Who are you?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone!

I'm Natalia and I'm 26 years old. I'm biologist and live in Mexico City with my husband Moises and our Yorkshire terriers. We love to travel, movies and watch tv.

We have an international trade business fully dedicated to marine life. We also sell both wholesale and retail marine fish and invertebrates to the local market.

We have been keeping marine fish since 1994 and marine inverts since 1996. We actually breed ten anemonefish species, Banggai cardinals, some dottybacks and seahorses, and We´ve been lucky enough to asexually propagate some anemones and some corals also.

I really would like to learn a lot with this MACO course as the more I know the more I'll be able to keep and responsibly trade these marine organisms.

I find your occupations very interesting and I'm sure I'll learn a lot from You also.

Best regards to You all!

Nat

 

[Anonymous]

I'm D*ick Vance(board won't let me type my name without the *), from the green hills and mountains of Sevier County, Tennessee; home of Dolly Parton and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This is a veritable hotbed of reefing! (I think I'm the only one in the county!

)

I got into aquaria through the interest of FishGirl, youngest of my 3 children, who is approaching 9, evolving from freshwater to saltwater as we learned together. All "my" tanks actually belong to her! http://fishdaddy.homestead.com/index.html

We have a 55 reef and a 38 FOWLR which houses a baby Chainlink Moray Eel.
"Spotty's" growth and desire for a larger reef will require some serious tank shuffling over the next year.

Besides the saltwater aquariums, FishGirl has a freshwater community tank; pair of Leopard Geckos; Viquarium with Tiger Salamander and Red Eared Turtle; Teddy Bear Hamsters; cats; dogs and various other pets and animals. She aspires to be a wildlife/marine biologist and is a serious student of animal life and nature.

Along with Alice, Doug and Tom Wyatt, we comprise The Reef Tank contingent for this episode of the MACO Chronicles.

I majored in Chemistry many eons ago but have a law degree. My job in the legal field supports my family, animals, and my other serious hobby, sailing and sailboat racing.
D*ick
Life ain't perfect but it sure is good!

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http://www.thereeftank.com/

 

[Anonymous]

I'm your friendly online instructor who has learned as much from you as you have hopefully learned here. I have been snorkelling coral reefs since 1973 and diving since 1978 with somehwere around 600-700 hours underwater all over the world. I have been keeping reef tanks since 1989.

I have had up to thirteen tanks at once, but almost lost my mind. I have two cats, having lost my best friend, Abu, an Egyptian Mau, to cancer at only 8 1/2 last month. I miss him terribly and will never find that piece of my heart again. I also have other various and sundry animals coming in and out of my life as they have need of help or a home.

If there is one thing I can say, its the more I learn, the less I realize I know. You are all proof of that.

The rest, well, you probably all know all too well.

This thread was a great idea. Nice to know you all better

eric

 

[Anonymous]

I'm Jim from Chicagoland. I'm 41 and have been keeping fish since around age 9 or 10. I had both fresh and saltwater fish back then. I started keeping a reef tank 1 year ago. My tank's 58G with 1 green bubble and the rest soft coral frags that are growing well. I've also got a quarantine that is holding the marine fish I kicked out to start the reef. My wife and kids have 4 other freshwater tanks. We also have 2 gerbils, 2 cats, and squirrels living in our roof. During the day I'm a dermatologist and have a B.A. in biology.

 

[Anonymous]

HI. I'm Norm. I live in Waynesboro, VA where the Blue Ridge Parkway meets the Skyline drive. While this is a beautiful place to live there are very few serious reefkeepers so I depend on contacts and information on the web. I am a R&D Manager for Lycra(R) (trained as an Analytical Chemist) and have been keeping reefs since about 1992 with a 3-year interruption while we lived in Switzerland. I keep a 92 gallon corner reef http://www.dallura.com/reef and I just started a propagation tank to supply two LFS's. This is an addicting hobby as my wife and 2 kids will confirm.

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http://www.dallura.com/reef/

 

[Anonymous]

My name is David. I'm a veterinarian in Jacksonville. Married, 3 kids, ages 12 through 20. Several pets, of course, 3 dogs, 1 cat, 2 birds, reptiles and a cichlid pond.
And what started out as a maintained simple 180 gallon salt water fish tank in the lobby at work. Dealers are so sneaky getting you addicted.

I am hoping the tank will graduate into a lagoon reef. It has been up and running for 4 years. My second tank at work also started out as something else. A couple years ago it was a ten gallon quarentine tank to which I added some FLorida Aquacultured Live Rock when it was sitting unoccupied. I bet I paid staff for countless hours spent watching what showed up on the LR. Soon another ten gallon tank was set up as a deep sand bed refugium. No skimmers or other filtration other than activated charcoal occassionally.

I have been fascinated with all I have learned about life from these critters and what I've been able to read about them. It's a whole world I barely knew existed.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Folks,

My name is Tom Wyatt, and I have had aquaria since the mid 60's as a kid, I remember my Dad bringing the most fascinating item home one evening, a reciprocating air pump!!! Kept fresh water fishes until the mid 70's when I made an attempt at SW fish-only tanks (a disaster), that made me spend tons of time learning for my second try several years later after college (heh, thought marine biology would be a great field, found out there are not THAT many jobs).

I started again in the mid 80's with fish-only again (and crushed coral with an undergravel filter... heh!) Made my first attempt at the Berlin method with six 4 foot Shop lights in 91 or 92, and have been moving up ever since with the advances of reef keeping science. Currently I have the prop system in the study (100 gal, 15 inches deep, and 5 of that is sand...) and a 180 as a lagoonal tank in the living room, and a 55 as a "fuzzy stix" tank. SOMEHOW I have managed to keep a few critters alive for a number of years (in spite of a several month hospital stay, THANKS BOB!!!) I follow The Reef Tank BBS and go to AOL's forum occasionally, and lurk at #reefs/ReefCentral/reefs.org and a few other boards. To me, the most amazing thing I see is how much things have changed from the 70's, even more so since 92 or 93. Heh, still keep a FW tank, I have a pleocostemus that is 11 years old, a few more years and I will have been with it longer than I was with my wife, come to think of it, he kinda favors.... NAH!!!! ;-)

I am taking this class because I keep finding out how much I DON'T know about what happens in the tank. If I learn 10% of what is presented here, I can help that many more folk avoid some of the mistakes that I have made over the years in my attempts at keeping the critters. We never know it all... we just keep learning and hope that we don;'t hurt anything while we practice.

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Tom <"{{{{>(
Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something -Plato

 

[Anonymous]

Hi- my name is Jim-like many of you I started with FW as a kid-some 35 years ago or so- then saw SW for what it really has to offer-and now reef tanks !!!There is so much to learn-but the potential is unlimited.
I have an undergrad degree in physics- and a law degree- worked as a patent attorney for several years- then in general practice-until a few years ago-got a government job in the judicial department.
This class is terrific- my goal is to learn as much as possible- 10% ??? Maybe make a few computer friends- as well as learn a lot of computer skills.
My present tank is a 12 gal clarity plus in my office- a 42 gal hex FW at home and a 4-500 gal pond in the back yard. Hobbies- fish-working on a new 49 chevy pickup truck-slightly rusted-astronomy-gardening. Goal- ultimately setting up a successful reef tank at home-soon ?
It has been a pleasure to be in this class with all of you-this is really neat!!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,
Great idea for a thread. I started my first reef tank in Feburary, 1999 and my second in March, 2000. Both are in my office, and while that's great during the day, I often miss the critters during the evening. I'm married with two sons: one works with me in our software + hi-tech security company and the other is a college student. He's promised to at least finish this year...his freshman year...

I also enjoy digital photography and am learning about building web sites (http://www.maslac.org). I used to really enjoy computers and writing software, but now I'm mostly burned out on that.

Last fall, I helped found (and am very active in) The Marine Aquarium Society of Los Angeles County. We started last January, and in just 4 months we've had Dr. Ron Shimek, Steve Tyree, a massive frag swap, a reef tank tour, a tour of importer/wholesalers, etc.

On May 11th our speaker is ERIC BORNEMAN.

Dennis

 

[Anonymous]

Hi, I'm Chris. I live in Cornwall in the UK, thats right down in the bottom left hand sticky-out bit. It's a nice part of the country, but severely limited as far as decent LFS go and no sw clubs.

I work as a software development leader, am married to Caroline who is expecting our first child this august.

I first started keeping fish about 15 years ago and got my first marine setup in the early 90's, UGF, ozone, uv, trickle filters and hair algae, the latter and a house move made me give it up. Got back into SW about five years ago, but really got serious about reef keeping last summer when we began on our 150gallon reef tank, this time Berlin style.

Currently have two tanks in the house and setting a couple up in the garage along with a common-sump/filtration setup.

My wife and I are both animal lovers, she would have a zoo if she could, and we have a compliment of cats, mice, a rabbit and an 800 gallon koi fish pond.

If I've learnt anything over the years, it's how much techniques have changed, especially with the advent of the web.

Passing or failing this course doesn't really matter, if I can learn just one small thing which might help improve the care I can give to the marine creatures I have then it's well worth doing. I've learnt a lot already, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot more yet.

Cheers,

Chris
http://www.chrisreef.co.uk