Fish Tank Tales - 1

"I bet you can't have that fish tank set up by the end of the day," challenged Justin.

And I fell for it, without countering something along the lines of "okay but you'll have to pitch in on cost and maintenance," or "okay, but when something in it gets sick or dies you'll need to help," or "okay, but you and I need to take turns feeding everybody."

Of course not, because a challenge is a challenge, and because I like keeping frogs and fish and am happy to be sharing a home with someone who likes it too.

Really it's only the sick and/or dying aspects of aquarium keeping that bother me, but I likely wouldn't relinquish related duties to Justin or anyone really, because life is life, death is death, and I'm careful with such matters, even with fish.

How does one go about euthanizing a fish?

Common practice is the flushing method, popular presumably because it's easy on the human administering it. But flushing a dying fish down the toilet is extremely inhumane. First temperature shock, then suction and lack of oxygen, then battery or abrasion from the pipes, and if that hasn't killed the fish before it hits the sewage rest-assured it will then suffocate amid the waste.

When my local aquarium shop must euthanize a fish they cut off it's head. Perhaps unpleasant for the employee administering the cut, but lightening-fast, and thus a humane demise for the fish.

Cutting off the head of a living fish is beyond my capacity as is crushing it. So what to do? It came to me a few years ago, as I stood over an aquarium, adjacent to the kitchen sink-- the garbage disposal.

Now that you've likely recoiled at the thought and questioned my sanity, let's look at the reality of that choice.

Turn on the faucet as high as it will go, and set the water temperature to match the temperature inside of your tank as closely as possible. Turn on the disposal. Drop in the fish.

Granted it's not as quick as cutting off the head, but it's a whole lot faster than flushing.

Next time in Fish Tank Tales: What the ich is Ich?

My favorite space ships(scifi and real) by Justin Gray (staff writer at the nerdy times

I thought i would delve into a special area of my expertise, analyzing aesthetic features of space craft real and fake.
Id like to start with Joss Whedon's Firefly from the movie "Serenity" and the TV show "Firefly". To get right to it, the Firefly craft looks like it was built with junk laying around the local space port, when in fact the Firefly class star ship is a slow moving transport ship that was never meant for inter galactic smuggling or escaping from the Alliance warships. I have a lot of respect for a craft that is made from junk and no credits at all. The "Firefly class star-ship is also capable of full atmo breaching in any atmospheric conditions, ie methane storms to class 5 hurricanes, only by them modifications done to it post Alliance conflict.
Second: Earths Nasa space craft: the now {unfortunately} grounded Space Shuttle series. Earths NASA agency stated building the Space shuttle series in 1968 but was never actually launched until April 1981. This craft is unique among NASA's craft as it was intended as a re-usable launch vehicle and set a world precedence that has never been met until recently by "Scaled composites" "Spaceship one" as an orbital launch platform. Sadly a series of accidents has permanently ground NASA's shuttle program and is now decades retarded by using rockets to get gear into space. A SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS.
Third: Starship Enterprise NC-1701-d. This ship is just plain baddass. Warp 9+ (1000X speed of light), matter beaming technology, antimatter drive systems and the most distinct feature of most galaxy class starships: saucer separation with battle command center. A feature most handy in extreme cases. What kid growing up in the 80's didnt love this ship? I for one have a large poster in my office of the NC-1701-D.
Fourth:
Scaled Composites "Spaceship one" accompanied by the "White Knight" this was the first privatly funded orbital space program headed up by the one and only Burt Rutan funded by Steve Fossett (RIP) and Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic. Since its first flight May 20th 2003 Virgin Galactic has now booked flights from the very first space port in New Mexico. A very proud moment for the human race.

Jens Frogs

So Jens frogs are weird, they have fungus growing out of there backs but its actually that they are shedding. Oh and she wanted to mention that they eat bloodworms and they do actually breath air.
Just my 2cents.
Thanks,
Justin