That Fish Blog – Aquarium Advice and Information

Given the sad comedy of errors that have occurred on the BP Deep Water Horizon drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico, a lot of people will have their collective fingers crossed this week, as the project for the permanent cap to the damaged well gets under way.  I don’t think that there is need to rehash all of the events leading up to this point, everyone directly affected by this disaster is fully aware of what has happened.  The New York times a great website detailing the repair efforts if you are interested. Read More »

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.  If you stare long enough at a Lungfish or Mudskipper (as I have, often causing my co-workers to wonder…), it’s easy to picture a similar creature leaving an ancient sea and setting forth to explore the land in the distant past.  Indeed, evolutionary biologists tell us that a fish very much like today’s Australian Lungfish (Neoceratodus fosteri) did pull off such a feat some 360 million years ago, thereby setting the stage for the rise of the amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.  Read More »

About 70% of our planet is covered with water. Since the other 30% is currently fixated on the ongoing World Cup competition in South Africa, why should the piscean players not get involved as well?  It was interesting to me as a fish hobbyist to find the following happenings in media from around the world…check out the links to read/see more!

Looking for some help figuring out your spread and who will win the next bracket? Ask Paul. Paul has gotten his last four predictions right. Paul will never lead you astray. Oh, by the way, Paul is an octopus. The 2-year-old British expatriate most recently predicted that his new German home team will defeat his old English hometeam on Saturday. So, Paul, who’s gonna take the Cup (and what are my lucky lottery numbers)? Read More »

A few hundred years ago, people in Western cultures like 16th century England often drank very little water. Because of untreated sewage draining into water sources and contamination in rivers, other beverages like beer and wine were actually preferred as safer choices. As technology and our understanding of health and technology advanced, we came up with more ways to purify our water sources. At the start of the start of the 19th century, a scientist named William Cumberland Cruikshank found that chlorine would purify water by killing microbes and bacteria like the notorious E. coli. Chlorine is still used in most developed countries to make drinking water safe and chloramine, a combination of chlorine and ammonia is starting to overtake even this old standard. Read More »

Rules, rules, rules, why do we have to follow rules?  Well, for the most part, because they are for your own good.  Kind of like going to the dentist.   However, some rules should not last forever.  Sometimes they‘re no longer relevant, sometimes a better idea comes along, and sometimes they turn out to be bad ideas to begin with.  This is true in just about any facet of life, and aquarium keeping is no different.  I could rant about several rules that come to mind, but my rule of the moment is the old “Watts per gallon” rule when it comes to choosing lights for your aquarium, particularly live plant and reef aquariums, which require higher intensity lighting. Read More »