I'll be writing a letter. What BS!

This was written and posted on another forum I belong to. I , of course think it’s excellent! Feel free to do with it what you please.

[quote name='BenPursglove' date='Mar 23 2009, 08:55 PM' post='2317586']
OK if anyone wants to help support the MonsterFishRescue.com project please see the email at the bottom of this post.

I'm sure a little spammage from this site will soon sort them out and we can enjoy some more vids. Replace the "etc" at the end of the mail with your name...my mail is going as soon as I post this.

Dear Sir / Madam

It has recently come to my attention that you have recently served Lora& Jonathan Strazinsky (address unknown) with a “stop zoning and/or building violation” order via:
Orwell Zoning Commision
c/o Vicki Thomson
179 West Main Street
Orwell Ohio 44076

Whilst I understand that the laws of your county must be upheld, I think I must internationally state my disagreement regarding the issues surrounding this zoning order. Lora and Jonathan Strazinsky, in my opinion, do a particularly great service locally and to the wider USA community, as they re-house large to very large tropical fish that any negligent previous owner did not realize would grow so big for their fish tank upon buying them. This negligence is routed in fish shop supplying these creatures but there is no jurisdiction in place to stop these shops from doing so.
Lora and Jonathan Strazinsky do not ask for any profit nor recompense for their valued service and seek to further re-house said rescued fish into local attractions and beauty spots that will accommodate them comfortably in time.
For some while now I have been an admirer of Jonathan Strazinsky’s excellent work online, as I believe it embodies the true meaning of the word charity. Charity that is aimed at fish-keepers less knowledgeable than himself, who, in the act of fish keeping, and who decide to try to keep large adult fish in an uncomfortable, near death state in their homes wish to re-house their mistakes. I do not belive he seeks recompense from your juristiction nor from the USA government in the upkeep of these animals, yet.
In short, Jonathan’s work, in my opinion should be admired by your community and much more widely appreciated also, as he is running a non profit organization, I implore you to remove the zoning order. I am a fish keeper and animal owner / lover myself and cannot abide when a creature is destroyed because the owner is negligent. I hope that you will have the good sense to understand the work of Lora and Jonathan Strazinsky, understand what they do and therefore remove the zoning order and uphold the removal as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully

etc

If you want to support this guy email the above code to:

cindy@orwellvillage.org unfortunately poor Cindy is the only point of contact on their contact page... she'll be busy then...
[/quote]

Ok, what do you say we get this thread back on track with some VIDEOS!!! People have asked about my other tanks and what fish I keep. So I took the camera down stairs to do a little tour of the basement…

Vid #1 is of some small tanks in the back behind the 240


Vid #2 is more small tanks behind the 185


Vid #3 is the 185


Vid #4 is the 240 (wifes frontosa tank with no frontosa in it at the moment LOL)


Vid #5 is the 1500


Vid #6 is of the mechanicals of the 1500 (filter and heating system)


I’m working on some statistics of the 1500 and I’ll post those later today ;-)

For you numbers people here’s some fun stats:

This represents total water volume involved in running the tank:


Sump = 163.09 25 ½” X 23” X 63 ½”
Right = 340.85 28” X 37 ¼” X 76 ¼”
Left = 458.18 28” X 42” X 90”
Deep = 587.53 52” X 29” X 90”
Total 1549.65



Videos shot of build: 52
Videos on you tube: 35
Total video views on you tube: 27,159
Total comments on you tube: 201
Threads on internet forums about this tank: 24
Total views on all threads combined: 80,116
Total posts of all threads combined: 2,865
Money spent on rebuild: $1,581.87
Tubes of liquid nails: 21
Total tubes of silicone: 23
¾” plywood: 3
5/8” plywood: 8
5/16” hardie panel: 11
Kits of pond armor used: 11
Weight of the glass: 7 tons
Total estimated man hours: 56
Beers drank during build: 6
Fish adopted out to new owners during build: 13
How many people asked what I was going to do about the gravel falling over the edge into the deep end: 11
How many times I crawled under the tank during the build: Too many…
Tears Shed when I couldn’t figure out the leak(s): Not a one ;-)

Total donations during construction: $60 Thank you to those three people, your support is much appreciated!

Date I emptied the 800: 11-14-08
Date the fish return to the 1500: 2-21-09

Fish were in the pool 98 days.

Here’s a break down of the sites I’ve started threads on about this tank:

Cichlid-Forum: 309 posts, viewed 21,913 times

MFK: 368 posts, viewed 14,366 times

Loaches on Line: 124 posts, viewed 5,204 times

Aquariacentral: 200 posts, viewed 4,363 times

Tropical Fish Forever: 207 posts, viewed 3,979 times

BC Aquaria: 98 posts, viewed 3,130 times

Arofanatics: 57 posts, viewed 2,962 times

Ultimate Bettas: 130 posts, viewed 2,627 times

Pet Fish.net: 108 posts, viewed 2,599 times

Plecofanatics.com: 89 posts, viewed 2,425 times

East Coast Aquarium Society: 106 posts viewed 1,944 times

Oscarfish.com: 118 posts, viewed 1,935 times

Oscarfishlover.com: 118 posts, viewed 1,911 times

Cichlid Madness: 129 posts, viewed 1,756 times

Flowerhorncraze: 115 posts, viewed 1,379 times

Planet Catfish: 47 posts, viewed 1,274 times

Discus Forums: 53 posts, viewed 1,244 times

The Water Snake.com: 148 posts, viewed 1,161 times

Water Wolves: 73 posts, viewed 1,002 times

Aquarium forum: 62 posts, viewed 983 times

Toms Place: 105 posts viewed 726 times

Finvillage: 29 posts, viewed 532 times

Cichlids.com: 39: posts, viewed 500 times

Aquatic Worlds: 33 posts, viewed 201 times


One more interesting stat:

The original build of the 800 boasted 2,282 posts and 443,026 views

Part two of that thread due to a glitch in the system has 394 posts and 36,402 views combined its 479,428 views and 2,676 posts.

Upon request I’ve shot some videos again.
The first is feeding the masses…




Then I thought I’d take you guys through a water change. Also in this I’ve tested my water upon request. I normally do not test my water because I feel if fish are spawning and getting their fry to free swimming stage on their own then the water must be clean… A bit old fashioned I guess… It was only after spending some time on forums I thought I’d better get a test kit. So I went and wasted some money on one… I don’t test my water when fish get sick because they rarely do. It’s when I introduce new fish then usually the only thing I ever have to deal with is ick. And I can handle that without testing water 
Here’s a short series of what I have to do for a water change. It’s not rocket science. So if it’s “I” before “e” except after “c” how do explain the word “science”. I guess you can compare it to the world of cichlids and attempting to give advice on them. No mater what the rule there’s always going to be an exception to it. So the next time you try to get into an argument on line on one of these forums just remember that ;-)

Hello Everyone and Happy Easter. I’m writing today in desperation. We’ve received a disconnection notice. Work has just started back up for me and we’re still playing the catch up game and money is not coming in fast enough. We’re short roughly $1000 and I’m afraid of what would happen if our electricity/gas gets turned off. I know that times are tough right now for everyone but I’m asking if someone could please dig deep to help MFR out of this situation. Thank you very much. Jonathan

this is all amazing I have a 300 gallon all glass fish tank that i bought from a fish store because it was leaking I took it all apart and cleaned all the glass up. I want to put it back together but have no idea what type of silicone to use. I was wondering what you yourself used and where I could pick it up?

Jonathan, I hope you got through your crisis, I was unable to help because as you said, times are tough. Please give us an update!

Well, let's see, I'm starting to realize even though there's a few supporters out there who have given to the cause, it seems as if I'm in over my head. I've been struggling to keep MFR alive since its inception. Now it seems the cruel reality is that I'm $20,000 in debt, I'm at risk of loosing my home, the utilities are once again a month behind and at risk of being shut off, and it's all because I've decided to rescue fish! LOL. Good news is I did get a raise and work looks like it's beginning to pick up. It seems as if I will be putting MFR on the back burner and getting rid of most if not all of the fish. This ught to be interesting because just about every fish here is here because people didn't want them LOL

That being said, I'll be listing everything that's here on the website as soon as I can get it formatted. If you're interested in what I've got feel free to email me and I can send the list as an attatchment
jonathan@monsterfishrescue.com

All adoption fees are negotiable.

Here's a not so great update:

The auctions are now up on eBay:

Clown Loach Shirt

Oscar Shirt

Thank so very much for your help and support.