Home is where Your Heart is, and My Heart is in Nature

An eternal battle has reached its peak, now its time to restore the balance in nature

Mankind and nature should always be in balance. Once upon a time, when there was no technology to help men with their everyday problems, they were depending on the mercy of mother nature. Back then, it seemed that nature will prevail and then men would not be able to fight it the whole time. If our ancestors could avoid death by some wild animal, they would probably die due to lack of medicine. Even the slightest cold could have been deadly back then. But suddenly, something started to change. Mankind started to develop, and many devices and machines were invented in order to keep this balance under control. However, men has this innate struggle for power, and the control that was given to him was not enough. Therefore, new machines were invented and nature was slowly falling into the greedy hands of men. Today, men believe that they control nature in all aspects, but that is not really the case. Even the slightest earthquake can be dangerous, and there is still nothing we can do to prevent it. But there is one thing we can do, that would make us feel more human and that will be a kind of support towards keeping this balance that I have mentioned. Namely, there are a lot of "green” organizations nowadays that fight for keeping this balance and restoring order between mankind and nature. Now, you might wonder how you could help? Well, in this article I am not going to write about going out to meet nature but rather about welcoming nature in your home.

biOrb Life Aquarium

Let the waters flow in your home

To be more specific, I am going to write about aquariums, because, as the subtitle suggests, life has begun in the water, and the first step to thank nature for creating life is to bring water to your home. Of course, water is not the only thing you will be bringing, but fish as well. Although I am not an expert in this area, I will try to give you a few suggestions on how to choose and maintain an aquarium. First of all, you will have to choose whether you want to have an ordinary fish tank or you prefer oceans and seas and you want to have a marine aquarium. You may not notice the difference between these two at first but there are some, and they are pretty big. For example, marine aquariums require more time and energy when it comes to maintenance. But let's focus on ordinary fish tanks at first. The second thing you will have to do is to choose what kind of tank you would like to have in your home. There are some really huge ones that could cover one whole wall, and there are also those small ones for one fish only that will not be very prominent. The variety of tanks to choose from is really huge, and the best thing you could do when it comes to choosing is to ask someone who has done this before to help you out. There are people who have spent their whole life dealing with fish and fish tanks, and this kind of choice is more than natural to them. This may seem like an irrelevant thing to discuss about, but it is actually very important if you want to do this as a hobby.

Secondly, you will have to spend a certain amount of time learning about maintenance. This may seem easy at first. All you have to do is to change the water frequently and grab a sponge now and then in order to clean your aquarium. But is it really that easy? I think there is more to it than that. First of all, you have to wonder where you would put all the fish once you want to change the water in your aquarium. Well, I do not really have one answer for that, and I will let you Google it and find what you think is the best option. However, there are some tools that can help you a bit when it comes to cleaning. You can check the internet or with your local aquarium supply store.  Aquarium filters are electricity based and could help you a lot with cleaning. What they do is keep the cleanliness of water as much as possible before changing, by adding different substances. This way you would not have to change water that often and thus, you would save much time and energy.

There are also a number of different pieces of equipment that will help you with all the work that an aquarium requires. For example, water in aquariums has to be on a certain temperature, since all the fish live in slightly different surroundings than we humans do. Therefore, aquarium heaters are devices that will help you with changing and keeping the temperature of the water. But appearance is also an important part of owning an aquarium. If you are a type of person who likes to decorate their home, there are loads of things you can buy and put in and near the aquarium that will emphasize the importance and beauty of it. You can also buy different types of lights that will lighten up the aquarium and make it more beautiful and more noticeable.
To sum up, some people are, nowadays, trying hard to return to their ancestors and to synchronize with nature in order to restore that balance. There are many ways to achieve that, and one of them is to accept nature as a part of your home. You can use your imagination and have loads of different plants and animals in your home, but my advice is to get yourself an aquarium, because water is the representative of life itself, and besides, it's fun.

Read More

Silly Little Creatures, or Not?

I'm writing this with one idea in my mind, one idea only. Are fish stupid and unnecessary creatures? Many think they are. And why? Probably because they had them home in their pretty little aquariums or they saw them in someone else’s aquarium or they saw them in some sea world, I don’t know. After all of that, after seeing and watching them for some time, you can’t but start thinking how ridiculous they are.

All that they do is go around in circles in their little tanks opening their mouths at same intervals without even blinking. When you look into their eyes they have to remind you of some retarded look made by someone. The only thing that lacks is that they start drooling like retards. All fish remind me of Patrick star from Sponge Bob. Or even better, all those fish bystanders with their heads looking at the sky and all of them look so silly that I always laugh just by seeing them. You know what I mean? I thought that everyone has seen or at least heard of Sponge Bob. If not, I’m sure that you can see that retarded look on their faces once you've looked close enough and paid attention to it.

It’s so silly that you shouldn't even consider calling it a face. Who knows what it is. Who even cares!? It’s just an animal which can’t even hurt us or do anything bad to us, or do anything to us for that matter. The only good thing that can come out of it is making it our food, and even that isn't really satisfactory. Alright, it has at least one good substance, iodine, which is good for our brains, specifically our memory. They always say to students that they should eat fish before exams because they’ll be able to remember more, and it is true. So I guess this is one good thing about them. But it barely has anything else and you can’t even get full from eating just that – you always have to eat more besides the fish. Another funny thing that I have always wondered about is why it is like this – in Christianity, when they are fasting and are not allowed to eat anything that comes from an animal – they are allowed to eat fish! What’s up with that? It’s like the biggest religion in the world is telling us that we shouldn't even think of fish as animals. That’s one way to look at it, right?

Anyway, they seem to be not good enough for eating, but that’s not what the Japanese seem to think. They eat fish in huge quantities. Just like we all now the Chinese for the rice consumption, we know the Japanese for their sushi or other fish related products. And, besides that, they are leading manufacturers of fish. They have thousands of boats going out every day to catch fish. They catch it in such large quantities every day and yet the fish are still there, they are not extinct, or something like that. When the Americans started moving west and started hunting buffaloes, it didn't take long before the buffalo was almost completely gone, and these were the animals that used to rule the large plains in the center of the USA. So one can conclude through this that the fish are like vermin, you can’t even destroy them, not that we want, but if we did want, we probably would never be able to do it.

They reduced the number of whales you say, because of the hunting all over the planet? Well my friend, whales are not fish, they are mammals, so you can throw that theory through the window.

Besides this, everyone loves dolphins and consider them very intelligent and human-friendly. But they too are not fish, but mammals as well. I seem to be onto something maybe?

Or, maybe not. How many of us keep fish at home? Too many probably. They are one of the favorite animals to keep as pets, after cats and dogs obviously. No one can replace those furry, cute little animals and man’s best friends. So, how can they be stupid, unnecessary and all of that, when so many people keep them? There must be something amazing about them, since we actually do love them, even though they look retarded.

I think that not much is needed to be said to make it obvious why we love them. They make us relaxed with their grace in their movement. They may be going around in circles, but they do it with such grace, that it is amazing. Besides that, they may look retarded, but they are the sole rulers of the seas, and the seas cover most of our planet, and like I said, even if we wanted to exterminate them, we wouldn’t be able to do it. That does not make them vermin, but very strong creatures actually, since they can withstand the human tyranny.

Those mammals from the sea, which we consider so amazing, wouldn't even be there if it weren't for the fish. They depend on them, the same way each nature’s creature depends on some other. All of them are a part of one greater circle, a chain if you will, and a chain would break if you were to take only one ring out of it.

Besides that, it is so easy to keep them, since they are one of the animals that don’t ask for much, if at all. When you get an aquarium, you only need to get some filters and whatnot, just in order to keep the water clean and fresh, and you need some food, which you don’t need to give them too often. You can get a lot of decorative items for the aquarium, lights, heating, some scenery like castles, sand, etc, yet all of these things are optional, the fish don’t need them – it is more for our pleasure. Because we love how pretty, graceful and peaceful they look in their little tanks, we like to embellish their surroundings. They really do deserve our love.

Read More

Methods for catching a fish from a tank

Every fish keeper on earth has probably had various problems and issues with the things I’m going to talk about throughout this article. I can see myself chasing fish for 30 minutes all around the aquarium. In the end, they would get into the net, stressed and exhausted. It is an extremely uncomfortable experience both for you and for the fish.

It is unavoidable that at some point you’ll have to be catching some fish when owning an aquarium full of them. Reasons to do so are selling, buying or moving unhealthy fish into the quarantine tank, getting back the aggressive types of fish or moving parental ones. In chasing fish, you should be on the lookout for lashing with a net because it may stress or harm some of them. The other possibility is you won’t even catch the right one. The solution to this is to pour out some tank water and leave less space for the fish. The possibility to catch them will then increase. Now, I’ll give you some tips how to catch your fish the easiest way.

Netting the fish is one of the most common and the easiest way of catching fish. The net itself can be of any color and size. White nets are thought not to be among the best ones, unlike the ones that come in black or green, that don’t scare off the fish and, apart from that, they give them a, sort of, sense of security. But, using a white net to scare off the fish to the green or black one placed on the other side of the tank is a good tactic to catch them. Make sure you do everything gently. Eventually, the fish will go into the net by itself. If the fish’s fins get into the net you shouldn't be worried. Put the fish back into the aquarium, hold the net and the fish will free itself. If it doesn't work, carefully cut of the net with scissors. Netting can be helpful when feeding the fish, as well, but you’re trying to keep some fish apart from others. Just use a white net to separate them, and the green one to put them together, for example.

Catching fish with your hands is a method used usually with bigger fish. You have to do this carefully because some species have spines used to defend themselves. Use both of your hands to catch a fish, gently take the fish by its tail and support it from underneath. Keep in mind that all this has to be done gently and with a lot of patience. Fish that have electricity or are poisonous shouldn't ever be touched by human hand, logically.

Catching fish with the help of a bottle is a method appropriate to catch species like shrimp, dwellers or snails that are usually on the bottom of the tank. Green provides fake security for the fish (as mentioned above), so use a green bottle so you can see them and make them feel safe. Before putting the bottle into the tank, you should clean it up a little in some hot water. Don’t use detergents or anything similar to clean the bottle. You should opt for a glass bottle rather than a plastic one, because it sinks to the bottom. Place the food into the water, put it on the bottom of the tank and let it getfilled with water slowly. Switch the lights off and wait for the fish to get into the trap. Leave some room light on, and switch them off in the evening hours. Close the entrance of the bottle with your finger, after you make sure that the fish are trapped. This is a method that requires gentility and patience. It might take some time, but your fish will definitely be less stressed out. By using this method you’ll leave the same depth of the water to fish and there’ll be no need to remove the water. Also make sure you don’t hitthe tank edges while using the bottle to catch desired fish. Catching fish with glass dip tubes is not a quite popular method. The only ones who use this method are the, so called “breeder-aquarists” who have to this to catch the fry and don’t spoil it.

Conclusion

To conclude, I’ll say that keeping and catching fish all the time demands some experience and knowledge, because otherwise you may hurt or kill your own fish. I’m sure you wouldn't want that to happen, would you?

Read More