away from him. That's all I want.
What are you doing today?
- Thread starter connorlindeman
- Start date
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
So, I had bagged up 34 x F1 L173 last evening and finished at midnight. Today the buyer flew in from IL. I met him at the local airport at 11:20. I transferred the fish to him and he placed them in his carry on bag. He paid me $many k (part in cash and part sent via Zelle.) and got back onto the same plane leaving at 12:15 which was turned around to fly back to IL.
Drinks on you.
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
I just heard from the buyer. All the fish arrived fine and he made the fast turn around. This sale will let me close down another tank. But i am overrun by unwanted bristlenose babies- albinos and super reds.
He left Ill on a flight here at 9 in the morning my time, I dropped off the fish to him at 11:15 at the local airport and he was flying back by 12:30. He landed about 2:45 and then had to drive an hour to get home. Then he would have been unbagging his fish and the other gent getting them was picking up his.
He called me at about 6:30 to report the fish were in his tank and doing great and that all had handled the trip fine.
It was a good day for 3 fish keepers. because of the fact that I discount the price by 20% for pocking up and one also saves the shipping, these folks saved about $2,450. I am sure it did not cost anywhere near that to fly round trip to here and back.
Yesterday I set up the fish to be bagged between 6 and 8 in the evening. I started to bag the at 10pm and was finished before midnight. From the time the fish went into the bags to when they were back in tanks was about 18 hours.
He left Ill on a flight here at 9 in the morning my time, I dropped off the fish to him at 11:15 at the local airport and he was flying back by 12:30. He landed about 2:45 and then had to drive an hour to get home. Then he would have been unbagging his fish and the other gent getting them was picking up his.
He called me at about 6:30 to report the fish were in his tank and doing great and that all had handled the trip fine.
It was a good day for 3 fish keepers. because of the fact that I discount the price by 20% for pocking up and one also saves the shipping, these folks saved about $2,450. I am sure it did not cost anywhere near that to fly round trip to here and back.
Yesterday I set up the fish to be bagged between 6 and 8 in the evening. I started to bag the at 10pm and was finished before midnight. From the time the fish went into the bags to when they were back in tanks was about 18 hours.
Do you run a brick and mortar business or are you a hobbyist that sells what he breeds?
today I got the buckeye tree planted, the Maximillian sunflower moved to a sunnier spot, one load of compost out of the pile, found opening buds on my seriously confused redbud tree, helper showed up and fixed the leak on the washer cold faucet, other helper showed up and pressure washed upper pond, apparently when i left it low over the bottom leak some critter with claws got in there and couldn't get back out. about a dozen patches later, it's full and testing for leaks overnight. Without pressure washing we never could have found those scratches. Chalk is a wonderful tool. and Today Sadie learned Down and started working on Stay.
He is a hobbist who specialize in pleco mostly zebra. As he has become rather aged he is slowly shutting down his aquarium as it has become difficult to service them. As a kid - relatively speaking - it is hard to imagine that one day you will be old but alas it will eventually happen to all of us who do not die before we become old. If you are in decent health you should be fine till you are in your 80's but for most by the mid to late 80s lifiting 100's of pounds of water will become an issue.... in fact for many even walking up and down steps 10 times a day will become difficult though a few lucky ones will be able to keep up with it till their 90s and a lot of unhealty ones will find it difficuilt even in their 70s.
don't smoke
don't drink
and get 40 hours of exercise a week.
I’m in my 70s and lift weights for an hour every other day. On the off days I jog a few miles a day. I’m preparing for my 80s and hopefully my 90s too.
MattW
Sᴜᴘᴘᴏʀᴛɪɴɢ Mᴇᴍʙᴇʀ ?
Staff member
3x Tank of the Month 🏆
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Odd question to ask. But does anyone have any experience/knowledge with 1930-40s Ariel Motorbikes?
*Reddit came to the rescue was a 1928 model I was looking for
*Reddit came to the rescue was a 1928 model I was looking for
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TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
I fell in love with zebra plecos the very first time I saw a picture of them in my Baensch Aquarium Atlas. That book was responsible for many of the fish which I ultimately kepp and it also prevented me from getting a lot of species I should not have tried to keep.
The more I learned about zebras the more I became interested in the other B&W Hypancistrus found in the Big Bend of the Xingu River in Brazil. Over time I managed to accumulate a number of them. I am, and always have been a hobby, breeder. What I learned was that the more fry one gets, the more fish that will need to be rehomed. I started with tank strains bristlenose- long fins were my first ones. They are pretty prolific and they did not sell for much. Plus not many people want to get more than 5. So I was always workig hard rehome them and losing money doing it.
And then came the chance to buy a proven breeding group of zebras. I took a chance, broke into an IRA to pay for them and got very lucky. One box of 6 zebras sold for the same amount as about 180 bristlenose. The zebras paid for themselves withing about 18 months, then then paid me back for every dollar I had spent in the hobby from day one. And then they paid for the next species I got.
Most of the plecos I worked with were either endangered or hard to find at best. I have always only sold them in groups as I wanted them to end up with hobbyists who wanted to breed them. This meant they would get into the hands of more keepers and do so as tank raised fish as opposed to those taken from the wild where that was not legal and/or difficult at best.
The journey from those first bristlenose in 2002 until today has been a blast. One of the best parts of it has been the fact that it generated enough cash to allow me to support sites and organizations that do things that benefit the hobby. I was able to be as ponsor at weekend events, to donate to sites and to conservation efforts.
The best part of it was the breeding and selling enabled me to keep species I could otherwise not have afforded to buy. While the above may sound like it was easy, it took 20+ years to bring me to where things are today. Which is giving most of it up. At my peak I was 5"5' and a15 pounds. Gravity has shaved almost two inches off of that. Where I used to be able to carry a 5 gal. bucket of water in each hand and tote them from one end of the house to the other, today I cannot do 1/2 of that.
it is not fair to the fish to keep them if I cannot give them the proper care. But, to quote Little Feat from their song, Old Folks Boogie on their album, Time Loves a Hero.
"And you know that you're over the hill
When your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill"
The more I learned about zebras the more I became interested in the other B&W Hypancistrus found in the Big Bend of the Xingu River in Brazil. Over time I managed to accumulate a number of them. I am, and always have been a hobby, breeder. What I learned was that the more fry one gets, the more fish that will need to be rehomed. I started with tank strains bristlenose- long fins were my first ones. They are pretty prolific and they did not sell for much. Plus not many people want to get more than 5. So I was always workig hard rehome them and losing money doing it.
And then came the chance to buy a proven breeding group of zebras. I took a chance, broke into an IRA to pay for them and got very lucky. One box of 6 zebras sold for the same amount as about 180 bristlenose. The zebras paid for themselves withing about 18 months, then then paid me back for every dollar I had spent in the hobby from day one. And then they paid for the next species I got.
Most of the plecos I worked with were either endangered or hard to find at best. I have always only sold them in groups as I wanted them to end up with hobbyists who wanted to breed them. This meant they would get into the hands of more keepers and do so as tank raised fish as opposed to those taken from the wild where that was not legal and/or difficult at best.
The journey from those first bristlenose in 2002 until today has been a blast. One of the best parts of it has been the fact that it generated enough cash to allow me to support sites and organizations that do things that benefit the hobby. I was able to be as ponsor at weekend events, to donate to sites and to conservation efforts.
The best part of it was the breeding and selling enabled me to keep species I could otherwise not have afforded to buy. While the above may sound like it was easy, it took 20+ years to bring me to where things are today. Which is giving most of it up. At my peak I was 5"5' and a15 pounds. Gravity has shaved almost two inches off of that. Where I used to be able to carry a 5 gal. bucket of water in each hand and tote them from one end of the house to the other, today I cannot do 1/2 of that.
it is not fair to the fish to keep them if I cannot give them the proper care. But, to quote Little Feat from their song, Old Folks Boogie on their album, Time Loves a Hero.
"And you know that you're over the hill
When your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill"
The workmen arrived at 9 this morning and are making an awful noise digging up next door's garden. The workmen said it'll take at least a couple of days but at least we won't need to worry again about blocked drains once they've finished. The water company were true to their word and have sent someone round twice a week since 10 October to check for new blockages.
And this afternoon we should be getting our gas smart meter sorted. It was installed in December 2020 and due to a technical hitch it has never been able to send readings. The gas meter has to piggyback off the electric smart meter but our electric meter is the old type which only talks to the company which installed it. As the last part of installing the gas meter for a different company the engineer had to do something on his device to contact 'the office' but the systems were down and he couldn't configure, or commission or connect (whatever the word was that begins with c) the gas meter. He said someone would come back in a few days to finish the job. Several months later we phoned the company to ask when the meter would be connected and they said they couldn't send anyone due to lockdown, which is rubbish because the meter was installed when this part of the country was under the highest level of lockdown restrictions.
For the last 4 years we've been reading the meter ourselves and submitting the reading on-line. Hopefully after today the gas meter will be able to send readings, though I'll still submit readings till we are sure. That reminds me, I must go and read the meter now........
It's an interesting thing for hobbyists as we age, especially for those of us who have really gotten into it. It isn't a physically strenuous hobby, but it can be physical. I keep myself in as good shape as a lazy man can, and above all I keep the weight off in healthy ways. I try to keep my brain in shape - I know too many athletic people whose bodies are still working fine except for one organ, destroyed by dementia. So I just keep going full tilt until something falls off.
When it stops being fun, I'll start to shut down tanks. It's still fun and I'm only in my sixties. I'm still planting oak trees.
We all have to think practically, whether we're 20 or 80. Look at your set up, and figure out how to make it efficient. Money spent on time and labour saving activities is well spent. Lugging buckets and such is not fun, and not fun should be saved for your job. So if you can figure out a way to work around the drudgery, do it. It isn't always possible in all housing, in all relationships and in all periods of our lives, but what we can simplify, we should.
As long as you can manage water changes and you don't have a debilitating illness, you should be able to keep at least one tank for pleasure. Our hobby calls for a gardening mindset, but it doesn't call for the hard work that goes into a good garden.
Today, I stow away the last outdoor chairs and the table, the swing, and the barbecue. We get heavy dew from the sea, and this morning, it was frozen on the stairs. So while it's still strangely warm when the sun's up, it's time to take an hour and batten down the hatches. Then, alas, it's time to start Christmas shopping.
Out the front window, there's a herd of young deer with the zoomies, like a pack of puppies.
When it stops being fun, I'll start to shut down tanks. It's still fun and I'm only in my sixties. I'm still planting oak trees.
We all have to think practically, whether we're 20 or 80. Look at your set up, and figure out how to make it efficient. Money spent on time and labour saving activities is well spent. Lugging buckets and such is not fun, and not fun should be saved for your job. So if you can figure out a way to work around the drudgery, do it. It isn't always possible in all housing, in all relationships and in all periods of our lives, but what we can simplify, we should.
As long as you can manage water changes and you don't have a debilitating illness, you should be able to keep at least one tank for pleasure. Our hobby calls for a gardening mindset, but it doesn't call for the hard work that goes into a good garden.
Today, I stow away the last outdoor chairs and the table, the swing, and the barbecue. We get heavy dew from the sea, and this morning, it was frozen on the stairs. So while it's still strangely warm when the sun's up, it's time to take an hour and batten down the hatches. Then, alas, it's time to start Christmas shopping.
Out the front window, there's a herd of young deer with the zoomies, like a pack of puppies.
I am as religious with my exercise routine as I am with water changes. I had triple vessel bypass at 46 years old, two stents placed at 52 years old and two pulmonary embolisms in my sixties. I have escaped death’s jaws several times. I always feel him lurking near by. I have a genetic clotting disorder leading to my premature heart disease. So I am as familiar with the gym as I as with my home. The oldest relative in my family with this disorder lived to 67. I have them beat at 71 going on 72 soon. Daily exercise coupled with a strict diet and medication have been key. I find the peace associated with being an aquarist very helpful.
Just came home from my foster brother and his partner's home party. They got a registered partnership (almost the same as a marriage) but with less marital obligations. A phenomenon we have in our country besides a legal marriage. Eventhough, both are moslims... Certain jokes that would probably not be appreciated by many moslims were openly appreciated. This also proves that religion doesn't have to be a barrier...
Being his best man has got some nice advantages... I was allowed to be the joker during the day...
I was surprised about my energy level after a very busy weekend at the Vivarium 2024.
Being his best man has got some nice advantages... I was allowed to be the joker during the day...
I was surprised about my energy level after a very busy weekend at the Vivarium 2024.
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