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!

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?

Project Bloody Parrot Part 2

Put in the fishy before Christmas.. Its been 2 weeks... Good bacteria has cultivated, water is no longer milky. Everything seems fine, parrot seems more comfortable now and can eat normally. In fact they have starting to "kiss" more actively dy. LOL

Still shy when I make some movements though... pretty hard to catch them on camera!

They look happy. (Kinda think their face are forced to look happy =P)

Project Bloody Parrot

This is my next project.... Aquarium... ^_^

Finally installed the filter at the tap and filled up the tank with water. Running the system for some time first before i drain the water and pour new water in. =P

This is how it looks like now without the lights..



With the lights on..





And this is how it looks like at night...



Out of curiosity for how dirty the water can be... I used a brand new filter.... After filing up the tank... this is what it looks like.... -_-"

The drama of Shifting

Yesterday I finally managed to shift to my new place after soloing the moving efforts of packing and ferrying my essential stuffs such as my PC. Lots of drama but I THINK I've finally settled down a little more calmly...

Although I'm in the computing industry and I know that the computer is dumb and its just a box of electronic chips and circuits, sometimes my PC tends to let off some kind of "fear" aura which makes me think its got a mind of its own and its out to play a fool of me! I have HORRIBLE experience in "Migrating" PC's from 1 physical location to another physical location. (Note I used physical because I'm not referring to my divestment project when I migrate machines across domains!).

In all my experiences of migrating desktops physically, every time they arrive at their destination, they would almost certainly refuse to start, or would start and crash! From JB to INTI Hostel, it refused to start because the RAM was loose. Ok, thats simple to diagnose and fix. Then from INTI Hostel to Desa Casuarina house, it refused to start again. This time, it was the power supply, so I have to replace it. And then from Casuarina house 1 to house 2, it refused to start again. If i remember correctly, I think the Graphic card was loose.... And that was my Hyper Threading PC, the blue I-Cute casing.

So okay, when I started work at Shell, I bought a new PC as well after a couple of months. This time I changed to a Cooler Master casing, in hope that I don't get "Loose" problems. When I was moving my PC to my new place, I thought to myself... "damn... got a feeling the PC's gonna screw me up again...".

And damn I was right! Stupid PC! After several hours of messing around my PC, I managed to fix my OS, fix my DVD Rom, fix my display.. However.... I have to declare the death of my Leadtek Nvidia GeForce 8800GT...

Thanks for serving me the last 2-3 years and wasting my 800 bucks! >.<

My New Blog

As part of a requirement for my new Part Time studies, I've started a new blog which is suppose to be my reflective online journal.

Visit at your own risk! It may bore you, you have been warned!

Links on the right panel. ^_^

Happy New Year 2010

This time it ain't late. So here's wishing all my friends and blog readers a very happy new year 2010 and hope all you dreams and wishes come true!

^_^

Merry Christmas 2009

A belated Merry Christmas to all my friends and the very few blog readers I have out there. May our friendship continue to last for as many years as there is and hope everyone enjoyed their christmas! ^_^

Perth, Australia - Final Day

There's a reason why my Title is "Final Day"... and that reason is.... I forgot the name of the place. HAHAHAHA!!!

But anyway as mention earlier, this post is for the ladies to enjoy.. Why? Cause its mostly flowers.. and not just any flowers, but tulips, and a couple of other stuffs. There's even black tulips! Not entire black though, purple maybe, but still its dark tulips. Probably the black "sheep" among the "herd".

I actually like the dark tulip, coz its interesting. Anyway, enjoy the pics. =P

































Perth City from the skies...







There's actually many more pictures, but you'll need to go to Flickr to see them. ^_^

Perth, Australia - Perth City

My dad was slightly drunk after the wedding lunch but I really wanted to go shopping around Perth City to buy some souvenirs and also to spend some precious time while waiting for dinner rather then sleep at home and rest, though I was pretty tired. =P

Nonetheless, I insisted on going and my mum would of course support me coz I bet she also wanted to go. At the end of the day, I had the honor of driving my sister's car in a foreign land to go shopping! Wooohoo!!! It was a pretty cool experience but I bet things would have been more exciting if Australia driver seats was on the left side like the Americans. Many people must be wondering how on earth I know my way to Perth City to do shopping since it is a foreign land...

Well.... I had GPS... Mwahhaha!

The only part I didn't really enjoy was, I had to adhere strictly to the speed limit for 3 reasons:
1.) My sister will screw me
2.) My mum will nag at me
3.) Even the GPS is nagging at me....

Here are some interesting photo I took for my trip to the city!

On my way for shopping!



Myer's Shopping Mall





Apparently there was a celebrity appearance going on there. I didn't really know who she was, but I'd take a picture anyway. =P



The street that connects I think all the shopping malls around the vicinity, it seems this is the most popular shopping place in Perth city?



Before we left, we were entertained by a family of very young and talented Australians. They played very well, I couldn't hear any wrong notes or crap notes myself as a musician. They entertained the audience well and got some tips. If some of you think they are like street performers you see in Orchard Road, unfortunately I don't think they are, cause they came, played a couple of songs and left. I think their just doing it as a hobby and also to past their sunday afternoon meaningfully. ^_^



My next blog will be full of lovely pictures and I think its one for the ladies to marvel! ^_^

Perth, Australia - Sister's Wedding Part 3

Lunch party was held in the dining hall within the same vicinity. We showed some presentation slides which my sister presented, mainly consisting of those pictures they have taken together so far and after that they came into the dining hall. To be honest, it was my first time attending a European styled wedding lunch party. Usually for Chinese wedding banquet, we would sit in a round table. For my sister's lunch, the couple and their bridesmaid/best man sat with them at a rectangular table (Forgot what it was called...). Lunch was pretty good, I enjoyed the beef for sure!

It was a rather simple, warm and nice lunch party with everyone drinking and mingling around after they were done with the food. My sis also hired a Jazz band to play at the background, making the atmosphere rather classy. Everyone had the same sentiment that it was a beautiful wedding as a whole. These are the last of the pictures for the wedding at Perth.

The dining place..









The couple coming in to join us for the lunch



The main table...



Non Alcoholic Champagne..



The jazz band...

Perth, Australia - Sister's Wedding Part 2

So everything is set and the ceremony is all ready to go! My sister chose a Jazzy version of "Fields of Gold" to be played as her entrance song. Sounded a little weird but it felt unique, not so normal like other weddings you see on the movie where they always play the same old wedding song.....

It was a pretty quick ceremony and my dad walked my sis up the red carpet and handed her over to my brother in law. My dad seemed so eager to give her away, HAHAHAHA! Just kidding. =P

Then the boring part (to me) of the ceremony started and the emcee was giving speech, blar blar blar, blar blar blar, and then the maid of honour was giving her speech, blar blar blar, blar blar blar, and then the bestman was giving his speech, blar blar blar, blar blar blar, and then that whole round of thingy of saying your oath or something...

After that "you may kiss the bride", some blessings and then my sis starts walking down the red carpet with my brother in law while the song "Grow old with you" by Adam Sandler was played in the background by some "random" guy who brought his guitar all the way from KL to sing that song for his one and only sister. HAHAHAHAHAHAH! =P

I only took picture up till the state where my dad handed my sis over. The rest was captured on video. ^_^

After that it was minggling time and then family photos! Everyone was just gathering around, chit chatting. It was a very happy occasion while I was a busy man! Busy preparing the presentation set up for the lunch party, which I'll talk more about in my next blog entry! =P

The "walk" begins and the bridesmaid starts slow walking first down the red carpet...



There's my sis still waiting for the 2nd bridesmaid to start her walk...



Here is bridesmaid number 1...



Followed by bridesmaid number 2 with my sister following behind SLOWLY....



Their reaching the groom with all smiles!



Finally handed my sis over to brother in law and they walk up to the ceremonial master (forgot what she is called!)



The speeches.....



Family photo for my sis side... ^_^




P.S. Just in case you're wondering who that "Random" guy was, its the owner of this blog!

Perth, Australia - Sister's Wedding Part 1

My sister's wedding ceremony was on Sunday morning. It was held at I think Caversham house or something like this and it was open air. We were all praying hard for good weather, but it turns out it was drizzling the entire morning! Even after we arrived there, the drizzle paused for a few minutes, then continued again. We had to make a last minute decision on whether to stay on outdoors or indoors. In the end, my sister chose to stay outdoor and boy, it was one fine decision. When the ceremony was about the start, the rain stopped and it didn't rain for the whole day! What a beautiful weather for a blissful and wonderful occasion! Anyway, here are the pics taken before the ceremony...

This is my brother-in-law's car..



The scenery around the venue..













My dad was suppose to drive my brother in law's car to ferry my sister down, but since it was drizzling, the ground was wet, the host didn't allow us to do it, probably because of fear that the car will get stuck, but my guess is most likely that she was afraid we'll destroy the beautiful grass. =P

So the host ferried my sister in a cabbie instead. LOL!



My dad helping my sis down the cabbie.



The official photographer was briefing my sister about something I guess..



My brother in law waiting anxiously for my dad to bring my sister to him. LOL!



Well, let him wait awhile longer. Good things must wait!



I'll share more in Part 2. =P