What do people use as a battery back-up for fishrooms? Do folks use a gas generator? Does anyone use a power station (portable or not) for their home and fishroom? The following is a review on Anker Solix F3800 Plus, which seems to be a good option: https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/this-portable-power-station-can-do-the-work-of-a-tesla-powerwall/

Lilypons Water Gardens is closing after 108 years on March 28, 2025. See more info at -https:https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/agriculture/after-108-years-lilypons-water-gardens-to-close-in-march/article_c2d05c8c-d633-5a82-a510-06e26b1cdf96.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawIsQG1leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHSH1D3NnX5Lv-6bDo934yAnC7p5DExQQFfq25GFVxLYLsaOWoC0Z9T2VBw_aem_EvELjY13lztQx7XPldnJrQ (She said the main reason for closing is that “no one in the fifth generation is interested in continuing the business.”)

For the shrimpkeepers: Fluval Stratum is a compressed soil from the Mount Oso volcano in Japan, and it’s popular for aquarium plants but can also be used for certain houseplants. “People are using it like crazy right now for rare plant propagations because plants go nuts in this stuff,” Lindsay says. https://joegardener.com/podcast/houseplant-propagation-need-to-knows-lindsay-sisti/

Blake & SJ: DIY Building a Dream Fishroom (From FB post. Please update website “Program”)

If anyone is interested, I can deliver to the January 4 meeting a bag of guppy grass (naja) and rabbit snails (yellow mantle, black/gray shells). Free. I’ll drop them off as I have to take kid to activity and can’t stay for meeting.

Ducks love to eat this climate-friendly food. Now you might, too. Azolla is a nutritious aquatic fern that grows like crazy. New research finds that the cyanobacteria within the plant are nontoxic, potentially clearing the way for Azolla to become a novel food. Mohammed Abed / AFP via Getty Images Like a priceless painting, the beautiful blue and green swirl in a lake or pond presents a look-don’t-touch kind of situation. It’s the work of proliferating cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, which produces toxins that are poisonous to humans and other animals, especially when blooms corrupt freshwater supplies. These toxins, which the microbes evolved to deter herbivores, are linked to ALS and Parkinson’s disease, plus muscle paralysis and liver and kidney failure. One of the toxins, anatoxin-a, is known as Very Fast Death Factor, in case you were doubting that toxicity. It seemed a shame, then, that a highly nutritious fern called Azolla — that green mat ducks eat on ponds — long ago made a pact with a species of cyanobacteria, an “endocyanobiont.” Living inside the fern, the microbes get shelter, and provide the plant with essential nitrogen in return. Lately, scientists have been campaigning to turn the fast-growing Azolla into a food of the future. Others envision it becoming both a sustainable biofuel and a fertilizer that captures carbon. But these ideas aren’t likely to get very far if the cyanobacteria living within end up being highly toxic. (More at https://grist.org/climate/azolla-climate-friendly-food-cyanobacteria/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily)

Winding down my summer tubbing. Anyone interested for free: hornwort, guppy grass and/or 2 male guppies (red taile fin, navy blue bodies).

Does anyone have a phone number for Seapora products? Their website only has a mailing address (2215 Kenmore Ave, Ste 100, Buffalo NY) and an email address. The website appears to only be a catalog (seaporaproducts.com/). The warranty card info for Seapora has a Woodbridge Ontario address (dated 2015). I did a search for "2215 Kenmore Ave, Ste 100" and got Royalty Aquatics, which does have a phone number (716-832-2015). I got in touch with someone at Royalty, who said Seapora is in Chino CA. Is Aquarium Masters (www.aquariumindustrial.com/contact) also Seapora? When I call the phone number for Aquarium Masters, it just rings (no one picks up, and there's no VM).

I have a 56 gallon column aquarium (not 55 g) that sprung a leak. I can donate it to the Workshop for "repair" and it can be given away or auctioned off. Does PVAS want it? If so, do I need to bring it Saturday, or can I bring it Friday?

Press Release: https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/us-urged-to-tighten-data-standards-for-aquarium-fish-imports-2023-03-14/ Letter to U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3-wagtail.biolgicaldiversity.org/documents/Request_for_Species-Level_Data_FINAL_3_14_23.pdf

https://boundarystones.weta.org/2019/08/06/lesser-known-national-aquarium-or-how-5-alligators-ended-basement-commerce-building?utm_medium=email&utm_source=engagingnetworks&utm_campaign=highlights_20230227&utm_content=WETA+Highlights+2-27-23

https://gwapa.org/forum/download/file.php?id=2537&mode=view

Giant fish's comeback raises hopes in the Amazon The comeback of the Amazon's pirarucu fish involves people of different backgrounds cooperating on many levels — a vision of what's possible that veterans of the Amazon say they've seen nowhere else across the vast region. BY: ASSOCIATED PRESS | 11/04/2022 06:40 AM EDT CLIMATEWIRE | Even in the most biodiverse rainforest of the world, the pirarucu, also known as arapaima, stands out. First, there is its mammoth size: It can weigh up to 440 pounds, by far the largest of 2,300 known fish species in the Amazon. It is found primarily in floodplain lakes across the Amazon Basin, including the region of Médio Juruá. Second, the giant fish not so long ago nearly vanished from Juruá, as vessels swept the lakes with large nets. The illegal and unsustainable fishing left river and Indigenous communities struggling to catch their staple food. And it left pirarucu designated as threatened with extinction, unless trade in the fish is closely controlled by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. But now, something remarkable has happened. The fish has come back to the lakes of Médio Juruá. The story of how it happened involves people of different backgrounds cooperating on many levels — a vision of what's possible that veterans of the Amazon say they've seen nowhere else across the vast region. Change began in the late 1990s. With the assistance of a Dutch Catholic priest, rubber tappers organized and led a campaign to persuade the federal government to create the Médio Juruá Extractive Reserve. They proposed that river communities could take from the forest and its lakes — up to a point — and within protected areas. It worked. Now, local communities produce açai, vegetable oils and rubber, and they leave the forest standing. Most successful of all has been the management of pirarucu. Riverine settler communities, organized into associations, also reached agreement with neighboring Deni Indigenous people, who have suffered in the past from invasions by rubber tappers and fishermen. Now they are part of the managed fishing of pirarucu, which improved relations between Indigenous people and non-Indigenous. Managing the comeback has required social organization, cooperation and complex logistics. Illegal fishing has been sharply reduced. Pirarucu are flourishing. The virtuous cycle plays out in the region of Carauari, which stretches along 404 miles of the Jurua River and is home to 35,000 people. To see how things could have gone, look no further than the neighboring Javari Valley, where British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were murdered last June. The backdrop of that tragedy is a decades-old dispute between Indigenous communities and former rubber tappers who were hired by local businessmen to do illegal fishing, targeting mostly the pirarucu. Two local fishermen confessed to the crimes. Illegal fishing is rampant in Brazil. It's the second-most frequent environmental crime on protected land, after logging, according to an academic study based on official data. Brazil´s conservation agency issued 1,160 infraction notices for illegal fishing — a quarter of all infractions — over a recent five-year period. "Javari is a portrait of what Médio Juruá was like in the 1980s," Manoel Cunha, the main leader of the local rubber tappers, told the Associated Press during a boat trip to São Raimundo, his home community and one of those that take part in regulated fishing. "We managed to get rid of fishing companies and invading fishermen by monitoring and management. You have been on this river for days now, and you have not seen any fishing boats except the ones from our organizations. There is no more room for them here." Pirarucu fishing is done once a year, around September, the period of lowest water. Fishing quotas are possible due to another remarkable characteristic of the pirarucu: It is one of the few fish species in the world that surface to breathe. It does that with a big splash, flashing its red tail out of the water. A local fisherman and a researcher in the nearby Mamirarua region developed a way to take advantage of this and count the fish, since they stay underwater for no more than 20 minutes. The government now recognizes this counting method. The survey is done once a year by certified fishermen, after taking a course. By law, only 30 percent of the pirarucu in a certain area can be fished the following year. This controlled fishing has led to a surge in its population in regions where it's employed. In São Raimundo region, there were 1,335 pirarucus in the nearby lakes in 2011, when the managed fishing began. Last year, there were 4,092 specimens, according to their records. In the Carauari region, the number of pirarucu spiked from 4,916 in 2011 to 46,839 10 years later. An AP team accompanied the first of the seven days of fishing in São Raimundo. Picture a few dozen houses, with running water, connected by well-maintained wooden footbridges amid açai palm trees. Thirty-four families call it home. Most belong to Cunha's extended family, whose ancestors arrived in the region from the impoverished and drought-ravaged Northeast during the rubber boom to work as tappers. "Our pirarucu is so tasty, everybody that eats it falls in love with it and wants more," Rosilda da Cunha, a sister of Manoel who lives in São Raimundo, told the AP. Pirarucu bring money into the community, she said. This year, the goal is to buy a solar panel system to replace the diesel-fueled generator. Another share of the money goes to the community members who participate in the fishing. Women's and men's salaries are equal. To catch pirarucu, fishermen use special, stronger nets they weave themselves. The holes are large enough to allow smaller specimens to go through, as taking fish under 5 feet is prohibited. When the fishers catch one, they haul in the net and club the fish in the head. Then they put it in their small boat. When it's very heavy, two or three men are required to do the job. The pirarucus are then taken from the lakes to a large boat by the Jurua River. There they are gutted, a task that is mostly done by women, and put on ice. All the production is bought by the Association of Rural Producers of Carauari, known as Asproc, the region's umbrella organization, so the fishers are never at the mercy of middlemen. Founded by rubber tappers who wanted to liberate themselves from slavelike labor conditions, Asproc has grown to be one of the most important grassroots entities in the entire Amazon. It runs programs on everything from sanitation to community markets to higher education, innovating along the way. It now sells pirarucu to Brazil´s main cities, including São Paulo and Brasília, a complex endeavor that involves several days of transport by boat and road and usually takes more than two weeks. Asproc's success has attracted several partnerships. One is counterintuitive: the U.S. Forest Service, which supported the creation of a brand; the Gosto da Amazônia (Amazon Taste), which promotes the pirarucu nationwide; and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which helped finance a warehouse for processing fish in Carauari city, where the pirarucu are cut, frozen and packaged. "This project is unique as it requires a strong governance structure," Ted Gehr, USAID's mission director in Brazil, told the AP during his first visit to the São Raimundo community. "Everybody is in agreement that they may have to sacrifice and not be able to fish all of the pirarucu that are available but knowing that they'll reproduce more, and that in the long run they will be more valuable." The Médio Juruá region is blessed with remoteness. It has no access by road. So far, it is free from the deforestation and fire that have been devastating elsewhere in the Amazon. But the smoke that has left the skies grayish in September is a reminder that the destruction is not far away. The challenge is to be a strong organization and economy to stave off future threats, says Cunha. "Had we not organized ourselves through fishing management to protect our environments and take our fish, instead of others taking them from us, we could be in the same situation as our colleagues from Javari," said Cunha, who is the head of the Médio Juruá Extractive Reserve, a position usually held by government officials. "Had they organized themselves earlier, they could have saved the lives of those two comrades."

I have some tanks I would like to donate to the Sunday CanCon auction. Can I bring the tanks Friday? Or do I need to bring them another day?

https://www.ajc.com/life/tiktok-viral-watch-this-backyard-swimming-pool-transform-into-a-full-blown-aquarium/B56ZAX5ZGRAP3GA6JW5N5UJ6UA/?et_rid=372096043&s_campaign=address:newsletter

I just learned about this interesting device to prevent limescale in a garden setting, https://plantsurge.com I wonder if this could be helpful for those of us who use a water softener and could be helpful for fish that are sensitive to salts (e.g., cories). Would be cheaper than an R/O unit (or maybe help make the R/O filters last longer?).

Tony Stewart Lists $30 Mil Indiana Ranch W/ Indoor Waterfall, Aquarium & Game Room NASCAR'S TONY STEWARTLISTS $30 MILLION INDIANA RANCH... Indoor Waterfall, Aquarium & Game Room 212 3/3/2022 3:13 PM PT AROUND THE RANCHLAUNCH GALLERYThe Carrie Holle GroupNASCAR legend Tony Stewart is selling his massive Indiana ranch -- and once you see how ridiculously awesome this house is, you'll see why it's got a $30 million price tag!This 20,000 square foot estate sits on 415 acres in Columbus, IN -- less than an hour from Indianapolis -- and is built out of luxurious lodgepole pine.The place is awesome. It has a two-story waterfall, a trout stream and an 8,700-gallon aquarium right in the entry. The Carrie Holle GroupThere's also 6 bedrooms, 11 baths (8 full, 3 half), a gigantic kitchen with fancy appliances, a 4-car garage (of course) and a guesthouse.For entertainment, you've got lots to pick from ... including a 2-lane bowling alley, full golf simulator, an onyx bar and a game room that looks like a Vegas casino.You can also dive in the 9-acre stocked lake in the backyard or if you're a fan of hunting, this land is a licensed hunting preserve that has a bunch of elk, deer and more. The Carrie Holle GroupThe two-story mansion, that was built in 2011, was just listed with Carrie Holle of Compass Indiana and can be yours for $30 million.Why would Stewart sell such a beautiful place? We're told it's because the 3x NASCAR Cup Series winner is never home and always on the road.Tony's loss is your gain ... assuming you're filthy rich.

Highly prized, and highly priced, Asian fish keeps enticing dealers "Individual sales of protected and prohibited fish will not independently cause extinction or ecological disaster. Yet the aquarium hobbyist industry, as a whole, can have that very impact," prosecutors said in a recent case. BY: MICHAEL DOYLE | 02/28/2022 01:49 PM EST A tender leans over a tank displaying an arowana to fix the air pump in May 2005 in Singapore, where the ninth International Aquarium Fish and Accessories Exhibition and Conference was held. Wong Maye-e/AP Photo GREENWIRE | Pittsburgh-area resident Anthony Nguyen is starting 2022 as his first year on federal probation and as a case study of the enduring black-market appeal of two distinctive fish from Asia called the arowana and the snakehead. Also known as dragonfish, and less romantically as the Asian bonytongue, arowana have been called the most expensive freshwater fish on earth, with specimens reportedly commanding prices in the tens of thousands of dollars. Snakeheads, as ugly as they sound, are a rapacious invasive species. Nguyen pleaded guilty late last year to trafficking in both. “Individual sales of protected and prohibited fish will not independently cause extinction or ecological disaster,” prosecutors said in a subsequent sentencing memo. “Yet the aquarium hobbyist industry, as a whole, can have that very impact.” Prosecutors added that “the impacts of unscrupulous collection can lead to devastating impacts on the natural environment of the species, as well as the environments in which they are kept as pets.” Snakeheads, in particular, are aggressive bullies that take over their new neighborhoods. “Asian arowana are one of the most endangered species in the world, and the global black-market trade in this fish seriously threatens their survival in the wild,” prosecutors declared, adding that “the sale of snakehead fish presents a very different kind of harm.” The arowana has been listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act since 1976. Nonetheless, the arowana trade is colorful and dangerous enough to be the basis for a book by Emily Voight, titled “The Dragon Behind the Glass: A True Story of Power, Obsession and the World’s Most Coveted Fish.” It has also periodically drawn the attention of Fish and Wildlife Service investigators. In 2012, for instance, a Canadian pet dealer was sentenced to 60 days in jail and fined more than $20,000 after pleading guilty to smuggling invasive and endangered species into the United States. The pet dealer sold protected axolotl salamanders, arowanas and snakeheads to an undercover FWS agent (Greenwire, Nov. 14, 2012). In another case from about the same time, the owners of an aquarium business in Washington state were convicted of smuggling arowanas and were ordered to forfeit assets valued at over $150,000 and spend three months in home confinement and one year on probation. The property forfeited included four of the highly prized fish, FWS reported. Noting that Nguyen, too, had previously pleaded guilty in 2011 to an earlier episode of fish smuggling, prosecutors asked a federal judge to sentence Nguyen to at least a month in prison following his guilty plea to two counts of violating the Lacey Act. Instead, U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fisher last November sentenced Nguyen to two five-year terms of probation, to be served concurrently. A George W. Bush appointee, Barry followed the request of Nguyen’s defense attorney. “Without minimizing his actions in any way, Mr. Nguyen’s fascination with exotic-type fish appears to be cultural in nature,” assistant federal defender Jay Finkelstein wrote in a sentencing memo. “This is more of a hobby than a business for Mr. Nguyen.” Finkelstein added that he is “confident that Mr. Nguyen now understands that he cannot be involved with these types of fish in any way whatsoever.” Nguyen was first arrested in 2008 while attempting to smuggle 11 Asian arowana into the United States. Records recovered by investigators documented the sale of about 33 arowana dating back to 2006. He pleaded guilty in 2011 to one count of smuggling and was sentenced to 12 months’ probation. Despite the repeat offense, and unlike the potentially sky-high prices that the fish can command, Nguyen’s defense attorney described the latest violation as modest in scale. “According to the government, Mr. Nguyen offered the fish online to an aquarium owner for $1500 and received a total of $500 for the snakehead fish,” Finkelstein wrote. “Clearly, Mr. Nguyen made a minimal amount of money as a result of his actions in this case.” E&E News | Article | Highly prized, and highly priced, Asian fish keeps enticing dealers (politicopro.com)

Anyone want: guppy grass (naja), frog bit, riccia fluitans, or nymphoides sp. Taiwan (or duckweed)? Free.

Israeli researchers have taught goldfish to drive, according to a study that offers new insights into animals’ ability to navigate — even when they’re literally fish out of water. For the study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Behavioural Brain Research, the goldfish were trained to use a wheeled platform, dubbed a Fish Operated Vehicle. The FOV could be driven and have its course changed in reaction to the fish’s movements inside a water tank mounted on the platform. Their task was to “drive” the robotic vehicle toward a target that could be observed through the walls of the fish tank. The vehicle was fitted with lidar, short for light detection and ranging, a remote sensing technology that uses lasers to collect data on its ground location and the fish’s location within the tank.