Mountaintoppufferkeeper Members interview!

[FishPlanet]

 

@mountaintoppufferkeeper, you are being interviewed.

1.) Favourite fish?

2.) Least favourite fish?

3.) Favourite fish YouTuber?

4.) Favourite non-fish YouTuber?

5.) Favourite food?

6.) What fish would you like to be the most?

7.) What was your scariest moment?

8.) What country do you want to visit the most?

9.) Cats or dogs?

10) Describe yourself in 3 words.

11) Pancakes or Waffles?

12) What is your favorite song?

13) What do you dislike most about the aquarium hobby, and why?

14) What is your favorite TV show?

15) What is your greatest fear?

16) What is or was your favorite subject in school, and why?

17) Do you keep live aquarium plants? If so, what types?

18) Do you love or hate pest snails?

19) Do you enjoy gardening?

20) What do you love most about the aquarium hobby?

21) What was the biggest mistake you've made so far in the hobby, and what has it taught you?

22) Burgers or Pizza?

23) What is your favorite aquatic animal?

24) What is your dream tank or something you want to accomplish in this hobby?

25) Favorite candy?

26) What is your favorite book?

27) What other things do you do for fun outside of the hobby?

Others may also ask questions if they wish. 😊

 

 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

1.) Favourite fish?
Hairy puffer by a mile. Alone or in groups they are like my spirit puffer 😁. That said the Pao cf palustris puffer is nearly tied for favorite after breeding and getting to raise F1 generation puffers to adult hood here. 

2.) Least favourite fish?

As much as I would prefer it to not be this way All the day sleepers to include most plecos, morymid, and many catfish. I'd rather get to watch the activity when enjoying my tanks  than either try and find those species hiding in the tank or watch them when I review a night vision camera. 

3.) Favourite fish YouTuber?

Id have to give it to @Cory who was really the only youtube channel I watched or participated in for a couple of years at least. The coop youtube helped me find the puffer bug, decide to actually move into groups of fish, get fully into live plants, and due to a mention on an old school livestream a little before that first order in March of 2017 I felt comfortable ordering fish from a couple of online shops. Though I love me some Dans Fish livestreams on Wednesdays 😀

4.) Favourite non-fish YouTuber?

 FLAIR I enjoy the animals and random daily activities. 

5.) Favourite food?

Lobster, I grew up in Revere Massachusetts a 1/2 mile from Suffolk Downs Racetrack) and a 1/4 mile from Revere Beach. When I was about 10 we had some divers we knew give us a bag of their lobster quota at the end of a fishing trip. They gave us basically a kitchen trashbag size To take home and cook for my birthday. My dad and I were the only lobster fans in the house so we had a feast of lobster meat that probably could not be matched in modern times it was awesome. 

6.) What fish would you like to be the most?

Something like a halibut. I'd be living in cold water, I'd rather be cold than hot, be big enough to handle trouble when needed, and no problem blending in and observing if that was the better path. 

7.) What was your scariest moment?
Ill ammend this one to moments because there are so many really good stories involved that I couldn't pick one

I've done a lot of interesting jobs in my life to this point. Im about the niceset most mellow guy there is now with my office work of the past 13 years. I even wear suits pretty often. But for the pure entertainment of my crazy path these are they ones that arguably had scary moments including

a. Repossessing vehicles as a higher risk collatoral "repo man". generally not scary and more logistics and analysis than you would think but that company we did primarily the ones that no one else could find or that they deemed too dangerous to attempt. A few times it got a little more interesting that I preferred (You would have to use your imaginations on what that means in this job). I will say one new vehicle that was driven off the dealer lot was never recovered because it was too scary to attempt (even for us) from the people involved. The other kind of scary.... I had to find and secure a 1 ton pickup to my 3/4 ton dually allusion towtruck and drive it down an interstate in high winds at speed. To get a sense of that level of scary you could put your hand out the car window at 70 and try and control your palm while holding it flat to the wind. 

b.Catching shoplifters as undercover security at a grocery store chain covering a district of half a western state. This job was fun because I made my schedule and covered around 20 stores on a rotational basis. It probably had the most "moments".

i. One guy shoplifted 20 boxes worth of a precursor drug that can be turned into meth, got caught by me and then decided to unsuccessfully attempt to stab me with a not yet dispensed drug needle in the security office. 

ii. A 6'8" guy who stuffed $200 in steaks in his pants was one I got to stop alone. That individual ended up being wanted for a homicide out of another state. I did let the store manager know just before the stop that if he didn't back me up and I survived I would be "really unhappy" with him. He thankfully believed me 😁

iii. My similarly motivated coworker and I worked a store that was far away from the center of the district. 2 individuals grabbed as many boxes worth of a precursor drug as they could. We stopped them bith got them both to the office and while starting to search one he attempted to pull a loaded handgun and shoot us.....also unsuccessfully. Boy was that a shift and a half. That got us job offers from the local police department and a really fun ride along the next week. 

c. Serving as an airborne qualified infantryman in the Army , the jumping out of an airplane that first time is a bit of a challenge. But that and the standard army stuff post 9/11/01 also came after my experiences noted in 1 and 2. 

d. My 2nd specialty in the army an interrogator and mid level leader of soldiers,  the scariest moment there was, due to that crazy time it was back then, realizing I was working a position that normally would be a 35 year old with 10 more years of experience than I had as 25 year old. I was the pimary planner and lead instructor for training over 150 new soldiers, most of which under the age of 20, how to survive in combat and still  successfully perform their missions in a war zone. Everyone came back alive though so that actually turned into a great accomplishment for us all. 

8.) What country do you want to visit the most?
I have not yet been to Scotland I think that would be the most want. I have visited 45 US states and Puerto Rico at some point in my life.  Many for at least few days and some for weeks. I have not yet visited to Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin. I have lived in 10 states Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. I have been outside of the United States a few times visiting the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Dominican Republic, England ,Germany, Iraq, Kuwait, Mexico, and Ukraine

9.) Cats or dogs?

Dogs. Allergic to cats but they sure do love me.  

10) Describe yourself in 3 words.

analytical - decisive - confident

I am always analyzing whatever I am on at the time. I am an all in all out kind of person.  This is job related, hobby related, knowledge related, life related. I have no trouble being decisive and making calls in fairly high intensity situations with as much info and analysis as time allows. Once a decision is made I do it confidently because in my experiences confidently wrong will beat unconfidently right all day long.

I guess that might put my puffer focus into a bit of context now. 

11) Pancakes or Waffles?

Waffles they hold the maple syrup better

12) What is your favorite song?

Nathaniel Rateliff S.O.B. it is a pretty amazing arrangement and lyric.

My top tier that are heard most days to give you a sense: electric light orchestra, acdc, iron maiden, greta van fleet, top secret drum corps, flogging molly, dropkick Murphys, Nathaniel Rateliff and the night sweats, and finally the blues Brothers, my dad an I met Matt "Guitar" Murphy, a famous blues musician, on a golf course when I was about 14 many years after appreciating that the cast was nearly all very famous blues artists.  

13) What do you dislike most about the aquarium hobby, and why?
What I dislike most is that the hobby is not as appreciated as it should be for the power it has to connect and educated others on the possibilities they never considered. Sometimes it is good to push the limits of knowledge a bit further. 

Aquariums are really an entire world that you can learn something from everyday, teach with everyday, and reinforce methods of learning and growing as a person with everyday. I think its an amazing group of people in the hobby and I am not sure I would have realized it without COOP and the forum.

There are people that have now seen one of my tanks who have never seen some of my fish species in a group, how they act at high altitude, or what a little direct sun shining into the tanks at 9100 feet in the woods changes in the fish behaviors. There are also people who will only a tank  of mine once and bring it up years later because of how it stuck with them. That ability to share something that I am passionate about changes others for the better in my opinion. In some cases I might have been the first to document a project in the world and share it with everyone I could.  I would like the hobby to do that more knowing that anyone could be the inspiration for countless others to attempt amazing projects. 

If there were more hobbyists keeping and sharing whatever they are passionate about they would certainly inspire someone else and they someone else  and on and on.  It is amazing that people are taking what I have shared with the palustris deciding to keep them in their homes and building awareness of the species off of my information. I did not even know they existed as a species until I found them for sale one day on a fish web surfing session.  
 

14) What is your favorite TV show?

Deadliest catch

15) What is your greatest fear?
Worrying too much about the unimportant things. I get too caught up in day to day life at times and I fear not appreciating the journey itself. I try and live life like it's Jiu-jitsu and just be in the moment, be available for the gifts presented to me, and appreciate what comes as I'm moving through the struggle is making me even more prepared for the next one. 

16) What is or was your favorite subject in school, and why?

Of all the subjects in all the schools I will say the fire science courses and academies were my favorite. I did 2 years grabbed three associstes degrees and completed the structure fire academy through the local community college a few years back. I then did wildand firefighting "red card" resident academy down in souther colorado for a week to get that side down a bit. Those were my choice which made them my favorites and done when I moved to the woods . We have a volunteer fire house well trained, equipped, and staffed but it is about 15 minutes drive to the house and the last 5 miles is a dirt road. 

I took those classes to better prepare for any emergency out here by actually doing the full fire academy both for wildfire and structure I've got an understanding of of the science involved and actually have a couple of 2.5 gallon fire cans set with supressant gel that would put out a room if needed, wildland tools to cut in a fire break, and technically have the equivalent of a Type 6 wildland engine in and behind my garage with 275 gallons of water in an IBC tote 50 US gallons per minute at a pressure of 100 pounds per square inch.  I expect to never need it but if I do it's nice to have it there and practice with it occasionally

17) Do you keep live aquarium plants? If so, what types?
I do. Mostly subwassertang,  Java moss, Brazilian pennywort, Amazon frogbit, abubias, and duckweed. Subwassertang really loves the puffers and they can't really damage it due to it growing in fairly small individual pieces that loosly interlock. 

18) Do you love or hate pest snails?

Love them almost as much as the puffers do

19) Do you enjoy gardening?

I do not garden up here but I suppose I technically ranch earthworms 

20) What do you love most about the aquarium h##obby?

The ability to find something new or challenging to enjoy nearly everyday you want to look for it.  

21) What was the biggest mistake you've made so far in the hobby, and what has it taught you?

I'd say that was running DIY CO2 system. I used the two 2 liter bottle method with baking soda and citric acid. I did not realizing the air valve i was using as a regulator would fail all the way open over night and dump the maximum CO2 possible into my 40 breeder planted tank for 20 bucktooth tetra. I went down in the morning and got the shock of a lifetime when nothing was alive in that tank. The CO2 highly effectively gassed the tank in hours. That experience taught me I didn't need CO2 that much, I should do puffer breeding vs bucktooth species tanks, and that CO2 is amazingly efficient at de-life'ing a tank.

22) Burgers or Pizza?

Burgers it's more enjoyable to play with the flavor profiles 

23) What is your favorite aquatic animal?
Pufferfish for sure there is just so much thinking they do day to day and food item to food item. Their abilities are just fascinating to study. 

24) What is your dream tank or something you want to "the soon to arrive acrylic tank  "43 gallon breeder" 12 inches high fand divodeable into 4ths  for the puffer breeding and raising projects. 

25) Favorite candy?

At the moment beanboozled jellybeans because we just did them in the office and boy was that a fun morning. I ate them all strsight faced deadpan and enjoyed the highly dramatic reactions to the bad flavors everyone else had. But normally rootbeer barrels. 

26) What is your favorite book?
I will take this one to the way back machine when Itty bitty mountain top would check out the same book from the elementary school library Fish do the strangest things" the coolest parts were the archer fish and the alligator gar.

27) What other things do you do for fun outside of the hobby?

I practice Gracie Jiu-jitsu when I'm not overly broken of a veteran. I do my day job of analyzing and mitigating problems before most people have to deal with them. I forgot a few initially ... I have fun answering as detailed as I can when asked, I am the fantasy hockey league commissoner of a something like ten year old 12 team keeper league during the nhl season. I even won the league for the first time in its existence this past season. Ivre golfed all my life even playing in a few tournaments over the years so try and have fun there, and occasionally I ride my Indian FTR 1200 S motorcycle around when it's not too cold and when I'm not overly broken. 

Edited September 11, 2022 by mountaintoppufferkeeper

[PineSong]

Honestly, I don't even know what to say about a person whose favorite candy is root beer barrels. That is literally a first. Chocolate, sure. Sour patch kind of stuff sure. ROOT BEER BARRELS?  Even more wondrous than keeping fish that look like slippers 🙂

I had never heard of Nathaniel Rateliff, so I watched the video for S.O.B. Deep contrast between the lyrics and the sound, thanks for the recommend. Don't know when I'll need a sad songs soundtrack for a road trip, but he'd be on it.

I'm sorry about that CO2 situation. Painful lessons can be good teachers but still stink to have.

Thanks for sharing with us!

[OnlyGenusCaps]

Seriously?!  Seriously, @mountaintoppufferkeeper?!  Who is going to want to follow you after those stories?!  I know I can't compete.  Your amazing life may have ruined this concept.  I hope you are happy!  🤣  Honestly, now I just want to read your memoirs. 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

@PineSong yeah the lyric there certainly is a bit different but it can most definitely fit into many situations. Ha I'm honored to be the first rootbeer barrel guy. That's hereditary from my dad for sure. I may have had them sent to me within things while in basic training for the Army. A little taste of home as needed. Oh yeah what made them even more great was  not everyone likes them. Very helpful in that situation. I later made my "beer" of choice Guinness when living in barracks with a few hundred of my coworkers. That was because no one would drink it but me

Yeah that CO2 deal was crazy but it steered me into doing the projects I do today and whatever fun things I havent even considered yet that I'll be doing in the future. 

Edited September 11, 2022 by mountaintoppufferkeeper

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

@OnlyGenusCaps lol thanks. The questions were the reason i even thought about a few of those stories it was a fun process to try and get a few in here. Amazing is too generous a description but much appreciated. I just managed to find myself in a unique collection of situations that I was privledged enough to learn from along the way I can't even imagine what the 2nd half of the journey could bring me. 

[CJs Aquatics]

@mountaintoppufferkeeper amazing post