Chick-in-of-TheSea journal

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

@Colu @Odd Duck he tried the peas but spit them out. I tried a 20 min garlic guard soak but he still wouldn’t eat them. Then I tried daphnia. Looks like he made an attempt but my daphnia is freeze dried and he is not doing well feeding from the surface; he’s clumsy. I wonder what else I could try? I have a few different Repashy, as well as flake food and floating pellets. Anything that floats is not too good for this sort of ailment, I believe. I know it may not be swim bladder I’m treating. Just trying to eliminate variables. I have live grindal worms too, as well as frozen brine shrimp. I could hatch some bbs but not sure I want to get into all that unless I have to.

Tummy looks “plump”. Could be constipation. It is not as obvious as eggbinding would be.

Edited April 28 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Colu]

 frozen Cyclops has worked well for me when feeding small  sick fish that were struggling to feed @Chick-In-Of-TheSea

Edited April 29 by Colu

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

More symptoms. I made a thread…

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

So friends, I have one lone head-and-taillight tetra left, and he seems depressed, meaning, he hovers, or just half-heartedly swims with the pristella tetras. I decided to get him some friends. This was after much internal debate, as I’m always flirting with overstocking. Of course I rationalized it (lots of plants, willing to do extra maintenance, over-filtering, some snails passed of old age, etc) and asked for 5 fish. They said there’s a deal, and I would get the 6th free. Twist my arm, why don’t you?

So here they are. They look pretty good, and they will look even better once they color up some.

but the one dude has an inflamed gill. 
 

I added extra air and I’m adding a salt solution, a little bit every half hour, to bring them to a level 1 dose. I will see how he does this week and go to level 2 if needed.

The LFS medicated when they see issues but were unwilling to say “what” meds they use. They motioned to some “___-fix” products and says the owner mixes his own concoction. So rather than do my usual parasite prevention treatment, I will just stick with the salt and my observations.

Also I got another zebra nerite, as my poor Hampshire had passed a few weeks ago due to old age. I think he was around 2 years old, at least. Here is the new guy, and he started exploring in the first 30 minutes of joining the community. Mainly I got him because my olive nerite, Button, was super codependent with Hampshire, always attached to him. So now Button has a new friend.

 

Flint the pleco has had wonderful whisker growth, but he hates Kodak moments and hides.

Edited May 11 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

The new kids ate very well for me today. I feel like I need to round them out a little bit. They got frozen cyclops, and they loved it!

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/11/2024 at 11:01 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I added extra air and I’m adding a salt solution,

exactly what I would do!

On 5/11/2024 at 11:01 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

😍😍😍

I hate the little eggs, but nerites are so fun.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 5/11/2024 at 5:37 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I hate the little eggs, but nerites are so fun

Of all the nerites I’ve had, none has ever laid eggs. Maybe this one will. Who knows? 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Ember tetras enjoying Repashy

 

[Chris]

On 5/15/2024 at 6:58 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Ember tetras enjoying Repashy

 

Man. I gotta get back on the repashy train. I love that food. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 5/15/2024 at 7:51 AM, Chris said:

Man. I gotta get back on the repashy train. I love that food. 

I feel like it simplifies the feeding routine. Usually each tank gets a different food because of dietary needs of fish/snails/shrimp, different fish have different mouth sizes and need smaller or bigger pellets, etc. Repashy has everyone covered, and calcium carbonate can be added to it for the snails and shrimp.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Finally! I got a Kodak moment with Flint. (I had to bribe him)

He's been turning his camo on & off regularly. Yesterday he was using the cave, and when he came out he was totally black w/ white spots. Today he has the tan war paint. It’s funny, only his head was in the cave; he thought no one could see him and he changed back to “it’s safe” color. 🙄

Edited May 18 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Guys.. omg, beyond excited. I booked a dive in Epcot’s 5.7 million gallon saltwater aquarium for this weekend. Includes a behind the scenes tour of the filtration and all of the things. Gonna be epic! This is something I’ve wanted to do for years.

While I can’t bring a camera, if they sell me a photo package or something, I’d probably go for it. Seems like a once in a lifetime type of thing.

No waves, no 6 hr round trip drive, no fatigue from seasickness medicines, no diesel fumes, minimal decompression, and best of all.. guaranteed to see all of the things. And things I don’t normally see on my ocean dives. Like eagle rays and hammerheads. 🙂 

Edited May 21 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[EricksonAquatics]

That sounds like HEAVEN😍

I’m a big snorkeler - never been scuba certified (maybe someday) but anytime we go on vacay I always try to get in the water and snorkel around!

Have so much fun!!

[nabokovfan87]

Wow! Enjoy that so much.  Say hi to all the sharks for us.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Just got caught up @Chick-In-Of-TheSea! Wow! Can’t wait to see the pics from Epcot! Great journal, ups and downs, sick not sick, it’s a journey not a destination! 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 5/21/2024 at 8:41 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Just got caught up @Chick-In-Of-TheSea! Wow! Can’t wait to see the pics from Epcot! Great journal, ups and downs, sick not sick, it’s a journey not a destination! 

Thanks!  Kind of a long journal. Thanks for reading! No cameras allowed behind the scenes at Epcot, but if they take/offer photos of us diving, I will get some.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Hey guys, got a new lamp. What do you think?

 

[Chris]

I dig it! I picked up these pewter storage containers last year. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 5/26/2024 at 7:31 PM, Chris said:

I dig it! I picked up these pewter storage containers last year. 

Very nice! 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

This weekend I participated in Epcot’s DiveQuest, and I’m excited to tell you all about it!

 

I parked in Crush and boarded the tram for a 1:45 meetup and 2:00 tour.

 

We signed waivers and were asked for our shoe size. Then we took turns saying our name, where we are from, and our favorite sea creature (mine is the sea turtle). Then the guides asked which animal we wanted to see on today’s dive. Many said sharks, and one or two said the bowmouth guitarfish. I wanted to see the hammerhead most of all.

 

The tour started outside where we saw the filtration units/tanks, but we were not shown any mechanisms. The tanks looks like horizontal cylinders, similar to the oil trucks you’d see on the highway, only these were made of plastic. The aquarium is 5.7 million gallons and the filter processes 30,000 gallons per minute.

 

Next we went into a building and passed by a series of labs. We passed by those fairly quickly but I was reading some of the signs, notably, the husbandry lab and the water chemistry lab. 

 

We proceeded to the food kitchen which was about the size of a bathroom, equipped with restaurant-kitchen sinks, coolers, and freezers. A member of the kitchen staff met with us. Kitchen staff arrives at work at 5am. Each animal gets a high quality, specific, restaurant quality diet based on their nutritional needs. Some of the foods they eat were shown to us, such as fish and blue crab, bok choy, and romaine. The (frozen) blue crabs they showed us were in pristine condition; very healthy. 

 

Each (large) animal is tong fed to ensure other animals don’t steal their food, and the animal’s name is written on a small, portable whiteboard. The type and weight (in grams) of each food is written on the whiteboard in one column, and the amount the animal did NOT consume is written in the other column. This data is tracked and recorded for every feeding. For example, each manatee eats 17 heads of lettuce daily, but animals are also fed a Disney proprietary recipe gel food which is packed with nutrients. 

 

Uneaten food is placed on a compost pile, except crab shells etc which are placed in the trash. The kitchen is a 97% zero waste facility, and all of the seafood they procure for feeding is sustainably sourced.

 

We were taken to a room just outside the locker room where they issued gear by calling each person’s name. Each of us was given a shorty and a pair of booties, and we went into the locker room to change. Each person locked their locker with a provided key, then all keys were collected and locked in a different lockbox.  We were only allowed to bring our own dive computer and mask; nothing further. Women were given “Mickey friendly” hair ties that were safe for the animals to consume if they should fall out during the dive.

 

We proceeded (on foot) through the manatee feeding area where a large manatee (Blue) was having some lettuce. Blue is a rescue and is missing half of his tail due to a boat propeller. After a few minutes, Lil Joe, the young manatee, swam through a hole in the wall to join Blue. Lil Joe was found at 50 lbs when he should have been 200. They fattened him up and tried 3 times to return him to the wild, but he couldn’t understand how to get around or forage.

The floor of this manatee tank is heavy duty egg crate, basically. They can raise it to lift manatees out of the water to do dental checkups, etc. The ceiling is a skylight but the manatees can be airlifted through it if/when needed.

 

Next to the manatee feeding station was the dolphin feeding station. No dolphins were in there but a young dolphin, Andre, was resting his chin on the portal into it, just watching us. Nosy, but shy dolphin.

 

We were called by name to line up single file, then we were escorted through a doorway and found ourselves in the main aquarium. We went over a catwalk to a round platform where the dive staff were. I also saw some computer terminals there. Our BCs (Buoyancy Compensators) were already weighted, and air was already turned on for each tank. After a dive briefing  by the head divemaster, who is the twin of the maestro from Mozart in the Jungle, we descended, in the same order, a few steps onto a platform where we were waist deep in water. There we put on our fins first. The staff told us to lay our mask down on the platform while we got into our BCs. Immediately there was a staff member to help me put my arm through. Wow, what service. We turned to face the upper platform again and found that defogging solution had already been applied to every mask. We also got to pose for 2 photos at this time.

The maestro from Mozart in the Jungle

There were 12 of us and 6 divemasters. Again, WHOA. I’m used to be dumped in the middle of the ocean with 15 other people and just one divemaster, who people may or may not drift away from. 

Rules were simple. Group up, descend, and follow the divemaster for a brief tour underwater. Then 2 rocks would be clapped together to signal the start of “free time”. Stay 6’ off the ground or objects (corals were fake, btw — “tank ornaments”) to give animals the right of way. Listen for the tank banger which the divemasters will use to alert one of us if something is coming. After 45 minutes, the rocks will be clapped together again to signal the end of the dive. 

All divers were welcome to surface whenever they pleased. Due to the 25’ depth of this dive, decompression did not apply. But before we got off the platform to even start the dive, we had to stay still and wait for the guitarfish to exit the platform first.  LOL. The guitarfish was very social (and bizarre!). That was definitely a fish I have never seen on any prior dive.

bowmouth guitarfish. Photo credit: GA Aquarium

^ like a half ray, half shark 

The first animal I saw after descending was a spotted eagle ray. Swimming alongside it was a baby that didn’t have its spots yet.

Spotted Eagle Ray. Photo credit: Wikipedia

Then I saw a shark swimming along the bottom. The shark also had a baby tagging along. Various rays and schools of fish were all around me. 20 minutes of the dive something comes out of nowhere from behind me, and FAST. It was the hammerhead. It started circling around the perimeter of the tank. I kept my eye on it, fascinated. It moved with such purpose and speed, it was hard to ignore. (Fun fact about the hammerhead. Its head gets a bit awkward so, to chill, it swims sideways. It is more “aerodynamic”, if you will, when doing this.  However, THIS hammerhead did not chill-swim. 

Hammerhead in Epcot’s aquarium. Photo credit: Disney Parks

^ Mickeys are “hidden” throughout all the theme parks. This was an obvious one though. 🙂 

I was finning around, having a great time making hand signals to the tourists. Throwing peace signs and using 2 hands to make a heart. I did this to a couple dining in the coral reef restaurant, and they got a kick out of it, started laughing, and hand signaled a heart back to me. Then a guy behind them several tables away started a large, exaggerated wave at me. I mirrored him, and then he made the heart. LOL! 

Little kids going through the aquarium were charmed when I waved to them too. Their eyes got big and they quickly looked at their parents to make sure they saw what happened. It was very fun.

Then I heard the tank banger and looked around as I was instructed ahead of time to do. Approaching me was the >100 year old loggerhead sea turtle. Do you know what its name is?  Tolstoy!  (Nudge @tolstoy21).  It headed to the surface, and I surfaced with it just for fun, to watch its cute snoot stick out of the water and its mouth open to take a breath. We descended together and continued the dive.

Loggerhead. Photo credit: WDW Parkhoppers

In the meantime, I saw the other turtle was out & about. That turtle was nearly black. The pattern on its shell looked like a hawksbill turtle would have, but I don’t think hawksbill was stocked in their tank. Therefore, it had to be a green sea turtle. 

Green sea turtle. Photo credit: WDW Parkhoppers

Next I joined a school of fish, then another.. in the meantime the sharks and rays, and the beloved guitarfish, were making appearances.  I then heard the rocks clapping together and returned to the middle of the tank where the head divemaster was waiting with the rope to the orange buoy in hand. He pointed to each person, clearly taking roll, and after he was satisfied all were present, we ascended together.

We were met by the other divemasters and the surface team and helped out of our gear. We were handed fresh, clean towels and asked how the dive went. Everyone was excited and had a great experience. We crossed the catwalk and re-entered the dolphin and manatee feeding room where 2 dolphins were splashing and playing? Or sparring? Or something. Idk, but there was a lot of splashing. 

We got back to the locker rooms where there were more towels, hot showers with body wash, shampoo, and conditioner, and even a swimsuit drying machine. We placed our shorties and booties into designated bins and regrouped in the room just outside.

There they had a table setup with a self-inking stamp with the DiveQuest logo. This is so divers can stamp their logbook, where some divers keep track of all their dives. I definitely brought my logbook (logbook #4) with me, stamped it, and recorded it as my 126th dive. Stats of the dive were displayed on a TV screen, and I jotted those down. There was also a list of all the creatures in the tank on the screen. This was the only time we were permitted to take photos: of these 2 TV screens. Maestro, I mean, the head divemaster was there and I had him sign my logbook. It is customary for the dive charter or company to do this, if divers so choose to include that as part of the entry. For those who forgot their log books, large, ruler stickers with the DiveQuest logo were provided so divers could fill them out and stick them in their log books later.

We were each given a gift!  A small dry bag with the logo. Cool!  Dry bags Velcro shut, then the top is rolled down a few times and the corners clipped together. Much better and more durable than, say, a ziplock.  These were small dry bags that would be great for holding keys and phones while doing water activities of any sort. 
 

Each person was also handed a card with a code on it where we could access our photos online later (at no charge). My photo is not available yet. Will update post later when it is.

To conclude the adventure, everyone was escorted outside the building, where I caught a glimpse of Goofy!  Then we were led to the park exit with a very warm goodbye. 💙

Here are some stats about the aquarium:

The Living Seas Fact Sheet

Here is a video of the experience in general (this video was taken at some point for/of another group; I am not in this video)

https://youtu.be/twib4h-JP_k?si=PMjeVZUOIyD3jTSj

Here are some of the creatures I saw:

https://youtube.com/shorts/ENgrTK84U-8?si=ts75pcXVoZu3pS1p

 

Sidenote: everyone was perfectly weighted.. all different height and weight people. How is this possible?!? At least someone has weighting issues when diving. ????? Supposedly they used some algorithm to find the perfect weight amount for everyone’s gear. Either that or it was Disney MAGIC! ⭐️ 

 

Edited May 28 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[tolstoy21]

On 5/27/2024 at 6:51 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Do you know what its name is?  Tolstoy!  (Nudge @tolstoy21).

Ha !  At last !!  Found him !!!

That turtle is jerk who took the username 'tolstoy' back in the late 90s when I first tried to register it on a Linux support forum only to receive the message: "The username 'tolstoy' is currently in use." 

 

Edited May 28 by tolstoy21

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/26/2024 at 3:45 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

But the green one was right there!!!!!!!  LOL

I like it.  Looks beautiful!

 

On 5/27/2024 at 3:51 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Then we took turns saying our name, where we are from, and our favorite sea creature (mine is the sea turtle). Then the guides asked which animal we wanted to see on today’s dive. Many said sharks, and one or two said the bowmouth guitarfish. I wanted to see the hammerhead most of all.

Turtles are such a cool creature.  I remember as a kid growing up and watching Steve Irwin laying on a beach on his belly crawling up waters alongside a mom laying her eggs.  It's one of those "journeys" in nature that captivates myself and so many others.  I am beyond curious what their favorite sharks were.  🤔

 

On 5/27/2024 at 3:51 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

All divers were welcome to surface whenever they pleased. Due to the 25’ depth of this dive, decompression did not apply. But before we got off the platform to even start the dive, we had to stay still and wait for the guitarfish to exit the platform first.  LOL. The guitarfish was very social (and bizarre!). That was definitely a fish I have never seen on any prior dive.

Very cool.... It reminds me so much of a whale shark in pattern.

 

 

On 5/27/2024 at 3:51 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Then I saw a shark swimming along the bottom. The shark also had a baby tagging along. Various rays and schools of fish were all around me. 20 minutes of the dive something comes out of nowhere from behind me, and FAST. It was the hammerhead. It started circling around the perimeter of the tank. I kept my eye on it, fascinated. It moved with such purpose and speed, it was hard to ignore. (Fun fact about the hammerhead. Its head gets a bit awkward so, to chill, it swims sideways. It is more “aerodynamic”, if you will, when doing this.  However, THIS hammerhead did not chill-swim. 

There's also a very feisty "fun shark" at the bottom there.  It's something I don't think a lot of people get to experience until you're head in the water and with the sharks, understanding how different each animal can be and how social they can be with one another (and humans) in a variety of ways.  The damage jaws did in imprinting this personality of mindless killers on so many people when it comes to sharks is such a misnomer.  I can only imagine that you have hopes for another shark-ey dive in future somewhere. 

What an experience, and thank you so much for taking the time to share it with us.

 

On 5/27/2024 at 3:51 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Then a guy behind them several tables away started a large, exaggerated wave at me. I mirrored him, and then he made the heart. LOL! 

Little kids going through the aquarium were charmed when I waved to them too. Their eyes got big and they quickly looked at their parents to make sure they saw what happened. It was very fun.

This is the best, I love this moment.

 

On 5/27/2024 at 3:51 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

"Almost got clocked by a hammerhead" 😂

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 5/29/2024 at 6:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

But the green one was right there!!!!!!!

That was the one that drew me in. But having a closer look, it didn’t have the definition that the white one does (ie: shading behind every scale and around the corals). 

 

On 5/29/2024 at 6:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Steve Irwin laying on a beach on his belly crawling up waters alongside a mom laying her eggs

That’s magical. I participated in beach cleanups and nest protection with the Loggerhead Marinelife Center.

On 5/29/2024 at 6:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

There's also a very feisty "fun shark" at the bottom there

That was the type of shark that had the baby with her.

On 5/29/2024 at 6:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

The damage jaws did in imprinting this personality of mindless killers on so many people when it comes to sharks is such a misnomer. 

Yeah. And Shark Week.. 😐

I’ve dove with shark many times, and it’s never been ANYTHING like any of those TV shows. Except one time when a diver shot a fish with a speargun. Then sharks were circling. The piercing blow released fish blood into the water, and that’s what the sharks wanted. The diver let the sharks have the fish.

On 5/29/2024 at 6:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I can only imagine that you have hopes for another shark-ey dive in future somewhere. 

Always!

On 5/29/2024 at 6:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Almost got clocked by a hammerhead" 😂

Truth! 🤣

Thanks for taking the time to read! It was a long post!

Edited May 30 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/29/2024 at 6:39 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Yeah. And Shark Week.. 😐

Yeah!!!!!! That was one that just took me a while to really understand. It was interesting to hear that perspective and I see it a lot more now given the book we read.  It's interesting.  "Playing with Sharks" was a great first step to really share that story and I think it would be great if that was the focus of things like shark week.

The story of the diver, it's kind of funny how long it took humans to connect spearfishing with shark attacks. Honestly.

On 5/29/2024 at 6:39 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

That was the type of shark that had the baby with her.

Reminds me a bit of a thresher shark because of the bulk and muscle. Based on the list I think it's a.... Blacknose shark.  Really fun to see them just doing their thing.  I see a lot of similar behaviors in certain fish from my corydoras, to grace the shark, to actually sharks.  It's just fun to experience for me.

 

On 5/29/2024 at 6:39 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

That’s magical. I participated in beach cleanups and nest protection with the Loggerhead Marinelife Center.

That's awesome! I imagine that was another one of those "once in a lifetime" experiences. So special.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

@Guppysnail look at the white worms go!  They suddenly had a population boom. Husband says video looks like glitter. But the video is unedited. That is 100% worm movement.