Ask Me Anything REQUEST : ODDBALL !

Podzy

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jan 9, 2015
193
1
33
Toronto
So i'm going to take a page out of reddits' books here and request an Ask me Anything session with one of our very own member "Oddball"
Should you chose to accept , anyone can ask you question's and you choose which ones you would like to answer:

1) What year did you get into fish keeping and what was the inspiration ?

2) Preference - Fresh water VS. Salt water and why ?

3) How many Fish do you officially own ?

4) How many Tanks do you officially have running at the moment ?

5) What has been your biggest disaster to date ?

6) What has been Your biggest close call ?

7) Explain to us how a typical day of fish keeping begins and ends for you

8) Which fish for you would you consider "The one that got away"

9)Have you ever had a disease outbreak in your system , How did you deal with it ? if not , how have you prevented it ?

10) What would you consider to be your dream tank ? (Size , Stock , Filtration )

Hope to hear from you soon !
 

Oddball

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
MFK Member
Apr 27, 2005
22,350
2,813
9,480
65
Bama
1. Started keeping fish in 1964. My inspiration was the diversity of species to be discovered near our summer house in Montauk, LI, NY. The family's property was smack in the middle of both the LI sound via FT Pond Bay and the Altantic. We were a few hundred feet from FT Pond Lake with 7 farm pond on our property. My entire family will swear in court that I never had dry sneakers until college.

2. No preference. I enjoy oddballs from all environments. I currently have more freshwater than saltwater systems due to the simple logistics that I no longer live on the beach like I did in San Diego. Back then, I kept mainly SW systems, including a shark/ray pond.

3. Currently, I'm in a dry period with only 3 tanks running. In my previous hatchery I kept over 4k in fish (not counting fry) and up to half a million red-claw crayfish. The total system was around 33k gallons in 125+/- continuous running tanks. I currently have only 22 fish (10 Geo. steindachneri; 10 EB acaras; 2 yellow banana dwarf moray eels)

4. Same as above.

5. Biggest disaster has been having to part out my hatchery due to a combination of job lay-off and medical issues. Biggest fish disaster, ...take your pick; A tornado killed my 8 x 4 360 gal tank; blown out 400, 650, 285, 350, and too many others; Rampant septicemia taking out $3k in fish in a week; loss of my albino P. aethiopicus during a relocation; loss of my +3ft AUL; loss of my 3+ft afaro; forced to sell my 12 year old FRT; being raided by F&W where I lost $4k in fish and $$$$$$$$$$$ in legal fees to get the situation resolved in my favor in court.

6. Biggest close call was a tornado side-band taking my reef frag tank and not my house. Or, looking at jail time for illegal species. Or, a 285gal blowing out while I was standing next to it. Or, being swiped by a barracuda while diving for leopard sharks for my SW pond. Or, being bitten by a 6ft moray while spear-fishing off Catalina Island. Or, grabbing a rope at the last second in a fall off the 180 ft mud cliffs of Clallum Bay on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Or, a bunch more.

7. Now, it's easy with only 3 tanks. Used to be an aisle a day in the hatchery of the same maintenance everyone performs. Plus, taking/filling orders, purging, packing/stacking and shipping. Moving berried females to solitary and crawlers to raceway tanks, juvies to grow-out tanks, and sub-adults to large grow-out tanks (150lbs of stock per tank). Culling fry tanks, moving fry to grow-out bins. Verifying water draws from cisterns to buried tank to filtered warming tanks. Back-flushing the giant bead filters and separators. Cleaning the skimmer towers. Refilling many 30lb auto feeders and feeding out pounds of flake, sticks, pellet, and wet foods daily. Feeding the feeder bins and transferring Q-tank feeders to feed-out bins. Cleaning the hatchery floors, resorting the freezers (new to back/older to front), cleaning the office. And on, and on, and on. Then, there's the house work, landscaping, and my job.

8. Would have to be finally getting a dwarf FW sawfish and experiencing it dying during shipping. I've never been able to find another one.

9. As stated above, Had a major outbreak of Bacterial septicemia that nearly wiped me out. The UV system turned out to be too small for the increasing size of my hatchery. And, medications nearly wiped out my bank accounts and proved ineffective until too late for most of the specimens infected.

10. At my age, I no longer have a 'dream tank', ...I've already owned them (the realistic ones). Due to my age and medical status, the wife wants me to restrict myself to only 3-5 tank. However, she's looking forward to the 4600gal we're planning on buying. The remaining few tanks will be 450+gals with the exception of the wife's 300 half-cylinder (which does NOT count towards my restrictions). The stock will, of course, be oddballs to include species that have yet to be bred in captivity or, more simply, by myself.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ShadowP

Oscarum monstruoso

Fire Eel
MFK Member
May 3, 2010
1,004
7
68
33706
1. Started keeping fish in 1964. My inspiration was the diversity of species to be discovered near our summer house in Montauk, LI, NY. The family's property was smack in the middle of both the LI sound via FT Pond Bay and the Altantic. We were a few hundred feet from FT Pond Lake with 7 farm pond on our property. My entire family will swear in court that I never had dry sneakers until college.

2. No preference. I enjoy oddballs from all environments. I currently have more freshwater than saltwater systems due to the simple logistics that I no longer live on the beach like I did in San Diego. Back then, I kept mainly SW systems, including a shark/ray pond.

3. Currently, I'm in a dry period with only 3 tanks running. In my previous hatchery I kept over 4k in fish (not counting fry) and up to half a million red-claw crayfish. The total system was around 33k gallons in 125+/- continuous running tanks. I currently have only 22 fish (10 Geo. steindachneri; 10 EB acaras; 2 yellow banana dwarf moray eels)

4. Same as above.

5. Biggest disaster has been having to part out my hatchery due to a combination of job lay-off and medical issues. Biggest fish disaster, ...take your pick; A tornado killed my 8 x 4 360 gal tank; blown out 400, 650, 285, 350, and too many others; Rampant septicemia taking out $3k in fish in a week; loss of my albino P. aethiopicus during a relocation; loss of my +3ft AUL; loss of my 3+ft afaro; forced to sell my 12 year old FRT; being raided by F&W where I lost $4k in fish and $$$$$$$$$$$ in legal fees to get the situation resolved in my favor in court.

6. Biggest close call was a tornado side-band taking my reef frag tank and not my house. Or, looking at jail time for illegal species. Or, a 285gal blowing out while I was standing next to it. Or, being swiped by a barracuda while diving for leopard sharks for my SW pond. Or, being bitten by a 6ft moray while spear-fishing off Catalina Island. Or, grabbing a rope at the last second in a fall off the 180 ft mud cliffs of Clallum Bay on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Or, a bunch more.

7. Now, it's easy with only 3 tanks. Used to be an aisle a day in the hatchery of the same maintenance everyone performs. Plus, taking/filling orders, purging, packing/stacking and shipping. Moving berried females to solitary and crawlers to raceway tanks, juvies to grow-out tanks, and sub-adults to large grow-out tanks (150lbs of stock per tank). Culling fry tanks, moving fry to grow-out bins. Verifying water draws from cisterns to buried tank to filtered warming tanks. Back-flushing the giant bead filters and separators. Cleaning the skimmer towers. Refilling many 30lb auto feeders and feeding out pounds of flake, sticks, pellet, and wet foods daily. Feeding the feeder bins and transferring Q-tank feeders to feed-out bins. Cleaning the hatchery floors, resorting the freezers (new to back/older to front), cleaning the office. And on, and on, and on. Then, there's the house work, landscaping, and my job.

8. Would have to be finally getting a dwarf FW sawfish and experiencing it dying during shipping. I've never been able to find another one.

9. As stated above, Had a major outbreak of Bacterial septicemia that nearly wiped me out. The UV system turned out to be too small for the increasing size of my hatchery. And, medications nearly wiped out my bank accounts and proved ineffective until too late for most of the specimens infected.

10. At my age, I no longer have a 'dream tank', ...I've already owned them (the realistic ones). Due to my age and medical status, the wife wants me to restrict myself to only 3-5 tank. However, she's looking forward to the 4600gal we're planning on buying. The remaining few tanks will be 450+gals with the exception of the wife's 300 half-cylinder (which does NOT count towards my restrictions). The stock will, of course, be oddballs to include species that have yet to be bred in captivity or, more simply, by myself.
Out of your whole very impressive biography, I am most taken back by the recoveries from disasters. I think a few of your smaller ones would have ended most people's time in the hobby. To come back from those is truly a testament to your love of fishkeeping.
 

Oddball

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
MFK Member
Apr 27, 2005
22,350
2,813
9,480
65
Bama
I sold the breeding pair of sunshine Os to a hobbyist in Memphis. He promised me some of the fry but, I have yet to hear from him since the sale 2 years ago. I sold my fry off 3 months after they hatched to a wholesaler. I was hoping to hold some back but, needed the tank space for other projects. Bad decision.
 

fwprawn

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 29, 2011
3,441
7
38
New England
Wow - what an amazing read - thank you for taking the time to share all of your history with us - I find it incredible on many levels - you're an inspiration - Thank you.
 

Oddball

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
MFK Member
Apr 27, 2005
22,350
2,813
9,480
65
Bama
Out of your whole very impressive biography, I am most taken back by the recoveries from disasters. I think a few of your smaller ones would have ended most people's time in the hobby. To come back from those is truly a testament to your love of fishkeeping.
Every long road has bumps in it. Sometimes I'd get really bummed out over the whole thing and start back up half-heartedly. Then, I see a pair guarding a clutch and the same feelings I had as a kid break through the haze of failure and I feel like diving back in again. I guess I'll never learn otherwise.
 

jaws7777

Probation Member
Probation Member
Mar 1, 2014
17,773
20,943
740
White house 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington
Ooops misunderstood...

Oddball what was your favirote species ?

If you could only keep one fish what would it be
 

UnstoppableJayD

MFK NNJ
Staff member
Global Moderator
MFK Member
Jun 6, 2012
4,876
1,333
364
47
Northern NJ
Every long road has bumps in it. Sometimes I'd get really bummed out over the whole thing and start back up half-heartedly. Then, I see a pair guarding a clutch and the same feelings I had as a kid break through the haze of failure and I feel like diving back in again. I guess I'll never learn otherwise.
You wouldn't consider the FRT heat issue a near miss?? lol tell that story again
 
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store