<< After spending a day in Grass Lake (mentioned in the last post), I now can
say that I have had those things touching every part of my body that
swimming trunks don't cover. At one point a fight broke out, with many
persons tossing those globs of tissue about like sloshing summer snow balls.
I got a face full. Still, I can admire them. I like the similarity to
brain coral too. All God's creatures and all of that, but living slime just
gives me the shakes.
>>
That's more than understandable why you would feel a certain amount of
revulsion towards them; if I got a face full I would, too. Sounds like a
worst-case scenario as far as a first-time encounter with them goes, short of
getting them shoved down your throat (yuck!). As far as "all God's
creature's" goes, I guess divine Providence isn't the first thing that comes
to mind when viewing these gelatinous globs.
<< I certainly don't want you to think that I am disparaging your attempt at
maintaining them in a tank. I admire the idea. Perhaps someday I would
like to do the same. They really are fascinating creatures. Layn Luedtke
became enamored with these creatures that day at grass lake. He is
researching them all the time, and plans on dedicating a tank to them in the
future. He has sent me pages of his notes regarding his research on them.
I would love to be able to tell him that one of our NANFA members has had
success in this endeavor. >>
I certainly didn't take your remarks the wrong way. I for one wouldn't expect
even a lot of invert keepers to get into some of the things I am interested
in, such as leeches and fishing spiders; these things even repulse me a
little! The way that leeches swim through the water in an undulating sinuous
motion or the way that fishing spiders scuttle about with their 8 legs is
sorta creepy-looking. I too would like to maintain bryozoans some time in an
aquarium. That's cool that Layn is into bryozoans and is learning lots of
facts about them; hopefully he'll come up with a solution to the problem of
keeping them alive in an aquarium. Or perhaps one of NANFA's members will
accomplish this task, and you can tell him how they did it so he also has
this information when he starts to maintain them.
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