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Newest Additions

James0816 — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:54:17 -0600

Here's a couple of my newest additions:

First we have Tiger Shrimp. These guys have taken up residence in the Juvenille Oto tank.

Next is a CRS. There are also CBS in with them. They are in a 20high. Didn't get a good pic of a CBS but will add one when I do.

This got me into puffers lol.

jackportd — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:09:31 -0600

So now im spending the next two months learning everything about this fish while saving for a 30 gallon tank.

Vine snakes

jackportd — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:03:02 -0600

Im just curious and cant find much on google about there care. Are they a good starter for a noob to venemous snakes? Can I handle one {as in they look so fragile, is it ok to handle them?} And do any of you have one and can tell me about them?

Im not ready to go out buying a dangerous animal, I just want my info BEFORE I decide what to get.

New Aquarium

J'adore le paissons — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:44:33 -0600

Hey guys!
I got another aquarium off of my girlfriend this weekend. It is a 9 gallon Mini Clear Seal Pentagon Aquarium tank but I don't think I will actually get new fish, my goldfish/ that lemon finned bard tank is a little full so I am splitting half the fish into this new tank! I have to get a filter for it though, the one that came with it wouldn't clean a cup of water!!!
I will post pics tomorrow. Also I got my first real aquarium siphon rather than using a piece of garden hose lol! I just know it will be too slow for my liking and wont be used much! Oh and the stand is just three metal legs, not very pretty, you will see in photos tomorrow!

Here is a stock image:

Tell me about yourself introduction?

gerystuart — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:45:49 -0600

Hello

I am lusi from Australia.

I have completed +2 science with an aggregate of 75%

my hobby is to play cricket.

Anyone know about special needs of discus fish aquariums?

gerystuart — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 03:01:51 -0600

Hi....
I have been wanting to start a discus tank, but don't know too much about special requirements. Are they pretty hardy fish? How many can I put in a 55 gal. tank...and can I add them all at once, or only a couple at a time? Is reverse osmosis a requirement? I have a lot of experience with aquariums.but not discus. How do they compare to plain tropical fish and Oscars as far as hardiness? Can they handle variation in water parameters?

Zebra Danio breeding.

J'adore le paissons — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:27:58 -0600

Well today I got bored so I decided to look up and see how to breed Zebra Danios. Seemingly it is surprisingly easy and they basically lay eggs all the time but they are just eaten. I set up my tank with an old under gravel filter on the base. This way when the eggs are dropped they will fall into the slots and they cannot be eaten by the adults. I then put all 7 of my danios (one is a leopard danio) in the tank (except one that I can't catch!) with tank water and now I am just going to check the bottom of the tank every day and when I see eggs I will put the danios back in the big tank. I have no idea how many males and or females I have but I am pretty sure I must have at least one fish of an opposite sex!
I will post pictures of the way I set up the tank tomorrow. Hopefully they will breed and if they don't well no harm done!

Franklin the Turtle Steaming Live!

J'adore le paissons — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:31:22 -0600

Hey guys, here I have a video of Franklin in his tank steaming live from me to you! It should be on as long as I am on the computer, usually 10am-10pm GMT we will say but times may vary, especially on weekends! I am unsure how long this will be kept streaming for, it is just a project I decided to do.
As far as I know you need windows media player to be able to view the feed but I could be wrong. Please comment and tell me what you all think

Fish Caught Evolving Into Three Different Species

J'adore le paissons — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:18:14 -0600

discovery.com Wrote:The finding of a fish in the process of evolving suggests there may be many new kinds of fish we don't yet know about -- and aren't protecting.
THE GIST:

* What was long thought to be one species of tropical fish may actually be three.
* There's still a whole lot we still don't know about diversity in the oceans.
* We may be losing species before we even know they exist.

he King demoiselle is not just one type of fish, but three distinct groups that recently split from each other, according to a new study.

By essentially catching one species in the process of turning into three, the study suggests that conservation efforts might be failing a variety of species that have yet to be identified.

"This work, along with others, is starting to show that there is a lot more biodiversity in the oceans then we previously thought," said Joshua Drew, a marine conservation biologist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. "We really are in a situation where we are losing things before we even know they exist."

The King demoiselle is a variety of damselfish that lives in the Indo -- West Pacific, from the Solomon Islands to the Philippines and through central Indonesia. The area is known for its spectacular diversity, but the region also faces serious threats, including pollution, blast fishing, and oil spills from the shipping industry.

King demoiselles are common in shallow waters throughout the region's reefs. The fish are small -- about the size of a human thumb. And they come in a wide range of color patterns, from spotted blue to gray with a big yellow stripe.

Those color variations alone don't necessarily mean much. In plenty of reef species, individual fish can take on a huge variety of appearances. Juveniles often look different from adults. Males might look different from females. While doing other research in the field, though, Drew's colleagues noticed that groups of King demoiselles looked different in different geographical regions.
Wondering if there might be something genetic going on, the researchers sent about a dozen fish samples to Drew in Chicago. The samples were from three separate populations of fish in the South China Sea, the Philippines and Indonesia.

In his lab, Drew analyzed the samples for three genes -- one that has evolved slowly, and two that have changed rapidly through time. His results showed a clear pattern: The genes that have changed quickly look different from one geographical group to the next, indicating that the groups only recently began to split.

"That means that this little fish we thought was broadly distributed has a mosaic of individual populations and each one is genetically distinct," said Drew, whose study has been accepted for publication in the journal Coral Reefs. "That highlights how little we really know about how biodiversity on Earth is distributed."

Even though fish are some of the most scrutinized creatures on Earth, the study points out that we still don't have a good idea of how many fish species there are, said marine biologist Brian Bowen, of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology in Kaneohe. In one of his own recent genetic studies, eight of the 15 Atlantic reef fish species he looked at turned out to be multiple species.

"For less well-studied groups, there are probably vast quantities of diversity we don't know and may never know about if we don't continue looking for them," Bowen said. "It indicates there are a lot of unknowns out there."

The findings add urgency to the search for new species and the need to protect coral reefs, Drew added.

For a long time, scientists thought that populations of reef fish like the King demoiselle would simply mix with each other across oceans, because their larvae are so small and so easily sloshed around by currents. Instead, this study and others now suggest that larvae tend to settle near where they were born.

In other words, many species of fish may have small geographic ranges, and destroying even one small section of reef could lead to extinctions. That could be bad news, considering recent research found that only 15 percent of reefs in the Indonesian archipelago are healthy today, Bowen said, compared with 30 percent a decade ago.

"While we're still figuring out the biodiversity," Bowen said, "their habitat is disappearing underneath them."

SOURCE: http://news.discovery.com/animals/fish-e...ation.html

Back on line....for now

James0816 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:35:11 -0600

Finally got electricity back! Went down around 1330hrs on 02/06 and got it back shortly after 1700hrs today.

Lot's of wet heavy snow. Took down lines everywhere. There are still 1000s of people out and might not be back until late this week.

Annnnnnnndddddd....more snow tomorrow into Wednesday...around another foot expected!

What a winter!

rat snake housing

J'adore le paissons — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:39:16 -0600

Here is a video of Eagor, the greenish rat snakes enclosure:

I think I have everything done right and he has been living happily in this enclosure for I think 4+ years.

African fish choose safety over sex

J'adore le paissons — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:58:44 -0600

cbc.ca Wrote:
Safety in numbers wins out over an increased chance of sex when it comes to a native African fish, a new study finds.

The results, recently published in the journal Biology Letters, suggest a species of cichlid fish employs a complex decision-making process when joining a social group.

Lead author University of New South Wales biologist Alex Jordan says the strategy employed by the fish is likely to be replicated in other group-joining species.

For the research, Jordan examined the choices made by Neolamprologus pulcher found in Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania.

He says N. pulcher is unusual because it lives in social groups that include both breeders and helpers.

Jordan says the breeding pair can have between two to seven helpers who do tasks such as cleaning the nest, defending territory and looking after the eggs.

The helpers do not breed, instead waiting until a breeding position becomes available through the death of a more senior member of the group.

Previous genetic work has shown that N. pulcher within a group are unrelated, suggesting the young disperse to other groups.
End of the queue

Jordan says he wanted to find out what affected their choice of a new group.

For the experiment, he and colleagues from McMaster University collected whole groups and relocated them to a two-metre enclosure near the edge of the lake that replicated the original home environment.

A foreign fish was then placed at a rocky area in the middle and could then choose to join a group or remain alone.

In each instance the fish could choose between a group where they would be a senior fish with greater access to food and shelter and be next in line for the breeding position.

Or they could join a larger social group where they would be at the bottom of the queue for breeding.

Jordan says the fish would typically swim between the two groups and look at both before joining the larger group where they would be the most junior.

"They all passed up the golden opportunity," he says. "The question was, do you take an early gamble and risk a lot or do you go for the safe option?

"The [N. pulcher] always took the conservative option, they were not gamblers."

Ironically, in becoming a member of the larger group, the new fish also faced increased aggression within the group and were constantly "beaten up," says Jordan.

But, he says, what seems like a poor decision on the surface actually offers benefit in the form of increased protection to the new subordinate fish.

Jordan says Lake Tanganyika has a high predation risk for the N. pulcher, which at its largest grows to about 11 centimetres.

Among its main predators are eels and large carnivorous fish.

"It looks like these social systems offer protection from this predation to smaller fish like N. pulcher," says Jordan.

"Individuals are willing to sacrifice short-term breeding success and pay the costs of increased aggression to join groups that offer greater safety from predation."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/...z0ebRnQdWW

SOURCE: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/...ocial.html

Pet shop ownerattacked by piranha fish

J'adore le paissons — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:54:40 -0600

dailymail.co.uk Wrote:
A pet shop owner had a narrow escape when he was bitten by a piranha fish as he tried to sell it.

Dave Brown, 44, needed stitches to a deep wound after the fish sunk its sharp fangs into his thumb.

It took a chunk out of him as scooped the animal into a bag at Holmbush Pet Centre in St Austell, Cornwall.

Dave had already tried to pick it up twice but the fiesty fish lunged at him on his third attempt and bit into his right digit.

Experts say he was 'very unlucky' to be bitten because piranhas only attack when they are hungry - and not in self defence.

Dave, of St Austell, said he only took in the six-inch fish as a 'one-off' because the previous owner was too scared to look after it.

He said: 'It was the only piranha we have ever had and I don't think we'll be taking on another one.

'There was blood everywhere. Every time I had him in a plastic bag the fish would bite through it. He was quite a feisty one.

'When I went up to the desk at the hospital and said I had been bitten by a piranha, they looked at me in disbelief.' Fish expert David Waines (corr), of the Blue Reef Aquarium in nearby Newquay, said Dave was 'very unlucky' to be attacked.
He said: 'Piranhas are not usually aggressive but they are voracious eaters and have incredibly sharp, powerful teeth.

'He was very unlucky as these fish normally just attack when they're hungry. It may have been a bit peckish.

'But you always need to take care when handling these type of creatures. Piranhas can do a lot of damage when they do attack.' Piranhas are freshwater fish mainly found in South American rivers and occasionally in North America.

They are normally about six to 10 inches long, although some specimens have been reported to be up to 18 inches in length.

Piranhas have the same sensory system that enables sharks to detect blood in minuscule amounts.

They have a single row of powerful teeth and feed on a diet of fish, birds and mammals.

SOURCE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ranha.html

Kite Surfer Killed In Mass Shark Attack

J'adore le paissons — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:48:45 -0600

yahoo.com Wrote:A man has been killed in a rare mass shark attack off the coast of southern Florida.

Stephen Schafer, 38, was kite surfing off Stuart Beach, 100 miles north of Miami, when the sharks attacked him.

A lifeguard spotted him floating about a quarter of a mile from shore and paddled out to find him encircled by sharks.

After he was brought back to shore, rescue workers performed CPR on Mr Schafer, who had been bitten many times.

He was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead.

The Martin County Sheriff's Office was investigating the death, Captain Mark McKinley said.

The county has never been the scene of a fatal shark attack before, according to the International Shark Attack File compiled at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

A researcher said juvenile great white sharks could have been responsible for Mr Schafer's death.

The day before the attack, Teague Taylor, a childhood friend of the victim, told TCPalm.com he was surfing near where his friend was attacked and saw several sharks.

"You always think in the back of your mind that sharks are out there," he said.

Another friend told the website that Mr Schafer was a very experienced kite surfer.

Sharks have been gathering along Palm Beach County beaches recently, in their annual chase of baitfish.

Lemon, bull and hammerhead sharks are often seen off beaches in the area at this time of year.

The last fatal shark attack in Florida was in 2005.

SOURCE: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100204/tod-...0a197.html

Hey Guys , Do you like ???

alfordaln — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:18:17 -0600

Hello to Everyone,
I love to introduce myself.I like to watch movies,serial,read
books and play games very much.I have just discovered this
forum and I am glad I did! I hope to make some wonderful
friends along the way.Hi to All.

Pleco haters!

J'adore le paissons — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:18:54 -0600

Well it looks like I have something in my tank that hates Plecs. It killed my first one last week and now the long finned one looks in pretty bad shape like something attacked it. Now he is living with the turtle and the other plec in with him! I think it is probably because he is small so I will put him back in the community aquarium when he is bigger. My guess is that they were too close to the kribs and too small and slow at the moment to get away, they are already getting territorial around their chosen nesting spot!
This is the first time I have ever had a problem with something attacking plecs and I am just assuming it is the kribs but it could be anything.

Kribensis Breeding.

J'adore le paissons — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:26:47 -0600

Well my new Kribs are already picking out a place to lay eggs and are vibrating around a bit, they are not ready to lay yet thoug hand that may be a couple of weeks away. The weird thing is every Krib that has ever bred for me has layer the eggs in the barrel but this time they are choosing a tiny little pot beside the barrel that I can see straight into and the female can't even fit her whole body inside so I don't know how that will turn out.
I guess if they do lay in there I will get a clear view of the eggs developing and will see the fry when they hatch rather than having to wait until mam and dad decide to parade them around the tank.

Sick Axolotl.

J'adore le paissons — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:38:34 -0600

Hey guys,
Well Bud (wildtype axolotl) is sick. He has Fungus on one of his gills but don't worry he should be fine I just thought I would post a thread about it. He is in the fridge now for the next week and will get salt baths twice a day as well until it is cleared up. The salt baths will kill the fungus and keeping him in the fridge will actually boost his immune system believe it or not!
This is the second time Bud has gotten Fungus and I have had him 8 months. I will have had Bob for a year next month but he has never gotten Fungus at all.
Anyway I just thought I would tell you that he is ill but should be back to full health in no time.

my 10x2x2ft tank

mossy — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:03:40 -0600

hi folks
got some pics of my tank
at last i know what to do to get them up on the site
excuse the quality as they are from my phone
not great at taking pics
http://s560.photobucket.com/albums/ss41/mossy69056/

rot or shedding?

J'adore le paissons — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:16:04 -0600

Hey guys I am just wondering if Franklin has shell rot or if he may be just shedding?
the gaps between his scuts (is that the right word?) is gone grey and the edges of his scuts seems to be fraying and chipping but there is a new "layer" underneath which you can see where the chipping has occurred. If this is rot how do I treat it or if he is shedding is he having trouble or is he ok? I will post pictures later.
Cheers,
J.