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Aubrey

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Everything posted by Aubrey

  1. This week I added the Ozark Bass to my list. Saw what I believe is a muskrat. And caught a Smallmouth Bass I also spent several hours trying to catch some sort of top minnows. Sometimes micros are easy and sometimes they are so frustrating. I know most people on this forum are probably more interested in species that could be housed easily in a home aquarium, so I'm going to be trying harder to catch the smaller species. Regardless of what I catch I'll still post about it.
  2. I don't really need an excuse to eat an excessive amount of tacos, but now that there is a trophy involved... I'm in it to win it.
  3. I caught my first mature bass this week. I'm not 100% sure whether it's a large mouth or a spotted. I get excited when I catch something new and often think it will be the only fish that looks like this, so I don't take enough detailed photos. Only later find out that I need pictures of the jaw closed to see how it lines up with the eye, or of the dorsal fin erect to see the contour and if it connects to the second dorsal. Also, I don't want to keep fish out of the water too long for pictures, so I just snap a few and then release the fish. One of the most beautiful native fish that I catch frequently is the Longear Sunfish. I'm always glad to see one come up on my line. Not a fish, but this big tadpole took me by surprise. I don't know what this shiner/minnow is. I really need to step up my photo game so I can compare everything with reference books.
  4. This forum went live to the public on July 14, 2020. To celebrate this forum members have come together to put on events during the week of July 14, 2021. This thread will be a part of those events. Starting on Monday, July 12, 2021 and continuing through Saturday, July 17, 2021 I encourage you to post a video to this thread. Over the past 12 months many of us have found the hobby of fishkeeping and in turn this forum or have been Co-Op fans from way back and were just as excited when it launched. Regardless of your time in the hobby this forum came at the right time for all of us. What a year it has been. I have found a home on this forum and a family in it's members and I would like to express my respect and gratitude to some of them personally. By no means should you feel unimportant or left out if you are not mentioned. The goal of these videos will be to show your gratitude to other members in a more personal format. Text and reactions are great, but a video where we can all hear your words in your own voice would help bridge the gap of the online world into the real one. Guidelines/Suggestions for Videos - So we can't upload videos directly from devices to the forum. Although we can upload from devices to YouTube and then post links to those videos on the forum. It's not that hard. I had never done it until I was on the forum. Just follow the tutorial below. - You don't have to appear in your video if you don't want to, but as long as we can hear your voice or that you make it personal then that is fine. - You can record your screen on windows by pressing windows+G then you can pull up forum profiles of people you want to thank. Or alternatively you could just record your computer screen with a cell phone. Or do it however you want to. Be as creative as you want. Those are just suggestions. - Thank whoever you want. Someone help you out with a problem, make you laugh with a meme, or just have interesting content? Give them a shout out. - I feel like there should be a time limit, but nah. It's your video for the people you want to thank. Although depending on the number of submissions it might take a while to watch them all, so just be mindful of that. - I also feel like there should be a limit on people you can thank to go along with the time limit, so I'm going to suggest 12 or less. Again, it's your video so do what you want. If you just want to thank one person or fifty who am I to tell you otherwise. - Tag the people that you are thanking in your submission, so you are sure that they will see it. - Review the Forum Guidelines and be sure to follow them in your video. I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.
  5. Today was a good day on the creek. I only caught 3 fish and only photographed 1. The one I photographed is a new species for me to cross off my life list. The Northern Studfish Fundulus catenatus. I also found some sort of liverwort and duckweed.
  6. @skipperI have a swift trinocular scope and I use whatever cellphone mount that was recommended for it for pictures. I didn't really need the trinocular head. I think a single eyepiece would work fine for hobbyist use and being able to take photos. I would recommend having a mechanical stage though. Check out Microbehunter on YouTube. I watched a lot of his buying tips and brand comparisons before buying mine. I also know that the Journey to the Microcosmos YouTube channel is launching a hobbyist microscope that looks decent.
  7. I went for a walk in the park after work today. I am really excited to try out the action camera I just got and figure out how to use it better. So far I am really impressed and enjoy seeing things from a fishes point of view. Although the fish don't seem so impressed with my presence in their home.
  8. Having an aquarium branched out into collecting house plants, getting a microscope, and taking up micro-fishing. They all fall into the biology category or maybe being a naturalist. So maybe it's all the same hobby, but the broad range of equipment used for each is what makes them different to me. I grow cuttings in my tanks sometimes and use tank water to water my house plants. I use an old nicrew light as a growlight. I take samples from my tanks to examine under the microscope and have tried making colonies of micro fauna in specimen containers ( I want a tardigrade aquarium). I also collect samples when I'm out fishing. A Lee's specimen container is part of my tackle bag along with pipettes and scaping tweezers. I buy mealworms from the pet store for bait. I keep some of the fish I have caught and study them to be better at fishing for them. I also study the environment while I'm fishing to better understand the natural processes so that I can be better at keeping artificial ecosystems. Ugh, I guess throw traveling in with the rest. I will scope out any area I'm traveling to for fish stores, parks with waterways, science museums, zoos, and aquariums. I know other people on this fish keeping forum have these same hobbies, so maybe it's all just part of the fish keeping hobby.
  9. I couldn't find any references to Hydrophlox in my Fishes of Arkansas book. This book will be a primary source for my outdoor investigations. I'm no expert at fishing. There are days that I spend hours on the water and never catch a thing. I really only started last October. I mean I had been fishing before, but never really cared to identify and catalog the different species or creating a life list of species caught. I had also never heard of micro fishing or considered using hook and line to catch small fish. These are just guidelines to make things interesting to me. I have been looking into making some DIY traps so that I can verify if a species is in a waterway and then target it. But I can show you some of the smaller tackle that I use. The first two hooks from the right are fly fishing hooks and they work alright for shiner/minnow type fish. The last hook is specifically for tiny fish. If you notice the "J" curves on them, that one differs slightly. The actual curve is offset and much smaller. Almost like a very tiny hook attached diagonally at the end of a straight line.
  10. @Fish Folkoops. I just read that again and you said shiner not darter. I do not think I'm in Rainbow shiner territory.
  11. Yes, but I have yet to catch one. So far I've only legitimately caught one species of darter. I believe it to be an Ozark darter.
  12. Uhh... the Ozarks, more specifically Northwest Arkansas. Most of the areas I'll be exploring are tributaries of the White River. Done.
  13. I go fishing pretty much every weekend and thought I would start a thread where I can share some of the wilderness that's around me. I'll apologize to anyone that might be offended by fish that have been caught on hook and line, but there will be pictures of that on this thread. Today I went out to try out a new underwater camera. I also caught a few of the fish I filmed. In the video you can see a fish dart off. It's a banded sculpin Cottus carolinae. I managed to catch it shortly after. I also accidentally snagged a darter that I have yet to identify. I am trying to compile a life list of fish that I have caught on hook and line, but snagging (hooking a fish not in the mouth) one does not count towards that list. I still took the opportunity to photograph the darter for future reference and to learn more about what is in my local waterway. I went further down the creek and managed to catch what I think is a bluegill. It was a little too large for the specimen container. Now I'm going to hit the books to see if I can make some positive identifications.
  14. I used to have some and they bred prolifically. Although my colony fizzled out. I found that males were rather aggressive and constantly had wounds. If I had them again I would manage their population instead of letting them colony breed. Overall they're a nice looking, easy to breed, and fun to watch fish.
  15. Failure is only failure is don't learn from it or you give up. I make things from coins. Some older coins and special minted coins are made from silver. Silver is valuable by itself but there are only so many older coins minted and their condition makes them valuable and suitable for projects. Not to mention they also hold the monetary value of whatever they are. So mistakes are often costly and the price of practice can add up. One of my last projects was turning a silver dollar into a ring while keeping the details on both sides as unmarked as possible. Something I have done multiple times with quarters and half dollars. The thickness of these coins varies and the techniques used vary accordingly. I had a slight off center punch which meant that the ring would look a bit off from round the more that I worked it, but I could sand out the variance because I had made this mistake before and knew how to work around it. I also have to heat the coin to make it workable, but this thicker coin needed more heat(yes this hobby involves literally burning money). The goal is to heat it just before red hot. Well that didn't seem to be working. In an effort to make my job easier I went to full red hot and ended up scorching the ring. Now it is covered in small imperfections and merely scrap silver. Instead of turning a near perfect collectable coin into a wearable piece of art and history, I just mangled and destroyed it. At the best I can sand it down and polish the entire surface and have a plain silver band that cost much more than using silver stock. A good way to measure your skill is by the amount of mistakes you've made. Often those who have made more are the more skilled. Just don't keep making the same mistakes. And sometimes s happens. What's that Edison quote? "I didn't fail 1000 times, but found 1000 ways not to make a lightbulb." Or something like that.
  16. I bet grow lights will work just fine. I'm pretty sure that's what was used before aquarium companies started making fancier lights. I use just a regular lamp for some of my setups. Might depend on the specific plant, but you're probably good.
  17. I plan on posting a thread with a few guidelines or suggestions for videos this weekend or next, so that there is plenty of time for people to film and edit. I'm not even sure how I'm going to do mine yet. Then people can post their videos on that thread all week of the anniversary. Aside from tagging our threads with NERM week & NERM week 2021, will they be pinned, gathered together, or highlighted so that everyone will see them? Will they all be posted in General Discussion or another topic? Or is it up to us to determine where to post them? And as for the taco eating contest, @TheDukeAnumber1I'm sure whatever you come up with will be great. Just tell me if you need me to do anything.
  18. I'm not sure if you're into Star Wars, but if you are you can visit Industrial Light and Magic in San Fransisco. I don't think they give tours, but there is an awesome Yoda Fountain out front and the lobby has some neat props. It was the highlight of the trip I took there. Although the city is full of a ton of other awesome touristy places.
  19. Thanks @Fish Folk. I'm going to have to try those apps out. They should help my Jack Skellington tendency of saying "what's this?" whenever I'm out hiking or fishing.
  20. I found this plant in a small creek in Northern Arkansas. It had a longer vine like stem similar to a lidwigia sedioidies.
  21. When you didn't choose the nerm life
  22. Me too. I checked his LinkedIn and it states that he is a member engagement consultant for Aquarium Co-Op. Is that the same as community manager?
  23. I have used a Streamlight nano flashlight and it is incredibly bright for the size. I know they make other sizes, but I have not used them. I've had mine for 10+ years and it still works. I'm not sure if they have gone into the rechargeable field, but I would prefer that over battery operated.
  24. It's an effect you can put on text, or anything really, that makes it look like it has a shadow. In my opinion it helps the text stand out and look like it's floating above an image.
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