What Footsie taught us !

Written by graham and julie


We have just inherited a rag, tag and bobtail of a dog called ’Footsie’. She was found three weeks ago wandering around outside a local restaurant for a couple of days looking for food. Paula, a woman who takes responsibility for stray animals in this part ofrepparttar island, took her in and started to look after her. She soon found that, Footsie has such a quiet, loving nature but is definitely not a ‘looker’. She wouldn’t win any awards at Crufts. Pure white coat, almost albino type eyes but a protruding bottom set of teeth which means she always hasrepparttar 125841 canine tooth onrepparttar 125842 left and several of her other teeth showing. But, as we said, a lovely temperament. Very playful, loving and peaceful.

Paula took her torepparttar 125843 local vet for a check up and found that Footsie is about 12 to 13 months old and had recently, withinrepparttar 125844 last three weeks or so, had puppies. The vet gaverepparttar 125845 appropriate medicines to help her duringrepparttar 125846 whelping period. But otherwise was in good health. She also had a chip in her ear but when they checkedrepparttar 125847 computer system found thatrepparttar 125848 registration had not been completed properly and only an out of use phone number was registered. So: no chance of findingrepparttar 125849 original owner.

Forrepparttar 125850 next few days you could see Paula and Footsie walking aroundrepparttar 125851 village and after a couple of days it became more and more obvious that Paula was getting very attached to ‘Footsie and Footsie to her. After all, Paula had taken her offrepparttar 125852 street and shown her a lot of love and affection. The only problem is that Paula specialises in cats. Wild street cats; and so there was no room inrepparttar 125853 apartment for Footsie. The result: Footsie spentrepparttar 125854 nights in Paula’s car andrepparttar 125855 days in her office.

It wasn’t long, no more than a couple of days before people inrepparttar 125856 village began to notice Footsie. About a week later a young guy approached Paula and asked if he could take her for his parents. Their dog had recently died and so he thought she would be an ideal replacement. An ideal loving dog, especially for an older couple. Footsie loves sitting on people’s laps!

The deal was done. Paula agreed and Footsie was taken byrepparttar 125857 young man, placed in his car and taken onrepparttar 125858 local ferry torepparttar 125859 next island where his parents live. Unfortunately his father did not like Footsie. For whatever reason he said he did not want her inrepparttar 125860 house. Although his mother quite liked her it was an impossible situation. So she had to makerepparttar 125861 return journey.

Spawning the Chinese Algae-eater

Written by William Berg


And one day there were fry... Spawningrepparttar Chinese Algae-eater (Gyrinocheilus aymonieri)

By William Berg of Sweden, for http://www.aquaticcommunity.com

Gyrinocheilus aymonieri Common name: Chinese algae-eater Family: Gyrinocheilidae (Algae eaters) Order: Cypriniformes (carps) Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes) Max size: 30 cm/ 12 inches Water conditions: pH range: 6.0 - 8.0, temperature 25 - 28°C/ 77-82°F

I would like to say a few words about one ofrepparttar 125840 bigger surprises I've had as an aquarist. A few years ago I was cleaning out a 50 gallon holding tank in which I kept fishes that were going to a new aquarium whenrepparttar 125841 new aquarium was ready. I also used it for keeping fish I didn't know what else to do with. At this time this aquarium was home to twelve blue discus of about 10 cm, and four albino Chinese algae-eaters that were about 20 cm. The aquarium was overgrown with lots of C. Demersum since it had been neglected a little duringrepparttar 125842 previous months. Nowrepparttar 125843 time had come to clean this aquarium and try to weed outrepparttar 125844 jungle that had formed. To my big surprise I found a small (1.5 - 2cm) Chinese algae-eater fry. After looking around a little more I found a total of seven fry. I stoppedrepparttar 125845 cleaning and leftrepparttar 125846 aquarium as it was, sincerepparttar 125847 water quality was good and I didn't want to change too much. I didn't see any reason to moverepparttar 125848 fry since they seemed big enough to be safe fromrepparttar 125849 discus which I was moving to a 120 gallon Amazon tank in a few days anyway.

The fry survived and grew relatively fast on a diet of what they could find inrepparttar 125850 well-planted aquarium, and boiled lettuce. But I never gotrepparttar 125851 parents to spawn again, andrepparttar 125852 fry themselves never spawned either. However I would like to say a few words about howrepparttar 125853 Chinese algae-eaters had been kept beforerepparttar 125854 spawning, and which waters they spawned in, to see if I can help anyone else have success where I failed - to breed Chinese algae-eaters and figure out what triggers them to breed.

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