9:50 p.m. - 2004-01-31
Dr. Bruce's Aquarium Saga, cont.
Another missive from Dr. Bruce...
I hope to pick up the tarantulas tomorrow or the next day. I have a spot in my lab for them where they can stay warm and humid. This is my kinda animal rescue, I guess; Ruth sees it as adopting Shelob from Return of the King which isn't that far off(!).
My big honking 135 gal. aquarium is coming along. I have the first light fixture in place, a bright, full spectrum hood fixture with high output special fluorescents in it. And the first plants are in the tank. Next Sunday I hope to do my first field trip of the season to the Sipsey Fork so the first fish may appear. I realized, though, that the Tuskaloosa darter is a semi-protected species that deserves more rigorous protection because it exists in only a small range in nature, pretty much the Sipsey Fork drainage. The formal listing on the (excellent) natureserve.org nature encyclopedia is S2, or Imperiled, in Alabama. Of course, the fish is only found in Alabama which as a state has poor formal protections for many vulnerable species. So I'll take the ethical route and leave all of these fish where they are, as gorgeous as they are.
By the bye, did I mention that "Tuskaloosa" means "Black Warrior" in the Choctaw language?
Music Overplay
I've been listening to Live Rust by Neil Young regularly. Most of the songs remind me of living in a dorm my first two years of college at Boston University, just off of Kenmore Square, around 1973. My overplay albums then were After the Goldrush and Harvest by Neil Young, along with anything by The Who we could get our hands on. This would typically culminate in early Friday evening gatherings of various people in my room, drinking Canadian whiskey and cheap American beer like Schmidts. Somehow it seemed the right thing to do.
Peace, color me gone.
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