3 Parrots

A man wanted to buy his son a parrot as a birthday present.
The next day he went to the pet shop and saw three identical parrots in a cage.
He asked the clerk, "how much for the parrot on the right?

The owner said it was Rs. 2500.
"Rs. 2500.", the man said. "Well what does he do?
"He knows how to use all of the functions of Microsoft Office 2000, responds the clerk.
"He can do all of your spreadsheets and type all of your letters."

The man then asked what the second parrot cost.
The clerk replied, Rs. 5000, but he not only knows Office 2000,
but is an expert computer programmer.

Finally, the man inquired about the cost of the last parrot.
The clerk replied, "Rs. 10,000."
Curious as to how a bird can cost Rs. 10,000, the man asked what this bird's specialty was.
The clerk replies, "Well to be honest I haven't seen him do anything.

But the other two call him " BOSS"!!

A barking cat - Conspiracy in the animal kingdom

The next time you hear a "dog" bark and think to yourself... "stupid noisy dog"... think again....



Apparently, the cats are now fighting a psychological war with the dogs by imitating their barks, creating fights between dogs and making humans find dogs extremely noisy and hence, annoying...

Or perhaps this is some kind of a secret agent cat, attempting to use a hacking method known as social engineering, to steal information from within the dog network.

Or worst... this cat could be conspiring with the dogs... it has learnt the dog language and has infiltrated the cat kingdom to become part of the dog world's secret agent... stealing important information to help the dog take over the cat kingdom in time to come.... Although he/she was caught passing messages to the dog, no one knows what message was passed....

We'll need to train a parrot to bark/meow soon, so the parrot can relay the information back to us in human language.... Otherwise it'll be too late for us to stop the deadly animal wars that might transpire soon....

Whatever it is, there is something fishy going on in the animal kingdom... and the cats are smelling it fast...

Planarian Worms

So the strategy works! As of today, there are no more Planarian worms in the tank! YAY! ^_^

Tackling Planarian Worms

My blood parrot fish has been for weeks behaving strangely and exhibiting signs of unhappiness and discomfort. They used to be less afraid of me, less irritated and were very happy to munch on food and come closer to the tank walls to look at me when I stare at them from outside the tank walls. However, not only were they more timid, more "jumpy" and not willing to come and look at me, they were also

• Not eating. In fact, they would eat and puke it out almost instantly...
• Always finding ways to scratch themselves against tank decorations, gravels, anything they can get their skin on
• Easily scared, feeling less comfortable in their habitat.

I have not been able to diagnose the problem until a friend of mine who is experience in breeding fishes noticed that my tank was infested with white Planarian worms! 

You can find out more about the Planarian worms from these links I used

http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/planaria_white_worms/

http://www.aquariumfish.net/information/having_trouble_p2.htm

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Ali_Planaria_Worms.html

Majid Ali says in his article that "Planarian worms are tiny, thin and milky white in appearance. They are distantly related to flukes, and some of these worms have been implicated in skin slime problems with marine fish. They are usually seen slowly gliding over the surfaces of the tank, surfaces of the glass and under the lid of box filters."

They are indeed very hard to spot, especially in my case where they are so tiny. In fact, they are only a few mm long, thin and fine but if you stare at them long enough, you'll notice that those white thin "hair-like" worms actually move... 

Most websites would say that Planarian worms are "harmless", which I would actually disagree as it claimed the lives of one of my blood parrots. In small amount they are pretty harmless but when you have an infested tank, it is deadly... 

According to the above sources, Planarian worms appear because of over feeding and also high Ammonia level. For my case, I did a PH, Nitrate, Nitrite and Ammonia test and were all good levels, which means I already have a good eco-system running with lots of good bacteria inside, so the only problem left was overfeeding.

Anyhow, first thing I needed to do was to kill off the Planarian worms (duh...). The online sources recommended Quick Cure but unfortunately I couldn't find Quick Cure in any of the aquatic pet stores I visited. I was recommended Seachem's Para Guard by one of the friendly store owner's son.

Tried it and it seems to work pretty decently. First day of dosage, left it over night, I can already see most of the Planarian worms no longer stick to the wall (probably dead) and many more motionless on the tank walls. Did a 25% water change, added more Para Guard and now it looks like the Planarian population in my tank has already been reduced by 90%! 

Some forumers recommended API General Cure (Prazi & Metro) which I have not tried. I might try it if my Planarian worm issue still persists.

So now my objective is to go with the direction that "prevention is better than cure". The problem I noted is that my blood parrot likes to eat their food in whole, chew them and spit out some left overs which are left to drop on the gravel, hence leaving uneaten food (they don't seem to go back down to eat them...). So in the end, I bought 4 mini koi's and drop them into the aquarium. Koi's are like goldfish, never know when to stop eating, so my koi's are happily eating all the leftovers on the gravel that my blood parrot drops. Hahahaha!

Lets hope this works and no more Planarian worms in my tank!

Funny Fridge Notes Messages

Shared as part of forwarded mails to me some years ago... Enjoy. =P

Marina Barrage Singapore

It's been such a busy couple of months that I totally forgotten about my blog.. hahaha

Anyway, I'm still quite busy, but just thought I'll share some Video's of Marina Barrage water feature display that I took last year.= )

My parrot fish

Arhhhh finally.... My parrot fishies are no longer that shy with me anymore. They don't scramble around when I walk past them like they used to. In fact, their now so adorable that when I go close the the tank for a few seconds and look at them, they will all start swimming up to me and look at me as well. LOL!!!!

Check this out, their not camera shy too!

Time to put in some toys?