P and I went to the pond last night; he practiced his drive (and lost his Avenger driver in the pond) while I dug for critters around the edges. I was looking for a leech, or some amphipods, but found neither. What I did find were some good-looking (relatively speaking) tubifex worms, and a new friend. I didn’t mean to find a new friend, but when I scooped up a trowel full of “edge gunk”, I saw little legs and a tiny claw, and he was just so cute that I had to bring him home. I hope that wasn’t a mistake that will end in his untimely demise, but he’s just so CUTE. I named him IDNR, since that’s who’d give me the fine for taking him (yes, even just one) without a…uhhh…you know. IDNR–ID for short–is a tiny (under 1.5″) Orconectes immunis and I just love him. For the moment, he’s in a 1.5g plastic container and although I found him in a weed-and-grass-choked, muddy-bottomed area where I’m sure water quality was poor (helluva lot of tubifex if it wasn’t), I was in a bit of a hurry to get him settled last night, so I made him a “stream bed” with fine gravel, a river rock cave and some duckweed for cover. I have an empty 10g, and if he survives, that’s going to be his home. Just what I need–another fucking water change–but ID is just so tiny and cute, and he’s better than a Florida blue because he’s mine. 🙂

Here’s ID, taken last night:

Now that I’ve seen a live O. immunis (I’m fairly sure of ID’s ID ;)), and know that even when they’re small, they still have relatively large pincers, I have to revise my ID of the other crays. I had thought that the small pincers were because they’re babies, but if ID has pincers this size and he’s about the same size as the other crays, then they must be a dwarf species that just doesn’t grow large pincers. ID’ing crayfish is hard enough for someone who’s been around them a lot, but I’d never seen a live crayfish until I came down here. If there are any in NS, there aren’t many; I’ve poked about every waterway everywhere I ever lived in the Province, and never saw a single one, not even a burrow. Anyway, maybe my first ID of the others was correct and they are C. schufeldtii, though I can find no mention of nor picture that shows orange tips on the claws of that species. For that matter, maybe they’re juvie O. virilis. *sigh* Back to the ol’ ID’ing board!

Jeezus. One person says there’s a weight in a filter. Within less than a page, the weight is unprotected lead and they’re wondering how long it takes for lead poisoning to kill fish. Jump to conclusions much, do we? Baaa! Fuckin’ sheeple–not one logical thought or a single scrap of common sense among the lot of you. Certainly, it could be lead, and in that case, you shouldn’t use it…or it could be epoxy-coated lead, or it could be another metal althogether. Do you know? No. Did you ask? Have you bunch of group-thinkers never heard of the fucking telephone? Maybe some evidence that isn’t based on a combination of ignorance and an emotional knee-jerk reaction? Christ in a sidecar–are you really that stupid?

I went to the creek yesterday with a net and a plastic container so I could get better pictures of the little crayfish and identify them. When I saw them on the weekend, I could observe them only “in situ” because I hadn’t a net, and I was doing well to spot them at all, much less get a well-lit closeup of them. Last night I did, and I don’t think they’re dwarfs at all, I think they’re babies. To be specific, baby Orconectes immunis, AKA papershell or calico crayfish, a species common in this area. Since I had more time last night (P was practicing his drive, so I didn’t have to caddy), I poked around the edges of the creek, and found some burrows. I hadn’t seen them before because I’m always in a hurry to catch up to P. They’re much more well-hidden than the ones around the first few holes of the course; these are up under roots, under overhanging spots on the bank, etc., not right out in the open. Also, they cut back the jungle in there, so burrows that had been covered with undergrowth were visible.

From a page on Missouri cray species:

This rather plain, gray-green crayfish is characterized by a pale central zone along the middle of the carapace and abdomen. The pincers are orange-tipped, and in mature males are uniquely tinged with purple. The rostrum is without lateral notches or spines near its tip. Adults are about 1.7 to 3.5 inches in length.

The papershell crayfish occurs widely in the Prairie Region and along the floodplains of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. It is almost always found over a mud bottom in turbid waters that fluctuate drastically in area and depth. Typical habitats are shallow sloughs and the isolated pools of prairie creeks. This crayfish retreats to burrows in late summer as the habitats in which it occurs dry up.

That’s a reasonably accurate description of the environment there (there’s sand and gravel, but some mud, too), it’s a common species I would expect to find in this area, and the pattern looks right compared to the adults in the pictures I “borrowed” from someone’s site (heh). I might just have to get a fishing license so I can collect a few. I could probably sneak some out anyway because I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone “official” there except for the cops cruising through once in a while, but may as well do it legally. I’d hate, though, to bring some home and find that they did not adapt well to life in captivity. I think they’re adorable and I’d love to have at least one as a pet, but I don’t want to kill the little guys over my own selfishness. Hmmm.

One of the little dudes I caught last night:

“Liberated” image of adult O. immunis, red-tipped pincers clearly visible, pattern somewhat visible:

Another adult, pattern more easily visible:

Ha! Bitch-slap for you–not all snails eat plants and I’m not going to let you dis my li’l gastropod buddies with a broad generalisation like that. I may curse the MTS and hate the Marisas some days, and I always hate taking out their snotty globs of eggs, but I will stand up for their right not to be maligned by the ignorant! 😆

In 1975, this was perfectly acceptable (though damned expensive!) Maybe somebody got rich selling it to losers who thought women would actually buy these lame lines. If it were being sold in stores in 2006, somebody’s lawyer would be getting rich.

(Click to enlarge)

Back cover

(Jeezus, those descriptions! :lol:)

There’s an mp3, but I can’t be bothered to edit it and don’t want to use up a lot of space to upload the original. I don’t like linking to other sites because I hate reading something that’s a few months or a year old, then finding out the link is dead, and I have no control over whether the files will be on somebody else’s server or not.

P.S. I need a different laughing emoticon. That one looks like a nervous tic. There….that’s better. 🙂

P.P.S. I just had a thought….the 70s brought us Hai Karate, leisure suits, eight track tapes that cut off songs in the middle with a loud ka-CHUNK as they switched tracks, and Disco Inferno. I’m glad they’re gone!

I don’t mind Jehovah’s Witness. They usually come when I’m feeding the fish on Monday morning and don’t have much time, but they’re always pleasant and polite, their hearts are in the right place and they’re doing what they do because they believe it’s a good thing. Our beliefs are different, but they aren’t hurting me, and if they want to leave some of their literature, I have no problem with that. Sometimes, I even read it. That said, when I’m standing there with a Fish Dish of worms and I’ve got a dozen wiggly, impatient little fushie-wushins acting as if they have never eaten in their lives, time is of the essence and I don’t have time for much more than, “Hi, sure you can leave your magazines, thanks and have a good day!” The two girls who used to do this area knew because they’ve seen my fish and know how many tanks and cultures I maintain, but today it was two older ladies whom I’d never met. They were nice enough, but the worms in the dish were getting a bit impatient and the fish even more so, and the ladies wanted to chat. One made the mistake, though, of noticing the tanks in view from the front door. She asked the magic question, “You have a lot of fish, don’t you–what kind are they?” Muahahaha! NEVER ask me about my fish because….I’ll TELL you about my fish. I’ll tell you more than you ever wanted to know about my fish…which is just what I started to do, and suddenly they were much less chatty. I knew what would be their answer, so I even invited them in. Strangely enough, they were in a bit of a rush. Heh. I love my fish. I may patent them for use as JW repellant.

Rare shot of the Greater American Golfreak, Golfus freakus, in its natural habitat–searching for lost discs in the woods. Normally a very shy creature, seldom captured on camera, but easily identified by its characteristic call of, “DAMN!” echoing through the woods near the shopping cart looking things in which the discs are supposed to land, but often do not.

Um…dude? The pretty side of you is your other side. Generally, flutter-bys pose with their wings right side up and landing equipment down.

The likelihood of a disc’s having landed in a particular spot is directly proportional to the number of thorny bushes growing in that area and the population density of the mosquitoes.

Creek’s drying up, but still a pretty spot.

I found one little cray yesterday, but didn’t have my camera, so I took it today. I think these two are Cajun dwarf crayfish (Cambarellus schufeldtii), but I didn’t collect any to look up close and personal, so I’m not sure. I like the little guy–he looks badass, as if he’d like to come up out of that water and run me off.

Eastern box turtle, obviously not in the mood for socialising.

If my nostrils were that big, I’d hide, too!

Took this with the timer and it’s crooked because the top of a disc golf basket is sloped. I’m trying to smile, but succeeding in a grimace because when I grabbed P’s arm, it was clammy and wet with sweat. EWWW! As you can see, I’m the caddy/photographer. He roams around with a 170g disc in his hand, I carry the bag with the rest of the discs, the towel and first aid kit, the water, the camera bag, scoresheet, pen and of course, my itty bitty iPod because I am a modern and trendy caddy. 😉

No reason, I just like ivy growing on old, dead trees. It’s kind of like the tree gets a second chance to be green and pretty.

Honeysuckle. There’s a ton of this stuff down by the 12th hole (P calls that “The Green Mile” because it’s 725′) and the air all around smells like a little piece of heaven. Sniffy-sniffy-sniff. Ahhhh!

Dunno what kind of tree this is, but those little spiky ball things look like maces. 🙂

P said his Creep Radar went off when he saw this guy (the one in the background–foreground is P, not a creep). Fuckin’ weirdo only grudgingly got out of the way when P was trying to take a shot. I told P I could go tell the creep that we ran a website dedicated to the identification of pedos and that if he didn’t get the fuck out of the way, his picture would be on the front page tomorrow morning. Heh. He did move, though…eventually. Never said a damned thing to us, either. Creepy, you betcha!

I love this little bridge.

Just because it’s pretty. I looked this flower up once, but have since forgotten what it is. Doesn’t matter–it’s pretty.

This spider really needs to clean up his property. Neighborhood’s gonna go to hell, property values go down and the next thing you know, there’ll be ants running a crackhouse.

Okay, that’s it for today. 🙂

I don’t give a rat’s ARSE what you eat. Be vegetarian, be ovo-lacto vegetarian, be a fuckin’ card-carrying PETA freak bean-chomping, farting vegan if you want and it’s all the same to me, but you DON’T get to force your choices on a tiny, helpless fish that can’t even say, “Hey, dumbass–gimme something fit to eat, willya?” He’s a betta and an omnivore, but leans strongly toward foods animal in origin, not grain meal and processed fish guts, and no, you can’t feed him a vegetarian diet. If you do, you’ll either make him sick or flat-out fucking kill him. He doesn’t care what offends you, he knows only what he is, and that’s a cute little fishie who eats animals small enough to fit into his mouth. Dickweed!

You know you’re getting old when the cops start looking less like “No sir” and more like “No, dear”. We went to the disc golf (henceforth known as DG) course today , and as we were walking along beside the park road after P let fly a wild shot, a cruiser drove by. I glanced at the driver, and he was twelve. I have underwear older than the people sworn to serve and protect us. I am glad that the cops are around the park often, though, ’cause it helps the Future Criminals of America at bay. Loudmouth little fuckers in their saggy-arse camouflage pants and enormous sweatshirts with the hoods up when it’s eighty degrees. Jeezus I hate kids. Yeah, I’m old. Half a step away from shaking my cane at the whippersnappers on my lawn.

I’m here to help you, but I am not here to choose your fish, do your research or make suggestions based upon stock that may or may not be at the home of a breeder in another state whose name I don’t even know. If you’re concerned that he won’t have in stock the fish you want by the time you drive for a WHOLE, ENTIRE HOUR, then pick up the fucking phone, call and ASK. I’m sure he knows his stock and he’s a reasonable enough person that if he knows you’re on your way and will arrive in an hour to buy a specific number of a species, he’ll hold them for you. If he won’t, then pick another breeder because he’s an arsehole. I don’t want to write a book on the cichlid species of Lake Malawi–that’s what Ad Konings is for–and I certainly don’t want to do it for free on a beautiful Saturday morning (Saturday is, incidentally, my only real day off). If you’re too stupid to get a feel for how cichlids act based on what we’ve explained (at length!) so far, and too lazy to fire up your fucking browser and type “google.com”, then too fuckin’ bad–you’re on your own. I know that by saying “be specific”, you’re telling me you want me to sit here and list species, colours and behaviours, but you know what? I’m not fucking doing it. Do it yourself. www.google.com, search term “mbuna”, click the Image tab to see the pretty pictures. If you can write to annoy me, I’ll assume you can read as well.