November 2004 Archives

Meet the newest member of the Beckenham Clan!

Nigel is my first pet in a long long time. The lovely Linda gave me Nigel for my birthday, and I must say, it has been a brilliant gift. Prompted by my concern for Linda's 'tough-love' hardened goldfish & platies, I was given Nigel as an outlet for my protective zeal.

And, it has been great. I always wanted my own pet, but my lifestyle hasn't really been ameniable to owning a dog (oh for a non-slobbering Boxer), a cat, or anything that requires interaction. Fish are great!

Nigel is a male Siamese Fighting Fish (a Betta splendens for those systematicists out there). They are carnivores (and a little partial to blood worms), and interestingly have a peculiar adaptation (a labyrinth organ) that allows them to breathe from the water's surface - this being in addition to their gills. Yep, they're on their way to lung fish status!

These guys are real peacocks too - the males being very garish & flouncey, and the females much less so. The blokes are partial to a bit of biff too, so they don't like to play with others (well, at least other flouncey fish like them!).

So far Nigel has had his digs upgraded from an oversized wine goblet to an old spaghetti jar with a few water plants. Initially he loved it, but in the last few days, Nige has been acting a little pathetic - he's not interested in eating (bad sign I think), and he's not very active. We're having a hot spell here in Brisbane, and I am trying to keep his water at a constant temperature, but it is diffiucult in +30¬?C weather. I've changed his water and brought in a few blood worms to stir his appetite, but there's been no luck with that as of yet.

C'mon Nige, you can do it!

Update: 9th of December, 2004

Nigel's snapped out of it and is loving the new digs. It must have been a new environment that put him out of sorts. He's foodbagging with the best of them right now, and appears to be quite happy. There's even a few bubblenests being built periodically. Good one Nige!

Here's a site I've been building lately. I'm finally getting the hang of TrackBack, and I guess this entry in part is just part of a test setup.

By...Lin...Ed...

By...Lin...Ed...: Hej hej hej