Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!
Brothers' birthday is today, sadly I can't celebrate him since we live so far apart. But that doesn't mean that I don't think about him, 'cause I do. And my cousin Mikael has his borthday today too. Happy birthday guys!

Tasmanian devils battles with disfiguring cancer. Help saving them!

Picture found at:

New Scientist - Hidden cancer threat to wildlife revealed

I know there will be strong reactions to this article, or rather the pictures, so therefor I warn you!
I have to warn sensitive readers. There might be pictures that can be grouse, terrible, gore and extreme or severe disfiguration.

Picture found at:

http://scienceblogs.com/

Today when I watched Nat Geo Wild channel around 18.00 they talked about the tasmanian devils and the cancer no one knew where it came from. The pictures are horrifying! Imagine yourself full of tumors coming out from everywhere: eye sockets, mouth, broken yaws from fighting. The list could go on for ever.

Picture found at:

ANU - Research School of Biology

The scientists first thought of poisoning from farms, extermination poisoning and plant poisoning. But the last place they found tasmanian devils with this cancer was miles away form closest farm. So poisoning doesn't seem to be the cause. Most people see this beautiful animal as a desease and a plague, and therefor it has to go. But the tasmanian devil is protected by law, therefor poisoning happens in the dark.

Is it a virus? There is nothing called cancervirus, but a virus can cause mutation. A problem is that scientist doesn't know how the devils immunrespons works. Checking the blood showed them that they had the right amount of white blood cells.

Cancer is not contageous like a virus might be. But yet several devils have come down with the desease.

Cell implantation came up as one of the ideas of how this desease spreds. But how does that work? The scientist coming up with this idea got it from when she walked her dog. Her dog had an argument with another dog and they locked yaws. That's how the idea of cell implantation started. Since the devils eat what ever they can get.

Picture found at:

About My Planet - A Devil of a Disease

Scientists looked at the cromosomes in the cancer cells, and they looked like they where the same cromosome. All looked like clones of each other. Another thought emerged. Could it be a mutation of ones own cells? A test showed it wasn't so. They catch the cancer from another individual.

Scientists started wondering what could happen to this desease. Can it become less leathal? Can it become worse? Or can it start jumping from the devils to other anilmals?

Young devils doesn't seem to get this cancer, so the scientists turned to the adults. An adult with a big red lump around its neck becomes a target during feeding. The other devils attack the infected devil. But the scientists didn't find the answer here either. So they turned to the mating season where the males ripps off chunks of each other in fights over females.

Why is the devil caught with this desease? No other animal gets it. The Tasmanian Island is not connected to the rest of Australia, and since man didn't care if the devils lived or not they killed many of them. Then when the devils where climbing back up again in numbers, what else would there be if not inbreeding? The cancer is not rejected by the devils immun system and the desease has spread on at least 2/3 of the islands population.

Picture found at:

National Geographic - Animals Printable Pages

How do we save it?
Another question is: How many cures for cancer do we have? Scientists are skeptic to find a cure for the cancer before the devils are completely gone. The devils that gets the desease dies within 3 to 5 month from catching it.

Scientists are trying to break the cycle by putting the devils in quarantine, both in the wild and in captivity. The devils are put in quarantine for 2 years to make sure no one of them has caught the desease. It's a desperate attempt.

The devils on the east side of the island have no variation in genes which makes them vulnerable for the cancer, but then the scientists found out that the devils on the west side had variations in the genes. They took one of the quarantine born devils with genes from the west coast and injected him with cells from the cancer to see how his immun system worked. They took a look at the white blood cells and they increased to fight off the cancer cells. Maybe the devils from the west coast has an answer on how to stop this horrible desease!

Picture found at:
I Want To Breathe - We are almost gone

Help saving these cute critters!

Save the Tasmanian Devil! 

Finally! Starting up an aquarium / tank

Yeah, I know I should have posted this about a week ago, but I've been lazy lately. But now it's on its way! Go me!

First of all:
You have to purchase an aquarium or a tank as some people say. You can either buy a brand new tank or you're buying a used one. If you're buying a brand new one, you've have to wait about a week before plants and fishes can be put in the tank. Of course there has to be water in the tank and the inflater has to be running.

But if you're buying a used one you can pretty much start it up as soon as you get home. But how do I do that? That's what I'm going to show you now.

 

First: You have you're used tank where you want it to be. Then what do you next? Well, take a bucket of clean fresh water and an unused sponge. Now you start to clean the whole tank with the water and the sponge. Rub every small green spots you can see on the glass, if there's any small green spots at all.

Done? Then we go to the next step!

 

Water at the bottom of the tank? Wipe it away with a towel or something else you can use.

Now prepare the gravel or sand. Wash it as carefully as possible. Filtrate it if you think it's necessary. Just remember to use a fine filter if you have very fine gravel or sand. Or you'll end up with a nice plug of gravel or sand in you pipes. Belive me, it's not fun!

Oh! And remember to use the finest help you can find to keep an
eye on the fish in the buckets/plastic bags/whatever you use.

Now that you have filtrated your gravel or sand, it's time to fill the tank up. If you don't have a hose you can use 'cause it's cold outside or you just don't have one, a good tip is to use 10 gallon buckets or any other size of bucket. Just remember: the smaller the bucket is the longer time it takes. When you've filled the tank with water you can start the inflater to get the water going and the particles to stay in the filter.

Wait to about the next day to stop the inflater again. Now you take out the filter inside the inflater and clean it under running water in the sink until the water is clean. I mean, when you twist the filter. The water that's coming out of the filter is in the beginning brownish looking. So when the water's clean again, you put the filter back into the inflater, and back down in the tank again with the inflater going.

This picture is taken the same night I filled the tank up. This picture is taken about an hour later after the tank was filled up. Since I had a tank going before this one I took some water from the other tank and put into this one. Thus why I already have the plants in it. 

This is the day after. It takes a few days
before the "fog" dissappears,
so it's alright for it to look like this. 

Yep! You're right! You need a guard for the fish.
And not just any guard will do. A cat is the finest guard
you can find!

The fish was alright in the bucket during the night.

But you can't say the same thing for my poor shrimps....

The tank became a little foggy again. I wasn't happy with the way the plants were planted.

A gigantic Vallisneria gigantea is planted infront of the inflater.

Since I hate to see the equipment its place was kind of sealed.

Still a bit foggy, but it's okey.

You know, the most funny thing about aquarium is the planning and design stage. With design I mean the layout in the tank. How much gravel do I need, where to I want this plant and so forth.

One of the gourami. Unfortunatly this male was a bit terrytorial when I got the golden ones. He kind of killed his mate and the golden male, so now it's just him and the golden female left. But they're a lovely couple!

I don't recommend you to mix these Convict cichlid with shrimps. The shrimps were gone the minute these fish saw them. And I'd say I wouldn't have any plants with the at all since they dig. At least the grown ones did. This little fry ain't doing that for a while but he or she will be doing that soon.

Here are both of the gouramis. They're beautiful, aren't they?

These Pomacea bridgesii are quite fascinating. They seem to disappear constantly. When I count them I only find two out of three each time. So when I look for the third I either find it behind the inflater, in some plant or behind something else that seems impossible to hid behind. These three are at least 3cm over the shell and, if I read right, becomes 15cm when they're grown! Now, that's a snail!

Sorry!

I feel pretty useless for not posting how to start your aquarium / tank post. I promise it will be up soon!


In the meanwhile: Take care everyone!