There's More To Fish Than You Think.

Fish.  I like fish a lot.  And there's a lot more to pet fish than you might realise.


I use to have a nice, rather ordinary smallish freshwater aquarium.  (I saw the same one on Star Trek - The Next Generation, although I think it was sans fish.)  Mostly I kept small goldfish or, if you're going to be fancy, tiny koi.  Cute little things and quite friendly. Whenever I would walk over to the aquarium, they all swim over to the side and say, in their fish way, "Hi. Glad to see you!"

My favourite was a black bug-eyed fish named Alaska.  (Don't ask.)  He was especially friendly and seemed always happy to see me.  One day when I went to greet my fish, he was missing.  My heart sank as I saw him floating upside down, dead.  I do not easily accept the unnecessary death of a friend.  I gently lifted him out and took him to the bathroom sink.  I ran cool water over him while gently stroking his gills.  Ridiculous, I know.  Still...Wait, are the gills moving? Is that a tiny heartbeat?  They were and it was.    Just to be sure, I kept him in his own little white bowl for a few days, feeding him sparingly - Goldfish should always be fed sparingly.  Most people overfeed them and then wonder why they die - and then returned him to his friends.  They were all happy to see him and he lived for several more years.

 

I no longer have my aquarium and my dear fish.  I lost them through a great tragedy.  Once in a while my husband gets the grand idea of adding to the aquarium.  I didn't like this, but he's stubborn and knows everything.  One day he brought some fish home and dumped them in the tank before I could intercept him.  Immediately, my very innocent little goldfish were under attack and before I could get the net to pull them out, they were all dead, in pieces.  You can imagine how upset I was.  "Simon, what were those fish."

"Well, the guy at the pet store said they shouldn't be put in with other fish, but I thought..."

I glared at him.

"I wasn't thinking."

I continued glaring.  "Did you ask what they are called."

"Perennials , I think, something like that."

"Piranhas,"  I gasped.

"Yeah, that was it."

So my fish were dead and I was left to care for piranhas.  I dutifully fed them, but I didn't make friends with them and I wasn't too unhappy when they died off one by one.  (No, no, of course, I didn't kill them. I would guess that the water was too cold for them, something like that.)



I gave away the aquarium and haven't had the heart to keep fish since.
  
Now I just look after pixels in FishWorld.

And my beloved readers, please refrain from putting barbed hooks in those delicate mouths and do not, I repeat, DO NOT drown them in the air.

Remember, fish are people, too!


Giving credit where credit's due  (all from the the Creative Commons):

Snippy the gold golfish is courtesy of the renowned Rubyblossom

Alaska the black goldfish is played by Concerto of Katie@!

The piranha is from marcelometal

Wolves Hunt Sarah.

Wolves Hunt Sarah., originally uploaded by Mai1984.

What could I possibly need to add?

Credits, all under Creative Commons License.

The background is courtesy of my dear friend, Angie, better known as rubyblossom,
www.flickr.com/photos/rubyblossom/3462745710/
who also supplied Snippy the goldfish,
www.flickr.com/photos/rubyblossom/3510253742/in/set-72157...
Ms. Palin's cash was donated by chego 101,
www.flickr.com/photos/chego101/3306753533/

The eagle flew in from belgian chocolate,
www.flickr.com/photos/frank-wouters/24872178/.

The airplane is thanks to brentdaley,
www.flickr.com/photos/brentdanley/225600514/

The noose is from fangleman
www.flickr.com/photos/kevinkemmerer/3778758043/

Pygment shots armed the two wolves with the AK47s.
www.flickr.com/photos/pygment/2533785279/

The multi species wolf pack came from far and near for this hunting party:
Douglas Brown, www.flickr.com/photos/dougbrown47/4516081663/
Andreas Solberg, www.flickr.com/photos/andreassolberg/448628185/
Wildlife Art Reference, www.flickr.com/photos/49989861@N07/4589483585/
Dobak, www.flickr.com/photos/dobak/119671567/
Pascal Vuylsteker, www.flickr.com/photos/pvk/92775757/
Law Keven, www.flickr.com/photos/66164549@N00/2703993448/
Dennis from Atlanta, www.flickr.com/photos/dennis_matheson/4332300009/

and the star of the show. former Governor Sarah Palin is from
Jim Cassady, www.flickr.com/photos/jcassady/3069121513/
and, no, she was not lifting her middle finger in the original picture.

BLUESTAR MASSACRE COMMEMORATION 1984

I have made this widget to commemorate the shaheeds of the Bluestar Massacre.

If you would like to add it to your blog/website, the code can be found at:

 http://sites.google.com/site/thanksandchardikala/0-bluestar-massacre-widget

Copy/paste that into your site's html. To put it in the sidebar, add it as a gadget using the Javascript/html.

While you're there, feel free to look through that website.  I set it up to thank the people in my life who need thanking.  That most certainly includes you, my faithful readers.   The pages are meant to be read in order and start at the home page:  Thanks, Gurufateh and Chardi Kala. 

MORE TO FISH THAN YOU THOUGHT!

Anyone who knows me well knows of my fascination with fish.  I insist that fishing is torturing the poor creatures, from those horrid barbed hooks (would you want one in your mouth?) to drowning them in the air, it just isn't a nice thing to do.

Here is evidence that there may be much more to fish than science as heretofore believed.

(Please give a moment of silence for the fish that were murdered (scientists call it "sacrificed") in these experiments.

Fish fear their own reflection

Looking at themselves in a mirror is enough to scare some fish, a new study finds.

Fish looking at a mirror showed increased brain activity in regions linked to fear than fish faced with an actual fish separated by glass, the study showed. However, in both instances the fish responded the same physically, engaging in a routine of combative gestures to try to fight the other fish — be it a reflection or an actual opponent.

"It seems like something they don't understand," said Julie Desjardins, researcher and post-doctoral biologist at Stanford University. "I think this stimulus is just so far outside their realm of experience that it results in this somewhat emotional response."
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Desjardins and Stanford biologist Russell Fernald arranged 20 minute-long sparring sessions for male African cichlids, a freshwater territorial fish. A clear wall across the middle of the tank kept the combatants apart when two fish were pitted against each other, so there was never any actual fish-to-fish contact. In some instances, the clear wall was replaced with a mirror.

The fish invariably tried to fight with their foe — real or reflected — and their behavior during the dust-ups appeared consistent whether they were mirror-boxing or not.

Then, scientists tested blood samples for testosterone and other aggression-inducing hormones; the scientists also dissected each fish's brain, particularly the amygdala, the brain region tied to fear and fear conditioning. All fish showed high levels of testosterone, but only the fish that fought with their reflection showed high activity in the amygdala.

The anomaly suggests that lower vertebrates can make subtle discriminations not previously thought possible, the scientists said in a statement. Despite the fact that human amygdalae are significantly more elaborate than those of fish, frogs, lizards, and birds, they do share some of their complex features with these animals.

Desjardins speculated that the fear or vexation was due to the unfamiliarity of the encounter:

"In normal fights, (the fish) bite at each other, one after the other, and will do all kinds of movements and posturing, but it is always slightly off or even alternating in timing. But when you are fighting with a mirror, your opponent is perfectly in time. So the subject fish really is not seeing any sort of reciprocal response from their opponent."

Calling the amygdala activity "surprising" and "pretty exciting," Desjardins said that given the comparable physical reactions and hormone levels, she never expected the brain to show a different response. Even researchers who exclusively study the cognitive capacities of non-mammalian animals rarely look at the brain, she pointed out, instead favoring hormones and behavior.

"But I think it certainly indicates that there is more going on cognitively than people have long assumed in most lower invertebrates," Desjardins said.

Perhaps the minds of fish have more in common with humans than expected.
"Like when you are a little kid and someone keeps repeating back to you what you have just said, that quickly becomes irritating and frustrating," she said. "If I was going to make that giant leap between humans and fish, it could be similar."

© 2010 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.


Many thanks to rubyblossom for the use of her goldfish, Snippy.

Wordless Wednesday - Two Fish

Two Fish, originally uploaded by chefranden.

Digital Oil
by chefranden

Used under a Creative Commons License

WHEN GOLDFISH TURN BAD.

I guess Snippy blames me for all the trouble he gets into. He definitely lacks maturity to blame his problems on others. He needs to learn to take responsibility for his own faults and improve. But, nooooooooooo, he has to attack me! I who have brought an ordinaru goldfish world-wide fame.

Not only immature, but ungrateful as well,

As usual with these animations, click on "All sizes for it to come to life.

Snippy, as always, courtesy of rubyblossom, who is much more courteous than her goldfish.

Attack of the Killer Goldfish

I Am Learning A New Skill

GIF ANIMATION - A New Skill