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Alll tanks and equipment arrived safe and sound from Uganda and I am now putting it all back together.
-Shane

A few tanks are up and running.
-Shane

Joyous. Got shrimp?

Jools

Wow, you shipped all your tanks from Uganda? Wouldn't it have been easier/cheaper just to ship the equipment and buy new tanks? Very nice setups, by the way.

Glad everything arrived OK. Looks like its coming along very nicely!

I really like what you did with the branches.

2wheelsx2 wrote:Wow, you shipped all your tanks from Uganda? Wouldn't it have been easier/cheaper just to ship the equipment and buy new tanks? Very nice setups, by the way.

I would have thought that it was shipped together with all the OTHER stuff that Shane would have brought from Uganda - books, furniture, kids toys, clothes, etc, that come with living out of the country for a few years and can't be carried in a suitcase. Once you ship by container, it becomes less of an issue WHAT you ship in the container [I'm not saying Shane got a 40ft container to himself, but probably one or more wooden box(es) that go into the container].

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Mats

How about the US government payed for it

Dave Rinaldo wrote:How about the US government payed for it

Well, if you "ex-pat" with a company, they usually pay for the moving of personal stuff. My point was rather that once you start moving internationally, it is usually a case of "it goes in a large box", and once you pay for a box, it's "anything that goes into it won't cost any extra". It just takes several weeks to get the stuff from one side of the Atlantic to the other (and in this case, probably from the Indian Ocean across to the Atlantic added to the time...).

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Mats

very cool tanks and i can't believe they didn't break in transit.

How about a couple of very comfy chairs for the room?

Such a great day to have so many tanks to ponder over stocking.

Jools

Shame the fishes you collected in Uganda couldn't come back with you.

What new plans do you have for these tanks now I wonder?

Well, if you "ex-pat" with a company, they usually pay for the moving of personal stuff.

It is actually by weight. I get 7,200 lbs, so every move (which is roughly every two years) we "starve" our household down to 7,200 lbs. Keeps us lean and mobile and we use all kinds of tricks. After every move we hang our clothes with the hanger backwards. When we wear something we turn the hanger around. The clothes on any backward hanger after a year become charity donations. The advent of the IPOD and Kindle also brought our weight down by hundreds of lbs. That said, there are always trade offs, so every new purchase means something of equal weight has to go.

i can't believe they didn't break in transit.

Every tank has its own custom built wooden crate!

How about a couple of very comfy chairs for the room?

Already in the planning phase....

Yes, bringing fish was not an option as it was 3 months between shipping out the tanks and getting them back. 3 months in a plastic bag would be a very long time.

No idea what I will do with the remaining tanks... I'll just have to see what comes along. Not a bad "problem" to be faced with.

-Shane

Shane wrote:No idea what I will do with the remaining tanks...

You could alway set up one of the smaller ones for only. This could be an Asian blackwater setup with Sundadanio in it for dither.

Silurus wrote: You could alway set up one of the smaller ones for Nanobagrus immaculatus only. This could be an Asian blackwater setup with Sundadanio in it for dither.

That would be a very interesting tank, but I think you'd definitely need RO water. Sundadanio seem to do very poorly in anything other than mineral-free water.

Shane wrote:

Well, if you "ex-pat" with a company, they usually pay for the moving of personal stuff.

It is actually by weight. I get 7,200 lbs, so every move (which is roughly every two years) we "starve" our household down to 7,200 lbs. Keeps us lean and mobile and we use all kinds of tricks. After every move we hang our clothes with the hanger backwards. When we wear something we turn the hanger around. The clothes on any backward hanger after a year become charity donations. The advent of the IPOD and Kindle also brought our weight down by hundreds of lbs. That said, there are always trade offs, so every new purchase means something of equal weight has to go.

Ah, right, I forgot Shane was on an expatriate package. Funny thing is though, when I was offered packages (which I never took, instead opting to work on rotation, 6x2, 8x2 and once 13x2 weeks) they had a contingency for things such as these so that you don't ship heavy but fairly commonplace things like chairs and draperies and rugs, etc. unless they were really fancy stuff. We were allowed up to $2k in "soft goods" so that you just sold off that stuff locally and just bought new stuff when you got to where you needed to go. That avoided things like this one incident where one of my guys shipped a $500 bicycle in a box made of purpleheart wood which weighed 300 lbs and cost $2400 to ship from Venezuela.

Either way, it's awesome that you got to bring it back with you and that you have a whole routine to get rid of stuff you don't use anymore. I'd better not let my wife see this, or she'll implement your system and throw out half my tools.

Hi Shane,
Undoubtedly you have the most well traveled fish room equipment among our membership.

Say, should you happen to collect any Ugandan Nothobranchius species would you consider breeding them on peat moss and mailing the egg laden moss to some of us in the USA who are members of the American Killiefish Association?
Accurate collection dates and locations would be greatly appreciated. Once a few have some eggs in moss we can help establish them better within the Killiefish hobby.
I would separate the sexes a few days then breed them in repeated periods of 48 hours in container of up to five gallons.
Uganda is the Northern most range for Nothos and few are well established in the hobby.
I had to ask since not many collectors have explored Uganda's annual Nothos.

very nice and good stuff that all arrived safe and well. cheers jk

I had to ask since not many collectors have explored Uganda's annual Nothos.

Unfortunately I am already gone from there. More unfortunate was that in two years of collecting in Uganda I never came across any Nothos. Many other attractive killies but none from that genus. I suspect this had more to do with me looking for collecting locations likely to harbor catfish than anything else (i.e. I was just not looking in the right places).

-Shane

The tanks keep spawning. Added a set of four 10 gallon utility tanks (quarantine/hospital/spawning/fry rearing) today.
-Shane

West Africa set up with new tanks below, main rack, close up of new utility tanks.
-Shane

Is it the lens curvature Shane, or are the stands bowing slightly? That's shaping up to be an awesome room. Much more pleasant than most fishrooms I have been to, which were full of wires, hoses, and pump noises.

Must be the camera. The tanks all look good. Quiet is a very key consideration for me. I can't stand a loud fishroom.
-Shane

I really like the utility tanks, reminds me of a 3x1foot cube set-up I had a while back. Must be a bind getting used to heaters again.

Cheers,

Jools

That's shaping up to be an awesome room. Much more pleasant than most fishrooms I have been to, which were full of wires, hoses, and pump noises.

I LOVE this fish room....

mind if I quite shamelessly plagiarize it?

I too am done with messy fishrooms, water and fungus everywhere, electrickery hazards and so on.
I guess many of us who can't get a lid on our hobby go through a phase when no amount of tanks is enough and we end up with a lot of mess.

I love this room.
very nice wall decorations (I love exotic woodcarvings and got a fair number myself), does it have a bookstand or a desk too?

Must be a bind getting used to heaters again.

That is a serious understatement. I did not even have one when I got back. I also forgot how expensive they are (far more than filters or lights) and that they require an extra outlet plug for each tank.

Firstly thanks Sid,

does it have a bookstand or a desk too?

The door on the left goes to the fishroom bathroom. Step through the bathroom and I have a 10' X 12' office/library. I'll get an office pic up when I get it put all together.
-Shane

Shane wrote:

The door on the left goes to the fishroom bathroom. Step through the bathroom and I have a 10' X 12' office/library. I'll get an office pic up when I get it put all together.
-Shane

I thought my fishroom had decent "amenities", but never even considered adding a bathroom. That's dedication!!! ;)

Larry

Shane wrote:Quiet is a very key consideration for me. I can't stand a loud fishroom.

Avoid mine like the plague then. My dad calls it 'The Shopfloor'. Rattling,splashing,clanking,whirring,short circuiting,small explosions etc are all salient features of mine. It does keep nosy relatives away luckily.


Back on topic, lovely fish room you are running there!!! What does the Asian tank have at the moment???

Shane,
Not only your fishroom is looking very good, the furnished tanks also.

Greets, Riny