That was small potatoes - I know a guy who used to trade annual killifish eggs (wrapped in tin foil to protect against X-rays) across the Iron Curtain with a Russian breeder who breed neon tetras (no mean feat in itself) and sold them in an open air market just off Red Square. The guy sold out of iron-bottomed tanks with bulges built into the bottom under which he kept bunson burners. You can’t make this stuff up. Beautiful as this world is, its just as weird.
Do I hear the sound of running water splashing off the glass??
This discussion has brought back a flood (don’t flood the basement) of pleasant memories. It is tempting to dive back in. If you do please post photos and keep us abreast of what you do and the fish you choose.
We have a 3 acre pond surrounded by woods that I have been planting various native water lilies and Marsh Mallow around the last few years. The up keep is left to nature. I often spend time there doing the not doing anything, but listening, watching, and shutting down the internal dialog. It is a great way to wipe the mind clean. I paddle often there just enjoying the interaction of a paddle in the water. and the quiet of a canoe gliding on the surface. I sometimes fish or hunt there as well. I find nature is necessary for my well being. Aquariums and terrariums are a small piece of nature brought inside. Good winter projects for sure.
PJC, when my wife and I were dating, I was taking a Herp and Ick class at Clemson so our dates were often field trips with an eye out for critters. On one of the first, a turtle was escaping into a pond. She popped her shoes off and waded in and got him. Then there was the black snake that bit her after I grabbed him and the largest garter snake I’ve ever seen. Didn’t have a container that day so she held the snake for an hour on the way back to Clemson.
I was impressed enough to marry her , 50 years ago.
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No splashing - yet. This topic probably holds little interest to most paddlers, so maybe I should let even the discussion go - we’re getting way off topic. If we’re not careful we’ll be on to the Lacy/ Black Bass act… But it is a delight to encounter a kindred spirit in an unexpected place. Thanks for just understanding.
But I sure do appreciate your description of your pond. There’s one near me, though just now its likely being prepared for ice hockey. I can imagine your pond as just the sort of place to zen out and maybe play around with some freestyle strokes.
Ever do any business with Slocum water gardens in Winter Haven? Great commercial source for aquatic plants, native and otherwise, if you’re interested.
Congrats String. Here’s hoping you and the missus many more happy years of snake and turtle chasing.
I envy you… I bet she’s the type who wouldn’t be so unreasonable as to object to your preserving a worm culture (fish food) in the fridge. I’ve always maintained that as long as the worms are in a sealed container, and the beer is too, there’s nothing to worry about. But there are those who disagree.
She now chases grandchildren. Except the 3 older ones that I have introduced to camping and paddling, fire building, disc golf, shooting , and other fun stuff.
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Surely everyone loves those photos of fish and frogs! Who could possibly be bored by talk of raising fish, or Seminole Killifish stomach contents? 
I didn’t even get into the free diving in the Atlantic for reef fishes.
I have been in Winter Haven many times (think Cypress Gardens). Wasn’t aware that Slocum water gardens sold aquatic plants Yes I am interested. Will check it out. I really enjoyed the various plants added to a fish tank. Those in the pond were found here in SC. I added Arrowhead as well. Surprisingly, I haven’t got the cattails to take by the Johnny Appleseed method. May have to transplant.
Please, please, if you do start up in the basement keep us posted. I texted my Herpetologist Professor son-in-law a link to this discussion. He has a large well maintained fish tank in their home, and a few basement tanks also. He brought 3 Madagascar Chameleons he caught wild in FL to the beach one summer on his way back from his work in the Everglades on the Burmese Pythons. They were a big hit with our family of nerds. He was part of the group that put the first radio trackers in the Pythons down there.
Oh, what the heck, I’ll keep playing…
Chameleons are soooo neat! Back when I was doing the fish show circuit our local Killie club (Wisconsin Area Killifish Org. - We’re WAKO, we’re proud) hosted the AKA national convention, as we’ve done several times since. One of the attendees flew to a show from Hawaii. He paid his air fare with the sale of exotic (to Hawaii) species that he captured in Hawaii. He had Nothobranchius guntheri (native to Zanzibar, I believe, introduced for malaria control), Dendrobates auratus (Costa Rican strain), and - the non-killie behind-the-scenes hit of the show - a pair of Jackson’s Chameleons!
What a neat animal that chameleon was! Of course I had no clue how to care for them and couldn’t afford then anyhow, but they were spectacular critters. Like slo-mo dinosaurs or something. They moved like a sloth.
I’ve done the gastric lavage thing with trout in an ichthyology class I once took, but never anything as small as a Seminole killie - primarily insectivores, I presume?
The reef stuff is amazing, of course, and I handled salt water fish when I worked at the shop, but always felt badly about trading in things that weren’t, and were unlikely to ever be, captive raised. There’s just a titch too much of the “plunder and pillage” in that part of the hobby for my taste. Yes, I know, there are a lot of them out there, fishing can be done sustainably, and new collections of any fish may or may not lead to successful propagation - still I prefer not to involve myself in that. But to each his own. And I hear there are a few species - damsels and some of the clown fish for instance - that are being captive bred now, and good for those who can do it. We even had a pair of tomato clowns repeatedly breed at the shop, though we couldn’t raise the fry.
Free diving among them would be a trip though. Maybe someday.
I used to order plants from Slocum when I was at the shop and they usually had very nice stuff. (Sometimes got blue fin killie eggs on the hornwort, BTW.) They specialize in water lilies and lotus and produce a lot of beautiful cultivars, though at the shop we didn’t have enough pond customers to justify anything but special orders for those. For the really delicate stuff - Madagascar Lace Leaf and Aponogeton boivianus and some of the Cryptocornes for example - there were some Chicago based plant growers who were better.
As a northerner I can’t but worry about all the exotics that have escaped captivity in Fl. It just seems like a catastrophe waiting to happen to pond raise exotic fishes in a hurricane prone zone. But its been going on for a long time now and isn’t likely to stop soon… so I guess we live with it. The horse was out of the barn before I was born. But I can assure you that I never worried about escaped tropicals of any sort surviving even one Wisconsin winter. Escaping exotic fish pathogens worry me more, but I guess I’m alone in that. What the heck - with Asian carp, zebra mussels, quaggas, spiny daphnia, etc. running unchecked, it seems like a minor worry. And then there are the Fl pythons… If they could be brought under control, that would be miracle enough for one lifetime. I wish your son-in-law all the luck in the world with that. He’s doing good work.
Whenever I think about starting the fish room up again I have to remember though… When I was doing that I went 25 years without leaving the state, except for fish shows at the end of a runway in one major city or another. I did three or four paddling trips a year, always close to home - maybe got up to the north woods once a year.
Since then I’ve paddled the Ozarks quite a lot - maybe 30 trips - paddled the Green In Utah, paddled in Texas, SC, Iowa, lots of trips on smaller Wisconsin rivers… trips that I wouldn’t trade for all the gold australes in the world. Maybe I’ll do the fish thing again, but for now I can still pull a paddle and I mean to keep doing so.
PS: I forgot… this is a gold australe. Had some luck with them, too.
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PJC if you get to SC again be sure to let us know. Where did you paddle down here? We have some interesting places to paddle.
It wasn’t many years latter I felt much the same way about collecting on the reef. Some folks used rotenone which isn’t a good idea I used one hand held net, or rarely two nets. Some would damaged the reefs also. Still to spend a day suspended in paradise like the critters around you, and make a living doing it was exciting, and enticing.
I can understand the demands of being responsible for the living things under you care, and how that ties you down.
Love the photos! Thanks for posting them. They take me back to the Aquarium magazines I avidly read as a teen.
Speaking of critters to be responsible for , there is a puppy somewhere who would love you and your pond. And Lilly.
I paddled on the Edisto, camped near St. George. That was the very first gathering of the group that later formed the core of the Pcom. Ozark Rendez. group. Do you, perchance, know Swedge and CM? They were there. Wgiven and TexasLady were there, too. And TripS.
When next I get down that way, especially if I have a canoe with me, I’ll sure let you know.
And I sure do understand the allure of diving on reefs, though I’ve never done it. In your shoes I’d have done the same and probably been quite enthusiastic about it. They used to use rotenone for collecting in the Amazon, too. It isn’t all goodness and light.
These obsessions we have can make life so much more worth living, lead to learning in so many related fields - no regrets, ever. They kept me from going nuts during periods of some pretty down-grinding labor. But obsessions, I’ve come to know, exact a toll as well. There is a price to be paid for doing a lot of paddling, too. I’m just going to stay off that fish keeping toll road for a while yet. My only fear is that by the time I need to get back on that road my eyes will be too far gone to see killifish eggs. 
Don’t worry about canoes or sea kayaks, paddles, and PFD. I have you covered. Sparkleberry Swamp, Cedar Creek in Congaree National Park are two wonderful and distinctly different swamps to paddle. Then the little alluvial Enoree River In Sumter National Forest is a treat even if the water looks like dirt at times. There are costal paddles like the Wambaw suitable for canoes too. Though I have paddled Lake Jocassee in a tandem canoe before, I feel sea kayaks are preferable. They are also preferable for paddling to the coastal barrier islands. Though I have seen folks Tandem canoe to Capers Island and in Cape Romain.
Well, I’m a die hard open boater and have been all my life. I’d be a complete novice in a sea kayak. I did learn to roll a Dancer in a pool, but wouldn’t trust my roll in a real emergency - I only learned that for something paddle related to do during one winter when I had access to a yak.
Any idea yet what camera you would replace it with?
I haven’t been looking for a new one yet. I would like a waterproof one with an optical zoom greater than 5X if they make it. I would also like and old time view finder if they make a small point and shot with one. Perhaps with a light meter that doesn’t start overexposing. I don’t really know why our Nikons have done that. Might have to do a bit of researching on that.
Overall I have been pleased with mine. It has proved durable over the 7 years I have used it as it has more than one dent, and never been babied. I haven’t sent it in to have the seals replaced and it still will take an underwater shot. Although I don’t take it under for long periods of time our even much below the surface anymore. When I settle on a new one in the future I’ll post about it here.
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One of the best winter projects is dreaming up a canoe trip and finding a compatible and an enthusiastic team.
PJC, I paddled many times with Swedge and Tripp on the Edisto and Sparkleberry. Great times. I still hear from Swedge when he is doing collections for the handicapped . Working with the handicapped was and apparently still is his passion.
Tripp was one of the nicest men I’ve ever paddled with. He died from a heart attack a few years ago.
Your comment brought back some great memories.
Well, say “hi” to Swedge for me when you next hear from him. Yes, I’d heard of TrippS’s passing. He seemed a very nice man, though I only knew him from that one trip. Our numbers are dwindling a bit, aren’t they?
No word from CM? He made it to the Ozarks a few times. I heard he’s gotten into bicycling, but not much after that.
I don’t recall CM. Tripp was only 46 when he died in his sleep. Several of us attended his funeral in Sumter , SC. I’ve never seen so many people at a funeral before or since. He was highly thought of in his community for all the volunteer work he did.
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