Humboldt Penguin

Exotic animals such as crocodiles, tigers and penguins may soon be disappearing from homes in Russia as parliament is considering a bill which would help cut down the number of animals which could be kept as pets.

Yevgeny Tugolukov, the chairman of the lower house’s natural resources committee, has commented that a pending bill on the care of animals may also include a list of animals which are “inadvisable to keep at home”.

That list of animals would include “exotic” animals such as crocodiles, snakes and monkeys which are rather popular amongst the people of Russia, but can also promote the spread of rather nasty diseases.

This bill was submitted to the State Duma this past Monday.

It will help to drive the responsibility of pet owners to take good care of their pets home, and is in response to a steep rise of cases of animal cruelty. However, there are very few cases of animal cruelty which actually make it to court.

The latest outrage, which helped to prompt the promotion of this new bill, was from a woman in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, who had kept a rare Amur tiger in a cage. However, the biggest outrage comes not from the crime, but from the punishment. She is expected to pay a “hefty” fine of 2,500 rubles or about 80 US dollars.

Russia is known as being a nation filled with pet lovers, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is no exception. His rather extensive group of pets was just recently made larger by a Karakachan puppy, which was a thoughtful gift from Boyko Borisov. While the gift may not have done anything to improve politics, it did bring a smile to his face.

The Council of Agriculture in Taiwan surprised the world last week by stating that they had successfully created fluorescent cichlids. These cichlids were created by breeding  trangenic Convict cichlids and Angelfish.

The creation of this fish was the brain child of the Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s national research academy, and took just shy of 7 years to accomplish.

Some other innovative fish that this group has cooked up are the GloFish Zebra danio (Danio rerio) and the fluorescent Medaka (Oryzias latipes). These fish have been authorized for sale, and quite popular, since 2003 when they first hit the market in Taiwan as an aquarium fish.

Dr. Chih-Yi Chen, the head of the investigative team which created this cichlid, has stated that creating this cichlid took a lot of effort because of the lack of control they had over the spawning process, as compared to the smaller fish they previously tinkered with.

The scientists had to literally sit by the aquarium and wait for the fish to spawn so that the gene fragments could be immediately inserted into the Convict cichlid eggs. If it is not injected immediately, the results don’t seem to take.. This made the whole process very fickle.

An even greater obstacle was overcome, when they were in the process of spawning the fluorescent angelfish, as the couldn’t use micro-injection techniques in the same manner as with the Convict cichlids. In this case, they needed to apply an electric field to the cell membrane, in order to inject the gene fragments.

Well, they pulled it off.. The only question now is… What the heck is it good for? A fish nightlight?

Fluorescent Convict cichlid (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) - Pic by JY Lin Co Ltd

The mysterious deaths among dogs visiting the beaches of Auckland have now been solved; they were caused by tropical pufferfish.

Tropical pufferfish contains a highly potent toxin known as tetrodotoxin. They are considered a delicacy in Japan, but will be a deadly indulgence unless prepared by an expert pufferfish chef. Even just touching a pufferfish can be lethal.

Tests done by the Cawthron Institute found tetrodotoxin in the vomit of one of the dogs that died after visiting Narrow Neck beach, and the toxin was also present in a sea slug sample taken from the same beach. How the toxin got into the sea slug remains unknown.

If members of the public find unusually large numbers of fish and other dead animals they should report these to the MAF Biosecurity New Zealand emergency pest and disease hotline 0800-809-966.

Larry, a 3-foot-long Tawny nurse shark (Nebrius ferrugineus) has been moved from his cramped dwellings in a Burbank pet store to the Birch Aquarium, a public aquarium and museum capable of offering him much more spacious accommodations. The Birch Aquarium is a part of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, which in turn is part of the University of California in San Diego.

Larry’s move to a new home is the result of Burbank resident Stephanie Field spotting Larry at the Scales ‘n’ Tails pet shop in Burbank.

“I swore to him I would get him out of there”, Field said.

After discussing the situation with PETA and an animal shelter, Field went back to the store to talk to the owner Vahe Issaian. She had decided to purchase Larry and set him free in the ocean off the coast of California, but Issaian explained to her that doing so would only serve to kill the shark.

“That’s when I found out Vahe is a really good guy,” Field said.

As it turned out, Issaian had been trying to find a new home for Larry for quite some time but without any success. Issaian had first brought him to his pet store in 2001 when Larry’s owner left for military service and could care for his big fish any longer. In 2002, Larry was purchased by a couple from Valencia with whom he stayed until 2008.

“They had it for five years, and I picked it up in mid-2008 because they were remodelling their home and didn’t have an eight-foot wall for the aquarium,” Issaian said.

Since then, Larry had been living at Issaian’s other Burbank store, Millenium Pets. Trying to find a new home for a shark that can reach a length of 10 feet (3 metre) is not the easiest thing in the world since few people have enough space to devote to such a gigantic pet.

Finally, it was Field’s mother who suggested calling the Australian Consulate and this set the wheels in motion. After talking to the consulate on Wednesday morning, Field received an e-mail that same day telling her that progress had been made and that she could stop making calls.

On Tuesday, assistant curator Fernando Nosratpour picked up Larry from the pet shop and moved him to his new home. Larry will now spend two weeks in quarantine before he’s introduced to the other sharks.

Always research pets before you buy them

Adult Tawny nurse sharks can reach a length of 10 feet (3 metres) and getting a nurse shark for your hobby aquarium is not a good idea unless you have a HUGE tank. Nosratpour says that the Birch Aquarium do receive offers now and then to take nurse sharks that people have bought without first researching how large they will become as adults.

“Most public aquariums can’t take them anymore,” he said. “Pet stores can’t take them, and you can’t ship them back to where they are from. But people still buy them, and that’s a problem.”

The Tawny nurse shark is found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans in a region stretching from the northern coast of Australia and almost all the way to the Red Sea. It is the only now living member of the genus Nebrius and can be distinguished form other nurse sharks by its angular fins. It is listed as “Vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Just like dolphins, sharks can be trained to roll over to be cuddled by humans. In experiments carried out in the United States, several species of shark allowed themselves to be picked up from the water and cuddled by their trainers.

The U.S. trainers used coloured boards and sounds to train their sharks to respond to commands. No one had attempted to train sharks in this way before and the results are truly ground breaking. Shark keepers now hope that the new technique will give sharks a higher quality of life in captivity. When sharks ned to be moved, the normal practise is to chase them around, but a trained shark could instead be thought to just gently swim to a certain spot.

“The US team has shown that many varieties of sharks can quickly learn to respond to a combination of audible and visual signals”, says Carey Duckhouse of UK’s Sea Life Centres.

Keepers at the UK’s Sea Life Centres are planning to use the methods developed in the U.S. to train sharks kept in British facilities. Colour boards and sounds will be used to show each shark when it is his or her turn to receive food. If everything goes according to plan, the fastest learners in the shark tanks will grasp the idea within three months.

When a shark have learned to associate particular colours and sounds with food, the signals will make it approach its keeper who will be holding a “target stick” against which the shark will rub its nose in hope of getting a tasty treat.

”Some species, such as zebra sharks, will even roll over to have their tummies scratched or allow themselves to be lifted from the water without any kind of struggle,” says Dickhouse.

To demonstrate the level of toxic material in a brand of anti-dandruff shampoo, a Danish television presenter poured diluted shampoo into a fish tank on a 2004 episode of the consumer affairs show she fronted.

Lisbeth Kloester, a television presenter on the Danish public channel DV1, is now on trial for causing unnecessary suffering to animals.

After being subjected to the shampoo, all but one of 12 guppy fish housed in the aquarium died within four days and a veterinary practitioner watching the show decided to press charges. Under Danish law, causing unnecessary suffering to animals is an offence and Kloester could face a fine if convicted.

Kloester has pleaded not guilty and her lawyer Tuge Tried said he expected his client to be acquitted at the trial on Tuesday.

“The allegations are this experiment caused the fish’s fear and suffering…but expert witnesses told the court on May 12 that this was not the case,” he said. “Fish are killed by suffocation in industrial fisheries and we throw live lobsters into boiling water, but we don’t press charges against fisherman or restaurant owners.”

Mars Fishcare, owner of Rena, Aquarian and API, is pulling out of aquarium production and sales due to increased competition in the aquarium market.

“Mars Fishcare Europe is taking steps to refocus its European business in aquarium equipment and water treatment, and to strengthen its position in the European fish food market, ” the company says in a statement. “In recent years, the sharp rise in competition in the tank market has made it difficult for Mars Fishcare to optimise its resources in this area.”

Mars Fishcare has pledged to provide after sales service for all Rena Aqualife aquariums already sold in Europe and to honour the five year guarantee that comes with all recent Rena Aqualife models. Up until now, Rena has been an important player in the European aquarium market, especially in the UK, with its Aqualife range of modern high-quality aquariums intended for customers interested not only in functionality but also in sleek eye-pleasing design.

The Indian government’s Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) is now launching a breeding program for the threatened Red line torpedo barb (Puntius denisonii).

Torpedo barb – Picture by brookfish

Puntius denisonii, commonly known as Red line torpedo barb, Roseline shark, or Denison barb, is native to the fast-flowing hill streams and rivers in Kerala, at state located in the southern part of India. It is highly sought after in the aquarium trade.

After several years of research, the MPEDA has now managed to successfully breed Red line torpedo barb using two different techniques: one that relies on hormone treatment to trigger spawning and one where the natural breeding conditions of this barb is recreated in captivity.

MPEDA hopes to be starting commercial production shortly.

Picture by brookfish

First of, let me tell everyone how sorry I am that I have been posting a bit sporadic lately. Things have been crazy but hopefully they will improve even though it still might be a couple of weeks until they do. Until then you will unfortunately have to be content with the host I do manage to post. But now, without further ado, on to the Asian arowana

Asian Arowana – Scleropages formosus. Copyright www.jjphoto.dk

Bristol Zoo Gardens have bred the rare Asian Arowana (Scleropages formosus). The spawning resulted in 15 fry which are now estimated to be nine weeks old. The staff did not witness the spawning which is why they can only estimate the age of the fry for this mouth-breeding species. It is not the first time the Asian Arowanas have spawned in Bristol Zoo Gardens, but it is the first time the fry have survived.

Bristol Zoo Gardens has kept four Arowanas, also known as Dragon fish, for 13 years. They received the specimens from the UK custom services who had confiscated them after revealing an attempt to smuggle them into the country.

The zoo has recently taken steps to improve the Arowana exhibit by using reverse osmosis, and has also increased the temperature in the holding tanks. The assistant curator of the aquarium at Bristol Zoo Gardens, Jonny Rudd, believes that one of these actions might be the reason behind the successful breeding. This might very well be true but I also wish to mention the possibility that it might simply have to do with the parents getting more mature and learning from past failures, a well known phenomenon in mouth brooding fish and other fish that care for their young.

This is as far as I know the first time this species have been bred outside Asia.

The Asian Arowana is very rare in the wild and is on the brink of extinction in Thailand. It is red listed by Cites and can not be imported to many countries. This species is bred in farms in Asia where it is a popular exclusive aquarium fish, believed to bring luck due to its resemblance to a dragon. It is today available in a variety of different colorations and morphs. In Asia you can by farm bred fish with certifications stating that they are farm bred and not wild caught, and some countries allow you to import such specimens. You can read more about the Asian Arowana here.

According to its keeper Barbara Woodford, 61, of Gloucester, the goldfish Ginger managed to survive for 13 hours on the floor behind a cupboard after leaping out of its bowl during the night or early in the morning.

When Woodford woke up at 7 am, she found the bowl empty and started to look for her pet, but to no avail. When it was time for her to leave for work she had still not found Ginger. When Woodward returned from work around 8 pm, she feared the worst but made a new attempt and finally managed to find her missing goldfish after moving the cupboard on which the fishbowl was standing.

“I picked him up with a spatula and his mouth started moving. I put him back into the water and off he went. He was swimming fabulously. I couldn’t believe it – it was a real Christmas miracle,” Woodward explains.

Woodward received Ginger as a birthday present in August. Recently, she had noticed how her pet was jumping up out of the water a lot. “We thought nothing of it,” says Woodward. “Apparently goldfish jump when they need more oxygen, so on this occasion he obviously jumped right out.”

A spokesman for the Association of Midland Goldfish Keepers said: “Fish can survive quite a while out of the water, as long as their gills remain moist, allowing them to breathe. But this is the longest I’ve heard of a goldfish staying alive. It’s quite astonishing.“

How can I prevent accidents like this from happening?

• Avoid keeping goldfish in bowls. A normal sized goldfish bowl is actually too small to comfortably house a fish as large and active as the goldfish.
  
• If your fish repeatedly tries to jump out of its home, try to figure out why. There are many reasons why a fish will try to jump out of its home, such as low oxygen levels, poor water quality, an aquarium or bowl that is too small, or bullying tank mates. If a fish needs to breathe air at the surface, it rarely jumps out of the aquarium – it just swims to the surface and puts its mouth above the water. Some fish species will however try to escape if the oxygen level is so low that they think they are stuck in a puddle that is gradually drying out.
  
• Some fish species are natural jumpers, e.g. because they are used to catching insects above the water in the wild or because they jump out of the water to impress a mate during courtship. Such species should always be kept in covered aquariums to prevent them from ending up on the floor.
  
• Always get a second opinion. Unfortunately, many pet shops that sell goldfish bowls, betta vases and similar have tendency to downplay the requirements of these fishes. If you are told that goldfish breathe by jumping into the air, that fish tattooed with neon-colours are doing great, or that a Siamese fighting fish in a vase need no food because it will nibble on flower roots, ask for a second opinion from someone who isn’t trying to sell you something. You can for instance visit an online forum or contact an aquarium club.
  
• If you decide to give someone a pet for their birthday, make sure that you also give them all instructions needed to care for that particular pet. Also make sure that they actually want a pet and have enough time, money and dedication to care for a living creature in the long run. A goldfish can live for 40 years or more.