# Trinidad and Tobago



## Zapins

Does anyone know what kind of aquatic plants are native to Trinidad and possibly Tobago? I'll be studying abroad there this semester and I know its got a lot of tropical rain forest so I was wondering what aquatic plants I might expect to find there!


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## Freemann

Marsilea minuta
Azzola caroliana
Ceratopteris Richardii
Blechnum L.
this are some I found exist for sure
The Aripo Savanna you should surely check


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## lampeye

If you bring back wild guppies, or, even better, _Rivulus hartii_, I know some folks who would be forever in your debt.

_Ceratophyllum_ is found there, yes?

For the coolness factor, be sure to visit Pitch Lake.


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## Zapins

I'll try smuggle something in. Wonder if i can keep the fish in my pocket or something in some breather bags. Hmm.... would have to find a way of keeping them out of the Xray machine though as that would probably be bad


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## Zapins

I'm here! Its beautiful so far! I'm taking tons of pics will post soon. Haven't had enough time to search any rivers/bodies of water lol. But i bought a fishtank so i'm gearing up for some specimens!


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## Zapins

I heard there were glandulocaudinae fish here. I've never seen them before in the trade, but they seem like a perfect fish to keep in the aquarium. Prolific breeders and they stay small (under 2 inches), like to school, and stay near the top of the water column. I'm going to try look for them. 

The Rivulus hartii shouldn't be a problem to find, I saw some in a fishtank at college that a teacher had collected. I can probably catch a few.

By the way, there is an embargo on exporting guppies here, so sorry all you folks that wanted them 

I heard there are several species of Eriocaulon here so I'll try find some of that as well.


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## Zapins

Success!!!! I went to a local stream and went searching for fish and found literally thousands of guppies. There were tons of them of all sizes!!!! I got a few of the medium/smaller ones (1 inch and less) in my tank here (there were some 2 inchers in the stream!). 

I was also able to catch a nice 9 inch Pleco of some sort, and a smaller (baby?) pleco of about 2 inches. 

Also found some baby frogs and tadpoles. 

I was told by a local kid that there were only 2 kinds of fish in that stream, but I think there might have been a 3rd one, i saw it for a second as it darted out from the riverbank. It was longish and looked somewhat like a catfish/pleco (but it was sausage like in shape), I'm not sure what it was as I saw it for a few seconds only. Definitely don't think it was a pleco though.

No aquatic plants to be seen  only some long hair algae.


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## mikenas102

Can't wait to see some pics! You sure that sausage shaped fish wasn't a snake of some sort? Or even worse one of those snakehead fish.


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## Zapins

Might have been a snakehead, but I don't know since there were soooooo many guppies in the stream, if it was a snakehead there probably wouldn't be that many left alive lol. I think I've seen a similar fish before in a petstore, but I can't remember what its called. Looked like either a goby, orrrrrr maybe some kind of catfish.

I'll try put up some pics soon! Can't wait to show you all. Place your orders boys lol, I'll see what I can bring back or find. I'm looking for glandulocaudinae at the moment.


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## Zapins

Ok, just uploaded 2 pics of the fish. I couldn't get a pic of the male guppy because he jumped off my hand and landed on the concrete. Soo, I'm letting him rest before i take him out the water again for pics lol.

http://www.freewebs.com/zapins/apps/photos/index.jsp

Check out those beauties.


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## Zapins

Most amazing freaking day today. Went for the first day of my internship. We went diving around some of the islands near the edge of Trinidad. The water was a little murky but good enough to see for a good 10-20 feet. Our mission was to collect a sample of fish for scientific research and an aquarium exhibition. We collected 2 French angel fish and a gray (french look alike angel fish) and some wrasses and several different damsels, a few scorpion fish, urchins, zooanthid corals and several other things. 

Even though I applied sunblock 2-4 times throughout the day I still managed to burn my back! Damn! Guess thats what happens when your skin doesn't see sun for 6 months and then BAM 12 hours of sun. Oh well.

Freaking amazing day though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Next time I'll take pictures and post them so you all can see!


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## addo

I hate you!


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## Zapins

Hahahaha! lol thanks 

I'll post more pics. Oh and news update: I might be able to export some guppies and even some marine fish. I found a contact here that has an export license soo I'll let you know after I speak with him.

Also, my underwater camera is coming in a few days so I should have pics up this weekend sometime.


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## Zapins

Ok! New update! The wild guppies I collected have had babies! There are about 30 new little fry swimming around the tank (born about 3 days ago)! I have been feeding flake food, but I haven't noticed any of the fish eating it, however, all the fish look fat and healthy and don't seem to be starving. The babies also look like they have grown a bit.

Just to clarify, the baby fish are still considered to be wild fish right? On the same level as wild caught fish? Their conception was definitely in the wild and birth in the tank.

Also, got 2 more tanks, a 5 gal one and a 2.5 gal. Will set them up later.

Oh and the tadpoles are nearly finished changing into frogs. I will probably need to transfer them into one of the new tanks soon. Any ideas what they will need to be fed?


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## cleek

I hate u too


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## Zapins

Ok, I went to Tobago for a few days and rented a bike. I cycled all over the bottom half of the island and found 2 particularly interesting streams. One had lots of rivulus hartii in it and the other had shrimp and crayfish in it.

I captured about 15 rivulus hartii and had them in a 1.5 gal water bottle with an air pump.

The next day I collected about 15-20 shrimp and crayfish and had them in a second 1.5 gal bottle (as the crayfish would eat the fish if in the same container). Unfortunately, I had only one pump. I split the line and attempted to make sure both bottles got air from the pump. It was rather difficult to exactly match the two tubes so that air would come out of both, but in the end I used plastic to pinch one of the tubes shut a bit so that both bottles got air. Sadly the next day only the shrimp bottle had air and all the rivulus hartii had died. Arg!!!!!

Then while I went for a tour of the island with a guide (i.e. huge island wide collecting trip!) the maid came in and for some reason opened my suitcase which had the air pump on top of it. The pump fell off and pulled the air tube out the shrimp bottle. So when I got back several hours later all the shrimp and crayfish were dead (except 1 which I brought back with me). So there you have it, my exciting but terribly sad collecting trip to Tobago. I'll have to try find some more rivulus hartii and shrimp at Trinidad and possibly make another trip back to Tobago to collect more before I return to the states.

I'll attach some pictures of the stream I found the shrimp in and some pictures of the rivulus hartii. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the shrimp. Though when the crayfish grows up I'll take pictures of him/her.

http://www.freewebs.com/zapins/apps/photos/index.jsp

I'd love to know what kind of shrimp and crayfish are native to Tobago though. The shrimp looked a lot like cherry red shrimp, except ranged from dark green to blue in color. The crayfish were relatively clear (the bigger ones had more color), and had small claws (one was bigger than the other).


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## BryceM

Do you mean to imply that aquairum fish can exist in the wild????? Who knew....

I hate you too. Sounds like a blast!


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## Afyounie

Man I envy you. I would love to get to explore a beautiful paradise and get to collect wild specimens of plants and fish for my tank. I hope you can find some real nice/exotic plants to bring back and cultivate. Have you found anything other than guppies, shrimp, hartii, and plecos?


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## Zapins

lol, you guys crack me up 

I have to confess... exploring the rivers here is basically like my dreams were before I came. A new exciting river around every corner with the potential to have anything in it!!! Its titillating!!! 

I'm pretty disappointed with the lack of aquatic plants I've found here so far. Basically just water hyacinth and possibly some kind of eriocaulon species. Not sure if the eriocaulon was aquatic or not, it was only growing in a ditch with a little standing water around the roots. It was not growing up on the banks only where the roots were covered in water. I didn't take any because I wasn't sure if it was aquatic and the soil smelled bad.

I'm working on collecting several wild fish and shrimp (and plants if I can find any...) to bring back in may.

Afyounie, I found some wild rams horn snails, and many Malaysian trumpet snails (apparently they were released some time ago and have taken over).

It is pretty hard to get to some of these rivers. To collect fish and shrimp from Tobago I had to rent a bicycle and ride for an hour and a half (each way) to get the rivulus hartii and about 2-3 hours each way for the shrimp. The pleco and guppies took about an hour and a half each way to walk to.

There is one big river (that is near by in Trinidad) that I haven't scouted yet. It looks really promising. Its shallow, but wide and relatively fast moving so I expect to find some shrimp, hartii, and maybe some plecos. 

There are apparently some kind of dark brown/black gobies that live on the north part of the island. So I'm planning to travel up there (2 hours by car) and try catch some.

I found out that there are some small freshwater bright red crabs that breed in freshwater (max 2 inches) that live in the savanna region. I'm going to try catch a ride there with some lab assistants at the university I'm going to.

I would love to have one of you guys down here with me so we could go collect together!! While collecting fish and other aquatic creatures is a dream for me, its definitely not #1 on my buddy's list of things to do.  I usually go alone to collect haha.


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## Afyounie

Don't forget to collect some hardscaping items. I would imagine that some nice driftwood could be found. Do you think that maybe the plants are growing more emersed than submersed? Have you tried any bogs or swamps?


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## Zapins

Yea there is some nice wood around here. I'll see if I can collect some.

As far as swamps and bogs... not yet. I'm trying to get a ride to the savanna (apparently a huge freshwater swamp area). Not sure when I can get there though.


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## Afyounie

Any updates?


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## Zapins

Actually, I went home for a few days (to the states) so I haven't had a chance to look around yet. 

I'll probably go today though, there is a stream that is pretty close to where I live so I'll check it out and do an update.


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## Zapins

Ok! Great news!!!!!

The river was really interesting. Probably one of the best so far not to mention the closest and easiest to get to of all!

I saw several species of fish and even managed to find my first bona-fied aquatic plant. I'm not sure what the plant is exactly but it looks something like egeria densa. I'll try get some pics of it later tonight to show everyone. I also collected three other plants that might be able to grow underwater, though I'm not convinced they are true aquatics. I suppose time will tell though.

The plants have some eggs on them as well so I'm dying to find out what they are. One leaf has small 0.3 cm yellow eggs stuck to the leaf, there are about 25-35 of them. They aren't encased in jelly like snail eggs, but they might just be large apple snail eggs or something. They also might be some kind of algae eating fish's eggs. I'll update you all in two or three days when they hatch. There are also some large jelly sacs attached to the 'egeria densa' that might be snail eggs.

As far as fish go, I found guppies and some kind of catfish. I didn't get a good look at the catfish but it looked different from the one I caught before. This one was very fast and shot out from an underwater ledge on the bank into a thicket of water reeds before I could check it out. It was nearly black in color and about 5 inches big. 

I also found another kind of catfish that looked very similar in shape and size to otto cats. I wasn't able to catch it though and only got a brief look at it before it darted away. It might have been a young catfish though I'm not sure.

I also managed to find a few breeding cichlids. I think they were blue acaras from what I saw of the mother before she swam away. I did manage to catch about 100 babies from two possibly three different broods. I'm going to try raise them in my tanks and bring them back with me. The babies are small, probably about a week or so old. They are about a centimeter long and are clear/gray with black bands going across their bodies. They look like bumblebee gobies except are smaller. They are pretty scared at the moment and are all huddled together in the corner of the 2 gallon tank they are in. I set up a bubbler with some ammonia resin in it and some floss to help keep the water clean between water changes.

The river is really long (miles and miles long) and quite wide (maybe 15 feet across, no deeper than 2 feet) so I expect I'll find some really interesting fish when I go back. There are also numerous streams leading in and little gullies and ponds that are near the river so I'll try check more of them out.

I might need to find some fishing hooks to catch some of the adult fish as they are just too fast for me to bag. 

Maybe I'll try use the mosquito net to catch them before I use the hooks.

Not sure how I'm going to catch the catfish though as they seem pretty fast and well hidden. Any ideas??

Oh yea, and I got a portable air pump that runs on 2 D batteries for those far away fishing trips. No more repeats of the rivulus hartii and shrimp!! I might also return to Tobago in about 10 days and get some more shrimp/crayfish and rivulus hartii, not sure yet.


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## Afyounie

You really are lucky. I hope that you can raise those cichlid fry and bring them back. As for the catfish, I know that they like meat scraps and so on. Maybe you could get a small crab trap that they could fit into, and rig it with some hotdog or some scrap meat.

Good luck


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## Zapins

Hmmm.... ok I posted some pics of the fish, eggs, and plants.

http://www.freewebs.com/zapins/apps/photos/index.jsp

I think the plant is actually hydrilla verticillata, not anacharis on account of the teeth on the leaves. I'll need someone to confirm/reject this though because I'm not sure.


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## hoppycalif

The baby fish look like puffers, but I haven't seen baby cichlids of any type for several years, so I don't know what they look like. I hope you know what a thrill your adventures down there are giving us! It's the next best thing to being there.


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## Zapins

Hey hoppy thanks for the reply! I’m glad you guys are having a good time reading the posts about my experiences here! It just makes me think of all the wonderful places I could have collected fish in the past (Greece, South Africa, Alabama, even around Connecticut)! 

I’m surprised nobody else has replied so far to the thread though. I definitely like telling you guys what I’m up to but its beginning to sound like a bit of a monologue haha. 

By the way, if anyone has any comments/suggestion - - - requests - - - I’ll see what I can bring back. I’m trying to collect more hartii to share with you guys/breed at my home.

I still don’t know what kind of shrimp and crayfish I caught in Tobago. If anyone has any ideas on what is native there I’d love to know!!

The babies do look like puffers, but the parents look very much like cichlids. I’ll try catch some adult fish, maybe ill be able to catch a breeding pair to bring back, I’ll try to go again today, though it is drizzling/raining a bit so the river might be moving too fast for the fish to be swimming around, I’ll also try check lower down on the river to see what other kinds of fish are there. Maybe I’ll even take some pictures.


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## Afyounie

I would really like to get some of those hartii from you if you have enough to sell. Hoppy is right though, your adventures are very interesting, and I always check when I get on to see if there are any updates. 

Good luck with your adventures.


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## oregon aqua

im so jealous!!!!!!


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## Tex Gal

This sounds like so much fun. I've begun looking in pools of water wherever we travel. I can't imagine being in the tropics like you are. I sure hope you find some more exciting things to share. I love your pxs. Those babies are adorable. They all look so cute huddled together. 

Thanks for taking all of us with you!


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## kakkoii

really neat!

PS: I hate you.:heh:


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## Zapins

Hey guys!

Well, I thought I'd update you all on what has been going on lately and a bit of a schedule of what/where I will be collecting over the next few days/weeks.

I didn't go to the river again last night because it rained so any fish would have been hiding or swept down stream. I've got better plans for this coming Sunday. I was talking with my mentor and he reckons there is a river with (adult) blue acaras, pike cichlids, eels, rivulus hartii, and all kinds of other goodies (crayfish/shrimp etc...). His buddy offered to help me catch whatever fish I want when I meet up with them on Sunday so I'll be sure to bring lots of ziplock bags and a tog bag to carry them all. Looks like the rain isn't the worst thing the fish have to worry about after all muahahahaha...

I think I'll make a trip to the local pet stores/hardware stores to get more tanks/pumps/etc to house all the new fish I'll be getting. A preparation day!

On Monday I'll be skipping class so I can tag along with a group of people making a documentary on the freshwater fish/plants in Trinidad, so I expect we will be going all over the place. I might be able to catch something along the way, but in any event I'll take lots of pictures so you can see what kind of places we went to. Not sure of the exact details with that yet, but I'm sure it will be interesting/fruitful.

Also, we will be making a trip up to the north of Trinidad to collect salt water hermit crabs etc in the next few weeks. Anyway, while we are up there my mentor said we can stop at a few rivers and collect some freshwater gobies and shrimp and possibly some tetras and other smaller fish!!! Not sure the exact date that will be, but probably in the next three weeks or so. Soooo keep your eye on the thread, there should be crap loads of new stuff here nearly every day for a while.

I'll be posting pictures later tonight, it might take a few hours to format them all and post them on my website but I'll let you all know when they are up so you can see what I did today.

Ok! On to the story of what I did today. I woke up at 6:03 am this morning to my cell phone alarm. I had to set it to 5:03 am the night before since it is still running on USA time which is an hour behind Trinidad time. Its constant tada - tadaa - tadaaa- TADAAA (!!!!) sound never fails to wake me up (and half the block no doubt). 

The first thing I did after checking this thread on APC on my laptop (which sat right where I left it - next to my pillow) was go to the kitchen for my morning glass of coke. Tshh ahhhhhh yea thats the stuff. After that, I got my flippers/goggles/sun block/under water camera/extra batteries/towel (which wasn't used in the end)/extra clothes and got my contacts on (I hate contacts/glasses - not that this fact is particularly important to the story, but I thought you all should know that they made me particularly grouchy at 6 in the am). 

I finally got out the door at about 6:35 am and walked down to the maxi taxi (bus/shuttle) stop and caught one into Port of Spain. I didn't have any Trinidadian money on me, but I brought 50 US cents to pay the fee (the bus driver just gave the coins back to me and shook his head - giving me a free ride in the end). At 7:17 am I got off in the city, I called my mentor who was fashionably late (he told me to meet him at 7:00 am) and eventually met up with him at about 8:13 am (yea I like my specific times so what?). We drove to a convenience store and got some bread/water for the boat. Then off to the dock where we spent about an hour (yea no specific times now onwards due to my cell phone being packed away) priming the boat/loading our gear on-board. We set off out the bay and eventually got to our first diving spot.

My mentor went about collecting fish with a small net, he managed to catch a striped eel and some other small fish. I saw a toad fish which ambushed a smaller fish while I was watching. I also saw several species of coral (dead man’s fingers/zoanthids) and differently colored feather dusters, sponges and some damsel fish. 

After a little while we moved down the coast to a small area with a strong current. We soon moved on to a small mangrove swamp in an extremely calm bay. The mangroves were amaziiiinnng!!! Probably one of the most beautiful underwater environments I have seen. There were all kinds of colorful sponges (red/pink/blue/yellow) and feather dusters of different colors, long legged crabs, and lots of really interesting driftwood in the water that was full of growth. There were sea fans, small corals, interesting algae that looked like small carpeting plants. There were loads of different fish darting in and out of the mangrove roots, baby fish, big fish, colorful fish. It really was absolutely full of life. I can really see how important mangroves are for rearing baby fish, a nursery for sure. There also were lots of foot long puffer fish that kept swimming really close to me eyeing me out. The puffers were interesting because I caught several of them burying themselves in the mud on the bottom. I saw a weird fish that was creeping along the sea floor with these little legs jutting out from under its chin (it had large ventral fins like 1/3rd its body length). I also managed to see a sea turtle and take about a hundred pictures of everything. **edit** I forgot to mention in here somewhere that I was stung to pieces by jelly fish larvae in the mud/algae and cut by barnacles.

After reluctantly leaving the mangroves we went to another island where I exchanged my camera for a net and helped catch a few butterfly fish and some angel sand gobies, wrasses, damsel fish etc…

After that area we moved into a small dock and found a black sea horse which I photographed. There were lots of zoanthids here and scorpion fish. Scorpion fish make great photo targets by the way, they basically never move. After all why would they? Poisonous little buggers. Oh I also saw pelicans sitting on the rocks and iguanas in the trees along the coast!

It was about 4 pm when we started heading back to the dock and we had 2 tubs with about 50 feather dusters, 8 wrasses, 5 butterfly fish, 1 large French angel, 1 striped eel, 2 angel sand gobies, 1 sea horse, zoanthid polyps, 1 damsel fish, a red robin fish and 1 crab. We had all the fish in 1 tub and had the lid closed. Half way back to the dock we realized we hadn’t changed the water in a while and looked inside. ALL the fish were floating at the surface doing circles/on the verge of passing out. We quickly did several 60 % water changes and moved half the fish over into the second larger tub. Luckily they all recovered except 1 wrasse that was still moving, but we decided to return in to the sea in case it didn’t make it and fouled the water on the way back. 

We got back to the dock and set up some battery powered air pumps on the tubs and cleaned/deflated/unpacked the boat into the truck. We went back to my mentor’s house and unpacked the fish there. He has several (like 10) big tanks (around 90 gals each) that aren’t set up yet. Then he drove me back to Port of Spain and I caught a Maxi Taxi home and arrived at about 7:10 pm, tired and hungry.

And that’s what I did today. I’ll try get those pictures posted tonight, I might even make a new page on my site for this trip’s sea pictures. I literally have about 225 pictures from today. Only about 10-15 are composed/focused well enough to put up, so you won’t see all the other ones lol. Oh well that’s how professional photographers get good pictures too (take 10,000 publish 3)!


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## Zapins

Oh I forgot to update on the baby acaras and the eggs.

Basically the eggs on the leaf that could have been fish or snail eggs grew fungus and died so I'm guessing they were fish eggs since they grow fungus more than snail eggs in my experience.

The acaras are taking dry hikari fry food and have settled in swimming about their tank with no fear. Its hard to feed them throughout the day when I'm constantly on the move. I did a water change, and sucked out the old left overs from the bare bottom. No losses so far, and they don't look like they are starving, but they aren't fat bellied yet either so I'm a bit nervous. I set up about 2 liters (with 1 tea spoon) of brine shrimp with regular table salt (no iodine, not sure if table salt will work). Hopefully they will hatch in 2-3 days and then I can creepily mooch a nylon stocking off one of the girls and use it as a net. That should help accelerate the fish growth. I'm just not sure how much or IF I can raise these acaras before I leave in 2.5 months. I definitely don't have enough space for them all at the moment. I would have to get a bigger tank, at least a 30 gal to grow them out a bit, with daily water changes etc... Not sure if I can grow all 200 of them to any decent size without stunting. Any ideas on what to do now/later on? Open to any/all suggestions.


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## Afyounie

That's cool that you get to go and dive in the ocean and collect corals and stuff. I will have to agree with you on the mangroves. They are wonderful places. In Tampa, Fl, I went kayaking in the mangroves. I saw so many animals. Stingrays were everywhere. It was cool. I just wish I could have seen the places you have gone.

As for the acaras, I would release a good bit of them after a little while. That way it would be easier to care for the others. I mean in the wild, usually a good few are lost. But in 2.5 months is almost enough time to get good growth.

You said you might catch tetras. I am looking for some small tetras for a ten gallon. Only about 8. If you find some small tetras(~1in max) could you try and get some, just don't go to too much trouble.

Good luck and can't wait to see the latest pics.


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## Cheyd

Totally envious of you man... PLEASE, keep posting what you're doing, and keep posting pics.

I'm living vicariously through your journal ATM.


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## Zapins

lol yea, I was explaining to my room mate (no experience with fish) how in the wild they lay 300-500 eggs and maybe 5-10 live to adulthood if that many. He was pretty shocked. Either way I don't feel bad about taking their babies since they would probably do better with me anyway than in the wild. 

By the way I haven't lost any babies yet (except 2-3 sickly ones that are genetically messed up) and they all growing very fast! I've only had them since thursday but already I can see a significant amount of growth on them. They are eating constantly, and I did two water changes today along with about 4 feedings. I've noticed they tend to go to the bottom of the tank and feed off the leftovers for a long time after being fed so I am reasonably satisfied that they are getting their fill. Strangely their bellies don't bulge outwards like the baby apistos/angels/convicts/others I've raised in the past. Not sure if thats because its dry food these ones are eating vs baby brine shrimp like the others. In any event if all goes well I will find out in a day or so when the brine shrimp hatch (if the table salt didn't kill them). 

I keep wondering if I do decide to keep them all (still not sure yet, I might release some as you say) if they would stunt simply from being in a small tank, or if stunting has more to do with waste products accumulating. Either way I’m just hoping to get them not to stunt so I can raise and trade them when I get back to the US.

I’ll have a look for some tetras, but I haven’t seen any yet, and the ones I’ve seen in books seem to be rather plain and already in the hobby for the most part. I’ll collect a few of each fish though if I can find it and bring them back. I think I would like to sell the fish primarily to people who are interested in breeding them (since they are wild and its difficult to get good fresh wild genes in the trade for breeding purposes) unless I have a large number of fish like the blue acaras. 

Hehe Cheyd I'll definitely keep posting for you guys!! Please post here too, I check this thread like 20 times a day to see if anyone responded or commented or has a similar experience etc or anything lol. I've been feeling starved of fellow fish/plant people lately. I'll try get those pics up now


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## Zapins

Oh yea forgot to mention that I bought a lovely light fixture today. 3 CF spiral 15w bulbs (at 6500K, about 800 lumens each) and 2 weird adapter plugs that i used to plug the bulbs into a regular extension cord which i have above the tanks. Its actually decently bright even without a reflector. Maybe I'll take some pics of that later and post them.


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## Tex Gal

When you get your pxs uploaded, post the link again. Can't wait to see them....


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## Zapins

Ok updated pictures and I edited my site a bit so that now my pictures are all in a gallery in different albums. Its easier to navigate and view them all now. Check out the sea pictures I added from the other day. Ugh now I have to go back through the other posts and make them all consistent haha!

http://www.freewebs.com/zapins/apps/photos/index.jsp

Enjoy!!


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## Tex Gal

Love the pxs! Thanks for posting!!!


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## Zapins

no problem. 

Change of plans, I'm not going to the river near port of Spain but instead will return to the river I went to the other day where I caught the baby acaras.

Update on the babies: 

They are growing really fast! In the 3 days I've had them, they have nearly doubled in thickness! I can tell because some of the babies aren't eating (probably because they are deformed/mutant) and haven't grown since I caught them all. 

I just fed them baby brine shrimp today for the first time and they love them! Their bellies are all full and pink, nearly bursting. I'll keep feeding them the hikari baby bites and the bbs until they can graduate on to flake food in a week or so.

The number of runts in the school is pretty high I think. I counted roughly 7 fish out of the 200 I have that look like they aren't eating/swimming right. One has no ventral fin, and 3 more have swim bladder problems, the others just look like they aren't eating so I suspect they will die soon (maybe at this rate I won't have to cull some from the school? hehe).

I'll try take some pics of the river here.


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## kakkoii

This is a really interesting thread.


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## Zapins

Thanks.

Ok so, new update. I went to the river down the road and went under the bridge like I did the last time. As I got down to the bank I looked over (under the bridge) and saw a man (maybe a bum?) on his knees wacking off (yes unfortunately I saw everything ). So I promptly said "woops sorry" and went back up to the road. 
:-s :jaw: :bolt:

But being persistent as I am I decided to go further down the river and see if I could make my way across the thick reeds and plants. Eventually I just stomped my way through and got to the river.

This area of the river was much more interesting than the other part. I saw some kind of tetras darting around in small schools. I also saw a school of what looked like some kind of cory cat. I saw some more plecos like the one I caught, and also some kind of huge 15 inch catfish that had whiskers. I also found another spawning location with blue acaras, guppies, and what looked like a snakehead (though I'm not sure since I couldn't catch it).

Unfortunately the fish were just too damn smart/fast for my bucket trick. I even tried building a trap using sheets of metal that had been washed down the river and sand to cut off their escape from a small alcove. The water was too deep though to get in there and it got muddy pretty quickly.

I think I'll be modifying my mosquito net into a 2 person net with 2 handles at each end. Like this |===| the = is the actual net and the | are the wooden 3 foot long poles I have yet to "acquire." If I can get one of my buddies to come with me we might be able to get a good haul of cories, tetras, cichlids, and some other fish.

I'll be posting pics of the river in a few minutes

http://www.freewebs.com/zapins/apps/photos/

I'm also thinking of getting a SIGMA EX 50-500mm f4-6.3 APO DG HSM lens so I can shoot some better wild life pictures. I'm not sure if I want to get a used one, or get a new one, I'd rather save some money!! Has anyone else bought a used lens in the past? Good/bad experience? Anyone got this lens (feedback?)?


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## Morbida

HAHA! There's a skeeter on my peter......
Sorry you had to witness some bums relief. 
Man im jelous of all the fun stuff you are doing, well , besides the bum that is.


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## Zapins

lol... so modest 

Good thing I wasn't filming with my camera haha! 

Good to see you around again! Maybe we can go chat? I'm in the room, but we really need mIRC back. Wonder whats up with freemann, hes been ducking me for weeks on this.


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## Afyounie

I feel bad for you that you had to see some bum well you know. But its great that you found a place to catch some more fish. Don't worry about the tetras since they are whats already in the hobby. I would like to try breeding the hartii though. I saw on discovery the show man vs wild, he made a net with his shirt, then he placed it under water with food above it. When the fish were over the net he raised the net. Maybe you could use that idea to catch some fish incase any other ideas fail. Could you also try a casting net?
Also, I don't know much about the lense you want to get, but used lenses are usually ok. Just make sure you thoroughly check it out and maybe attach it to your camera and see how it looks.

Good luck and keep posting


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## Zapins

Tired out so I'll be brief and flesh it out later tomorrow. 

Went out with a film crew today to film a documentary on shore birds. 

Bought a new lens sigma 50-500mm F4 HSM etc... lense and 3 filters and hoods.

Acaras are growing fine, eating all the time.

Too tired to write m


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## Amsterdam

This is better than most things on TV, please keep us informed.

Cheers,

Ben


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## Morbida

Zappy! What happened to the fleshing out part? Get tired on us? Hugs!


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## Zapins

Hey everyone! Been a few days since I last posted. Thanks for writing Amsterdam (I used to live there when I was younger for a year!!). I've been really busy lately and have got a good bit to update on. So here it goes!

Ok. TV drama here it comes! I got busted by the cops tonight. Basically the short story was it is my friend's birthday today so we were driving with another friend to go to a club to celebrate and there was this highway that is restricted to people with passes so we used it thinking it wouldn't be a big deal, then there was a cop car going slow in front of us. So after a few minutes we overtook it and sped off, and it chased us down (the 4 of us in the back were drinking rum/etc...). Anyway, apparently it IS legal to have open liquor bottles in the car as long as the driver isn't drinking (she wasn't). They had us get out and stand in a line on the side of the road and they searched the car (there were 3 of them with guns and batons - like a small tactical armed force). It was funny though because as soon as we heard the siren my friend put his hands on the seat ahead of him and spread his fingers (to show nothing up his sleeves) before we even stopped haha. Someone knows the drill a little too well lol. Anyway, after they searched the car for dead bodies or something they stopped 4 more cars with a wave of a hand (they are like gods down here) and sent us on our way with a 32$ fine. Unfortunately due to the hold up the club was just closing when we arrived so ugh...

Back to reality:
Monday of last week (10th March) I went with a film crew to film sea birds for a documentary at low tide. We went all over the beach searching for the rare shore birds but we didn't find any for hours. Eventually we found about 10,000 of them (many different species) all over the shore near a refinery. We first searched near Waterloo sea temple (an Indian temple), there was a funeral outside and I saw a dead guy being burned  on a pyre (I took some pictures so I'll post them up later on when I have some time). Anyways back to the birds, I threw rocks at them to make them fly so the film crew could get good footage since I was the only one who could throw far enough. The mud on the beach near the birds was really interesting, the tide went out for so many hours that it had dried up and cracked. The mud had cracked very deeply (8 " deep cracks and about 4 inch across cracks). They were like mud blocks. I walked across the shore on these mud blocks and stalked some of the birds (lots of fiddler crabs). I took some good close up pics of the vultures that were on the beach eating stranded catfish and dead seabirds. 

Then a few days passed without much happening. In the mean time the baby fish (blue acaras) have grown so fast (maybe tripled in size since I caught them - they are really visible now at about 1/2 " each). The hydrilla is growing with nice red new branches. It is quite pretty, I think I'll have to bring some back with me (seems really easy to grow and looks dense – like a more delicate and dense version of anacharis). 

Yesterday (14th march) I was walking back from UWI (university) after depositing my stipend check and I noticed jackaranda flowers on the ground (from a tree I grew up with back in South Africa) so I looked up to see where the flowers were falling from. I looked over and saw an owl in some of the branches looking around. It was probably one of the cutest owls I’ve ever seen! So I ran back to my room to get my camera (15 mins to room, 15 mins back). I can’t believe it was still there when I got back. Anyway I took some pictures, and then proceeded to climb the tree to get a closer picture. The bird was just looking at me with this half confused stare (as if to say what the hell is this crazy human doing?! Trees are for birds!). I got up to the middle of the tree (about 20 feet up) and was attacked by about a thousand ants when I crushed floors 20-80 of their home in a rotten branch. I just ignored them and kept taking pictures. That is until they found their way into my pants. Let me tell you straight. It was all worth it to get those shots. The ants, the people’s shouts from the passing cars, the cuts and scrapes – the owls accusing stares! All worth it I say! Raaww!! (will upload pics of owl later)

Today (March 15th) I recruited 2 of my buddies to come with me to the river (same river I stumbled across the bum the other day). We went at about 5 pm so we only had about an hour - 1.5 hours of light. So we brought the mosquito net and a bucket/my trusty ziplock bags. After faffing around for about an hour trying to figure out the best way of catching the bloody fish we eventually got it right and caught 1 adult blue acara (I'll post pics later) and 3 tetras (they look like serpae tetras of some variation – need a confirmation on them though) and a lot of guppies (the males are REALLY pretty - I can see how breeders brought out all the guppy variations from them). Catching the fish was really funny, we initially had 2 people hold the net against the current and 1 person ran up and down the bank with a piece of broken PVC pipe we found splashing and shouting like a lunatic to scare the fish into the net (this method didn't work at all haha). Eventually we just weighed the net down with rocks in the middle and had 3 sides above the water and 1 side down touching the bottom of the river. We waited until a fish swam into the net and then lifted up the 1 side and caught it. There are many more species in that river still waiting to be caught (not to mention much more to explore), maybe I'll be able to go tomorrow and catch some of the cory cats that I saw with my friends (for some reason they really got into it and couldn’t wait to go back again). We also saw a dead puppy in the river (must have fallen down the bank and drowned, I saw a dead baby goat the other day in the river as well).

Tomorrow I’m going to talk to my new teacher to figure out where he can take me for my independent study class. Probably through the rainforest where we will get to go to streams and pass by lots of wild life. Heheheeee….! 

My lens/accessories (50-500mm sigma and filters) for my camera were delivered at home in the states, so when my sister comes to visit me in a few days she will bring it and I’ll test it out.

Anyone know if there is any demand for blue acaras as aquarium fish? They seem like really interesting/pretty fish, I've never heard of them before coming here so I'm not sure if they are in the trade with any regularity yet. They look a bit like green terrors.


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## Tex Gal

Sounds like the right person is there. You are going through personal pain for the project!! Man vs nature! Better be careful nothing poisonous bites you....

So neat that you caught some more fish. Can't wait to see all the px. (Well maybe I can wait for the burning dead guy pxs...) Sound like you're having a ball even with all the drama! :biggrin1:


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## Zapins

Oh yea personal pain! Like last night at the river these little bugs came out at dusk and started eating us alive! We must have got about 200 bites between the three of us haha.

I was worried about poisonous things or even creepier... parasites... I'm a bit worried about some kind of worm burrowing into my feet or something (the kind that give elephantiasis) while I'm in the stream, or getting sleeping/yellow/malaria from mosquito bites while I'm in the river bed.


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## hoppycalif

Zapins, you should collect these posts of yours into a long magazine article. It is absolutely fascinating!


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## Zapins

Hmm I could do that. But what magazine would use this story?


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## Morbida

Ants in your pants! How could you take pictures of a burning dead guy? How could you stand the smell!!! God kid , come back without any parasites please. And see a doc when you get back.


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## hoppycalif

Zapins said:


> Hmm I could do that. But what magazine would use this story?


One that very likely would is Aquascaping World - PM JohnN in this forum. Another might be the AGA magazine.


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## BryceM

AGA or Aquascaping world absolutely would. AGA is always asking around for articles.


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## Zapins

Hmm... sounds interesting. I'll pm JohnN about it and ask what the requirements are. 

I'm not sure if I can condense the whole 4.5 month trip into just 1 article though, unless they wanted a small article on something specific or unless they wanted to break it up into a number of episodes or something like that. I have pictures to go along with the story too, so that might work out nicely. 

Haha Morbida I was luckily not in the path of the smoke and couldn't smell it at all (though the thought passed through my mind - what if I was down wind and smelled the cooking body and thought it smelled good??? Ahh! Eww... hmmmm..... ). Pics should be up in an hour or so.


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## princeice

This thread is totally awesome to read. I have a kicker follow-up on this one...I recently (last) week re-located to Trinidad, Port of Spain from Houston, USA. My job sent me here, and I have my aquascaping gear and aquariums on their way. I was really fearful that there would be no one in this region into aquarium fish, freshwater fish (anything by bread and butter), and plants. Zapins...we should really considering speaking or meeting to have a meeting of the minds of APC.... I am totally encouraged and motivated right now. Watch out in the river beds and the swamps, I have have seen some &&%# on a tour that I took on yesterday in the North and South around Caroni.

BTW...when I am set up, will any of you wonderful APC consider shipping plants to me here? Of course I will pay for it!! I am an avid plants enthusiast, and I am a formidable aquascaper. Someone be kind lest they send me back to plastic plants and guppies.

Cheers, Torrance


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## Zapins

Omg omg.... there is a God! Lets hang out like every day haha! I'm totally up for it lets arrange a time to meet. Actually there is a river near the zoo in Port of Spain (across the street at the little plaza - forgot the name) that I haven't explored and would love to. We could go explore that and catch fish. Actually the aquariums here are really pretty cheap and you can have them custom made without much extra expense etc...

I'll ship you plants when I get back if you want, though maybe we can find some cool ones here! I'd love to go to the swamp I haven't been there yet or found an easy route since there are no maxi taxi's that go there and stop on the highway. 

Oh man this trip is going to be even more awesome now than it was before! Yes!!!!!

I posted pictures by the way, be sure to read the description about the spider/scorpion thing its very informative.


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## Zapins

Update for Sunday (16th).

I went to the river with one of my friends and went down under the bridge since its essentially the only easy way of getting down to the river, and we saw the bum's backpack and shirt there, luckily we didn't see him or his double. Anyway we walked up the stream instead of down and found a small area of water that had trapped some fish in it (tetras and catfish and guppies). So we put the net down and tried catching fish, we only got about 2 tetras (and a million by-catch guppies) before some local kids got curious with what we were doing and came over to investigate. They wanted to "try" the mosquito net and help us catch fish so we let them. Let me tell you, these kids were pros. It took me and my 2 friends about an hour and a half the previous day to catch 3 tetras and a blue acara. These little fishermen caught about 50 fish in the same time. So after walking up and down the river and catching all kinds of fish (and eventually being chased out by the nightly swarm of biting insects from down river) we ended up with a good haul consisting of about 12 tetras, 1 acara, 1 catfish, and interestingly a bronze cory (they call them pree-pree's)! We actually caught more than this, but towards the end I didn't have enough ziplock bags for them all, not to mention tank space. I also gave quite a few fish to the kids who took them home to raise (for eating!! ). 

They told me that the tetras I caught actually grew much larger than they were now (2-3" max) they apparently grow up to about 10 inches or so which is hard to believe unless they aren't tetras at all. They look a bit like silver dollars or piranhas but look more like tetras to me. Hmm... I think I'll be needing a photo of them for you all to judge for yourself. 

I'll also be going to the shops today to get some more tanks and maybe a fish stand or something as well.

*Note to self* get local kids to catch wild fish whenever possible - they are god-like at it  and charge only a few fish haha.


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## orlando

Any pictures???


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## Afyounie

That's funny that the kids were so good at it. You should get them every time to help you. Also, I don't remember if anyone answered your question, but Acaras are sold a good bit. Every time I go to my LFS, they have more of them for sale and people buy them. Also piranhas and tetras are in the same family, so you might have some type of pacu or something. I saw this on discovery where the piranha's fry live with small tetras and look exactly like them.
Good luck


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## Zapins

Yeaaa pacu thats the other one I was thinking of but couldn't remember the name. It might be one of those but it looks more like a tetra to me. Don't know what it is, I'll post some pics later on of the fish. That would be uuh bad if they were piranhas I'm in that river like 24/7 haha.

Those kids were great! Should have thought to recruit the local kids before haha. I'll definitely use their help from now on (if I can find them).

Oh yea I got 3 more tanks aaannnd built a fish tank stand so I can house the smaller tanks. I'll post pics later with the fish I caught.

New pictures here:
http://www.freewebs.com/zapins/apps/photos/album.jsp?albumID=124521

Be sure to read the descriptions of the pictures!! (only shows up when pics are clicked on and are big)

Gallery link (older pics) here:
http://www.freewebs.com/zapins/apps/photos/


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## Amsterdam

Hello Michael,

If youre storry gets printed ( would be nice ), we are the lucky ones who have read the uncut version.
You mentioned that you where in Greece, and that you are sorry that you didnt collect fish there.
Last year i collected some Fissidens over there, but was not succesfull to grow them back in Holland,
in april i will go again and now i will do some testing of the water, to see if i can make the right conditions for them to grow.

Please keep us updated of youre adventures.

Cheers,

Ben


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## Zapins

Update 18th 

Went back to the river today. Actually the trip was initiated by my friend oddly enough. Apparently I'm not the only one who likes fish/plant stuff haha. We found the local kids again and they helped catching more fish. We got 4 more cories. Oh and more tetras for my friend's new tank (he bought a tank 30g for fish after coming to the river the first time).

I'm having a really hard time finding any aquatic plants though (not to mention getting a bit sick of fish) does anyone have any idea where to find some? All I have found is duckweed and hydrilla so far. Too many marginal plants that look like they can't tolerate being submerged. 

By the way, I'm getting a bike soon so that will extend my foraging range considerably (my friend has one too). Lemme know if anyone has any ideas/info on plants.


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## Afyounie

Really, I think most aquatic plants we use in the hobby are marginal plants. Most plants don't really grow submerged or in deep water. I'll try looking around the web and see what aquatic plants grow in Trinidad.


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## Afyounie

Ok well after doing a quick search, I wasn't able to find much on aquatic plants, but I did find some places that maybe you could try looking into. One place that I found is the Nariva Swamp on the east coast. It says though that there are green anacondas and caimans. I don't know if I would search there though due to the dangerous animals.
Good Luck and keep us updated


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## fishlover

Hello all.
Zapins would you mind describing precisely the guppie's biotope (substrate, rocks/wood, plants...), as I would like to create a guppy biotope for my wild type guppies


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## Zapins

Sure, they are found all over the place, practically every river, stream, pond, ditch etc has them. The ones I found in the rivers have lots of small river rocks (pebbles) and smaller rocks going down to sand near the banks. There is some clay along the river banks and lots of marginal plants like reeds and what looks like cane and tall grass. In the water there are some leaves that accumulate in slow moving parts of the stream (mostly bamboo leaves) and mulm. There is quite a bit of thread/hair algae that grows along the bank that I think they eat and lots of insects like mosquitoes all over the place. Not too much drift wood in the water, oh and the guppies seem to live in the slower moving parts of the river not where the current is strongest, they usually hide under the plants growing on the banks or in small inlets along the banks.

The ponds are similar except they mostly have soft mud bottoms with leaves and some lillies or other floating plants for cover.

There are usually blue acaras, catfish, corydas and tetras in the same river as the guppies.

Hope that helps.


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## fishfan

Wow your adventure is one of the most interesting things I have read on the Internet lately! I have always wondered what Trinidad is like since guppies have always been one of my favorite fish. It is interesting to hear about the ecosystem from someone there!
Have fun.


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## Zapins

Hehe thanks mate. If you want to see some pictures of the stream where I caught some you could have a look on my website.

http://www.freewebs.com/zapins/apps/photos/album.jsp?albumID=84981

Trinidad is really pretty you might want to take a look at the other pictures in the photo gallery and take a look at some of the wild life.


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## gibmaker

Zapins, this reminds me of the time I got to the bahamas and swam in the ocean for the first time, It was a dream and goal of mine. When I finally got there it was almost as if tears started to form in my eyes from the sheer beauty of it. I had to of course go snorkeling, while I was snorkeling I was looking under every rock, nook, cranny, what ever. I was getting close to the rocks on the shore and the waves were crashing in, the life guard was yelling at me to get away from the rocks so I did not get smashed into them and all I could say was hey, this is where all of the awesome stuff is, in these rocks. The life guard submitted to me and he let me continue my own mini exploration. My girlfriend couldn't take it any more she said she was extremely cold so she went to the beach. I continued down the beach for what seemed to me like 30 min in pure paradise (which was actually more like 6-7 hours)
I came up to adjust my mask and realized that the life guard was a dot on the horizon. I could have been eaten by a shark and no one would have been the wiser. I literally snorkeled over 1 1/2 miles down the shore line, I could have gone another 50 miles. I was so excited that I could not even tell that I was in fact freezing cold, it did not stop me. When I got to a point I hopped out and walked the shore line back looking in every little pool under every rock and even straying away from the beach to walk straight into the forest?, Jungle? I believe things that we are describing are truly from the heart and no one could ever take that experience away from us. I AM JEALOUS JEALOUS JEALOUS. I hope you enjoy your time there (sounds like it will not be to hard) Be safe and happy hunting. -Nathan- By the way I recommend some 2,000,000 spf sunblock if you are going to snorkel for almost eight hours. My back was shot, a plane probably could have spotted me at 30,000 feet.


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## Zapins

Thats exactly it! I feel the same whenever I go out to snorkel, it really is just beautiful. 

Actually, in Greece I go snorkeling for a good 10-12 hours a day and I also burn the hell out of my back. There is a lovely 2 mile across bay that my family lives near and the coast is absolutely fascinating to swim along. Lots of octopus, and other interesting fish to see.

I've been using spf 30 for over here, I reapply once during the day or so, seems to work ok for me but I've been in the sun quite a bit lately so I've got a bit of a tan built up  . If your fresh out of winter then definitely go with the 2,000,000 spf haha. The worst part is when you try sleep at night, the sheer heat coming off the burned skin is enough to keep you awake for hours even if you don't prefer to sleep on your back (like I do).

Thanks for sharing!!


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## oregon aqua

any updates? im going threw withdrawals.....


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## Zapins

Ah, sorry, should have mentioned I had a trip back to the states for a few days (march 27th till april 1st), so my update is:

I had a good time at home and with my girlfriend. Managed to secure a job for the summer - teaching local adults/school kids how to use, build, and repair computers. I'll also probably land up doing a small documentary on local freshwater ecosystems in Hartford and teach some kids about it and how to edit the movie on the computer.

I had a lab report for animal physiology due today and a test so I pulled an all nighter studying. My flight got in at 6 am yesterday, I got back to my room around 7:15 am, made lunch at 8:15 am, and stayed up until 9:30 am and went to class. Then I tried working on my lab report in the library from about 11:30 am, but I ended up falling asleep until around 3:30 pm on the desk. I left around then and went back to my room, where I tried staying up, but alas, ended up falling asleep again until about 7:30 pm. I essentially started my lab report at about 11 pm, and finished at 6 am (yea slow going when your tired). I had a bidding war on facebook for about an hour for ownership of my girlfriend (hottie buy/sell application). Then I started studying for my test. At about 8:45 am I noticed that I had skin on my arm and tried to pull it off, 8:47 am my room mate got a little freaked out and dissapeared out the door. At 9:07 am I walked out the door feeling delusional from no sleep and handed my lab report in after walking 20 minutes to campus. I arrived half an hour early to my test and sat in on another class. The lecturer had a wonderful voice for sleeping and I took a quick nap. Someone woke me up, then people came, then I moved my seat, then I took the test, then I told the lab instructor that I had accidentally stapled my finger trying to staple the lab report together so he had better enjoy it because my sweat and blood went into that bloody thing and then I left. On the way back I couldn't help but notice how real the trees looked, not sure why I kept noticing them. No idea how I'm still functional now. I'll probably read this at 3 am when I wake up and have no recollection of any of this.


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## Amsterdam

It sounds like a state of trip, not like a trip to the states!


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## dawntwister

Are you talking about Astronotus crassipinnis? They look like they grow very big at http://www.cichlidae.info/gallery/species.php?s=1493. What size of tank are you keep them in when they are fully grown?


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## Zapins

Hmm, not sure which post you are referring to dawntwister. I haven't seen those fish here yet.

I'll be going to see sea turtles laying eggs this saturday, so I'll probably post on that. Also, I might be going tomorrow on my internship to the sea, and maybe sunday to the rainforest - finally!

Should have some new stuff soon. Exams are next week though and some other personal issues have had me very distracted since I got back from the US. Soon though....


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## Zapins

Ok! Lots of things to update you all on. 

I did end up going turtle watching, it was interesting. Large leatherback turtles kept crawling up on the beach and digging holes for their eggs. I took some pictures with my old power shot camera. Then we all came back to our apartments (took 2 hours to get home). 

When we walked in the door I noticed that my SLR camera case was open and the contents were missing, then I noticed that my laptop was not where I left it. After a few minutes my roommate and I finally found that all our electronics were missing and that the bathroom window had been broken in. The burglar bar was broken and half the concrete wall had been bashed in too. So some A-holes took all my stuff. They stole my laptop and external hard drive and my canon rebel with all the lenses and etc… So all the pictures I have taken here are gone… They took 3000$ worth of stuff from me and my pictures. Sigh. I don’t expect to get them back ever, I don’t think the police will find anything.

Anyway a few days ago I went up and down a river/gutter in Port of Spain, behind Elesly (spelling?) plaza. The river didn’t have much in it for most of the stream. But I did end up finding some wild mollies and catfish, blue acaras and I think I saw some 3 gobies (couldn’t catch them though. The river seemed to be more of a drainage area since the whole bed was concrete and there were gutters leading into it from the streets. I was actually quite surprised that there were any fish in there at all. I think I might have found an aquatic plant, it was growing along the bank in a bit of soil that had accumulated there. Looks like hydrocotyle verticillata. I collected some and have it in one of the tanks. 

Then a few days later I went with my roommate and a friend to explore the area for more streams. We found one near the university but it was too polluted to actually catch any fish (oil/rubbish/sewage). We followed the river uphill across different roads and under buildings. We even went through someone’s back yard and nearly went under somebody’s house (their house was built over the stream – weird). Eventually we wound up somewhere on the hillside far away from our apartments. Then we trekked through some private property marked “no trespassing” and found nothing of interest. We didn’t really find anything interesting that day other than a few toads in the stream on the hill.


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## Zapins

After some mildly fruitful exploration I went on a trip with an Ammer-Indian forest ranger through the Aripo area of northern Trinidad. This trip was really fun. It started off at about 7:10 am when I woke up and got ready to leave the apartment. I arrived at the last stop in Arima at about 8:30 am and Christo (the ranger) came and met me. We took a taxi up to Aripo and then walked up into the hills along a road towards a water storage lake. There was a small trail leading away from the road that we ended up taking. The trail was a fire barrier that was cut into the forest to prevent any fire from spreading too quickly. There was a small clearing with some little huts that are apparently used for business functions. There was a small stream that snaked around the huts with fish in it. I saw some tetras that look a bit like serape tetras and some other fish like acaras, and some kind of large tetra. I managed to catch 11 of the serape tetras and 3 acaras (one breeding pair and an extra). Then I caught a fish that looked like a goby from above the water, but upon closer inspection in the bag I determined that it was actually a small snakehead fish an let it go. We went up the stream, walking in the streambed. There were small pools of water with some guppies and acaras. 

Eventually after walking for a while we came to a pool that had some long slender wrass-like fish. We caught 2 (I think they are a pair) and they turned out to be a kind of pike cichlid (about 7 inches and 6 inches long). They are actually quite pretty fish. The stream was really pretty, it was surrounded by jungle, there were all kinds of vines and large leafy plants with flowers. Christo had to use his machete to cut through some of the brush that had grown over the river. There was quite a bit of clay along the riverside and some fallen leaves and larger pebbles in the actual river, there was also a bit of wood that had fallen in, but no aquatic plants at all. We hiked for about 3 hours and then came to another stream which had some cories, we couldn’t catch them though since there were too many hiding places for them. Then we walked back to a road along a fire barrier.


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## Zapins

Yesterday I made a second trip up to see Christo. We went hiking through the jungle behind his house up on the mountain outside Arima. One of the first things we found on the way to the stream was a mango tree that had green mangos (they were really kind of yellow though) and we picked up about 10 for lunch. We kept walking and found coco trees with fruit (the chocolate kind of coco) and picked a few of those pods. Apparently you can suck on the coco seed itself, there is a fleshy white gooey film of really sweet and tasty stuff around each seed. I really liked it, but can’t really describe what it tastes like as it is pretty unique. 

The jungle was really humid and I was sweating profusely. There were a few large webs with hundreds of baby spiders every so often that we had to avoid walking through. Eventually we got down to the stream bed. There were large pebbles and a bit of fine organic silt in the bottom of the stream. The water was crystal clear and really cool to step in. There were some bamboo stools around the edge of the river and all kinds of strange trees and large leafy plants. As we walked up I found a few guppies swimming around. Then I found a small 2” red crab that I ended up catching. Its got 2 claws that are the same size and it’s a nice bright red. It was living underwater in a small nook between some sand and a larger pebble. I’m not sure if this is just a baby jungle land crab or if it is the small 2” freshwater crab that lives in Trinidad. I ate one of the mangos just after getting to the stream and it was really good. Nothing like the ones they sell in the stores in the US, it was much sweeter and had a slightly different taste. 

We didn’t really find any other fish in that particular stream, but we kept walking and found another stream after walking through the jungle a bit. The second stream had less water and more bamboo around the edges. There were quite a few bamboo leaves in the water. The guppies here had interesting tails, they had color going on the top part and on the bottom part of the tail (along the edge), but not in the middle. I caught a few since they looked interesting. As I was catching the guppies I noticed that there was a fish that was a bit bigger that kept hanging around the edges of the stream under some floating bamboo leaves. I managed to catch a few and found that they were actually Rivulus hartii (the giant killi fish!) I collected about 12 of them and some guppies and then walked down stream with Christo. The river here was really quite scenic and there were large ficus trees and plants that looked like peace lilies with huge white flowers all along the edges. I took some pictures, but I’ll need to post them later since I don’t have the right software on this computer and my laptop was stolen. 

As we were rounding a bend I noticed that a lot of rocks in the riverbed were covered with moss and liverworts. Then I noticed that some of the moss had extended down the rock and started growing underwater! I collected some of the moss from underwater and bagged it. I don’t really know what kind of moss it is, but it was growing in dense clumps along the rocks. It is quite fine with the strands thinner than java moss, but it grows more like the shape of weeping moss. I’ll try get a good close up picture later so someone can ID it for me.

Further down the stream we found a family of farmers bathing in the river with their kids and washing clothes. We asked them for directions to the nearest road and walked through their crop fields to the road where we caught a taxi back to Arima.

So far, I’ve got 9 fish tanks set up in the lounge on a rack that a built. I’ll try take some pictures later of the fish, plants and the rack to show you all.


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## Afyounie

I was wondering why the updates had slowed down. Its a shame that some idiots stole your stuff. At least now you get to go into the jungles and explore. Keep us updated.


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## fishman9809

oh, back luck for u man, sry about wat happened, thats a lot of money, I hope it gets found


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## hoppycalif

Fascinating! Keep us up to date. This is just more than I can even imagine ever doing. Of course, being a genuine senior citizen does make some adventures out of reach.


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## lampeye

Glad to see you caught some _Rivulus harti_! They're terriffic fish. Good looking, tough as leather, and plenty of personality. If you're set up to bring fish out, they'd be a good candidate. Be warned - sometimes the females can be brutal with the males, so bag accordingly. Being killies, 1 small bag/fish would be best for them.

It sounds like a great trip.:thumbsup:

EDIT: Except for the theft - I scrolled back a bit. That's awful. But it least it sounds like you've turned things around and the trip is back in the "plus" column.


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## dawntwister

Here is something ammusing that I read about those killifish:

AH Wait until you try to keep Rivulus in a tank!!!!!! Born to commit 
suicide.

My Favorite jumper is Riv. xiphidius. Put 20 of them in a 5.5 gallon tank 
with 2 inches of water and a tight lid and see how many actually live in the 
water. Any given time you will find 4-5 of them stuck to the glass. They 
even tell you when it is time for a water change. You will find every 
single fish stuck to the glass the lid any water sprite fronds. You name it 
they will stick to it. Time for a change!!

Great little fish. AND by the way one of the longest living killies. I 
have bred many into their 4th year. Usually production ceases mid through 
the 4th year or becomes infertile. But lets face it THAT is one geriatric 
killie at 4 years old.


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## Zapins

Ahh guys, theft sucks, It's such a pity I lost all my precious pictures...

hoppy - you could still do it too! Its a bit of hiking up and down the streams but the best thing is that you don't have to do it quickly! I took hours to get up the stream because I kept getting interested in every small pocket along the bank.

Haha, dawn, those fish really do try kill themselves on a daily basis. Most of the smaller ones have already killed themselves by jumping out through a gap in the glass cover the size of an air tube. I honestly don't know how they keep finding the hole. Thank goodness the larger ones can't fit through the gap. I think I've got about 5-8 of the larger ones left, the little ones all killed themselves. 

I'll have to post some pics of their natural habitat its pretty interesting, the water was pretty shallow about a foot at the deepest and there were lots of bamboo leaves and rocks and bits of wood for them to hide in (they also lived with guppies).


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## cs_gardener

I just found and read this thread and really enjoyed reading about your adventures, travels, and finds. You have an entertaining style of writing that's fun to read. I'm so sorry to hear you had a theft to throw a dark cloud over the trip, I hope you're able to get past it and thoroughly enjoy the rest of your stay.


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## orlando

Great read! Cant wait to see some pictures of all of this.


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## Zapins

By the by, I just finished writing my final essay for my independent study dealing with the freshwater eco-system part of Trinidad and Tobago. I'll try post it on my website (its got pictures) if anyone is interested in reading it. It outlines the fish, inverts, plants, and hardscape I saw while down here. Its sort of a long read, but I hope interesting ^^

I'm busy writing the second part of the story dealing with the marine ecosystem that I got to explore, should be done tomorrow or saturday. I'll post that up too when its finished.

Also thought I'd mention, I'm going off on another tour to the north east of Trinidad. I hear there are some rare fish native to only that part of the island, so hopefully I'll catch a few and take some pictures (its really thick jungle up there).

I'm also going to go to Tobago again on the 8th-10th of may, so I'll try get some more rivulus hartii and those strange shrimp I found the first time.


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## Zapins

hoppycalif and guaiac_boy I have essentially written the articles you suggested I should write for the magazine. My final two essays for my independent study (freshwater ecosystem) and internship (marine ecosystem) are just about done (each is around 4000 words with plenty of pictures). If your still interested in publishing or posting an article with either story let me know! I'll probably end up posting them on my site later on as well.


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## hoppycalif

As I recall from my far distant past, when I fancied myself a writer, the next step is to send a copy of the article(s) to a publication that might publish them. Aquascaping World is one - you can PM "John N." here for that. Another is "The Aquatic Gardener" and you can PM CherylR for that. I suggest to first PM them asking how to submit the articles.


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## dawntwister

Can't wait to read the stories. Sounds like you have gone into some territories that have not been developed. That is not corrupted by greedy salespeople.

What will be the result of your studies in Trindad, a doctoral degree?


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## oregon aqua

that would be awesome to see your articles in print on TAG or AW. this is one of the best threads i have read. love it!!!


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## Zapins

Thanks hoppy! I'll pm those people in a few days when I've finished writing my last essay (ARGHHH!!!)

dawntwister - hehe yea, definitely been through some uncharted territories out here. Don't think many other people have walked in the same stream beds I did! 

Darn greedy people... But then again it would be great if there was some kind of small payment for an accepted article (dare I dream??). I want to replace my stolen camera equipment and laptop at some point and need the funds! Haha.

Unfortunately my studies here in Trinidad so far are only part of my undergraduate degree in biology. I plan to attend medical school at some point in the near future. I'll be returning for my last year at Trinity college in CT in a few days (may 15th), well, after working on campus for the summer that is. 

I figured that aiming for med school was a good idea in any event because even if I don't want to work as a doctor forever no matter where I choose to change course along the way I'll be well qualified for any other kind of job. I'm also interested in business, engineering, chemistry, communications, and so many other fields (basically everything except politics and history).


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## BryceM

Dude, that's horrible about the theft. I look forward to seeing an article or two, but I doubt you'll be able to get any money for them. The hobby just isn't deep enough.

Not to sidetrack here, but speaking from experience, think carefully before jumping into a career in medicine. Medical school is fantastic, but only if you can't be happy doing something else. If there is any other field that you would enjoy, for your own sake, stay away from medicine. Life is too short to expend that much time & energy if you're not 100% committed. The financial side of being a doctor just isn't what is used to be either. It's enormously rewarding for other reasons though.


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## Zapins

Ahhh I kind of feel that way too guaiac. I'm not 100% sure that it is something I want to do. I mean, I don't mind studying for years on end, because I'd rather be studying than working. But I really want to be able to spend a lot of time with my future family. If I'm always on call and can't raise my kids I think I wouldn't be happy.

Then again, I've heard that medicine is a huge area of study and one can find a job that is suited to any schedule. 

I don't know, I suppose I'm still trying to figure out what to do.

Be good to have a job that pays well, I don't really want to be strapped for cash.


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## Afyounie

I'm majoring in mechanical and electrical engineering and really its a nice field. I even have a internship. If you like engineering, then you should try it. The hours are great, the pay is great, and you don't deal with people, just computers and stuff. You could also go into physics. I thought about it, but there isn't enough hands on compared to engineering. Just make sure you make up your mind before spending the large sums of money on med school. Sorry for sidetracking your thread.


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## hoppycalif

Before considering physics you need to do a realistic evaluation of your aptitude with esoteric math. I have a physics degree, but realized the field was beyond my abilities and settled for a research engineering job.


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## dawntwister

Zapkins I can't see you working indoors as a Doctor. For you seem to love the outdoors. Perhaps could join someone’s team like Jacques Cousteau. Last I heard he had slowed down but someone, perhaps his son, is continuing his work.


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## Zapins

I did try some engineering classes at college, but they were quite tedious requiring large amounts of time for programming and calculations. I'm not sure if being an engineer would be my kind of job. 

I feel like I am interested in a lot of fields, but not enough to be a researcher doing the brunt of the knitty gritty work in any one field. I'd much rather interpret results, coordinate multiple lines of research and direct a project to complete a final product or task. 

That is why I was thinking about being a doctor since I'd be able to go from seeing patients to operating to research to teaching every other day. I like the challenge that comes with having multiple jobs but I'm still not convinced that being a doctor is for me. 

There have to be other jobs out there that are similar?

I'd love to be like Jacques Cousteau and sail around the world, but that would also detract a lot from building a family. Also I'm just not sure that marine research or other kinds of research jobs really pay enough to get by comfortably. But I'd definitely like that kind of job though.


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## hoppycalif

You could look into working for NASA. You can do a variety of types of work there, from grunge work on equipment, to testing in their various types of wind tunnels, etc. to writing research papers. I worked there for awhile too, and have to say that I was like a grade school baseball player in the major leagues. It was fun most of the time, but you really have to enjoy being perpetually in school working hard to learn to make it there.


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## BryceM

Combine engineering and medicine. There is some fascinating work being done in biomaterials and such. I recently toured the factory that makes the joint replacement products that I use. Their research division is enormously interesting. The field is still new enough that new ideas are being sought after and evaluated on a continuous basis. Your efforts make a difference for real people and besides, you still get to go home at 5 o'clock.


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## Zapins

guiac! That sounds like a kick ass job. 

Sounds familiar, back when I was in the engineering class they brought in a public speaker that was talking about his work in a biomed facility. He was designing automatic heart restarter machines for people who had heart attacks and weren't near hospitals. I actually remember thinking "this is the job for me" but I'm not sure how to follow up on it. How does one get into that kind of field?


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## hoppycalif

Of course we are way off topic now, but to get jobs in a specific field you can search for companies that do design and development of whatever you are interested in, and look up their employment office, then apply there. I did that to end up at an airline for most of my career.


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## BryceM

Get a degree in anything even remotely related. Get good grades. An MBA, Engineering, Japanese/German/Chinese, Materials, Chemistry, etc degree would be enormously useful to most medical design/development companies. Bring something unique and different to their company. Get some experience in the field. Get an internship, show them you're useful, work your butt off, get a job offer, make good on their investment in you. Prepare for happiness, success, international fame, Nobel Prizes, etc.


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## hoppycalif

guaiac_boy said:


> Get a degree in anything even remotely related. Get good grades. An MBA, Engineering, Japanese/German/Chinese, Materials, Chemistry, etc degree would be enormously useful to most medical design/development companies. Bring something unique and different to their company. Get some experience in the field. Get an internship, show them you're useful, work your butt off, get a job offer, make good on their investment in you. Prepare for happiness, success, international fame, Nobel Prizes, etc.


And don't forget, you started here!


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## Zapins

Haha. Yea.

By the way, I didn't go to Tobago today. I was going to organize the paperwork for exporting fish from here, but then I stayed up till 6am playing chess with my room mate and then overslept. Ugh.

Does anyone know what the deal is on the US side? Do I need to call them or get paperwork done?

I assume the plants would be a nightmare to take through, so I'm just going to smuggle them across, or use the post or something.


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## BryceM

Whatever you do, be careful. Customs takes a dim view on "unusual" plants in little plastic bags. No sense of hurmor whatsoever.


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## Zapins

Hmm, I've brought in aquatic plants before, but they didn't find them. 

Any ideas what would happen if they did find them? Just confiscate the plants or arrest me?


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## BryceM

Oh, once they figured out they weren't drugs, they'd probably just confiscate them. You might sit for a while in a nice little room with a desk, light, and a couple of wooden chairs, hehe. I'm no customs agent though.


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## Zapins

I must have my hydrilla.... xD


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## fishman9809

lol, bring back ur lovely plants!!!!!


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## dawntwister

As long as you just bring back a small portion of plants in you will probably, I say probably, be left alone. Just don’t bring in anything that looks similar to marijuana or poppy plants. 

My mother brings in a couple of knockwurst cans from Germany. They have never stopped her.


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## Zapins

Well guys, I made it back to the US. I guess my Trinidad adventure is over.

I did manage to smuggle back the hydrilla and the unidentified species of moss though. I'll sterilize it and start growing cultures. 

I also took a closer look at hydrilla identification pages online and I'm not so sure that the plant I found is hydrilla now. The ones online seem to grow very densely and have different numbers of leaves per whorl so I think I might have a different species of plant.


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## BryceM

Did you get the fish out?


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## Zapins

Nope didn't manage to bring the fish back  

I found a guy down there selling zebra plecos too


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## fishman9809

thats sux, imagine breedin zebra plecs in the US, u'd get thousands of bucks off them, I have seen them on AquaBid, very expensive. About 3000 for a pack of a 5 breeding group.


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## Zapins

Yea I know...  I'm upset I couldn't even see the fish to make sure the guy ordered the right kind! Damn him!!! 

Anyway, I did a KMnO4 bath for 10 minutes on the plants I brought back. The snail eggs were discolored pretty badly, so I assume this means they are dead. The plants also absorbed quite a bit of the purple color, so I hope they don't die from the bath.

Anyway, I'll see how they are doing tomorrow after work and update.


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## princeice

PM Sent


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## Invictus

Know whats funny. I am from Trinidad, born and raised. Came here on an SAT scholarship and now Im working at a financial company. The funny part is, my dream is just to go back home and dabble in tanks and what not until I am old...sigh. Trinidad is indeed a beautiful place, I hope you felt welcomed.


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## ddavila06

fishman9809 said:


> thats sux, imagine breedin zebra plecs in the US, u'd get thousands of bucks off them, I have seen them on AquaBid, very expensive. About 3000 for a pack of a 5 breeding group.


holly macarroni!!!:der:


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## Invictus

Hi where in trinidad was the guy with the zebras...when I go in march I may try to bring some in my suitcase.


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## ShaneTT

Hi ,Sorry for digging up this thread.
I'm a new member here ,living in Trinidad.I am very much into aquarium stuff and scaping. Would you be returning to Trinidad any time soon,I'd be happy to take you around sometime.


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