Aquarium Fishes

Glass Aquarium Fishes

 The fresh water is nothing but ornamental fishes kept in glass container or quibbed aquarium known as fish tank. These  fishes tank  are decorated by water dwelling plants and animal with ornamental fishes.

In 19^th century 1^st modern glass aquarium was developed by Robert Warrington. Now a day fish tanks are available in various shape and size. 

Aquarium tanks are prepared with glass sides and bottom. The glass plates are fixed by aquarium cement. The tanks are generally rectangular in shape. The shallow and wide tanks are better for aquarium. The ideal size of aquarium tank may be 60 x 30 x 30cm or 90 x 30 x 40cm.

It is also important to have a cover with establishment for mounting lights and feeding. The tanks are cleaned with tap water. The aquarium tank may be placed near a window so that it gets adequate light. If the natural light is not adequate, artificial light by means of bulbs or fluorescent tube may be provided.

Maintenance  of aquarium :-

To keep fishes healthy there is need  of regular maintenance of aquarium.  The daily maintenance requires checking of the fish movement and behavior. For health of fishes quality of water  must be of good. 

Aeration with air pumps, de-chlorination, and neutralize the water parameter in aquarium, removal of the remain of eaten food and other residue is required.

Water condition and Chemistry

This is vital and it must be specific if the fish are to flourish in the long time.

Following are some physical parameters are require for healt of aquarium fishes.

1.      Temperature of 76 to 80 F

2.      pH ‐7.6 to 8.4

3.      Specific Gravity ¬ 1.002 to 1.007 is optimal.

Feeding

Most of the fish are carnivores and their diet should imitate this. Some species of fishes require lots of live food but this depends upon the species to be kept.

Water exchange

For proper conditions of aquarium 10 to 20 % of water should be changed weakly.

Water quality of Aquarium tank

Pure rain water or tap water without chlorine content may be perfect for aquarium tank. Water should be soft and not hard.  For minimizing hardness of water, water is mixed up with soft water.

Fresh water ornamental fishes

Generally attractive colored fishes are preferred by ornamental fish keeper.  These fishes are selected on the basis of color, size and body shape.

Following are some ornamental fishes are kept in aquarium

Guppy :-

The guppy  fishes are small colorful  exotic These are small colorful  fishes (3cm)  originated from Central America.  The colors of these fishes vary gratly. Female larger than male. Male have large colored caudal fins with red, orange, black spots on body.  These are omnivorous fishes.

Sword tail :  

The tail of this fishes is long with yellow sward like caudal fin having black edges. . Hence called sward tail fish. A coloured strip present along the side of fish.  In these fishes various colour variation are seen.  Tail of female is without sward tail.

Platy :  

Platy is the popular variety with black fins and black mouth. The body colour is yellow or red. The most common platy is the wag tail.  These are omnivorous fishes preferred by majority of ornamental  fish tank holder.

Gourami :   

Gourami are oval in shape  with vertical bars on lateral side of body.  The pelvic fins are filamentous.  Kissing gourami, lipped gourami, giant gourami pearl gourami etc are the popular varieties of gourami. These are herbivorous fishes.

Fighting fish:  

The male of fighting fish are very aggressive. Hence, only one fish should be kept per tank is advised. The male have graceful fins. The colour and development of fins vary greatly in these species.   Fighting fishes are adopted to live in oxygen deficient water. 

Angel fish:

 

The body of these fishes is compressed laterally.  The fins are long and trailing  These fishes have laterally compressed disc like body. They have long extensive fins.  Because of their elegant and graceful swimming  movement, these fishes are very popular among the ornamental fish keeper.

Gold fish. 

Every  ornamental fish keeper prefers gold fishes in fish tank, because of their shape and large caudal fins. These species were developed in china. There are several varieties of gold fishes are  fan tail, lion head moor,  comet , shubunkin bubble-eye, pom-pom, etc.

Identification of Poisonous and non-poisonous snakes

Identification of Poisonous and non-poisonous snakes

Near about 2500 to 3000 species of snake found all over the world. But not all the species of snake are poisonous.  Because of few of them, entire snake world have bad reputation. 
According to WHO in India about 45000  to 50000 victims die due to snake bite every year. But official record is only about  12000 to 15000. 

About 350  species of snake are poisonous. In India 216 species of snake are found and about 52 specis are poisonous . 

Many snakes are similar in appearance and colour patterns. So, there is need of clear cut identification of poisonous and non-poisonous snake. Majority of snakes are non-poisonous and harmless. The non-poisnous snakes are python, rat snake, trinket snake, freshwater snake, etc. the common poisonous snakes found in India are cobra, king cobra, Indian viper, russel’s viper, krait, coral snake, sea snake,


Identification of poisonous and non-poisonous snake is not hard task. 

Following key will serve to distinguish poisonous and non-poisonous snake.
1.    Identification of snake by the nature of bite mark
2.    Identification of snake by flow of blood from wound
3.    Identification of snake by nature of tail.
4.    Identification of snake by nature head shield or scales.

5.    Identification of snake by vertabrial

6.    Identification of snake by ventral scales.

1.    Identification of snake by the nature of bite mark:

If non-poisnous snake bites tends to several small punctures in two rows due to maxillary teeth mark and palatine teeth mark.
But if poisonous snake bite it shows two prominent spots due to fang , along with palatine teeth mark. 
 2.    Identification of snake by flow of blood from wound
When non-poisonous snake bites, blood flows from wound for short period and get clot naturally but if poisnous snake bites, blood coloured fluid continuously oozes through the wound because  venom prevent clotting of blood.

3.    Identification of snake by nature of tail.
If tail is flattened and laterally compressed then snake is sea snake and deadly poisonous. 
If we observed the tail is rounded and cylindrical, it is  land snake. Then,  snake may be poisonous or non-poisonous. 

4. Identification of snake by nature the nature of ventral scales. 

If ventral scales are broader and extending fully acros the belly. Snake may be poisonous or non-poisonous . 

 
If the ventral scales are large transverse plates extending fully across the ventral side of belly, the   snake may be poisonous or non-poisonous. Now examine the dorsal scales of the head

5.  Identification of snake by nature head shield or scales.
If dorsal side of  head is covered with shields. The snake may be poisonous or non-poisonous.

Head shield: 

If 3rd supra-labial shield touches to the nostril and eye then snake is poisonous.  The snake  may be cobra king cobra and coral snake.

 But if 3rd supra labial shield not touched to the nostril and eye then snake is non-poisonous and snake may be rat snake.

If the snakes has a small scales and large shield on the head but does not have the characters of cobra, or rat snake then examine  ventral side of head. If 4th infralabial shield extending fully from ventral side of head. Then it is poisonous snake and snake may be krait.

Scales on head 
If head is covered with smaller scale, then snake is viper and it is poisonous snake.
If head is covered with smaller scales and there is lorea pit.  it is pit viper and snake is poisonous.

 

6.  Identification of snake by nature of vertebral.
if mid-dorsal side shows presence of hexagonal scales called as vertebral the snake is  poisonous and it is krait. In addition to vertebral krait can be identified by examining 4th infra-labial shield and single row of sub-caudal.

TYPES OF BEAKS IN BIRDS - Theory and Practical

               

TYPES OF BEAKS IN BIRDS

The presence of a beak or bill is the characteristics of the bird. Beak or Bill is an elongated upper and lower jaws.  Both the beak are covered by a horny sheath called rhamphotheca.

In bird, there are various kinds of beak modifications according to food and feeding habit of birds.

The following are some common types of beak modifications in birds.

1.                 Seed eating beak                            -           Sparrow, Pigeon

2.                 Cutting beak                                  -           Crow

3.                 Fruit eating beak                            -           Parrot, Hornbill

4.                 Fish catching beak                         -           Kingfisher, Cormorant

5.                 Insect catching beak                      -           Robin, Frogmouth

6.                 Wood chiseling beak                     -           Woodpecker

7.                 Piercing and tearing beak             -           Vulture, Eagle

8.                 Flower probing                             -           Hummingbird

9.                 Mud straining beak                      -           Duck, Flamingo

10.               Mud probing beak                          -           Stilt

11.               Spatulated beak                              -           Spoonbill

12.               Pouched beak                                 -           Pelican

1.  Seed eating beak 

1. The seed-eating beaks are weak short and stout.

2. The beak is conical peg-like and pointed at the tip.

3. These type of beak are found in small seed-eating or graminivorous birds.

Ex - sparrows finches, pigeon, etc

2. Cutting and biting beak.

1.                 The cutting beak and strong and powerful.

2.                 These type of beak has sharp cutting edges.

3.                 Such type of beak is used for various purposes.

4.                 Such beak is used for cutting food, to break eggshell, cutting the flesh, etc.

Ex. Crows.

3. Fruit eating beak.

 1.                  This type of beak is found in fruit-eating (Frugivorous) bird.

2.                 The fruit-eating beaks are large, sharp, powerful and hooked

3.                 The upper beak is movable on the skull and is well adapted for tearing fruits  

            and break open hard nuts and seeds.

4.                 In parrot upper beak is curved and pointed at the tip while the lower beak is                   short and with sharp cutting edges.

5.                 Upper the beak is used to hold support and the lower beak is used to scoop out              the fruit flesh.

6.                 In hornbill beak look like large and  heavy but internally these beaks are 

           internally cellular and light in weight.

        Ex. Parrot , Hornbill

4.   Piercing and tearing beak.

 

1.                 Piercing and tearing beak is found in carnivorous birds.

2.                 These types of the beak are very strong and powerful.

3.                 Upper beak is curved and pointed at the tip.

4.                 The margins of the beak are very sharp.

5.                 This type of beak is adapted for piercing and tearing flesh.

Ex. Vultures, Hawks, Eagles, Kites, and Owls

5.   Insectivorous beak.

1.                 The beak is long and slender found in an insectivorous bird.

2.                 Beak is adopted for turning leaves and probing into the soil in search of insect 

            larvae.

3.                 In swift, flycatcher and swallow beak is small and strong with notched 

            mandible at the tip modified to capture insects during flight.

4.                 In frogmouth bird soft feathers (Rectal bristles) are present at the base of the                 beak. On another hand, frogmouth bird kept its mouth open during flying.                    These modifications are for to trap insect during flight

Ex.- Swifts,  swallows , Flycatchers, hoopoe,  etc.

6.    Fish catching beak

1.                 The fish caching beak is long, strong and sharply pointed.

2.                 In case of kingfisher the edges of beak are very sharp.

3.                 In cormorant the margins of the beak are toothed or serrated

4.                 These modifications in these birds are  to prevent the escape of captured                        slippery prey like fish and to capture  frog, tadpoles, Mollusca and other                      aquatic animals

Ex. King fisher, Cormorant.

7.     Wood chiseling beak 

 

1.        The wood chiseling beaks are long , straight, stout and chisel- like and are strongly articulated with the skull

2.        The skull bones are also thick and shock  absorbent neck muscles are also strong

3.        This type of beak is used for chiseling and drilling into  bark or wood of trees  for the prey, e.g.

            insects and their larvae and for nest construction

4.        It is commonly found in woodpeckers.

8.        Mud probing beak.
 

1.                 This type of beaks are very long, slender and slightly curved to probe the 

            mud underwater in search of larvae and aquatic worms

2.                 These are commonly found in stilts, snipes, sandpipers, jacanas, lapwing. etc.

9.        Mud and water straining beak.

 

1.                 Both the beak are flat and broad.

2.                 In duck the gap is present between both the beak which is covered with 

           membranous Lamellae which act as sieve or filter to strain out mud and water.

3.                 Duck take mouthful of debris. The mud and water strain out through marginal 

           lamella leaving the food particle into the mouth.

4.                 In flaming upper beak is long and curved while lower beak is short and straight 

           leads to gap between two beak. This gap is covered by lamella through which 

           mud is strain out.

Ex. Ducks, teals, geese and flamingo.

10.      Flower probing beak

 

1.                 This type of beak is long narrow and pointed for probing the bottom of                           flowers  to take honey.

2.                 These beak is slender and slightly curved.

3.                 The shape of flower is adopted with the shape of flower.

4.                 These  birds fly in front of flower in mid-air for sucking the honey or nectar.

Ex- Sun bird, Humming bird.

11.Pouched beak

 1.        It is found in pelecans

2.        The lower beak shows presence of large gular pouch.

3.        The gular pouch is an extension of skin and attached to the mandibles for 

           storing engulfed fish.

Ex. Pelican

12.      Spatulate beak.

1.        It is  characteristics of spoon-bill

2.        Both the beak are long and flat terminated in a broad spatulate or spoon   

           like expansion.

3.        The spatulate expansion is used for dabbing in mud below water and in 

           search of fish ,tadpoles, worms , insects and other small aquatic animals.

           

Ex. Spoonbill