Tag: Nature

Fishkeeping

I’ve been pretty busy working on some fish stuff for someone and this seems as appropriate a topic for the month as any.

Betta

“A higher volume of water allows for more stable water conditions and thwarts the waste concentrations that a polluted betta bowl is subject to—it can go from livable to toxic literally overnight….Autopsied specimens that were kept in small enclosures have been found to have died from atrophied muscles and fatty degeneration of tissues…At temperatures below 70°F, bettas enter a state of minimal activity; their metabolic processes slow to a snail’s pace, and the fish limits its physical movements to only what is absolutely necessary (picture the fish just lying on the bottom until it rises for a gulp of air).”

If you know nothing about fish, some simple things to remember:

  1. Aquarium fish (and frogs, shrimp, etc) are tropical fish! They require heaters.
  2. Twenty gallons is the minimum safe tank size for someone who doesn’t know fish need heaters. Many fish will require even larger tanks.
  3. I don’t fucking care those things cost more than the fish do. Don’t buy the fish then.

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Parasites and Disease

Do you know what’s lacking in horror? Parasites.

Not the kind that take people over to make them a danger to others. The transformative horror there is rather played out, and most of the time there’s little attention to even that, it’s just used as an explanation for where the humanoid monsters come from.

I’m talking about disgusting things that squirm their way into your flesh millimeter by millimeter, hurting you and disfiguring you at the same time. And that disfiguration serves only to leave you open to new infections, new things leeching your blood out. And then finally you die, twisted up and in pain, leaking contagion everywhere for the next victims.

Below the cut: horrible videos illustrating this point!
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