have the bacteris in it's gut from it's food. And in a quarantine tank, that food will be sterile because we would not want to feed live food to a fish in quarantine for fear we would add pathogens. Of course the biggest concern is accidently introducing a disease organism into a tank of fish with no immunity. You can easily find a plethora of tanks that crashed to disease even though they have been quarantined.

 

Now I will discuss the benefits of "not" quarantining and keeping the fish immune from disease. At first this seems silly and as so many people point out this is like playing Russian Roulette. I have never been to Russia so I can't comment on that. But the benefits of having immune fish are many. We can buy a fish, coral or crustacean and after a short acclimation, put it right in our tank. We can also collect natural sea water or creatures from the sea that we may want to use as food such as amphipods, worms, snails etc. If our fish are truely immune, we will never have any use for medications or a hospital tank. These fish will be healthier than quarantined fish (all else being equal) because the fishes immune system does more for a fish than our immune system does for us. An immune fish will never get sick. It may get a swim bladder disease, popeye or have an accident, but it will never become infected from bacteria or parasites. If it does, it was not truely immune, now was it?

 

Trying to get and keep fish immune also has disadvantages. First off all the fish we buy are stressed and maybe all of them have some sort of malady, either in the form of parasites or bacteria. Even if the rest of our fish are immune, the new one is not and may succumb to disease after it is introduced to the tank. The new fish may be weak and scared so it may not find enough food. If the fish we buy was at the dealer's for a long time it was probably swimming in water treated with copper or antibiotics as many dealers have to use such measures to keep fish healthy "looking" until they are sold. Those fish will all have a very weak immune system and if our tank was not quarantined there will be parasites, viruses and bacteria sitting there just waiting for such a fish. So the introduction phase of a non quarantined fish has it's dangers and we may lose some fish. I have not found this to happen but I can't explain why. I can, and do add fish from all different places including the sea and never in over 35 years have any of them ever had a disease. But to keep fish in this condition they should be fed either fresh or live food such as clams, fish or the best thing live blackworms. Frozen foods would be the second choice but dry foods shoulsd be used very rarely or not at all. It is not that dry foods are bad or they don't have the proper nutrients. It is that they are sterile and will not allow the immune system to recognize a threat and make antibodies against it. Much of a fishes immune system is in it's slime and the correct foods "with" it's associated bacteria are necessary to get and keep a fish immune.

 

Of course if you don't believe in immunity, (or Bigfoot) you just wasted ten minutes reading this. And should stop calling me names. I also think that newbees to this hobby should "always" quarantine until such time where you can recognize subtle problems with fish. This can take a number of years and is not an overnight thing. As I said quarantining has advantages and is easier to do for a newcomer to the hobby. Many tanks of fish have been lost to disease and fish with a weak immune system will sicken and die within a day or two. It is not easy to tell if your fish are immune and only experience will tell you that. But if you started the hobby one or two years ago, feed your fish mostly dry food like flakes or pellets and your fish are not spawning I can quarantee they are not immune and you should be careful and quarantine everything.

Now I know the majority of people do not agree with me. I did not write this to be agreeable. I wrote it from the experience of doing this for six decades. I could be wrong and would like to hear your thoughts and opinions. You can even call me names because I am old and probably wouldn't understand those names. Also my birthday is on Christmas Day so I am in a good mood and no amount of name calling will change that.

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