Hi...New to MARS

[Gawain]

Well, not really new to MARS, but I figured it was high time I register and try to get more involved in a local reef club.

A little about myself: My name is Les, I'm a grad student in French at UW-Madison (currently working on my dissertation). I'm originally from Indiana and I moved up here to do my PhD. I'm known as Gawain1974 on Reefmonkey and ReefCentral, but I decided to drop the numbers (after all, I don't want everyone knowing my age, LOL).

I've been in the fish hobby since '92. After four years of fresh, I made the switch to the dark-side of salt. I've been reef since '01. My current tank is a 55 gallon stony system. My tank was primarily softies and LPS, but I upgraded all the equipment and "remodeled" the tank in February of this year to house primarily SPS and LPS. I'm slowly building up my collection of SPS. I don't know what the rules are for linking to other forums; if it's ok, I can throw a link out to my remodel thread on RM, or I can just post the highlights here.

I also have a 5.5 nano reef with a mantis shrimp (squila empusa) and a damsel that I bought for dinner, but hasn't been eaten yet (his name is Sushi). I also recently decided to setup a planted discus tank. At first, it was a 20 gallon with two small discus, but I just finished upgrading it this weekend to a 46 gallon bowfront.

I started working part-time at Aquatic Specialties in late February/early March, so I've met some of you at the store, and I look forward to meeting more of you. It'll be nice to know some locals since most of my other reefing friends are in other states.

[Gawain]

Here are some random pics:

My 55 from last fall before the remodel:




After the remodel:



I've got a few more SPS now, and I'm slowing building to the collection. I guess it's time I take some more pics, lol.


My mantis:




My psycho cat "stalking" a fish:




And finally...not a salty one, but he's still got lots of character:

[SilverSurfer]

Welcome to MARS!

Beautiful rockwork, that is looking very good since you have redone it. The mantis zoom shot is lil freaky for me

Beautiful discus we need more discus people in the area, be sure to check out the cichlid WI club: http://www.wiscichlidforum.com to help with your cichlid bug

[Gawain]

Thanks, SilverSurfer. I'll have to check out the cichlid forum. I'm still pretty shaky on my cichlid IDs....it's been 10 years since I've kept freshwater (until a couple of months ago).

That's not much of a zoom shot on my mantis, he's about 6" long. I was always terrified of mantis shrimp...I respect/fear anything that can slice off my finger, but they are very interesting to keep. Very smart critters. Watching him go after a crab is amazing...very methodical and persistant. However, I think he's lazy....he won't eat that damn damsel because he prefers frozen silverslides.

I had the top off of my 55 a week ago. I was adjusting one of my Seios, and my cat jumped in! He totally misjudged the depth of the water, and a fish caught his attention. He went completely under the water. What a mess, and then I had to give him a bath afterwards. I still have the scars from that fiasco. However, the cat stays away from the mantis tank, and it has an open top--he knows better!