A beautiful fish

[dongdaemun]

This red Oscar is lovely.

[freikja]

Originally Posted by dongdaemun

This red Oscar is lovely.

lt is. l want more fish. l had one a few years back, a betta that looked a lot like this one.

l didn't have a lid on the tank, and one day he committed suicide. l buried him in the neighbor's yard with the neighbor, complete with incense and eulogy. lt was pretty traumatic. l think that's why l haven't gotten any more fish since then. But maybe it's time.

[Rain Monkey]

Originally Posted by freikja

lt is. l want more fish. l had one a few years back, a betta that looked a lot like this one.

l didn't have a lid on the tank, and one day he committed suicide. l buried him in the neighbor's yard with the neighbor, complete with incense and eulogy. lt was pretty traumatic. l think that's why l haven't gotten any more fish since then. But maybe it's time.

I have a little betta in a small fish bowl with a goldfish and a placostamous. The goldfish and placostamous seem to have adjusted to their new home, but the betta looks like he wishes he was dead. Maybe they are at-risk fish.

[meherenowie]

I hope you've both read King Solomon's Ring. Pretty sure I put it on the kiddie list. Betas really need better habitats than they generally get in order to shine; there's a great chapter on their behavior.

In other news, Mr. Binky has developed a blister near his goldfish tail, and a bottle of tea-tree stuff hasn't helped. Taking suggestions.

[toasterhedgehog]

My babies look like this. Their aqurarium looks like this.

[dongdaemun]

Originally Posted by toasterhedgehog

My babies look like this. Their aqurarium looks like this.

Neon Tetra?

Very nice plants. Real plants and natural wood really make a fresh water tank look great. I want to get some live plants but I hear Oscars destroy them. I have seen my Oscar knock over some pretty big rocks before, causing them to collapse, they are always getting into trouble. Real tank plants are expensive too. I might put in some cheap bamboo shoots though.

[toasterhedgehog]

Originally Posted by dongdaemun

Neon Tetra?

Cardinal Tetra. There is virtually no difference though. Their gaudy, but their bright colors are pretty against the green background. I enjoy small shiny objects.

Very nice plants. Real plants and natural wood really make a fresh water tank look great. I want to get some live plants but I hear Oscars destroy them.

Oscars should only live with the toughest plants. Almost all cichlids like to redecorate their tanks to their liking, and their understanding of aesthetics is minimal at best. They are very hardy and handsome though. I heard there was a breeding population of them in Lake Washington.

Real tank plants are expensive too. I might put in some cheap bamboo shoots though.

If you have the right light, fertilizer, and Co2 injection, a few small plants will spread over your entire tank. I have to prune my plants so the fish have room to swim.

Setting up a planted tank is more expensive, but the plants help keep the water clean and oxygenated so your fish will be healthier.

I am a huge nerd.

[Rain Monkey]

Originally Posted by meherenowie

I hope you've both read King Solomon's Ring. Pretty sure I put it on the kiddie list. Betas really need better habitats than they generally get in order to shine; there's a great chapter on their behavior.

In other news, Mr. Binky has developed a blister near his goldfish tail, and a bottle of tea-tree stuff hasn't helped. Taking suggestions.

I had King Solomon's Ring on the bookshelf for a while. Maybe it is still here someplace. I never got around to reading it.

I've been feeling bad about the beta ever since I read this post. Like I'm holding him in indefinite detention at Abu Gharib.

Anybody want this depressed beta before he finds a way to hang himself?

[meherenowie]

Originally Posted by Rain Monkey

I've been feeling bad about the beta ever since I read this post. Like I'm holding him in indefinite detention at Abu Gharib.

Oh no, sorry. They're really tough, don't worry.

What really makes them light up is the presence of another male to fight -- why they're sold in those little individual bowls. If he's at all bummed it's because he can't wage war. Too damn bad. Check out the book, it's a pleasure to read.

Love the tank, THH.

[toasterhedgehog]

The average wild betta lives in warm, slow moving, vegetation-choked seasonal bodies of water. They build bubble nests when the water level is high, and lay drought resistant eggs that can wait to hatch in the mud for the rains to return. They have a fairly unique labrinth organ which allows them to breath atmospheric oxygen. This labrynth organ allows them to live in much smaller volumes of water than most other fish. The average betta can hope to live less than a year in the wild and three years or so in captivity.

[Ballard Pimp]

Originally Posted by meherenowie

I hope you've both read King Solomon's Ring. Pretty sure I put it on the kiddie list. Betas really need better habitats than they generally get in order to shine; there's a great chapter on their behavior.

MHN, while your making lists for kids and others, if you put Lorentz's book on the list, please also put Margaret M. Nice's book, The Watcher at the Nest, on the list. To be charitable, I should say that her work is inextricably linked with Lorentz's work. To be less charitable, she spent two months working with him in Austria in 1938, during which time she shared most of her observations, like territoriality and imprinting, with him. She was working on finishing up Watcher at the time. It was published in 1939 and contains most of the "discoveries" that made Lorentz famous when he published ten years later.

It was interesting that Americans ignored Nice's book and hailed Lorentz's as the work of a genius. Nice was an American, but she was also a woman.

Nice also made significant contributions to child psychology by watching her own children and noting that they seemed to go through identical developmental stages at the same age, and publishing papers on the early stages of childhood development.

Nice was certainly handicapped as a scientist because she was a woman; but also she lived in America. The full measure of anti-intellectualism in America didn't hit me until I read about Josiah Willard Gibbs.. Be sure to read the whole article, including the remarks Planck and Einstein made about him.

[freikja]

Originally Posted by Rain Monkey

The goldfish and placostamous seem to have adjusted to their new home, but the betta looks like he wishes he was dead. Maybe they are at-risk fish.

They're solitary and jealous little creatures. But fuck, they're beautiful. And mine was pretty cool. l suppose l should have clued in to his misery. l didn't think he had it that hard, but l guess a sea surfer can't be caged, and maybe that's why l'm reluctant to get more, no matter how expansive (and expensive) the tank. Anyway, he was well loved.

[freikja]

Originally Posted by toasterhedgehog

My babies look like this. Their aqurarium looks like this.

That was awesome.

[freikja]

Originally Posted by dongdaemun

I might put in some cheap bamboo shoots though.

Functional and purty.

[freikja]

Originally Posted by meherenowie

If he's at all bummed it's because he can't wage war. Too damn bad.

l'm convinced this is why mine went kamikaze. l always wanted to put him with another male, fervently hoping they would bond despite genetics. But then l'd harbor the decades-long guilt if one was inevitably killed in the ultimate oceanic duel. lt's a cruel catch .22.

l miss Salvador.

Yes, Salvador.

[freikja]

Originally Posted by meherenowie

I hope you've both read King Solomon's Ring. Pretty sure I put it on the kiddie list. Betas really need better habitats than they generally get in order to shine; there's a great chapter on their behavior.

l haven't read it. lt sounds familiar, but l don't believe l have. Thank you for the suggestion!

[JSin]

Originally Posted by Rain Monkey

I have a little betta in a small fish bowl with a goldfish and a placostamous. The goldfish and placostamous seem to have adjusted to their new home, but the betta looks like he wishes he was dead. Maybe they are at-risk fish.

Ok if it is a bowl it is way overcrowded. Despite the myth fish do not grow to the size of the bowl.

They get stunted. This is usually <if they live> evident by a large head and short body. Think of it this way.. If ya lock a kid in a cubboard and do not let em out they don't grow much either.

The accumulation of waste also creates a highly toxic and corrosive environment for them.

The pleco if allowed to grow properly will reach nearly 2.5 feet and can live up to 20 years in captivity. The gold can reach about 6 to 8 and can live close to 30. The only one that belongs in the bowl is the Betta.

As far as why he looks bad. The ammonia I would guess is getting pretty high pretty fast. The blister on the golds tail is also systematic.

I would not keep a pleco in under a 30 gallon long tank. I prefer to keep golds, all but feeders <They only tend to live till I can feed em to the fish they are dinner for> in a 20 gallon tank no more than 4 of em generally till they are large enough for ponds.

Fortunately now I don't have tanks. At one point I had 30 of them ranging from 10 gallon to 150. Was too much work.

JSin

[JSin]

Originally Posted by dongdaemun

Neon Tetra?

Very nice plants. Real plants and natural wood really make a fresh water tank look great. I want to get some live plants but I hear Oscars destroy them. I have seen my Oscar knock over some pretty big rocks before, causing them to collapse, they are always getting into trouble. Real tank plants are expensive too. I might put in some cheap bamboo shoots though.

Generally when I have kept oscars I just avoid the plants... They will wreck em in a hurry. A bit of driftwood will help slightly acidify the water and I found they tend to be happier then. One option to get the benefit of the plants without the destruction is to create a live plant filter.

Place a second tank next to your cichlid tank and pump the water between em. In the smaller tank you keep small fish and the interaction will give the plants the higher nitrogen <actually Nitrate> and the oscar will benefit from the increased oxygen.

Remember most oscars tend to be qa bit territorial as they get bigger and tend to like slower water. Also Undergravel filters are useless. They dig holes that allow the water an easy path through killing the beneficial bacteria in other areas of the filter. I almost allways used canisters on my big cichlid tanks

JSin

[meherenowie]

Originally Posted by JSin

The blister on the golds tail is also systematic.

Different tank, but thanks. There are two golds in a ten-gallon tank. Mr. Binky's gotten big and beautiful in four years and I don't want to lose him. I'll get them a twenty and start fresh.

Originally Posted by Ballard Pimp

MHN, while your making lists for kids and others, if you put Lorentz's book on the list, please also put Margaret M. Nice's book, The Watcher at the Nest, on the list. To be charitable, I should say that her work is inextricably linked with Lorentz's work. To be less charitable, she spent two months working with him in Austria in 1938, during which time she shared most of her observations, like territoriality and imprinting, with him. She was working on finishing up Watcher at the time. It was published in 1939 and contains most of the "discoveries" that made Lorentz famous when he published ten years later.

It was interesting that Americans ignored Nice's book and hailed Lorentz's as the work of a genius. Nice was an American, but she was also a woman.

Nice also made significant contributions to child psychology by watching her own children and noting that they seemed to go through identical developmental stages at the same age, and publishing papers on the early stages of childhood development.

Nice was certainly handicapped as a scientist because she was a woman; but also she lived in America. The full measure of anti-intellectualism in America didn't hit me until I read about Josiah Willard Gibbs.. Be sure to read the whole article, including the remarks Planck and Einstein made about him.

Thanks for putting me onto this, BP. I'm vaguely aware of Nice's work and the issue of Lorenz appearing to steal first her ideas, then her thunder -- a tale handed to me with the book -- but I've never actually read her book; will have to rectify. Heard good things. She didn't seem to think he'd screwed her over, though; they always had kind words for each other -- taught each other a lot -- and she was pretty crisp about people in her later years especially.

The punctilious data techniques she invented, the dedication required of herself and her husband to allow her to do as much as she did, her pioneering early developmental stuff -- all commendable.

Seems there's more likely to be honor for someone from within their field than from the populace, unsurprisingly. Ernst Mayr in her memorial: "I have always felt that she, almost single-handedly, initiated a new era in American ornithology and the only effective countermovement against the list-chasing movement. She early recognized the importance of a study of bird individuals because this is the only method to get reliable life history data. She was one of the first people (the first?) in this country to analyze a local deme. In other words she pioneered left and right, at least as far as the U.S. is concerned."

A shame she may have appeared to the book-buying public as just another woman twittering about birds. Lorenz's broader appeal probably has somewhat to do with the broader range of species he brought to the table, and his humor. Hers appears to be an assemblage of several monographs, his a cocktail of stories with perhaps less science, more musing, as a binder.

Lorenz still tells a great fishtank story, anyway.



Posted in incomplete form because every SINGLE time I turn my back on this tab it wipes a paragraph or two from this post -- something about having no trouble enjoying people brought up in Amherst with an eye for detail and anti-intellectualism in this country in general, but I give up for now. VERY STRANGE.