When a Blessing Becomes A Curse

[TwoTankAmin]

Well I may be old but I am also smarter tham the average fry. I got a 6 smaller albino bristlenose (1 was a LF) and 3 very small red lizards to help with agae in my planted jungles. The plant was to spread them out and when they looked ready to be spawnable to bring them back to a club meeteing to sell. I would donate the proceeds to the club. I did not thinlkk I was close, until a few days ago when I discovered albino fry plastered on the tank glass. UGH.

This is in my very heavily planted 75 gal. in-wall tank. No way those fry can be allowed to stay there an grow. But we are talking very tiny recently free swimming first spawn fry. They are too tiny to net. To catch them you must use a siphon. Fortunately I have them in various lengths and diameters. Some have a long piece of rigid yubing on the end. I have my trusty flash lights and a bucket.

1. Spot tiny whitish fry somewhere.
2. Grab biggest siphon with the longest rigid tune on it.
3. Start siphon not near the fry and put finger over the bucket end once it flows.
4. Sneak up to fry on glass/wood/sand.
5. Release finger and suck up fry.

Now comes the problem. The fry cannot be netted in the bucket either- to small. So, get airline and specimen box, Suck fry, into box. Day one I had 14 and got 5 more day two. The 14 over-nighted in the box with some wood scraps and some poly filter. The next 5 were nabbed yesterday. I decided to move them all into the 33L where I had put all the assassin snails. Added wood a filter and some food/

I just grabbed 5 more from the tank. I am thinking a first spawn is in the 25 fish range,so I must be close to nabbing them all. The LF turned out to be the male and if it goes back into the cave I will grab it and move it to the tank with the fry and snails.

Now I need to watch the other duos in case. UGH!

To paraphrase the poet Robert Burns, “the best-laid schemes o'fish an' me Gang aft agley.” Thankfully, I am still smarter than the average fry.

edited to add the following

Maybe I am not as smart as i thought. Since making this paost I have nabbed 7 more fry. I almost got the dad, but he fled rather then entering his cave

edited for manytypos

 

[GaryE]

There are multiple curses. I took in some orange Ancistrus because a little kid had bred them and wanted help rehoming them. Then the pandemic hit, and rehoming was impossible. I have sold them 'all' 3 times now. There are always a few that get through in heavily jungled tanks, and there's always another generation.
They're my only linebred fish, and originally, I wanted them out. But I've come to admire their sheer doggedness.

As for all us old geezers, I am 65 and starting to feel like I did in my last seasons of playing ball (just for fun). I can do it because of my brain, but I have to think about what I'm doing all the time now. I can no longer count on my reflexes or my chances to make luck. I hope I get a few more years of being able to lift, climb and dance, but ergonomics have suddenly become interesting to me. I used to drain and lift 40 gallon tanks, and now, to repair a 2x4 rack, I find myself building a temporary structure to slide the tanks out onto. Ten years ago, I'd have an idea in the morning and it would be in place by suppertime. Now, it takes stages.

I'm tall with a large frame and have kept the weight off, so I've been able to do things a smaller person couldn't. But 3 years ago, I moved my 120 here, and got it up onto a 30 inch tall rack working alone. I look at it now, and it's staying where it is til either it starts leaking from old age, or I do.

 

[Oldspartan]

I hear what you are saying. I have been sports active since grade school, )(is it called that anymore?). Tackle football to age 32 and flag till 47 years old. Baseball through 36 and then softball till 56. I know deal with the consequences in my knees, hips, and wrists.

Now it is pickleball, and I am not very good at it and suffer the next day, horseshoes, fantasy football and billiards. We still hike, and camp albeit in an RV, which I always thought cheating. I can no longer carry 100 pounds of whatever for hours on end, so I use tools to lessen the load.

I will refuse to let old age stop me from being active. I am also very aware of my limits and try to be smart and stay within my ever decreasing boundaries while always pushing ever so slightly against them.

 

[Oldspartan]

To me old age will never be a curse because of what the alternative is.

 

[Magnum Man]

I did sports back in high school, and martial arts, and running, into my mid 30’s but since moving to my wife’s family’s century farm, and we started with the animals… keeping up maintenance on 100 year old buildings and building pasture fences, pounding T posts and putting up cattle panels, and installing gates and wood posts, and all the cutting of trees and branches, has been all the activity I need… I get the mental advantages of sports, but I get a lot of satisfaction, opening a new pasture up with virgin grass to the animals

 

[Oldspartan]

I did sports back in high school, and martial arts, and running, into my mid 30’s but since moving to my wife’s family’s century farm, and we started with the animals… keeping up maintenance on 100 year old buildings and building pasture fences, pounding T posts and putting up cattle panels, and installing gates and wood posts, and all the cutting of trees and branches, has been all the activity I need… I get the mental advantages of sports, but I get a lot of satisfaction, opening a new pasture up with virgin grass to the animals

I remember the effort and satisfaction of livestock and food gardens. We grew our food and preserved for about 30 years. We stopped with the critters when I retired in 2007 and decided to follow the sun 6 months a year. The winter of 2021 was our last year of that but after much thought have chosen not to have livestock. I do keep up with the buildings and rent the big, for me, barn to a construction firm.

I really enjoy the freedom we now have.

 

[Alice B]

I keep up a third of an acre and a 1955 house, but I hire help, need plenty of it. I do mow and I am digging a dry stream bed and will move the rock into it. but I hired out the back yard edging to my helper. The pond service I used to run almost solo, I now spend more time sitting down telling crew what to do. I load the truck, I can load or unload the pressure washer I can't lift safely with ramps. And I am active for my age, but last winter's health crisis caused me to plan more slow downs in work, and ask for more help. I think that is appropriate and will keep me out of the hospital and in my home. I want a farm, I can't have livestock here except my chickens and fish, but by the time I can afford it I am not sure I'll be able to run it. I really want goats and a couple of sheep. And maybe a horse or 2, and bees again. I could have bees here if I could catch a swarm, not willing to buy a package or a nuc. It's an expensive hobby

 

[Alice B]

may know where some free bees are. I do have to gather them up and move into a hive. Fun times

 

[GaryE]

I have been tempted to get bees for years, but now that I finally have enough space and decent environment for them, the family curse of diabetes has kicked in, and I couldn't gorge myself on honey. I hope this never happened to Winnie the Pooh.

 

[Colin_T]

I have been tempted to get bees for years, but now that I finally have enough space and decent environment for them, the family curse of diabetes has kicked in, and I couldn't gorge myself on honey. I hope this never happened to Winnie the Pooh.

There have been over 200 Winny the Pooh bears. They keep dropping dead from bee allergies and type 1 diabetes.

 

[Ichthys]

I can't keep honeybees, I'm allergic to their penchant for hara-kiri. Love bumblebees though. They can sting you but they never will, unless you're Darwin-award level stupid.

At 62, I feel like I'm on the cusp. Some days I feel like an old man, some days I don't. My legs have withered away due to being sat behind the wheel of a lorry for the last 25 years and doing no other excercise at all, but I still have my upper body strength, such as it was.

Three weeks ago I declared war on the garden. Did one day of weeding then needed three days for my legs to recover. Then I did three days straight. My legs now feel twice as strong as they were three weeks ago. It's amazing what just a couple of good workouts can do. I see that as a sign that I'm not quite an old man yet.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

@Ichthys

Have a little patience, you are getting there. You will know that "you are over the hill when your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill." Little Feat

 

[GaryE]

"I hurt in the places where I used to play" - Leonard Cohen.

 

[Ichthys]

@Ichthys

Have a little patience, you are getting there.

I know it's a one-way street, but I'm in no rush.

 

[Essjay]

I'm 70 and apart from currently suffering sciatica I'm a lot better than I was this time last year.

Back in 2018 the pharmacy began having problems sourcing one of my blood pressure tablets. The first time I went to collect them after the start of lockdown they failed to locate any so they said contact my GP, who prescribed a different tablet in the same category. But my blood pressure went up on these. A couple of months later, they were changed back to the original chemical under a different trade name. Over the next few years I began to feel worse; I thought it was just getting old that made me feel this way. This time last year I needed a walking stick as I found it difficult to walk just to the end of the road, I had to drag myself upstairs using the stair rail, my ankles were so swollen they were bigger than my knees, then last August I realised I was missing heartbeats, anything from every 8th to 15th beat. Google suggested medication so I checked the patient leaflets and found the likely one. I did not take it next day. No missed heartbeats, no swollen ankles that day. A few days later I realised I had walked upstairs without touching the handrail. And I've not used my walking stick since then. I'm now on a higher dose of the other blood pressure medication, one without these side effects.
Edit - forgot to mention, the doctor said my symptoms were all due to fluid retention caused by the tablets.

The moral is - don't automatically assume it's old age. It could be side effects of medication.