Saturday, September 4, 2010

A Discussion About Seachem Prime And Other Tap Water Conditioners / Dechlorinators

So... I've been having a little online discussion mainly about Seachem's Prime and IMO it's an overpriced product when ONLY a dechlor product is needed. Now... for newbie's stuck with cycling with fish, it's a good product to help detoxify ammonia during the cycling process but once a tank is mature and has a healthy nitrogen cycle going on, Prime is just an expensive alternative to a regular dechlor product. Here are some of my replies in this online discussion / debate:

The question starts off like this from another forum member...

So, when it comes to fish products I generally dislike mixing them, and prefer to stay with a brand once I begin using it. I currently use Stress Coat from API, and have been using them for around 10 years, however I'm interested in switching to another type of conditioner.

Simple, stupid question: Will there be any harm in "mixing" brands during a water change? As in, next week when I do my 50% changes, can I add another brand of conditioner and be fine? I'm no expert on how water conditioners work, but I assume that it dissipates after detoxifying the tank, correct?

I'm just curious because I have always heard (with medications at least), to never, ever mix brands.

Another forum member said:

I actually switched over from API Stress Coat to Seachem Prime myself a few weeks ago, Just changed over cold turkey during one of my water changes. Fish didn't even seem to notice. My plants are a lot nicer then they were, but I couldn't tell you if it's from the Prime or some of the ferts I've changed.

Then my first reply:

Why not just use API's actual dechlor product, Tap Water Conditioner which only treats chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals... none of the stress-this, slime-that type crap in it. It's very concentrated so a 16 oz. bottle will treat up to 9,400 gallons compared to 2,400 for most other 16 oz. bottles of dechlor products... and it usually costs less too.

Prime is good but it's overpriced for folks that aren't stuck with cycling with fish but it's very good for folks that are stuck with cycling with fish. Once a tank is mature enough that it has a good biological filter set up, then Prime really is not needed.

Something else I just though of. If you have a PetsMart nearby, they have Top Fin Tap Water Dechlorinator 8 oz. size, usually in stock in the stores for $5.49 which treats 2,400 gallons (Do NOT get the Top Fin Tap Water Conditioner which is the slime-this type product).

It's not as good of a deal as the API 16 oz. bottle but it's still a better price than some others. Petsmart.com has the 16oz. of API's Tap Water Conditioner for only 6.99 so you get four times the water treatment for 1.50 more. Talk to the store manager about getting the 16 oz. bottle in stock and remember the stores will match their online prices so check the prices online first.

Another member suggested Big Al's water conditioner.... and my reply:

Well, according to your sig, you have 15 aquariums... but it's the 64 oz. (not a gallon.. unless you can point me to what you buy)

I saw this.. http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp18580/si1381857/cl0/bigalsmultipurposewaterconditioner64oz  for $16.99 but that is the slime-this/stress-that stuff and probably uses 5ml per 10G or even 10ml per 10G (their website doesn't give dosing info) whereas the API Tap Water Conditioner uses an average of 1ml per 10G (1ml per 20G for chlorine, 1ml per 5G for chloramine) and doesn't have all the stress-this/slime-that stuff in it. Big Al's does sell the actual gallon of API's product for $28.99... and that's a helluva deal for someone with lots of tanks or ponds. http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp18580/si3637700/cl0/aquariumpharmaceuticalstapwaterconditioner1gallon

I usually talk about the 16 oz. bottles for most aquarium keepers since even a 16 oz. bottle of API's product will last most people well over a year. 9,400 gallons of water changes is a LOT. LOL If you have 100G worth of tanks and do 25% weekly, that's only 1,300 gallons a year... so the 16 oz. bottle will last up to 7 seven years for chlorine and 2 years for chloramine treated water. People would die of old age before using a gallon of API's for only 100G worth of tanks. (Suggestion for Last Will & Testament... "I hereby leave the remaining amount of my gallon of API's Tap Water Conditioner to my fish....") LOL

Someone asked about Prime's ability to treat nitrites and nitrates... and my reply:

From Seachem's site...
http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Prime.html

Prime® is the complete and concentrated conditioner for both fresh and salt water. Prime® removes chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. Prime® converts ammonia into a safe, non-toxic form that is readily removed by the tank’s biofilter. Prime® may be used during tank cycling to alleviate ammonia/nitrite toxicity. Prime® detoxifies nitrite and nitrate, allowing the biofilter to more efficiently remove them. It will also detoxify any heavy metals found in the tap water at typical concentration levels. Prime® also promotes the production and regeneration of the natural slime coat. Prime® is non-acidic and will not impact pH. Prime® will not overactivate skimmers. Use at start-up and whenever adding or replacing water.
While I agree it's a good product for when it's needed when stuck with cycling with fish issues, lets discuss some of Prime's advertising because there is a LOT of salesman's fluff in their advertising...

Prime® removes chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. Prime® converts ammonia into a safe, non-toxic form that is readily removed by the tank’s biofilter.

How can it "remove" the chlorine, chloramine and ammonia in one sentence and then convert the ammonia in the next sentence? I agree it does convert the ammonia to a non-toxic form but it doesn't remove chlorine or chloramine. It breaks chlorine and chloramine down and binds with them to make them not toxic... just like the sodium thiosulfate in other dechlor products.

Prime® may be used during tank cycling to alleviate ammonia/nitrite toxicity.

While it does alleviate ammonia toxicity, it's a VERY EXPENSIVE solution to nitrite toxicity... when a pinch of table salt per 10G will do the same thing. In fact, that is all Prime is doing with the added salts in their product. Prime is around $10.00++ for a 16 oz. bottle... table salt is around 50 cents for 2 pounds.

Prime® detoxifies nitrite and nitrate, allowing the biofilter to more efficiently remove them. (From another part of the page... To detoxify nitrite in an emergency, up to 5 times normal dose may be used.)

I already talked about nitrite above but IF Prime does do anything to detoxify nitrate.. which isn't really an issue since nitrate does not start to cause problems till it gets very high and normal tank maintenance will keep nitrates in check... but their claim that it "detoxifies... nitrate, allowing the biofilter to more efficiently remove them" is simply not true... since the biofilter in most of our aquariums do NOT convert nitrates.. unless one has the added filter systems (trickle filter, deep sand bed, etc.) for denitrifying nitrates.

Prime® also promotes the production and regeneration of the natural slime coat.

The likely reason for this is the added salts in Prime... most people do NOT need additional slime coat production for their fish.

Now all that said, once again, Prime is a good product but it is two to three times more expensive than what is needed.

On the down side, I've read some scientific info and even admissions on Seachem's forums from Seachem's reps that Prime causes a much higher reduction in O2 levels in tanks... especially when it's overdosed which they promote in their directions. In an overstocked tank that is going through cycling with fish issues, low O2 levels are NOT needed.

Most tap water treatments cause some reduction in O2 levels but most other products to not recommend overdosing their products so it's not usually as critical.

There's another thread in this forum where someone had a major fish kill in their tank after they used their dechlor for a partial water change and then also dosed their tank with Seachem's Excel for their plants and between the two products being used at the same time, Seachem said it probably lowered the O2 level too much and suffocated the fish. If I recall correctly, they lost around 1/2 of their fish... some of them nice fish!

Another member said:
Interesting posts Lenny, gives something to think about that's for sure.

I've decided to stick with API, as I've done these last 10+ years. I was thinking of switching because I had heard from all the monster keepers that Prime is the biggest bang for your buck, and is wonderful. I suppose I'm better off staying with what I know works.

I've ordered many things off Foster/Smith's website, so I know they're awesome. My work hours recently hit a low note so I'm trying not to spend a whole lot right now, and while the API stuff is cheap I'm just not keen on paying shipping at the moment.

I work at a pet store and we carry small bottles of the API tap water conditioner. I've never tried picking it up because I have always used Stress Coat, however, I've decided it's time to change that and cut down on unnecessary things added to my water. I'll ask if we can order in some larger bottles of the stuff, because I'll get a flat 15% discount at my store on top of the monthly sales prices.
And my reply...

Once again, there's nothing wrong with Prime when used properly.... and I agree with you when sticking with one brand for most chemicals but a dechlor product is so basic and all of them are so close in composition that I don't think it matters. In fact, API only uses two chemicals in their dechlor... sodium thiosulfate and EDTA (which is the chelating agent that binds or chelates with heavy metals to make them non-toxic). Prime also has these same two chemicals and LOTS of other stuff so IF Prime is safe with Excel and Fluorish, then API's dechlor is definitely safe since it only has two of the chemicals that Prime has... but if you want to use Prime, it's fine.. it's just 2-3 times more expensive than needed.

If you use lots of different chemicals in your tanks, just make sure you don't overdose them and don't use them all at the same time. It's kind of basic that you don't want to ever change the water chemistry too much, too fast, at any one time so if someone is making the choice to use lots of different chemicals in their tanks, it's probably a good idea to spread out the doses and not do too many things at one time.

I'm not sure that API lowers O2 less... but API doesn't recommend overdosing their product whereas Seachem does say you can overdose by 5X right in their directions. Since most people already overdose a little... I think that's human nature... if a little is good.. then a little more must be better... right? Not necessarily! If Seachem says it's OK to overdose by 5X, human nature might lead some folks to overdose even more.

Prime's primary ingredient is probably still sodium thiosulfate, in all likelihood, since it's the primary ingredient in all dechlor products that I know of, but then Prime also has other undisclosed chemicals... that they call proprietary on their MSDS safety sheet but they are usually going to be some kinds of "salt" (sodium thiosulfate is a "salt" also) and not that I recommend it, but if you ever taste your dechlor product, it's VERY salty and nasty tasting. Don't ask! ;-)

This is why they also can claim that their product "detoxifies" nitrite... because of the high levels of salt in their product... and I'm not sure what they mean by "detoxifies" but plain old salt (sodium chloride) will also protect fish from nitrite poisoning (brown blood disorder) and all it takes is a pinch of salt per 10G (which is not a very salty solution) to protect fish from up to 2ppm of nitrite and if nitrites get over that level, they should be reduced via PWC's (partial water changes) and/or reducing the bioload on a tank during cycling with fish. When stuck with cycling with fish, you do need some level of ammonia and nitrite to feed/grow the nitrifying bacteria but you just have to keep them at low enough levels to grow the bacteria while minimizing damage to the fish.

I just went and found that other thread so you can see what Seachem said in their reply to the hobbyist.

So I e-mailed Seachem outlining the situation and variables discussed in the thread. Here is their response:

I'm so sorry to hear about your fish. Flourish Excel does have reducing properties just like every water conditioner on the market. When reducing agents are used in excess, they can potentially reduce the oxygen in a tank because they do not have anything to bind with or reduce. Since you were using more than the recommended dose of Flourish Excel, along with your de-chlorinator, the reduction of oxygen took place. For future use, I would not recommend using the Excel at the same time as your de-chlorinator. I would recommend waiting until later that evening or the next day to dose the Excel, after using your de-chlor. Again, we truly do apologize for your losses and hope that you will remain a loyal Seachem customer. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance. Have a nice day.

Good to know not to use it at the same time as water conditioner as that has been my proceedure in the past. I would add excel and any trace element supplements into the buckets I was filling; my thinking being that would dilute the additives some before being added to the tank. I would also think that the directions on the package are a bit misleading as they recomend and increased dose following a large water change (presumably with water treatment in the majority of home aquariums).
Live and learn...hopefully my experience will help others...
Here's the entire thread if you want to read more.  http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232193

I've also seen some cycling with fish threads where people were using Prime (and I've suggested Prime in this situation many times) but then when overdosing it and their nitrifying bacteria took longer to grow and I think it was probably because of the oxygen reduction that takes place when overdosing chemicals. I did not know about this adverse side-effect until the above thread. I should add that nitrifying bacteria are aerobic bacteria meaning they like oxygen and grow much better in higher O2 level water compared to low O2 level water.

Another member chimes in...
top fin sucks! just putting that out there...

there's nothing wrong with prime. just putting it out there...

if you're not overstocked, not fishy cycling currently, etc. you can also use bulk sodium thiosulfate just the same. you can get it at any decent photography shop. since price is part of this discussion... you'll never find a product containing it in water that's cheaper than the powder. shipping a gallon of water is multiple times more expensive than shipping a teaspoon of powder... 
sodium thiosulfate binds the chlorine in chloramine leaving the ammo unlocked floating around in the water. prime "detoxifies" this by turning it into ammonium somehow... same can be done just by having a low ph. either way the bond isn't permanent but should last long enough for your filter to convert the ammonium since it's still available for the bacteria to consume.

most folks keep their stock pretty high. cycling is far from the only time the "added benefits" are applicable.

primes active ingredients are "proprietary sulfate salts" that's always nice to know... mystery anyone? either way it's an excellent product and the risks related to it are the same with any other product containing sulfates. for example... if you have a well... and your water smells like rotting eggs... you're smelling sulfides in your water... which happen to be displacing o2 atoms. they can be removed with correct filtration or gassed off by aeration prior to use.

any water treater will be a better buy if you use their pond version because it'll be more concentrated. in other words you'd use about half as much to treat the same amount of water. prime is no exception.

i, personally have tried a few different dechlor products. i find prime to be a superior product and aside from just dosing sodium thiosulfate powder you're not going to be out your pocket enough for a price difference to matter. don't believe me? next time you go to your lfs... check out the labels and prices. bring a calculator if you feel the need. pay no mind to how much water is in each bottle 16 oz of crap is just that... 16 oz of water. check the bottom of the front label. most bottles will print right in the front how many gallons of water the entire bottle will treat. compare THAT number (and only that number since it's really the only number useful) to the price. i think you'll be surprised.
And my reply:

The only problem with dry sodium thiosulfate is that there is no EDTA in it to chelate any heavy metals that might be present... other than that, it is the best bargain although for home hobbyists with only a few tanks, the dry product might be a LOT of water treatment so see my suggestion for an addition to your "Last Will & Testament" above. ;-)

As far as the residual ammonia left over after breaking the chloramine bond (chloramine is made by binding 1ppm of ammonia and 4 ppm of chlorine), would be 1ppm of ammonia. With a 25% PWC, this would result in slowly adding 0.25ppm of ammonia to a tank during a water change. Once again, this is SLOWLY adding the 0.25ppm of ammonia since nobody dumps all of their water change water into their tank at one time... at least nobody that I know... so with the filters running and if a mature and cycled tank, the nitrifying bacteria in the filters will immediatly convert this very low level of ammonia while it's being added to the tank. This low level of ammonia is no different than the ammonia being constantly put out by fish and decaying detritus.

Now, for folks who are stuck with cycling with fish, Prime is a good product but it's simply an overpriced dechlor product for anyone else.

I should add... why do you say Top Fin's Tap Water Dechlorinator sucks? The MSDS sheet shows it has the same two ingredients as every other basic dechlor product.

That earlier member replied back...
i don't think the edta would be necessary, honestly. i've never heard of such but i could be wrong.

i just had issues when i used top fin. fish didn't respond well, plants didn't respond well, w/c's were a scary time, etc., etc.. as well i had numerous chemical reactions in my tank during that time. not one since switching to prime. when i originally switched to prime it caused a nasty cloudy precip. i stuck it out for a couple weeks since the fish seemed to be no worse for the wear. everything cleared up and the tank was clearer than ever. i switched back and went right back to square one in one application. i've since not been willing to test it again. if you want the rest of my bottle of top fin i'd be happy to send it to you.
And my reply:

EDTA (Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) is the part of most dechlor products that treats heavy metals in tap water and most other water sources... even natural well or spring water can have heavy metals in it. Untreated heavy metals accumulate inside of fish organs (kidneys, liver, etc.) and cause all kinds of health problems over time. EVen things like copper, zinc, lead etc. from home plumbing... and all the other heavy metals that leach into our water supplies from factories, shipping and good old Mother Nature when water drips down through layers of earth to get back to an underground aquifer or reservoir water that is in contact with the earth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylenediaminetetraacetic_acid (also read the Chelating Agent link in the first paragraph)

The sodium thiosulfate ONLY treats chlorine/chloramine, not heavy metals.

As far as *why* Prime costs more... as previously mentioned, API's Tap Water Conditioner costs around $5-$6 for a 16 oz. bottle which treats up to 9,400 gallons. Prime costs $10-$12 for a 16 oz. (500ml) bottle and only treats 5,000 gallons so it would take almost two bottles of Prime to treat what one bottle of API treats... so technically it could be as much as 4-5X's more costly depending on the prices paid for each product. They are both good products... just Prime isn't needed for most hobbyists with mature and fully cycled tanks or those who are not stuck with cycling with fish.

Were you using the Top Fin Tap Water Dechlorinator or the Top Fin Tap Water Conditioner? They are separate products and the Top Fin Tap Water Conditioner adds a lot of other unnecessary crap like slime-this/stress-that type products. I NEVER recommend those types of products unless there is full disclosure as to what is in it and then the informed hobbyist can decide whether then need aloe in their water or some other completely unnatural and unnecessary chemicals in their tanks. Lots of people accidentally buy the wrong product since they are so similarly named... now for that, you could say Top Fin sucks in general but the Top Fin Tap Water Dechlorinator is simply Sodium Thiosulfate and EDTA in a water solution... just not as concentrated as API's Tap Water Conditioner (I wish they'd change it to Dechlorinator.... since Conditioner's from other companies usually adds other crap)

An earlier poster replied...
Well, I'm certainly no expert at all, and this is honestly the first time I have read into this myself. That said, I may or may not be right, I'm just posting what I found through a Wiki search.

Lenny's original statement was in regards to Top Fin's Tap Water Dechlorinator. It's ingredients according to Petsmart's own page are: Sodium thiosulfate, sodium carbonate, water. As Lenny mentioned, these ingredients are in other dechlorinator brands, however I have no doubt in my mind that the ingredients in the Top Fin declorinator are very low-grade and cheap. I cannot prove this, however... so it's a hunch on my end.

My bad experiences are with Top Fin's Water Conditioner, here's the ingredients list: Water, EDTA, PVP, Potassium Chloride, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Thiosulfate, Glycerin.

One ingredient stands out: PVP. I'll save my time and any possible misinterpretation and just link to the Wiki about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly_vinyl_pyrrolidone

This stuff is most likely what causes the vaseline effect within tanks that I've experienced. And I would never want to expose my fish to things of that nature.
And my reply:

I think PetsMart's page has the wrong ingredients listed in the *more details* section for Top Fin Tap Water Dechlorinator. http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752208&lmdn=Fish#prodTab1

Those ingredients sound like a buffer product with the Sodium Carbonate ingredient and not mentioning EDTA. I looked at the MSDS a while back and it does have ONLY Sodium Thiosulfate and EDTA and the bottle on the website also says it treats heavy metals meaning that it would have EDTA in it. If you work for them, you might want to bring this to their attention. I'm guessing those ingredients would be for a buffer up or pH neutral type product.

I wish all companies were required to keep their MSDS sheets available right from the product page. That is one good thing about both Seachem and API... although both of them do use the "proprietary ingredients" non-disclosure trick on a regular basis.

Another poster replied...
Actually seachem SAFE is by far the best dollar value out there..... not PRIME. Same product in a powdered form.

And my last reply at the time I am writing this blog...

I'm not going to repeat myself by saying that Prime is a good product for people stuck with cycling with fish but it's simply not needed by folks with fully cycled tanks and it adds LOTS of crap that we always talk about NOT adding to their tanks.. the slime-this/stress-that type crap. Oh wait... I just repeated it again. ;-)

Since a lot of people in this thread were concerned about adding too many chemicals to their tanks... and IMO, I don't like adding stuff to my tanks unless I know what's in it and Prime doesn't list their ingredients, I decided to do some digging.

The below quotes are info right from Seachem's representatives, either posts in forums or emails sent to customers...

First, I was surprised to find out that Prime does NOT have EDTA in it and was never formulated to treat heavy metals but they later found out that one or more of their "proprietary" ingredients had some kind of effect on some heavy metals but it's not the same as the chelating effect of EDTA. Here's what Seachem says:
Prime is not a chelating agent, so it does not work that way with heavy metals. Soluble heavy metals (metal ions that can be absorbed) are in an oxidized state. Prime reduces metals, which detoxifies them. Note that it does not remove metals from the water (it just detoxifies them), so you really should have a decent water supply or RO/DI equipment. Please also note again that we talk about detoxifying heavy metals found in tap water at typical concentrations; we do not sell Prime to detoxify heavy metals at abnormally high concentrations.
Just a note to Discus keepers... or other low pH fish keepers.
Prime does not affect the pH of tanks, unless it is severely, drastically overdosed. In the bottle it has a pH that is neutral to alkaline, and it works very well over that pH range. It is less effective if the pH is strongly acidic. However, we have used it in tanks that run at a pH of 4.5 or so.
I don't like how they say "remove" but I guess it's semantics. As noted above, it doesn't "remove" but does "reduce" low levels of heavy metals.
The standard dose of Prime (1 mL/10 gallons) will remove:

Copper - 2.6 ppm in 10 gallons
OR
Lead - 8.5 ppm in 10 gallons
OR
Nickel - 2.4 ppm in 10 gallons

We say "OR" between each because that is the maximum amount of each that can be removed assuming none of the other components are present; so for example, one could remove 1.3 ppm copper and 4.4 ppm lead or any other variety of differing ratios between them.

We hope this helps
The next quote is self explanatory and admits that Prime has some slime-this type chemicals in it.
This is Seachem's response to my query as to why Prime has "slime enhancers" and their claims of "removing heavy metals":

---------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 12:56:17 -0500
From: Seachem Tech Support
Subject: Re: Prime Slime Coat/Metals

Hello,

I appreciate your concerns and will try to address them below.

Our Prime contains a mild stimulant to assist the fish with production of slime coat. Prime does help the fish "provide a slime coat" by stimulating the fish to do so. We do not use amine based polymers for this purpose as most of our competitors do.

This is quite different from another product in our line called Stress Guard. Stress Guard contains protein active polymers that actively seek out exposed proteins (wounds, abrasions, etc.) for healing purposes.....it can almost be thought of as a liquid bandage. Basically Prime helps to stimulate while our Stress Guard actually coats.

Regarding another statement "..... fish that cannot replenish its slime coat in 24 hours is sick and needs a lot more help than Prime." I completely agree! That is why we do not market Prime as a medication. However we do manufacture a full line of medications if needed.

As for metal precipitation, this was an unintended function of the product. Other dechlorinators use sulfur based reducing salts and the result is similar. So it is listed on the label.... mainly for marketing purposes. But again, I agree that if you have lead or other harmful metals present in your source water a better method of removal if called for. That is why we also offer RO/DI filters for ultimate water purification.

Best Regards,
Seachem Technical Support,rb
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seachem Laboratories, Inc. www.seachem.com 888-SEACHEM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quote:

Of course I just HAD to email SeaChem and see if they would divulge their secret ingredient, and of course they wouldn't but I had to ask!
______________________________________

Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 10:13:11 -0500
From: Seachem Tech Support
Subject: Re: Prime Slime Coat/Metals

Hello Again,

You are welcome. And regarding the stimulant that is used in Prime, I unfortunately can not divulge that as it is proprietary. Most water conditioners include some type of slime coat stimulator or coating agent. We include a small amount of mild stimulant (as mentioned) in Prime but we do not market Prime as a slime coat type product. We market it as a water conditioner that removes chlorine, chloramine and ammonia etc. (see label). We DO however market our StressGuard as a slime coat type product. Our StressGuard is one of my personal favorites in our line and often overlooked. Our StressGuard is a disinfectant to help control spread of disease, it is not sold as a dechlorinator. Since StressGuard controls the spread of disease with a disinfectant and contains protein active polymers to promote the healing process, it is great to use when quarantining new fish or introducing new fish into the main system. I have also found it very helpful for cichlid hobbyists (I'm a big cichlid hobbyist myself). I use it when cichlids don't play nice as it really helps heal wounds, torn fins, etc. If slime coat type products are a topic of discussion on your forum, you may wish to mention that Prime is our dechlorinator while StressGuard is our slime coat product/disinfectant.

Best Regards,
Seachem Technical Support,rb
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seachem Laboratories, Inc. www.seachem.com 888-SEACHEM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE END... FOR NOW! ;-)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Do Fancy Goldfish Have Almost No Stomach And Smaller Digestive Tracts Than Other Fish???

In the AquariaCentral.com forums, in a thread about a 75G goldish tank complaining about high nitrates, http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2429760, a "Senior Member" of the forum said they did not believe me when I told the original poster that fancy goldfish had almost no stomach and shorter digestive tracts than most other fish. 

Here's my reply...

Here's a Fancy Goldfish Necropsy (Autopsy) with many nice and juicey pictures... scroll down to picture 9 to see a close up of the stomach and intestines. This article is best viewed while eating a nice big meal. ;-)

http://thegab.org/Goldfish/goldfish-...l-anatomy.html

As you will see, if you made it down to picture 9 without hurling that nice big meal, a fancy goldfish does not have much of a stomach and it's really just an enlarged section of their digestive tract which then narrows down into the intestines. Their is no real separate stomach organ like that in most other fish. Goldfish are not the only fish with the absense of a "real" stomach.

Here's a goldfish anatomical drawing which doesn't even diagram the stomach. http://www.flippersandfins.net/Image...atomyChart.JPG

There aren't many necropsies of most other fish, that I have seen over the years, in fact, I've never seen a photographed necropsy of any other common aquarium fish online, not even bigger aquarium fish... but here are a BUNCH of diagrams showing lots of anatomical drawings of other fish showing they do in fact have clearly defined stomachs. The bottome link is a perch which is, anatomically speaking, very similar to many larger cichlids.
http://kentsimmons.uwinnipeg.ca/16cm...hAnatomy-L.jpg

http://universe-review.ca/I10-82-fish.jpg

http://oceanblue2u.com/images/tropic1.gif

http://www.infovisual.info/02/033_en.html

http://www.bildwoerterbuch.com/en/an...of-a-perch.php (this one is labeled in German, I believe, based on my two years of high school German a long time ago, but down below the image, there is a translation into English and the Magen is the Stomach)

http://www.artscape.us/aquaculture/f...sh_anatomy.jpg

Do you belive me now?

And for some comedic relief...
http://www.godlikemode.com/Goldfish-Cracker-Anatomy.jpg

If any of these links do not work at any point in the future, you can use the Internet Archive Wayback Machine (see link to my blog article about this internet tool) to find the original page and/or image.

Here is one of my posts in the forum thread, the one that led to this other "Senior Member" challenging my reply....

One way to slow down the poop rate of goldfish is to feed them more often but not as much with each feeding. Goldfish have very short digestive tracts and almost no stomach at all, so what goes in pretty much comes out the other end rather quickly.

They are BIG fish so they need lots of food which is why they will forage all the time, munch on plants, etc., but I've found that when I feed mine 3-4 smaller meals on the days when I'm home all day, the fish do not have as much visible poop... compared to how some goldfish will have 1"+ long poops coming out after they eat. This will take some experimenting on the fish keepers part as to how much to feed so that the food stays inside of them longer... and thus be processed so the fish get more nutrition from the food... instead of it being forced out the other end.

The fish don't seem to munch on the plants as much when they get feedings more often either so that's a plus. Someone mentioned floating plants and I agree that floating Anacharis will greatly help with reducing nitrates since the Ancharis will grow faster when it's floating since it's up closer to the light, it can get CO2 from the surface air and still suck up nutrients from the water. It's also harder for the fish to munch on the Anacharis when it's floating compared to when it's planted since they can't tug on it as easily... as it just moves with them. My goldfish leave my BIG crypt plant alone completely. I have to trim it back regularly or it grows to the size of a basketball or larger and doesn't leave much room for the fish to swim in the front or back... and that's with a 48" x 18" footprint.

Goldfish keepers pretty much know that the poop is often the same color as whatever they just ate, which further proves that it's not being processed much while inside the fish for a short period of time. I know the fish poop must still have a large amount of nutritional value as I've seen my Mystery Snails munching on it before... after the goldfish pigged out on some blanched Zuchini slices and the poop was pretty yellow when it came out. EWWWWW!!!... but the Mystery Snails didn't seem to mind. LOL
 
I hope this helps.
 
Lenny Vasbinder aka GoldLenny in forums

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Algae - Information And Links That I Have Relied On Over The Years

Update - August 08,2010 - two more links added

Here are some general sites with lots of pictures of the various common algae and information on controlling the algea is covered on each page.

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/algae-randall.html

http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/algae.htm

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

http://www.freewebs.com/thefishgirl/algea.htm

http://www.sydneycichlid.com/algae.htm

http://aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=3102

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68454

Controlling Algae

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/algae/algcont.shtml

Cyanobacteria aka Blue-Green Algae or BGA

http://naturalaquariums.com/plantedtank/0608.html

Diatoms aka Brown Algae

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/algae/diatoms.shtml

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article85.html

Hair Algae

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/hair-algae.html

Pond Algae

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/PondAlgae.html

Fighting Algae With Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2)

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/hydrogen-peroxide.html

http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquainfo/algae_peroxide.html

Allelopathic Control (aka Natural Control)

Barley - http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/barley.html

Hornwort and other Plants -

http://aquamaniacs.net/forum/cms_view_article.php?aid=63

http://www.aquahobby.com/e2004/viewtopic.php?t=10785

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs186

Lenny Vasbinder aka GoldLenny

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Critters - Visible And Microscopic Organisms That Naturally Occur In Our Ponds And Aquariums

Updated - August 24, 2010 - New link added
Updated - August 4, 2010 - New link added

This is just a quick blog to be a permanent home to all the links I have to some good sites that already cover this topic very well.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Tank_critters.shtml

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Tank_critters2.shtml

http://microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html?http://microscopy-uk.org.uk/pond/index.html

http://www3.sympatico.ca/drosera1/fish/worms.htm

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/animals/micro.htm

Here's a new link I just got from the AquariaCentral.com forums.  It even has lots of pictures. (Thanks jpappy789)
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum/showthread.php/34333-Bugs-you-might-encounter-in-your-aquarium

Here's another new link from an AC thread... (Thanks Phosaurus)
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/shrimp-other-invertebrates/40061-whats-bug-how-recognize-them.html

These next three very good resources are no longer found with a *normal* internet search as the websites have closed down for various reasons... most likely due to the world economy. Fortunately, the Internet Archive Wayback Machine saves/archives copies of almost all websites so you can still see the original content of the sites. They may take a little longer to fully load on your computer, especially sites with lots of pictures. See my blog about the Internet Archives Wayback Machine by clicking the link under "Labels" on the right.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070202015209/http://members.aol.com/larval1/critters.htm

http://web.archive.org/web/20070523055718/http://www.menunkatuck.org/pages/micro.htm

http://web.archive.org/web/20060716164019/http://www.menunkatuck.org/pages/micro2.htm

Now, while many of the above critters are visible to the naked eye, many others will only be visible using a microscope.  Here's a simple and concise article on "Selection and Use of a Microscope for Aquarists by Bob Blaho" - http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Blaho_Microscope_for_Aquarists.html

I'll be back to add more to this blog later! ;-)

Lenny Vasbinder aka GoldLenny

Saturday, July 24, 2010

World's Longest Goldfish

A recent article on PFK, http://www.PracticalFishKeeping.com, about a "Monster Goldfish Hooked By Angler" misled many folks into thinking that this 16" Common Goldfish was a "Monster" when in fact, 16" is a normal size that all properly kept Common Goldfish should reach... with many growing to 18", 20" or more. You can read my short comment and other comments at the bottom of the PFK article and then my much longer reply to the Gold-Fish Yahoo Group below.

This article led to a couple of posts on some of the fish and pond Yahoo Groups which then led to a discussion about the World's Longest Goldfish according to Guinness. Here is one of the emails and then my LONG reply.

-----Original Message-----
From: Gold-Fish@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of josepha48
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 10:44 PM
To: Gold-Fish@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Gold-Fish] Worlds Longest Goldfish

I found this link on the worlds longest goldfish. Over at Guinness Book of World Records. It's the longest. At 18 inches I'm guessing that 12 inches is probably about average.

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/natural_world/fantastic_pets/longest_goldfish.aspx


And now, my reply:


-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 11:18 AM
To: 'Gold-Fish@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Gold-Fish] Worlds Longest Goldfish

That Guinness record is for a "pet" goldfish, since Guinness started up that category.

I would venture to say that 99.9% of goldfish kept as pets are stunted to some degree... a large percentage of them are grossly stunted due to being kept in undersized aquariums... or God-forbid, bowls and being underfed as so many stores tell people to only feed them once or twice a day and while that's OK for adults, baby goldfish have a much higher metabolism and should be fed many times a day... just like a human baby. This is why I so strongly recommend at least a 55G, 4' long tank for two fancy goldfish or a tank twice that length for long-bodied goldfish. Even those minimum recommendations will need weekly tank maintenance to keep the pollution levels down.

Try putting some baby common goldfish (leaving at least 100G per goldfish) in a pond (or big aquarium) and properly feed them from birth, meaning 5-6 times a day for the first few months, then cut back to 3-4 times a day for the next few months, then twice a day thereafter. Do proper filter maintenance, bottom cleaning and PWC's and they will be 12" long after a year and 16" by the two year mark.

Many people have these kinds of results even when buying 1" feeder goldfish at a pet store, even though those fish are partially stunted already but they are still young enough to recover if properly taken care of once removed from the overstocked feeder fish tanks.

http://www.Fishbase.org, which is THE best scientific resource that hobbyists have for information, says that goldfish grow to a maximum normal length of 59cm (23") in nature. http://fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?ID=271

This 1992-1995 Alabama study (see below link or TinyURL if link breaks) of over 250,000 common goldfish measured their length and weight from 1.5cm (.59") to 40.6 cm (16") to come up with a calculator for determining the weight of a goldfish based on it's length. NOTE - There's likely a reason they studied goldfish up to 16" as that is a normally expected/attainable size. The reason that folks would want to know their fish's body weight is to determine the proper amount of food to feed each day... usually 1% to 3% a day, depending on the water temperatures with less food being fed at lower water temps, down in the 60'sF and then no food fed when the water temps get down into the low 50'sF.

http://fishbase.org/PopDyn/FishLWSummary.php?ID=271&id2=954&Genus=Carassius&Species=auratus+auratus&variable_Length=40&variable_Length_required=Edit+box+can+not+be+blank.

TinyURL - http://tinyurl.com/24fhpd6

You can enter your own fish's length (in cm) to find out it's likely weight (in gm).

You can't really use the word "average" when dealing with pet fish length's as the "average" would be severely below what the fish *should* grow to because there is STILL a severe overstocking problem in the hobby due to the bad info given by many pet stores and even many websites still give bad info about goldfish.

Just like with "average" lifespan versus how long a fish *should* live. The "average" lifespan of a pet goldfish is probably a year or two but they should live for 20+ years for long-bodied and 10+ years for fancy goldfish. Here's my "Lifespan" article/list that I've been working on for many years and the REAL *expected* lifespan of pet fish would shock many folks. So many of the most common BIG pet fish (goldfish, common pleco's, oscar cichlids, etc.) should live for a decade AND more, but so many don't make it that long due to being kept in undersized tanks or being overstocked so the stunting causes them many health issues and a much shorter lifespan.

http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-long-should-aquarium-fish-live.html

http://tinyurl.com/preview.php?num=Fish-Lifespans

HTH!

NOTE - Be careful of the 2.5 meter long goldfish *reported* out of Thailand, that is circulating the net.. it's an April Fool's blog. LOL Unfortunately, some legitimate sites are picking it up as a real story. http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/news/lib/687  I expect we'll be countering this story for years to come. Here's Guinness' report about the April Fool's blog. http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_Were-you-April-Fooled/blog/2276498/7691.html

Lenny Vasbinder

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Please feel free to leave your comments below.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Internet Archive Wayback Machine... And How It Saves Copies Of Closed Down Websites

I've written about and used the Internet Archives Wayback Machine many times in the many forums from hobby to computer tech forums that I participate in on a regular basis but I've been seeing MORE and MORE websites shutting down in the past two years so I wanted to write this short article to inform people of how the Internet Archive Wayback Machine (IAWM) works so you can find information from any of your favorite websites that have gone away.

There's a couple of ways to get to the IAWM.

http://archive.org/ - The home page for the Internet Archives, then on that page, right near the top middle, you'll see a section about the Wayback Machine, where you can enter a URL (website address aka a link) into the field and click Enter or click the "Take Me Back" button and it will bring you to a page of dated links for every snapshot that the Wayback Machine has concerning that website URL.

The other ways to get directly to the IAWM page is:

http://www.archive.org/web/web.php  or the advanced search page, http://web.archive.org/collections/web/advanced.html.

Here's how it works...

I use to publish articles on a free Yahoo website called GeoCities but Yahoo decided to close down GeoCities in 2009 so folks no longer have access to their web pages unless they know about the Wayback Machine.

Here was one of my original GeoCities links (which no longer work)...

http://www.GeoCities.com/LennyVasbinderPI/Politics_Start

Of course, clicking that link brings you to a page saying the site no longer exists.

Now, if you go to the IAWM and copy/paste or type that URL into the blank field and click "Take Me Back", it will bring you to this page, http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.GeoCities.com/LennyVasbinderPI/Politics_Start, where you will see a series of dated links where the Internet Archives Wayback Machine took snapshots of my web page between 2002 and 2006, which would have been the last time I updated that site since I started using Blogger Blogspot's to post my blogs/articles since then.

Other websites that have been archived include many of the articles on MSN Groups when Microsoft decided to close them down in 2008.

For my fish keeping hobby, at least three LONG-TIME very good websites have shut down in the past two years, http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/, http://www.plecofanatics.com/ and http://www.plantgeek.net/ but most, if not all of their articles and many of their forum threads are preserved on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

I never did use AOL (aka AOHell to many) but I know that AOL shut down millions of web pages in their "home town" section, at least I think that is what it was called, and many AOL members complained viciously when they lost all of their web pages, online photo albums (which reminds me that Yahoo shut down Yahoo Photo Albums a few years ago when they bought out Flickr.com), etc... so hopefully, any of those folks that thought they lost everything might be able to find some of their data and/or pictures using the Wayback Machine.

All that said, some websites prevent search engines from crawling their pages and for those websites, the IAWM may have also been blocked from crawling the website which means all data may be lost forever in those cases.

I'll probably be adding to this article from time to time so check back... or if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a "Comment" below (click the Comments link at the bottom of this article, if the Comments box isn't already open).

Lenny Vasbinder aka GoldLenny in fish forums

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You can click on the Comments link below to open the Comments section to leave your comments.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Oil??????????????? - A Continuation Of The Online Debate And Discussion Of The BP Oil Accident

This is a continuation of the blog I wrote last week, which you can read here:

http://lennyvasbinder.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-first-online-debate-about-so-called.html



--------------

LATE BREAKING NEWS ABOUT THE OIL SPILL....

Subject: BP:innovative solutions

________________________________

BP announced that this morning they installed a wedding ring around the leaking pipe and it quit putting out.
________________________________

ROTFLMFAO!!!!


Also, check out this FUNNY Jon Stewart clip from The Daily Show to put all of this in perspective:

While I'm not a big fan of Jon Stewart's political leanings, he does come up with some pretty good comedy skits on a regular basis and this one goes right in line with the previous blogs about my online discussion and debate of the BP Oil Spill accident. The FACT that the last eight presidents and the past 15 Congress' have FAILED to deliver on their so-called "green energy" concepts is what leads me to so strongly believe that they will not succeed this time either... so until they CAN PROVE that their concepts will work, they should free up the private sector to DRILL BABY DRILL, MINE BABY MINE, BUILD BABY BUILD (Nuclear Power Plants)... as least we KNOW those work... since, based on the past 30 years, we KNOW government can't do it it... much like they screw up most everything else they try to do. I don't know why the government is even involved in "green energy". It wasn't the government that developed coal mining or drilling for oil.. it was the private sector. The government did have a big hand in nuclear power but ONLY after private scientists discovered the capabilities of nuclear fission. Anyhow... you can Google for the history of nuclear power but here's the Jon Stewart Daily Show skit...


The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
An Energy-Independent Future
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorTea Party


Here's the link to the above video in case it decides to stop working...
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-16-2010/an-energy-independent-future

----------

Here's the continuation / new discussion and debate started with this post in the AquaticLife Yahoo Group:

-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of bill 1433
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 8:06 PM
To: AquaticLife
Subject: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

I'm sorry ------------------------- I liked it better when we had the controversy going ---------- at least there was mail.

About 3 new messages in almost as many days.

List is all but dead! Nobody is having ANY problems?

Impossible!

Lenny, IS everyone out swimming and boating? Maybe we should start a thread about Food Recipes?

Bill


------------


--- On Tue, 6/22/10, jaiko wrote:

From: jaiko
Subject: Re: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, June 22, 2010, 10:15 PM

lol bill we r all working for bp so we are busy around here...lol


-----------


-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of Dax Gorham
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 12:40 AM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

Ha it should be easy to start a disagreement and get the mail flowing .... now where would you like that disagreement to be???????????????? LOL

Daniel John Gorham
daxgor@yahoo.com


------------


-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 9:08 PM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

LOL. You have to wait till midnight on Friday to have an OT-weekend free-for-all... if the mods allow it. Just remember to put OT at the start of the subject line so folks know that it's OFF TOPIC! ;-)

There have been other posts though... something about a baby Cory's anus... or was that aeneus? LOL And I saw a post about breeding Licorice Gourami's but I don't think anyone answered it.

I ended my last reply in the Gulf Of Mexico Biotope Tank thread with a bunch of fish recipes... although I didn't get to find out what a Mermaid.... oops.. better not go there! ;-) I didn't find me a terrestrial mermaid this past weekend anyhow so it's a moot point. :-(

Watch... Mike (Deneerz) will chime in now. I think he has a Google alert set up for whenever I mention mermaid. LOL

Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/


-----------


-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of bill 1433
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 10:14 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

You have both my prayers and sympathy! A nightmare of epic proportions to say the least. Many, many folks have already taken down their BP gas station signs in anger and protest. It does not look to good for any of us, the company or the Wildlife either! A no win situation.

Bill


-----------


-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 10:34 PM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

I ONLY buy BP gas right now... oh yeah... and their stock too! Buy low and sell high!

What Congress and the Obama are trying to do and/or doing to BP is outrageous and at the height of hypocrisy from a bunch of mostly crooked politicians... and when compared to what Congress and the Pres are intentionally doing to America... what the BP oil rig accident is doing is FAR less of a disaster or catastrophe.

Thank God, today, Judge Feldman (no relation to Marty) threw out Obama's moratorium on the ongoing drilling down here so at least some piece of sanity is coming back! And we may not have tens of thousands of American's dying this winter and in coming years due to the high price or complete unavailability of heating oil.

Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/


------------


-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of Eric Roberts
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 12:38 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

Oh you mean the judge that is deeply vested in stock with Transocean and BP?


-------------


-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 2:13 PM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

Eric Roberts said: "Oh you mean the judge that is deeply vested in stock with Transocean and BP?"

----------

There you go again (in my best Reagan voice)... spreading LIES again... oops.. maybe I should use politician speak and say "untruths" or "misinformation" but I don't have a problem calling a spade a spade! It's a LIE!

Now, that said, while it may be true that Judge Feldman owns or maybe OWNED (past tense) stock in Transocean, but less than $15,000.00 worth back in 2008, (YEAH ERIC.. THAT'S "DEEPLY VESTED"... you must be on welfare and food stamps if you think $15,000.00 is a lot of money), he DOES NOT own any stock in BP. You need to stop reading HuffPo BLOGS as your source of the news... either that or stay off the wacky tobaccky... as your paranoia is getting the best of you now! ;-)

If you do a search of Google News, for 'judge feldman owns BP stock', there are only 291 hits as of right now and most of the summaries and websites are NOT from what I would call reputable News sources... sites like the top hit, Grist Magazine (how is that the top hit - WTF is a Grist Magazine anyhow???), FireDogLake Blog (yeah... that one sounds reputable), San Francisco Chronicle Blog, etc. Heck, I didn't know Google was considering Blog's as News sources now and if that's the case, then it's OFFICIAL... "Obama Is A Post Turtle"... since one of my blogs is about that. LOL http://lennyvasbinder.blogspot.com/2010/06/obama-is-post-turtle.html

Even CBS News, one of the liberal-left leaning LSM (Lame Stream Media) networks that are/were in the tank for Obama reported:

"...Feldman's financial disclosure report for 2008, the most recent available, shows holdings in at least eight petroleum companies or companies that invest in them, including Transocean Ltd., which owned the Deepwater Horizon. The report shows that most of his holdings were valued at less than $15,000, though it did not provide specific amounts.

It's not clear whether Feldman still has all of the energy industry stock listed in the report. RECENT COURT FILINGS INDICATE HE MAY NO LONGER HAVE TRANSOCEAN SHARES (regular print changed to ALL CAPS by Lenny for emphasis). He did not own any shares in big companies such as BP PLC, which was leasing the rig that exploded, or ExxonMobil..."

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/22/national/main6607071.shtml


I actually like this San Francisco blog on the MarketWatch website (part of Wall Street Journal), obviously written by a left-coast so-called reporter, which says (in his obviously biased reporting) but at least he ends the article on an honest note:

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Here's a story everyone can agree to hate.

Martin Feldman, the federal judge who overturned a White House moratorium on deepwater drilling, was an investor in several offshore oil service companies that stand to benefit from his decision. Outrageous!

But seriously. Is anyone really shocked that a man who literally holds court in Louisiana, whose career is defined by local politics and who probably pays close attention to local economics ruled that a six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf was "arbitrary and capricious"?

Feldman is widely reported to have been a Transocean shareholder as recently as 2008. Maybe he still is....

... But let's face it. Nearly everyone along the Gulf Coast is conflicted by this tragedy. Even fishermen whose livelihoods are on the line understand the importance of the oil industry to their state's economy.

And it doesn't stop there. This conflict goes right to the heart of the nation's schizophrenic energy policy. Americans far removed from the spill are outraged by the environmental devastation spreading throughout the Gulf of Mexico. But are they so outraged that they're giving up their cars? Is anyone calling for a moratorium on oil?

Feldman might not have been the best choice to hear this case, but the American people aren't necessarily the best choice to pass judgment on the oil industry either.

-- Jim Jelter

From: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/passing-judgment-on-the-gulf-spill-2010-06-23?reflink=MW_news_stmp


So Eric and any other hypocrites out there... how is that bicycle riding coming along??? Just make sure you don't use rubber tires or oil on your chain and bearings... those are petroleum based!

I wish States like Louisiana, Texas, Alaska and other ENERGY-RICH States would just cut off the bleeding heart States that don't want to drill or mine in their own areas... and let all of them start riding their bikes everywhere, die from heat exhaustion during the summers and freeze to death during the winters... and turn their cars into planters for their wacky tobaccky or maybe put a Crucifix or statue of Jesus in their car and fill it with urine or feces and call it artwork... WHAT A BUNCH OF FREAKING FREAKS!!!

Bill... are you happier now? LOL

Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/


------------


-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of bill 1433
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 2:50 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

Hi Len,

Happy? That's a relative term but I think I can state my case simply enough for you.

Off- shore drilling employs many thousands of people. It's dangerous work to say the least, so is working on or near Nuclear Power plants. Their need is justified and also necessary, to a point.

Unfortunately though, their very existence threatens many other things, not discounting people themselves. These things both offer pathways or alternatives to the energy crises situation we all live with daily.

But these industries suffer from extremely high profit margins but no on-board safe guards. In short, when these folks have an "accident" it quickly assumes monumental proportions. The cost of human life rises sharply and the cost to the environment, well that's the big question, isn't it. And who pays for it in the end?

Already there is worry for the folks in your neighborhood down there about BP going belly -up. Who pays for all of it in the end? The company? They go belly-up, declare bankruptcy, hide a bit and become re-born again under a different corp. name and start all over. I truly believe the President is only trying to insure REAL safeguards so these "accidents" can't happen again and if they do, the proper things are in place to deal with the problem. We didn't learn much the Valdez mess did we? How are things going up there? Why just fine, those shipping lanes are wide open. Who's really kidding who?

Let's stay on fish subjects, after all they don't vote!

Bill


------------


-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 3:22 PM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

BP is not going belly-up. Start watching Bill O'Reilly instead of the LSM. BP has over 100 TRILLION DOLLARS in oil reserves so the 20 BILLION or more that this will cost is not going to bankrupt them. (NOTE: a TRILLION is a THOUSAND BILLION in case folks forget how much those first two letters cost us taxpayers when our elected liars, crooks and thieves have now deficit spent us up to THIRTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS and climbing to TWENTY TRILLION DOLLAR level under Obama, according to the Federal Reserves own numbers, which is up from 7.9 TRILLION when the Dem's took over Congress in 2006, so that's a 250% increase in the National Debt in less than 10 years). Yes, the Republicans were bad when they controlled Congress from 1994 thru 2005 (and I and other conservatives have said it a thousand times) but the liberal Dem's, in the past four years, have far outdone any previous records for deficit spending and raising the national debt by leaps and bounds!!!! And that's not counting all of the deficit spending and debt being carried by so many liberal-democrat controlled Cities and States as well.

As far as staying on fish topics... YOU started this new "Oil???" thread.... but then when I force-feed some of you the truth, you want to change the topic. TYPICAL lib!!! LOL

Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/


-----------


-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 5:39 PM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

Bill said: "...But these industries suffer from extremely high profit margins but no on-board safe guards. In short, when these folks have an "accident" it quickly assumes monumental proportions. The cost of human life rises sharply and the cost to the environment, well that's the big question, isn't it. And who pays for it in the end?..."

Bill,

I don't know about nuclear but the oil industrial DOES NOT have "extremely high profit margins". That's a bald-faced lie! Oil companies have to spend their own money to explore, drill, harvest, transport, refine, deliver to gas stations and all they make are a couple of pennies per gallon of gas in profit... whereas Congress does absolutely NOTHING and gets over 18 cents a gallon. Now, exactly who is getting the extremely high profit margins???

As far as "on-board safe guards", these companies have to comply with 6' tall stacks of regulations and permitting through more than a dozen different government offices and have to be inspected and approved at every step.... so if there aren't enough "on-board safe guards", you can once again blame Congress for that as well.

As far as the accident "assumes monumental proportions", it could have been MUCH less today if Obama would have accepted foreign help from day one... or rather day three or four, when it was offered, with written formal notice delivered on April 25, but instead Obama waited until June 14 to accept the help and publicly announced this a couple of days later.

Read more here...

"How The Government Slowed Down The Gulf Cleanup" -

Our own government has quietly admitted that America needs foreign help to handle the oil spill — almost two months after pushing that help away.

Far more oil could have been intercepted before it fouled the Gulf Coast. So why hasn’t our government apologized?

By refusing foreign assistance, we banned both the latest technology and cleanup vessels that far exceed the capacity of America’s oil spill response vessels (OSRVs). We rejected ships with 10 times the capability of the vessels we used instead.

In a quiet announcement on June 18, the Federal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC) finally agreed that we need help, describing a conclusion reached two days before:

“. . . the FOSC, in coordination with other federal agencies, determined on June 16, 2010, pursuant to 46 U.S.C. §55113, that there are an insufficient number of specialized oil skimming vessels in the U.S. to keep pace with the unprecedented levels of oil discharges in the Gulf of Mexico. Based upon this determination, foreign specialized skimming vessels may be deployed to response operations.”

Technically, the Jones Act remains unwaived and continues to restrict use of foreign vessels other than OSRV’s. Officials invoked only a limited exemption that was put into law after Hurricane Katrina.

By their delay, our bureaucracy and government regulation have made a horrible situation even worse. There were two weeks between the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon and the time when the first oil made landfall. And it was almost six additional weeks before specialized equipment from overseas was approved by our government for limited use.

The Dutch formally offered help on April 25. Not until June 14 did the U.S. State Department announce that some foreign help would be welcomed from the 17 nations who had been trying to assist.

More... http://tinyurl.com/2wo8e4w

for full URL,

http://www.newsmax.com/ErnestIstook/Gulf-oil-BP-cleanup/2010/06/22/id/362748?s=al&promo_code=A236-1

You truly believe WRONG about your president. It's all about "never let a disaster go to waste"... the operating status-quo of Obama and his chief of staff, Rahm "Dead Fish" Emanuel (there's your "fish" word for keeping things on topic). Obama started working on using this accident to further his political agenda LONG before he worried about cleaning up the accident.

How's that hopey-changey thing going for you now??? It's more like Jimmy Carter's presidency on steroids!!!

Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/


-----------


-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of bill 1433
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 5:54 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

I said " I MISSED ALL THE MAIL-----------I am sorry!

I should have said I MISSED ALL THE "FISH" MAIL!

Mentioned somewhere before, I ALSO said these discussions offer little to the group as a whole so why continue with them? There is no good to come of any of it. Since NONE of us are in such a position of power as to be able to use such valuable advice, any good which might come of it is wasted. Moreover, it lays waste to valuable FISH discussion space.

Bill


-----------


-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 6:05 PM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

Nahhh.. you know you wanted the Oil debate again or you wouldn't have started the new thread with the subject line of "Oil??????", which means "Oil Questions"... and your comment in that first post included, "...I'm sorry ------------------------- I liked it better when we had the controversy going ---------- at least there was mail..."

Besides, I did mention Rahm "Dead Fish" Emanuel in my last post, to keep things on the fish topic. ;-)

Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/


-----------

-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of harry perry
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 5:57 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [AquaticLife]Oil!!! /Hey gang. This is Bullshit

If we're bored I am sure we can find some fish related topics.

This is bullshit and it's getting old quick. If folks like a controversy they can join a group for that. This group is about fish keeping.

We have 2389 members who joined this group to learn about keeping fish not a few members opinions on the oil spill or politics.

If some folks want more mail, join more groups. I have over 350 messages a day in my mailbox.

Maybe the folks that are bored should try submitting some topics for discussion.

What a concept!!!!!.

Harry


------------


-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 6:36 PM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife]Oil!!! /Hey gang. This is Bullshit

Don't worry Harry... probably less than 200 of the supposed 2,389 people actually get the emails. If you ever look down the list of Members, the overwhelming majority of people are on "No Mail" or "Special Notices" only. Every once in a while, you'll see someone with "Individual Email" or "Daily Digest" but 80-90% DO NOT get mail from the group. So, if 20% are supposed to be getting mail, that would be nearly 500 people BUT out of those who are supposed to be getting email, 303 are bouncing right now, meaning they aren't getting mail either.... which brings my calculations down to the 200 figure... and there's a possibility that many of those remaining 200 don't even open the majority of the emails or they may not be checking their email at all so they're not getting them either.

Start a poll to see how many people still check in with the group. You could have choices like, Individual Emails, Daily Digest, check group daily, 2-3 times a week, once a week, 2-3 times a month, once a month, etc. and after a month or two, check to see what the numbers are. You could also send out a Special Notice of this poll which would possibly reach a few hundred more members.

It's the nature of any forum or group or company or group of voters or humans in general... 90% of the work is done by 10% or less.... and with income taxes collected and wasted by Congress, it's 90%+ of the income taxes are paid by the top 10% or less of the income earners... and then wasted by less than a fraction of 0.1%, particularly 535 as a percentage of 300 Million... which I think is 0.000000178333% but I could be off by one zero.

Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/


-------------


-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of jaiko
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 9:31 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife]Oil!!! /Hey gang. This is Bullshit

i believe gang that were loosing countless fish species as we speak in the gulf of Mexico so this is a fish topic i think?


------------


-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 10:26 PM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife]Oil!!! /Hey gang. This is Bullshit

Yes, there are fish deaths and other wildlife deaths but I don't think we're losing either countless fish and certainly not entire species. Is there damage being done, yes, but the Gulf of Mexico is a BIG place and the oil is only affecting a very small part of it right now. The Gulf of Mexico recovered from a similarly bad spill back in 1979 from a rig off of Mexico's coast that flowed unabated for a couple of months and we didn't have the technology for cleaning things up back then like we have today... and most folks do not even remember the 1979 spill because it DID NOT kill the Gulf of Mexico... just like this accident will not kill the Gulf of Mexico.

See my last post, an hour or two ago, about what Obama could have done back in April to seriously mitigate the damages... but he waited nearly two months before doing it. For any fish or other wildlife lost during that period, then he has a large percentage of that blood on his hands. I'll wait for the next couple of winters before I play the "I told you so card!" about the price of heating oil and the people that die because they can't afford it or it's not even available... but I did write my blog article a couple of weeks ago so my prediction is well documented.

The Feds are still putting up roadblocks to our efforts to stop the oil from getting into our marshes and coastlines down here. If we lost even more of our marshes, then it will raise the risk of even more humans dying with any big hurricane that hits our area so that blood will be on Obama's hands as well. I wish Gov. Jindal would have our LA Air National Guard patrol our work areas and fire a warning shot over the bow of the next Coast Guard or Wildlife and Fisheries boat that tries to stop our efforts to secure our coastlines.

Lenny for Governor... or better yet, President!!! LOL

Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/


------------


-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of Eric Roberts
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 11:42 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

So the whole business world reporting their record profits was just a big lie Lenny?

Eric


-----------


-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 6:56 AM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

Ummmm... except for the SOCIALIST-liberal-democrat mentality, making profit is a GOOD THING!!! Geez... how did my once great pro-capitalism, freedom loving AMERICA degrade into such a pathetic socialistic, pro-BIG-goverment, anti-capitalism mindset for so many people???

Would you rather they lose money like EVERY government run program that us taxpayers pay for... or maybe all of the companies that Obama and Bush thought were "too big to fail" and us taxpayers had to bail them out? Would that be better for you???

"Record profits" happen due for many reasons... such as the rapidly growing and industrializing countries like China and India, so global companies are selling their product to a MUCH larger customer base... just like Walmart sets new records every year for their sales/profits because they are opening up new stores everywhere. They still operate on very small profit margins except they have increased their customer base to increase their profits... usually while lowering their prices. IF ONLY GOVERNMENT COULD LEARN FROM THAT!!!

The "Profit Margin" is still the same for most oil companies... just a couple of pennies per gallon of gas sold... after the oil company did all that work to get the gas to your local gas station.

You should be complaining about your local, State and Federal government skimming HUGE PROFITS off the top of every gallon of gas sold... which adds up to nearly a DOLLAR per gallon in some States. In Louisiana, it's nearly 60 cents a gallon between Federal, State and local taxes on each gallon of gas. That's over a 30% to 50% tax on every gallon of gas and the government DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to produce that gallon of gas except make it harder and harder for the oil companies to drill for it in the first place. When gas was under $2.00 a gallon at retail, the tax was nearly a 100% tax in some States. Without the taxes, the gas would have only cost a dollar a gallon in those States.

A gallon of gas is less than a gallon of bottled water OR a gallon of milk and considering everything the oil companies have to do to get that gallon of gas to your local gas station, it's actually amazing that they can produce gasoline so inexpensively and efficiently. If only government could do things efficiently and effectively!!!

THANKS BP, EXXONMOBIL, SHELL, ETC. God bless all of you guys and gals for making our lives easier and more productive for such a low price!!!!

Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/


------------


-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Eric Roberts
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 11:52 AM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

You didn’t answer my question, oh mighty spouter of corporatist propaganda.


-----------

-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny [mailto:goldlenny@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 12:58 PM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

In order for me to answer your question, you first have to read my reply... paragraph three in particular, but the rest of my reply as well. I try not to use big words. ;-)

Just so you know, Fox News has reported that Judge M. Feldman DOES NOT own Transocean or BP stock. He divested himself of the Transocean stock and NEVER owned BP stock, and he owned very little of the Transocean stock anyhow, so his ruling is not tarnished by your rumor. If only politicians were so un-tarnished!!!

Further, the Federal Appeals court denied the guv-ments request to stay Judge Feldman's order so the moratorium is lifted!!!! YEEEE-HAWWWWWWWWW!!!! THAR'S OIL IN THEM THAR WELLS!!!! "...BUBBLING CRUDE, OIL THAT IS, BLACK GOLD, TEXAS TEA!!!!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkOGM6gHvao



BTW... thanks for the compliment and promotion to "oh mighty"... but Oh Mighty should probably be capitalized since it refers to God... oh wait... you were calling me "oh mighty", not referring to God, so that's OK if it's not capitalized. LOL

But really..."Corporatist propaganda"??? OMG... you really are a socialist!!! I thought I was just messing with you when I called you that in past replies. But I'd MUCH rather be a "corporatist" than a socialist... so I thank you for that compliment! ;-)

But speaking of fish... I CAN'T believe you buy fish or anything else from pet stores or anywhere else... those are ALL capitalist ventures as well.... and YOU'RE SUPPORTING THEM.. you better not let all your commie-lib friends... or would that be fellow comrades find out! LOL

Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/

Here's my latest political blog which includes much of this new thread and some other good stuff!!! http://lennyvasbinder.blogspot.com/2010/06/oil.html I do allow comments so feel free to move the debate/discussion over there to keep folks happier over here.

-----------

-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of Amber Berglund
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 6:56 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

Lenny do you like to kick sleeping dogs too? ;)

Amber

------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 7:14 PM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

My dogs have always been smart enough to learn not to sleep in the middle of a walkway... it usually only took one kick! Some humans, sadly, aren't so trainable. LOL

Lenny Vasbinder

-----------

-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of jaiko
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 5:00 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

how about them dolphins?..lol

-----------

-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 8:33 PM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

The Saints beat 'em 46-34... after being down by 21 points... on the way to eventually winning the Superbowl this year!!! WHO DAT!!!

Now I have to add my "SAINTS WIN!!!" signature too! LOL

Oooops... does cheering for my Saints also make me a "corporatist" propagandist? LOL

Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/

SAINTS WIN!!! SUPER BOWL CHAMPS!!!! WHO DAT SAY DEY GONNA BEAT DEM SAINTS? WHO DAT? WHO DAT? NOT DEM COLTS!!! ;-)

-----------

-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of William M
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 7:53 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [AquaticLife] Re: Oil????????????????????????????

Lenny,

In one of your previous post, you mentioned that this oil spill is not killing the gulf. Does this mean that you are using the water from the gulf to change water in your tanks? Are you going down and swimming in the oily gulf water? Why is BP allowed to burn oil where they know that endangered turtles are going to be killed? Do they have to go to court like anyone else that might kill an endangered animal?

-----------

-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 9:08 PM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Re: Oil????????????????????????????

Nope... I am not using water from the Gulf... it's saltwater (although I may use it for my proposed Gulf Of Mexico Biotope Tank.. lol)... but I do use water from the Mississippi River which IS FAR MORE POLLUTED than the Gulf... thanks to all the upriver States dumping so much crap into the river before it gets down here. Fortunately, it's cleaned up real good before it gets to my place! ;-)

I went swimming in the NOT oily Gulf this past weekend. The entire Gulf and/or coastline is NOT soaked in oil... not withstanding the few video clips that the LSM (Lame Stream Media) plays over and over and over showing that one pathetic looking oil covered pelican and a few other clips showing the worst of the worst. The MAJORITY of the coastline is still mostly unaffected by anything more than some tar balls that wash ashore when the tide comes in. Please note that tar balls wash ashore ALL beaches ALL year long due to NATURAL seepage from ocean bottom oil leaks... "NATURAL" meaning not caused by man.

You should look at a Google Earth image of the oil spill. While it's certainly not a good thing for the areas that the spill is affecting, it's only a fraction of the Gulf of Mexico that is being affected right now and the 1979 spill was still worse... although this spill is catching up fast! My blog article back on June 7th includes a graph of the world's worst oil spills and the BP spill is still WAY down on the chart.

http://lennyvasbinder.blogspot.com/2010/06/graph-says-it-all-bp-oil-spill-compared.html

Here's my entire series of now eight articles about the BP oil spill, which includes the above article.. if the above link breaks, it's included in the below shorter link.

http://lennyvasbinder.blogspot.com/search/label/BP

If Obama would have allowed foreign help starting back on April 25th... instead of waiting until June 14th... and if he would have IMMEDIATELY mobilized the 2,000+ skimmers that are based in America, instead of the ONLY 46 or so that were in the Gulf area already, there would be FAR LESS oil in the water and possibly NONE coming on shore since 2,000+ skimmers would have been sucking it up way out in the middle of the Gulf instead of us having to just watch it get closer and closer to our shorelines as the days and weeks went by. All of this is also documented in my more recent articles.

The 20 BILLION DOLLAR fund that BP has set up does cover the cost of cleaning up the entire spill, cleaning up any oil covered animals and also covers paying fines for each animal that dies as a result of the spill.

They are allowed to burn the oil right now because that is what the Federal Government approved. Blame Congress for that. I still scratch my head as to why they are burning it instead of loading it all into an oil tanker to be processed but one of my more recent blog articles have information as to why they are doing it that way. Something about the oily water being skimmed up is 80-90% water and has already been treated with the chemical dispersants so it's not easily refined and more easily burned. Once again, blame Congress who writes all of the laws that govern the writing of all of the rules and regulations. Congress has been controlled by the Democratic Party since 2006... but I guess they'll try to blame Bush also instead of accepting responsibility for their actions and inactions.

Please reply with any comments on my non-fish blog, http://lennyvasbinder.blogspot.com/, since some members of this group do not like talking about the oil spill. Just click the "Comments" link at the bottom of each article and bash me or applaud me all you want. I'm a big boy and I take it all in stride! ;-)

Lenny Vasbinder

-----------

-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of Eric Roberts
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 1:52 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

You are just plainly ignorant… especially if you would rather be called a corporatist. But I think that Mussolini and Hitler would be proud to have you amongst their ranks as fellow corporatists.

Oh yes, Fox, that bastion of truth and honesty…right…

In 2008 Feldman had financial holdings with Transocean, the company that owned the faulty oil rig. [6] According to the Fiscal Disclosure Report required by the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, Judge Feldman held the following relevant energy and oil industry investments, with a heavy incidence of Louisiana based businesses:

BlackRock ($12000- $36000); Ocean Energy ($1000 – $2500); NGP Capital Resources ($1000 – $2500); Quicksilver Resources ($5000 – $15000); Hercules Offshore ($6000 – $17500); Provident Energy; Peabody Energy; PenGrowth Energy; RPC Inc; Atlas Energy Resources; Parker Drilling; TXCO Resources; EV Energy Partners; Rowan Companies; BPZ Resources; El Paso Corp; KBR Inc; Chesapeake Energy and ATP Oil & Gas. [7]

For the Lousiana Judgeapedia project judgepedia.org/index.php/Martin_Feldman

No ties to the oil industry there…

Eric

-----------

-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 9:44 PM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

No, I'm not ignorant... I'm just NOT a socialist.

Typical lib... play the race card or the Hitler card when you can't win on the facts.

Neither Hitler nor Mussolini believed in capitalism.

"The Nazis accused communism and capitalism of being associated with Jewish influences and interests.[16] They declared support for a nationalist form of socialism that was to provide for... : economic security, social welfare programs for workers, a just wage, honour for workers' importance to the nation, and protection from capitalist exploitation.[17]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism

That sounds MUCH MORE like the Democratic-liberal-socialist party than the Republican party... yet my Jewish friends still vote mostly for the Democrats but they can never explain to my why? Go figure!

Fox News is FAR MORE "Fair and Balanced" than any other news network. All of the other LSM networks are so far left-leaning, they have to lean their cameras so their anchors appear to be sitting up straight. LOL

Once again... you're not reading my replied.

Judge Feldman divested (that means sold) his TransOcean stock since that 2008 report. As far as his other energy related holdings... none of them amount to very much money. If you have a retirement plan, you probably have as much of a percentage of your investments in energy companies also. Even if you are going to rely on only Social Security, much of the money that comes into Congress is energy related taxes and fees.

Considering Obama got around A MILLION DOLLARS from BP and many more millions from all of the other energy companies, he's far more culpable and in bed with big energy than Judge Feldman... hmmmmm.. I wonder if that is why the Obama administration gave that BP rig a big thumbs up on all their permits and inspections just two weeks prior to the explosion???

As far as your last comment about "no ties to the oil industry", there is NOBODY in America or probably the world without any ties to the oil industry... maybe some jungle tribes who have never had contact with the outside world... but that's about it.

Have you ever owned or driven a car? Oil industry related!

Have you ever owned or ridden a bike? Oil industry related!

Have you ever worn polyester clothing? Oil industry related!

Are you using a computer and the internet that relies on various plastics and polymers for them to work? Oil industry related.

Do you use energy to heat or cool your apartment? Oil industry related!

OMG.... you better throw everything you own away and go move in with one of them aforementioned jungle tribes. I hear there is good fish collecting down in the Amazon so you won't have to support them capitalist pet stores either! LOL

Sheesh... I might have to go out and buy Glenn Beck's book, "Arguing With Idiots" http://www.glennbeck.com/bookczar/ ... I'm sure he must have a chapter that covers this discussion.

Lenny Vasbinder

-----------

-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of Amber Berglund
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 9:49 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

Lenny I don't even read most of your replies, especially ones not about FISH :P I've asked twice for this argument to stop and it hasn't yet. I'm about to start denying replies on purpose instead of letting someone else approve them so that you can reply again and continue the arguments.
They're getting old.

Amber

-----------

-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 10:31 PM
To: 'AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [AquaticLife] Oil????????????????????????????

I keep LMAO down here, because you and some of the other mods are the biggest complainers about this thread.... yet they keep on approving the posts. I only reply to the ones that are allowed by someone else in the first place. I didn't start the thread but as long as the mods are allowing one side to post, then they have to allow the other side an appropriate response.

I've looked at the moderator's logs on the group's website and several different mods have been approving the posts. Every time one is approved, I check to see who approved it. Of course, not all members are moderated so some of their replies just come through without moderation.

I just do my part and post an appropriate and factual reply... since everyone else is too apathetic to do so... and probably because I know more about the truth about the BP spill than anyone else in the group... at least those that are active.

Of course, to answer your last sentence, I think people's apathy is "getting old". I'd MUCH RATHER have an involved citizenship than a bunch of people who cover their ears and chant LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA whenever politics or religion comes up in the conversation. They're the two things that affect EVERYBODY'S lives the most and yet people want to play ostrich whenever the subject comes up. ;-)

After sending this reply, I'll put myself back on moderation and let you all allow whatever you want to allow... which will probably just be one sided replies from those not on moderation from now on, since that would seem to make some of you happy... then everyone can go back to covering their ears and eyes and chanting LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!

Lenny Vasbinder

THINGS THEN WENT OFF-LIST BETWEEN ME AND SOME OF THE MODERATORS:

-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife-owner@
On Behalf Of Amber Berglund
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 6:28 PM
To: 'AquaticLife Moderator'
Subject: Political/religious discussions.

Okay I know I haven't been a moderator for very long, but I have a request that we create and enforce a new rule for the group; No religious/political discussions. We should consider this much similar to the rules you have at a work place, there's a reason there are no political or religious discussions; because people do not agree, and there are too many opinions to be expressed. Not to mention that people get easily upset and rude when they're talking about their beliefs.

Thanks for listening,

Amber

-----------

-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 7:50 PM
To: 'arberglund@gmail.com'; 'AquaticLife-owner@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: Political/religious discussions.

(covers eyes and ears with hands so I do not see or hear this offensive email and then get all "upset and rude" if I do see or hear it... why didn't I just delete the email???? God, I just don't know!!!)

LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA....

(while eyes and ears are covered, I mutter a reply anyhow)

I CAN'T HEAR OR SEE THIS EMAIL BECAUSE IT HAS THE TOPIC OF "POLITICAL/RELIGIOUS DISCUSSIONS" AND I'M TYPING IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE MY EYES AND EARS ARE COVERED SO I'M TYPING AND REPLYING IN A LOUDER VOICE SINCE I CAN'T HEAR MYSELF EITHER.

LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA....

(uncovers eyes and ears for a moment to see if email went away... it didn't... so I reply)

And what about when people "do not agree" about something related to fish keeping... does that mean we can't discuss that either so as not to offend anyone??? I've seen folks get just as offended when I explain they cannot keep a goldfish in a bowl when the PetsMart employee told them they could have five goldfish in the same bowl.

(covers eyes and ears again since I don't want to hear an answer that I "do not agree" with)

LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA....

(uncovers eyes and ears again just for a moment to see if email went away... it didn't once again... so I reply again)

Political correctness, in America, run amuck!!!

(covers eyes and ears again so I do not see or hear anything that I "do not agree" with being said or typed by anyone else)

LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA....

(uncovers eyes and ears again to see if email went away yet... OH GOD!!!... it's still here and now, even worse,...)

Fox News Channel with Bill O'Reilly just came on and he is discussing Obama's failures and pitiful poll numbers due to his pathetic and pitiful response, in part, to the oil spill, immigration, the Afghanistan war, the pathetically high deficits for the past two years and outrageously high national debt, among other things.

(covers eyes and ears again so I can't see or hear the email or my TV now)

LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA....

(I think I feel a warm and fuzzy, blissful feeling coming over me now... maybe even "a tingle running up my leg"... since you know the old saying... "Ignorance Is Bliss!")

LMAO... I know this won't get posted to the group but at least I can add it to both of my blogs and people can choose to read it or not (hit the X or Delete key)... and even post un-moderated comments on MY blogs.... some that I may not even agree with!!!... OMG, the outrage!!!!

And what about when discussing how the various species came to be, since that subject comes up often? Are we only allowed to discuss Darwin's "theory of evolution" and use terms like Mother Nature since we do not want to offend anyone by saying "intelligent design" or "God works in mysterious ways"... and should I NOT capitalize the M and N in Mother Nature since when typing Mother Nature with a capital M and N, I actually meant God??? OMG, I'm so confused now!!!

OMG... is it OK to type OMG since the G stands for God??? Or is it OK since I only used the first letter? Confusion is running amuck now!!!

SMAO!!! Smiling, not laughing, My Ass Off!!!... does anyone really laugh out loud EVERY TIME they type LOL? I guess the or really are more appropriate than the overuse of LOL and LMAO.

I think I'll have to nominate myself for a Pulitzer Prize for this reply... it may well be my best and most satirical reply to an email... EVER!

Heck, now I might even go into a crowded theater and scream FIIIIIIIRRRRRREEEEEEEE!!!!!.... ooops... now I've crossed the freedom of speech line... but everything up to that point was all OK in my book... although the PC Police may not have agreed.

Lenny Vasbinder

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-----Original Message-----
From: Amber Berglund
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 8:46 PM
To: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny; 'AquaticLife Moderator'
Subject: Re: Political/religious discussions.

No Lenny the point is that we're all adults, and if people can't learn to let arguments drop and act like an adult, then those of us in charge need to "be the better man/woman" and help enforce rules so that hopefully we can keep arguments to a minimum.

politics and religious beliefs are very controversial topics anywhere, and the fact that you had to keep having the last word on the argument shows that you need to learn how to drop it and let everything go back to a more civil tone. You actually encouraged foul language from other members that were arguing with you when you're supposed to be a moderator yourself and keep people in line so to speak.

It's fine to have off topic posts that people want to discuss, but it's another thing encouraging an argument and rude behavior from other members, and continuing to do so when more than just a few people request that the topic be ended.

I think you're a great fountain of information Lenny, but sometimes you really like to pick controversial topics and don't know when to drop them.

Amber

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-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 10:44 PM
To: 'arberglund@; 'AquaticLife-owner@'
Subject: RE: Political/religious discussions.

I agree that most of us are adults and therefore we should be able to have an open and honest discussion and debate about anything, even off-topic things and folks could just put OT- in front of the subject. You call it an argument, I call it a discussion and debate.

I have been waiting for the "you had to keep having the last word" card to get played against ME... and nobody else... although I expected it MUCH sooner. ;-) I've heard that MANY times over the past 20+ years but IMO, that's such a pathetic thing that some people say in any discussion or debate... primarily when they don't agree with someone... or when they're losing the debate badly... it's analogous to if you can't win the game, take your ball and go home, IMO.

Someone is always going to get the "last word" eventually... or not... so that "last word" card should/could be applied to EVERYONE who replied in the thread... or even to those that started the threads (cough, cough), since the threads could have gotten shut down after their "last word" instead of MY or someone else's "last word"... and does this mean that only YOUR "last word" is an acceptable "last word" since you were the last to reply to the last thread??? Or was it someone else's "last word" as the "last word" in the threads? When Bill started the new "Oil???????" thread, if nobody replied, then would you play the "last word" card against him? I hope you can see the lunacy or hypocrisy of someone playing the "last word" card... do they think that only they should have the "last word"? Now, if folks wanted to put a message count or time limit on debates/discussions and the buzzer rings, then that would be a more "fair" way of determining the "last word" but for someone else to try and get in the "last word" by playing the "you always have to have the last word" card, then they are as guilty of the "last word" card as the person they are playing it against... I think that's called hypocrisy.

Don't look to me to "keep people in line" when it comes to free speech. I'm a bastion of free speechism so I'm NEVER going to shut someone up... especially when it's on such an important topic as politics and religion... the two things that affect our lives (literally) the most. I've stated this many, many, many times over the years when ever politics and religion comes up... and it always will... regardless of how many people do the LA-LA-LA-LA-LA thing. Millions of people have DIED for our rights to have our politics, religion and free speech and while I might piss on Obama's and many other modern politician's graves... both democrat and republican and especially socialist, fascist and communist, I'll never piss on the grave of someone that stood up and DIED for our rights.... namely the founding fathers and early leaders of America and our members of the military... well, maybe I would piss on John Kerry's grave. LOL Someone much smarter than me once said, "While I may not agree with what you say, I'll fight to the death for your right to say it!" or one of the many other morphs of the original saying.... just like I'm replying to your emails instead of just ignoring them or deleting them... as I believe that you have a right to say what you say... but conversely, SO DO I!!!

I purposely didn't moderate (approve or deny) any of the posts concerning the two political threads and only replied to posts that some other moderator approved, as I knew I would be involved in the discussion and debate and didn't want to be accused of shutting someone up. At any point, any one of the 10+ moderators could have put everyone on moderation, including fellow moderators, just as I put myself on moderation, but NOBODY did so I continued to reply to each and every replies or questions directed towards me.

Now, as far as the "foul language", that is something that could/should be moderated and it's easy enough for any moderator to open a pending message, prior to it being approved, and remove or change any foul language. I personally didn't use any "foul language", although I did use some "fowl language" , so any messages that contained "foul language" was either from other members and more particularly, from other moderators. "Bullshit" could have been changed to "Bull manure" or "Bull feces" so it wouldn't be "foul language" yet still get the point across to those that agree with them... but to those of us who don't agree with them, we can just delete the message with that subject line or choose to participate in the discussion and debate.

As far as people that do not want to participate... which unfortunately is a LARGE percentage of apathetic Americans, just like at the polls, they can refuse to show up... or in email terms, they can simply hit the delete key if they see a subject line they are not interested in. That's what I do... it's so simple and it works 100% of the time! Although I show up at the polls 100% of the time since I first registered to vote when I was 18 years old.

These people that complain and leave the group or threaten to leave the group, because they somehow can't hit the delete key, are simply people that do not believe in free speech or do not agree with what one or another party may be saying so they want to shut everyone up by their pathetic threats to leave. I say... take your ball and leave if you're that kind of person... I'll just get another ball and start the game up again after you're gone.

Fortunately, based on the number of off-list emails that I got, there are FAR MORE people that agreed with my positions and were glad I had the balls to say them. Unfortunately, those same folks were too afraid of the PC Police to speak up on-list... but I understand when some people are afraid after being beat into submission by the leftist PC Police.

I might have to morph another old saying... instead of "The only way they'll take my guns, is to pry them from my cold dead fingers!", I'll change it to "The only way they'll take my keyboard, is to pry it from my cold dead fingers!" LOL

NOW... all this said, in the past few days, I've been looking at all the other BIG Yahoo Groups related to fish keeping and if you look at the message count chart on the home page of these many other groups, messages are WAY DOWN in almost every group in the past two years. Only one group stayed pretty consistent and I was going to look at their messages since they were the only group that was consistent, but they have their messages shut down, except for members, so I can't peek at their subject lines until I have time to do so, now that I've been approved for the group. I'll report back later on that.

I haven't gone through and read the thousands of threads for the past two years in all the other open message groups, but I have a theory that the message count is down for one or both of the following theoretical reasons:

1) The economy, unemployment, deficit, national debt, etc., are SO BAD under the last year of Bush and even worse under Obama that people are hoarding their money and are not buying fish so fish talk is down in general. I've also noticed SEVERAL other LONG-TIME online forums that have just shut down and gone away... sites like PlantGeek's, Aquatic-Hobbyist, etc. simply have closed their doors, probably due to lack of participation in the past two years. I'm sure there are many, many others that I do not know about.

My other theoretical reason is:

2) Politics has come up far more often with Obama's socialist, big-government, tax-and-spend, deficit spending the national debt by record levels, Obamacare, etc... so these other groups shut other freedom-of-speech-people up often enough that they just left the groups or no longer participate.... or the relatively few people that don't believe in freedom of speech left the groups OR because one or two people left, the moderators got paranoid and became mini-dictators and everyone else kind of shut up too.... hmmmm.. now that theory sounds familiar! ;-)

As you see, I do neither! ;-) I try to practice what I preach... whether it be fish keeping related or far more important topics like politics and religion.

Here are several other group's home pages where you can see the message count charts to verify what I've theorized above.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SaltWaterAquariums/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reefcity/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UniQuaria/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tropicalfishclub/ (the only relatively consistent message count group)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Saltwater_Fish_and_Reef_Aquariums/

And last but not least, http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/AquaticLife/

Those are the three biggest FW and SW yahoo groups, in no particular order, and all but one are suffering MAJOR decreases in message count in the past two years and even the TropicalFishClub, which by the way is the #1 group as far as total members, with 2,637 (of course they could have 80-90% spam-bot members harvesting email addresses as well), but they haven't had as many messages as AquaticLife each month, in the past... so I'm not sure what Aaron bases the "#1" designation on the AquaticLife home page to know if he means membership count or message count or if it's like a Nobel Pease Prize (such as Obama's, AlGore's and Jimmy Carter's... when Reagan did FAR MORE to promote and preserve world peace than those three combined and probably more than any other on the list and yet, he never got one... because it's all based on liberal-socialist politics, not on real peace - http://nobelprizes.com/nobel/peace/) or many of the Pulitzer Prizes that are based on made up science or facts ... or if the "#1" designation is like when I give myself a "Lenny Award" for outstanding whatever. LOL

Of course, maybe Aaron designated AquaticLife as #1 because I'm a member! Now that would be worthy of a "Lenny Award"!!!! Let me know Aaron, so I can get that right out to you! LOL

AquaticLife has lost FAR MORE members due to the overall LARGE number of posts... often topping more than 1,000 a month, than due to the political or religious threads. As I reported in an earlier post, at least 80% of people are on no-mail or special notices only and of the remaining 500 members who are supposed to be getting emails, over 300 are bouncing... primarily due to their email boxes being filled up so new emails are returned to sender. In between the two GREAT DEBATE threads, I offered a solution to at least try and harvest and/or save all of the saltwater members who have come and gone over the years but you and I think Harry were the only other moderators to reply so until Aaron replies with a yea or nay, I've put that on the back burner.

BTW... I welcome your reply since I certainly wouldn't want to be the "last word". ;-)

Lenny Vasbinder

-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 10:51 PM
To: 'arberglund@gmail.com'; 'AquaticLife-owner@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: Political/religious discussions.

Ohhh.. I meant to add to that utterly ridiculous Nobel Peace Prize list that included Obama, AlGore and Carter... they gave a Nobel Peace Price to: "1990 - MIKHAIL SERGEYEVICH GORBACHEV , President of the USSR, helped to bring the Cold War to an end." which further illustrates the lunacy and hypocrisy and socialist-liberal mindset of that group since THE ONLY REASON Gorbachev helped bring the Cold War to an end was DUE TO PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN AND AMERICA'S MILITARY STRENGTH... do you remember America's Star Wars Missile Defense Program and the "Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" speech or were you too young?

Lenny Vasbinder

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-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife-owner@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of harry perry
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 9:02 PM
To: AquaticLife-owner@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Lenny, this post is a crock of shit.

In reference to Lenny's reply starting with: "I keep LMAO down here, because you and some of the other mods are the biggest complainers about this thread.... yet they keep on approving the posts. I only reply to the ones that are allowed by someone else in the first place. I didn't start the thread but as long as the mods are allowing one side to post, then they have to allow the other side an appropriate response...."

Harry replied:

All you did was make an ass out of all the moderators.

I for one have no problem discussing politics, religion or anything else. Of course if we discuss this privately you won't have an audience.

It doesn't belong in a fish keeping group. This is not a forum for involved citizenship.

Something you just don't seem to get, this group isn't about you and your ideas.

It's a team effort. It's goal is fish keeping not what Lenny thinks we should be talking about.

If we want to stick our fingers in our ears or anywhere else it's none of your f------ business.

We joined this group because we have something in common we love fish.

We didn't join the Lenny Admiration Society.

Most of us use our hobbies and interests to maintain our sanity. So when we tune in here what do we get?. More of the same shit.

I hope we can procede as a team towards the same goal. FISH KEEPING.

Harry

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-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 11:10 PM
To: 'harry perry'; 'AquaticLife-owner@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: Lenny, this post is a crock of shit.

I applaud your freedom of speech but I think you violated Amber's "foul language" rule... and make sure you wash that finger! ;-)

Your rant's and outrage should really be against those who started the threads and/or the moderators who approved the first message and then continued to approve the follow-up replies... for which I did neither.

And as far as whether it is my business if you want to cover your ears and ignore things... actually that is my business since ignorant American's are the ones that keep voting in the stupid-assed politicians that are doing the stupid-assed things to America (ooops... I just violated Amber's rule too).

Once again, I only replied to posts/threads that were first approved by a moderator or by un-moderated members, so if you feel I made an ass out of the other moderators, for those that approved the messages, if the shoe fits, wear it... of course, personally I'm VERY proud of those moderators for having a pair and being willing to approve the messages... but once again, your complaints and anger are aimed at the wrong person. What's the old saying, "Don't kill the messenger!"

I like that "Lenny Admiration Society" though... maybe I'll start up a Yahoo Group by that name... of course, I'll probably be the only member. ;-)

Lenny Vasbinder

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