What are you doing today?

[gwand]

I netted 15 yellow tiger endlers today and sold them to my lfs for store credit.

 

[GaryE]

I wandered to the LFS yesterday to pick up a wingless fruit fly culture. I thought it would take 5 minutes, but there were so many people at the store I knew. It's a community store. If you drop by late afternoon, the retired fishkeepers tend to do the same. On a weekend, it's the younger couples and the refinery workers.
The selection is minimal - it isn't a huge place. But people go up to tanks, ask each other and the owner questions abut new arrivals, and fishkeeping in general. I was inspired to tell this story by @gwand 's post above - people will bring small lots of fish for store credit, and to try to make even more things available.
We aren't on any main shipping routes - this is a kind of leftover port city tucked away from the main stream. So locally bred fish can come in cheaper for him than shipped ones, which follow a convoluted route. We have a small co-op of breeders who try to keep it interesting. I'll bring some common tetras I bred next week - black neons and Pristella maxillaris. I'm picking up some new to me tetras at the end of the week in Halifax, the hub around here. They're marketed with the awful name of Imperial Lapis Tetras, and I figure they'll be one of two species, both of which are nice ones to try to breed.
My hobby took a quantum leap when I wandered into an LFS 40 years ago, just on a Saturday afternoon as I was looking to add some tetras to my tank. I got into a conversations with a guy who was admiring a showtank, got invited to a fish club and went.

My 20 hatchets are at 2 weeks in QT. I lost one myersi, pygmy hatchet, but the others are good. In two weeks at the next club I'll try for some floating plants, and divide the group into two species. The strigata (marbled) will get a permanent single species 20 gallon and I'll try to breed them. If that works (highly unlikely) I'll try the myersi in their own set up. In both cases, I'll probably fail. But I have the fruit flies for these little insectivores, and will culture those on a shelf with carnivorous sundews, over a tank with thriving pitcher plants. I won't worry about the inevitable escapees. And maybe I'll get to see what baby hatchets look like, and be able to brag to the dog about breeding them!

 

[gwand]

I wandered to the LFS yesterday to pick up a wingless fruit fly culture. I thought it would take 5 minutes, but there were so many people at the store I knew. It's a community store. If you drop by late afternoon, the retired fishkeepers tend to do the same. On a weekend, it's the younger couples and the refinery workers.
The selection is minimal - it isn't a huge place. But people go up to tanks, ask each other and the owner questions abut new arrivals, and fishkeeping in general. I was inspired to tell this story by @gwand 's post above - people will bring small lots of fish for store credit, and to try to make even more things available.
We aren't on any main shipping routes - this is a kind of leftover port city tucked away from the main stream. So locally bred fish can come in cheaper for him than shipped ones, which follow a convoluted route. We have a small co-op of breeders who try to keep it interesting. I'll bring some common tetras I bred next week - black neons and Pristella maxillaris. I'm picking up some new to me tetras at the end of the week in Halifax, the hub around here. They're marketed with the awful name of Imperial Lapis Tetras, and I figure they'll be one of two species, both of which are nice ones to try to breed.
My hobby took a quantum leap when I wandered into an LFS 40 years ago, just on a Saturday afternoon as I was looking to add some tetras to my tank. I got into a conversations with a guy who was admiring a showtank, got invited to a fish club and went.

My 20 hatchets are at 2 weeks in QT. I lost one myersi, pygmy hatchet, but the others are good. In two weeks at the next club I'll try for some floating plants, and divide the group into two species. The strigata (marbled) will get a permanent single species 20 gallon and I'll try to breed them. If that works (highly unlikely) I'll try the myersi in their own set up. In both cases, I'll probably fail. But I have the fruit flies for these little insectivores, and will culture those on a shelf with carnivorous sundews, over a tank with thriving pitcher plants. I won't worry about the inevitable escapees. And maybe I'll get to see what baby hatchets look like, and be able to brag to the dog about breeding them!

It sounds like you picked a great community to move to in your retirement. How did you find it? Canada’s a large country.

 

[GaryE]

It sounds like you picked a great community to move to in your retirement. How did you find it? Canada’s a large country.

Pure luck. But I think people can make communities as long as they don't fear and mistrust each other. There was no fishkeeping community here til we started the fishclub.
We have divisions and hardliners of all types - everywhere does. The guy I carpool to the club with wears camo and probably votes in the opposite direction to me, but we still get along. He thinks he knows where I stand, I think I know where he stands and we know we aren't ever going to convince each other, so we just find common ground instead.
I suspect there are regions where things are polarized, and where that has weakened communities. And in large urban centres, people are scrambling to make a living and cover their costs. So there's less opportunity to develop hobbies and human connections in them.
I like the dynamics so far. When I look out at the club, there are people of all sorts and all orientations, an age range from kids to 80 year olds, mostly clustered in the early 30s, Moms and Dads with grown up kids, or with infants, immigrants, old families from here, people from other provinces... The only problem I see developing is there are some of those nasty loach lovers. And one person keeps snails.

 

[jaylach]

I'm just watching college football. Navy beat Air Force 34-31. What a fun game. GO NAVY!

May switch over to baseball playoffs later but, with my team being knocked out, not a lot of interest here.

 

[anewbie]

Today: i did this and that and now i going to do more of this. It was a long day as i had a needle stuck in me the other day and it left me feeling woozy today. Btw thanks to Bobby i had to pay for it.

 

[GaryE]

I heard a noise this morning and realized a bunch of deer had forced their way into my vegetable garden, directly under my bedroom window, I had left the door poorly closed, and they'd noticed. I basically looked down on a pen full of white tailed deer. If only Corydoras were that easy to catch.
I turned on a light and they pushed back though and took off running. It is no issue because I need to clean out the space this week after a couple of below freezing nights ended the season.

Today I need to think over a tank with a pair of 'fire red' Apistogramma agassizi in it. I don't usually keep SA Cichlids, and certinly don't keep linebred forms like that. But the younger fish club members have been talking about wanting Apistos, and a friend in another city wanted this cople gone. I traded some plants for what may be a couple too old to breed. I hope they're good for one more try.

I used to breed pretty well every Apisto I got, to the point where it felt too easy to be fun. But that was 20 years ago and I haven't succeeded with my 2 tries since, both with highly inbred colour forms. Admittedly, I didn't try hard as I only wanted them for the club. This time, I'll be serious, and see if the fish cooperate. I won't have them long as they're seniors.

 

[gwand]

I heard a noise this morning and realized a bunch of deer had forced their way into my vegetable garden, directly under my bedroom window, I had left the door poorly closed, and they'd noticed. I basically looked down on a pen full of white tailed deer. If only Corydoras were that easy to catch.
I turned on a light and they pushed back though and took off running. It is no issue because I need to clean out the space this week after a couple of below freezing nights ended the season.

Today I need to think over a tank with a pair of 'fire red' Apistogramma agassizi in it. I don't usually keep SA Cichlids, and certinly don't keep linebred forms like that. But the younger fish club members have been talking about wanting Apistos, and a friend in another city wanted this cople gone. I traded some plants for what may be a couple too old to breed. I hope they're good for one more try.

I used to breed pretty well every Apisto I got, to the point where it felt too easy to be fun. But that was 20 years ago and I haven't succeeded with my 2 tries since, both with highly inbred colour forms. Admittedly, I didn't try hard as I only wanted them for the club. This time, I'll be serious, and see if the fish cooperate. I won't have them long as they're seniors.

Post a pic of the pair. That is a beautiful morph, even if man made.

 

[anewbie]

Post a pic of the pair. That is a beautiful morph, even if man made.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and your eyes are not my eyes.

 

[gwand]

Yes. Beauty is a subjective value.