Extracts from Aquaria

Welcome! We write mainly about out pets and aquariums but also keep a record of our musical tastes daily lives and thoughts here. I hope you find our writing interesting or at least amusing in a dumb way.

About Me: My name is Michael. I was born in September 94. I am quite young. I live in Hong Kong. I like writing in short statement-ish sentences, unlike this one. Originally, I was the only one behind this site, but I realized that using this site as a shared base for the blogs, articles and other thoughts of a bunch of aquarists (and my friends) would be more interesting, unique and help boost the content a bit.

I don't like maths. I don't like essays. I am an aquarist: I live for mantis shrimps, bettas, marine aquariums, freshwater aquariums, caudates, terrariums, paludariums. Just to prove that I can keep going, I also like cichlids, anabantidae (snakeheads in particular), planted tanks, African rift lake cichlids, reef tanks, zoanthids, seahorses, frogfish, caecilians and ecology. I also like music. I want a ferret. I guess I'm not popular, and my interests are quite different from a lot of people. Please don't hesitate to contact (mail) me. I want to meet more aquarists. I like asking/answering questions. I like directing you to someone who can answer things I can't (which will occur quite often). Reach me at micstarz@gmail.com and convince me that this site is actually useful!

Well my exams are coming up shortly so I'm going to have to take a three week to a month long break to study for them...that means no major additions and updates until then, apart from the occaisional blogpost...wish me good luck, will ya?  

P.S. Grey Britain is FINALLY out! It's the best album ever. 

Gallows is back with a new album! Grey Britain wil be out in the beginning of May. If you haven't heard of the Gallows, or if you think hardcore punk music isn't for you, have a listen to their stuff and you will change your mind.

http://www.myspace.com/gallows

 I'll see ya all after lunch! 

We have a new forum going. It's called Exotics from Aquaria and it's a discussion board for exotic, predatory and oddball aquarium animals! Show your support and join up so we can get the forum rolling. 

A few new projects are getting rolling. Those articles you've been waiting for are going to come online, and a few new sections are going to appear, including fresh ideas to share such as Designs from Aquaria! Keep faithful.

 I'll see ya after lunch. 

Nice. When you search Extracts from Aquaria in Google, it's no longer at the tenth page, but is the second hit on the first page. Thanks, guys.

New Betta Page done! Betta caresheet in progress. Stomatopod care sheet around 50% complete. I've also pictured up some of my pages. The past setups page has been pictured up, and the music page has had a massive overhaul. Check out some of my music at the bottom of the music page.

8:26pm EDIT: I got back from LFS'ing. Today was another interesting trip. They had CUTTLES, and seven O. scyllarus! They even had some sort of deep sea fish. Read about it here.

I've been updating my Betta page (which needed MASSIVE updating) and other pages. I am trying to find an easy way to design my own layout for this site so that it doesn't look so unoriginal. I treasure originality. I'll continue building my stomatopod care sheet and start my betta sheet as well. I need you to identify a damsel I saw, which had pretty cool markings. I'm also almost done with the Sai Kung Seafood Market picture account and the Tung Choi street deal.

Check out this article about a man who eatslive frogs and mice.

http://waycoolpics.blogspot.com/2008/08/eating-live-frogs.html 

Eye wiw c yu arphta lunch. 

Good news for the mods! The email feature is up. To get your address, contact me and I'll do it for you. Regular visitors can apply for an yourname@extractsfromaquaria.co.cc address too. Just contact me at micstarz@extractsfromaquaria.co.cc.

I still haven't got any ideas for the chat yet. Do you?

Anyway, today was a boring-ish day for me. All I did was...nothing much, really. Which actually means that an eighth of my 12 hour day has been spent with my aquariums. At least I managed to get more videos of Tagron feeding, Reggi building/rennovating and Xaegus still running from me. By the way, you can check out some of my videos here.

When I do my blog post, you can go view it.

I'll see ya after lunch... 

Finally, the Easter holidays. Time to (hopefully) relax and be able to watch a few movies, go out for days on a row, fix up my terrarium and care for my fish. I just got home from LFS'inig (again) and brought home with me two bettas, more live food and more macroalgae. Such is the life of a fishkeeper.

Blog post here. 

Welcome, Weylin! He's going to write a couple of artikklesssss and more stuff.

 P.S. Trying to write with the horrible scraping/mechanical sound of a snail being battered by a powerhead is pretty darn annoying. 

So will I see you after lunch? 

Welcome Koshmar, Bottomfeeder and Eoin to the site. I've asked them to help and write content (articles, blog posts, etc) and they have kindly agreed. Koshmar keeps Stomatopods (WHOOOOOOO!) and is rearing a Sepia bandensis juvenile. Bottomfeeder...I forgot what he keeps :x In fact, I never asked him. I better go and ask him.

Meanwhile, to keep you entertained...I've updated my blog. 

By the way, guys, I've been trying to insert pictures (WITH FORMATTING) onto the homepage to make it less drab. The sitebuilder sucks (and doesn't let me), and screws the heck up every time I load it so I've put the posts back to boring old text-only for now. I'll try and figure it out.

 I'll see ya after lunch, drangs.

 P.S. I have no idea what "drangs" are. 

Happy April Fools Day. Because I am so busy, I have decided to quit constructing this site.

 APRIL FOOLS DAY, GUYS! I've actually been working on this mess for a couple of hours. I know no one looks at this virtual physcadelic realm but I like doing it. It's between this, homework, LFS'ing, working on my tanks and cycling. Today, it's this.

 Yesterday I went out LFS'ing and I came back happy. I missed Tung Choi. I hadn't been there for like almost a month because of revision for exams, choosing to go to the Sai Kung market (which yielded nothing much) and going beach collecting instead. Anyway, I had a chat to some of the ACTUAL shopkeepers (unlike the fgts at "Carkey", I'll explain later) and it was awesome. Read more about my LFS trip here...(Life Blog)

 I clicked some random stuff in Freewebs* and suddenly out popped a "Recent Blog Entries" thingo and a sign in/ register deal. Hope you enjoy clicking at it. 

I finally got round to changing the pipe that connects my pump to my refugium. Enteromorpha had gained a hold and started clogging up the interior of the tube, kind of like cholesterol in blood vessels. My skimmer works again and is pumping out skimmate by the cupful.  

My tests are done, and Easter is coming, so that means that you'll be seeing some nice improvements in the content soon. I promise you I'll get my Stomatopod Caresheet up at the very least. In the meantime, why not entertain yourself by reading my "Weeds, Seeds and Bullshit" analogy (is that the right word?) which shows how our lives are like gardens with God being the gardener. Read it hereee. (My Recent Thoughts Blog)

Oh, and also, RIP to Samiera, my Odontodactylus scyllarus. She died after I rearranged my rockwork.

Some other things I want to mention are that Tagron (My G. glabrous) is getting to molt. I also have some really full on videos of him smashing the hell out of a few crabs. Reggi (My G. viridis) has also taken to playing volleyball with crabs, as you’ll see in the video (when it happens) comes online.

The big news, though, is that I got a Pseudosquilla ciliata some time two weeks ago (I’ll provide exact date later when I look at my touch). He/she is in my macroalgae tank and has dug burrows everywhere. After some trouble, I got him/her hunting de-shelled hermit crabs yada yada.

On a recent trip to the beach, I dug up some synaptid (sp?) sea cucumbers (aka. Medusa worms) and I’m debating whether to put them into my tanks or not. I still have yet to catch and identify some of those shore blenny/gobies that look really nice, but I caught three pistol shrimp. I just lifted the rocks and found them. They sell at my LFS for a lot, so maybe I’ll trade them for some mermaid’s hair that I always wanted (but couldn’t bring myself to buy)

One more thing: my grape caulerpa almost went sexual. I was so scared about having to regrow all my caulerpa if it all expelled…the tank looks stupid without it.

 Well, I'll see you after lunch, then...

All pages of site updated.