Okay, so I have been a little destabilised lately I won't turn this into a crying thread.

I'm going to sort of use this as a free form reminisce.

The old "bar sinister" who taught me most of what I know of tropical fish keeping was a truely irrascible ol' cuss named Richard Franklin. He was the owner operator of Brisbane Tropical in Brisbane, California. He was a professional gambler as well. Most of his gambling associates were "not nice" people. He was bald with a white fringe and everybody always said he would make a good "Prof. Challenger" in a movie.

And while he of course had a bank account for his business and other expenditures his gambling funds were always kept in the Bank of The Left Front Pocket. As such he always carried a .38 in his right front pocket. All legal mind you. What he reffered to as a "Frenchman's (cough, cough)". This will come up later.

As he put it he had "fish friends" and "gambling friends" and he didn't like introducing one set to the other because several of the latter were professional grifters. I met one or two peripherally and found them to be frighteningly predatory and deceitful creatures.

Now he had a huge store he kept up and running for 28 years. For decades he specialized in mature cichlids of different sorts, and the large tank mates needed to go with them. He had a nice saltwater section but then in the 90's he fell in love with coral husbandry and the salt section expanded expotentialy.

That's where I learned to keep corals alive. My personal favorite being Porites corals with the commenseral christmas tree worms. I'm sure everything I know is obsolete now. But I think I could swing it given the right budget and some catch up time. Too bad I've become deathly allergic to corals and cnidarians in general. God's way of saying "find another line of work".

Now we had tanks on top of tanks in this place. Over 300 tanks and only 30 of them 20 gallons or smaller, mainly the "classic aquarium" fishs and the african cichlids. Behind the counter we had a 940 gallon aquarium which always had a half a dozen or so large arowannas and a giant red tailed catfish.

I have so many wierd stories about this place, I don't know where to begin. But I have to rest now though. I'll be back.

BD.

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In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales

Hey, BD! Welcome back.

Looking forward to your fish stories. I had a pet fish, once. A tiny catfish in a one gallon octoganal tank. He harvested the algae.

Yes he did. I watched him...he never ate all of the algae in the tank. He always kept one or two panels with algae on them. I found that facsinating, considering his brain was so tiny.

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Salty
"...with God, all things are possible..." Even evolution

Finally we will be getting the fish stories.
I'm about to be addicted to this thread.

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This whole internet thing is probably not a passing fad.-Ronald Brak
While speech might be free, consequences cost.-Doodler

I think we are kinda addicted to BD, mfumbesi!

edit:
BD, could you kinda tape them at the same time, as writing here...like an oral history / speaking book....!?

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clear skies

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. CARL SAGAN

Mak: Pass the pepperoni please.
Fazor: "Hail, Bautainia! We pledge our hearts to thee! Science and woo, some babbling too, and astron-oh-meee!"
slang: And it made ash out of yew and tree.

Hey Mahesh!

I still have that "friends invite" you sent, I just haven't figured out how to reply to it. Every time I think I have it right it still isn't replied to.

Now Brisbane Tropical was open 10 AM to 10 PM, six days a week, closed Wednesdays. As such it was often interesting at night due to drunks wandering out of the local bars and seeing a light on. That and our regular customers often resembled a Fellini casting call to begin with. It was a widely varied customer base. From Genentech Ph.d's to some serious underworld types from the 'hood. I'm talking about limos pulling up and bodyguards coming in and checking the place out prior to their boss coming in to hobnob with my boss, as we had several rivals who were regular customers and they took rivalry differently than let's say Hostess Cupcakes and Little Debbie Cupcakes. Least ways I presume as much.

I got into tropical fish keeping as soon as I had gotten out of the Navy in '82. Used part of my mustering out pay to buy my first twenty gallon tank which has been up and running ever since. It's in my kitchen housing a Nigerian bicher and a trio of mature Ctenopoma acutirostre http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_C...cutirostre.php at the moment.

I'm going to move them on to a friend with a bigger tank. I have to move them on because I'm seeing small signs their health is being impacted from being in too small a tank. Plus the tank they are in could use a break from the high nitrate output a carnivore tank often sees. Though the main issue is actually lipids fouling the tank.

I've got to start using carbon filtration again as I've slowed down the water changes considerably. Didn't see a need to run carbon when I was changing the water twice a week. I've slowed down a wee bit and until a week ago or so I was too proud to admit I can't maintain the tanks like they should be kept.

So I'm going to simplify things a bit and move away from the delicate, soft acidic water guys and go for saline, alkaline loving fish like livebearers. As the salt suppresses most diseases before they start and my tap water is so hard I've been getting carbonate chunks since that 4.0 earthquake a couple of months back, I'm thinking of wild form guppies and black mollies. Maybe a couple of the better behaved gobies like the butterfly or bumblebee.

When selecting black mollies look for silver irises in their eyes, a sign of wild caught or close enough to it, fish. They tend to be hardier. (Sounded like a green grocer there for a second.) Don't thump the mollies though, unlike cantelopes the fish don't like it.

Okay, I had planned this to be longer but I have to rest yet again. Typing makes me dizzy of late. So I'm going to quit before the room turns sideways and/or gravity becomes irresistable.

Hey, flying cow! wait a minute...why would my new meds make cows fly?

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In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales

Hey BD don't want to interrupt your flow....
nice of you to mention the invite. we are friends any way, BD.
we shouldn't have to say it in so many words. that's ok!

here's a cyber handshake and a jovial thump on the back!
and Hi to B B Boo! hey i must go see Boo!

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clear skies

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. CARL SAGAN

Mak: Pass the pepperoni please.
Fazor: "Hail, Bautainia! We pledge our hearts to thee! Science and woo, some babbling too, and astron-oh-meee!"
slang: And it made ash out of yew and tree.

"User CP" -> "Contacts & Friends"
Check the box near Mahesh that says Friend
Click "Save Changes"

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‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Thud, I'm addicted.

__________________
This whole internet thing is probably not a passing fad.-Ronald Brak
While speech might be free, consequences cost.-Doodler

Thanks for the story.

I know what you mean, about meds' side effects. I take two different medications with side effects. Gotta take it easy and get your rest, just like you said.

__________________
Salty
"...with God, all things are possible..." Even evolution