Setting up my 30gl tank

I decided that I need an aquarium to stare at. So, I looked around online and found this lovely setup for sale. 3 footer tank + stand, gravel, filters, heater, light, plus all that chemicals, fish food, and equipment, you'll ever need for a good bargain price. So, I snatched it up.


It took me about 2 months to figure out what plants I want in there and how I would like to arrange them. Many ideas were tossed around....

1. started wanting it to be just a bare bottom tank with some Java fern attached to wires. (Rob, thanks for the ferns!) I had Discus fish before, so liked the ease of bare bottom tank. But realize this looks too stupid and ugly for keeping shrimps.

2. Then, decided to put in the gravel. Found nice river rocks at a the garden in school, garbage bagged some home. Saw a great looking stick in neighbor's balcony, knocked on the door, offer to buy it off them, nice neighbor laughed and just gave it to me. Took 4 days to waterlog the stick. It's sinking nicely now. Now, it look like an average Gold fish aquarium.

3. went to a LFS, and purchased some plants. And through private sale online, I found good amount of Christmas moss. Tied half to the stick and sandwich half in wire screens to make little moss tents on the gravel.

4. A couple weeks after 3., some plants didn't do well. I realized it's because we purchased some plants which were grown in CO2 and high light tank at the LFS. They couldn't adjust to my no CO2, no fert, and medium light tank. So, most of them turned brown, rot away. Even though new healthy shoots formed, but the growth is very slow and most of the main plant rot and polluted the tank too much. So, we decided to pull out all the half-dead plants and put in more hardy plants. Here is the final result. I LOVE how green everything looks now.

A list of what I have in there:
- Echinodorus, Red October
- Echinodorus osiris
- Echinodorus amazonicus
- Echinodorus bleheri 'compacta'
- Echinodorus ozelot
- Christmas moss
- Peacock moss
- Windelov
- narrow leaf java fern
- java fern
- water sprite

These are all low demand, fast growing plants. Also are rather algea resistant.

love my tank!

Dexter, my new pet!

I visited a fish store last Sunday. It's owed by Jodi who imports fighters from Thailand and other places. Her store is like the heaven of Betta lovers.

Ever since I got into Betta keeping (~6 years ago), I wanted a solid red halfmoon Betta. But I never found one that I'm satisfied with until now.

This little guy is 3-4 months old at purchase (Mar 08 09), body length 3.5cm, 5.5cm with caudal fin, great finnage, awesome 180 with slight over-halfmoon when he really tries, very feisty, flares at my fingers! He loves to swim between the leaves of the anubias plant and sleeps on it, too.

I name him, Dexter... :)

Misty's new chiewing stick

Misty is over 1 year old now, but still doesn't react to cat nip or any cat weed scented toys. A friend of mine bought Misty a special scented chewing stick in Taipei, and finally Misty is showing some interests!

Thanks, Liz!

台灣好朋友的媽媽帶我們去了一趟美濃。那裡風景漂亮，但最棒的還是美濃菜。高麗菜封，冬瓜封，板條 和 酸炒大腸。 吃完好料，意猶未盡，回到Brisbane，跟朋友的媽媽要了食譜。

高麗菜封及冬瓜封作法：
材料準備階段
1. 將一顆高麗菜及冬瓜切大塊狀、高麗菜切4塊即可。
2. 洗淨後濾水、水不要留太多。
3. 備妥雞肉或豬肉(五花肉或排骨)洗淨濾乾。

燉煮階段
1. 將少許的油滴入鍋內，再依序放入濾乾水的高麗菜、冬瓜、肉類、紅蔥頭。
2. 以小火先煮至菜葉略軟、鍋內有菜葉悶出來的湯汁後，再加醬油(如果沒有水分可加點米酒避免沾鍋、因為加醬油容易焦掉)。
3. 鍋內若有足夠的菜汁則可將火開大一點，讓菜葉入味。
4. 最後起鍋前放入大蒜苗即可。(無蒜苗，可用香菜代替）

PS 千萬不要用電鍋煮，一定要用小火悶燒才會好吃(沒吃完的加熱就可以用電鍋了啦!)。

竟讓我在China Town 找到冬瓜! 製做成功!
附流程照片證明的確是我親手下廚的﹗
成品長的挺像的， 但味道差了。
偏鹹，我醬油大概是放多了。
火也燒大了些，所以高麗菜有點乾。
但 還是好吃﹗﹗﹗ 配了兩碗飯呢﹗
謝謝 楊媽媽﹗

PS︰吃不完 放到第二天 再加熱的 更入味 超好吃的﹗

Lemon Lime Coke

I love an Asian beverage - salted plum drink. But, I never understood how putting salt in sweet drinks could possibly make the drink taste good.

A few days ago, I had to finish some flat Coke left in a bottle to make room in the fridge. To make this chore more enjoyable, I added some lime slices and ice cubes to make a drink, but it still tasted flat and rusty. Suddenly, I remembered my beloved "salted plum drink", and wondered if it will work with Coke. I couldn't make this glass of drink taste any worse anyways. So, I went ahead and sprinkled some salt into the drink, stirred it around and took a sip. OMG! It tasted great! Somehow the salt smoothed out the rusty flat Coke. I still don't understand why, but it works and I love it!

So, here are the steps of making this drink. Hope you like it too!

1. put in a few slices of lemon and lime. (or just lemon or just lime)
2. mush the pulp well in the glass first before adding ice cubes, and then pour in Coke last.

3. now add a tiny pinch of salt, then stir and serve!


Cheers!

Well, I don't know about you, but I think it's time for another blog with more videos of Misty! That's right, more videos.

The first video is of me playing with Misty on the stairs. I'm so happy that we live in the townhouse some of the time, especially when playing with Misty. She goes absolutely insane when I take any of her toys into the stairwell and let her chase it around.

One side note about this video, you also get a sneak peak of our new scooter helmets!! More to come on those later.



The second video is from this morning. We've been trying to catch Misty sitting on one of our bar stools. She does the cutest thing, you get her excited, she rolls over, and she falls off. So far, I've missed her doing it while holding the camera at least 3 times in the last day or so. But I sort of got it this time!



Most of the meowing you hear is actually coming from Shianne ;-)

Cheers

The Amazing Standing Kitty

It seems it's time for another blog about our little bundle of joy, Misty. Surprised? Don't be, we spend a tonne of time pampering and playing with her, might as well write about her as well.

In case you didn't know, Misty is a special breed of cat, called a Munchkin (check out Munchin Breed Profile or Munchkins.com). One of the reasons that we decided on getting a Munchkin is a rather unique ability/skill that they have. They can stand. It's adorable.

This first video is of me feeding Misty and getting her to stand. We've decided that when we feed her the BARF Diet, it would be fun to hand feed her and use this as a time to help her learn to stand. The eventual goal is for us to teach her to stand on command.



Here is another one with Shianne doing basically the same thing the next day.



So far, not much luck getting her to stand on command, but when you mix in a little food she's all for it. A little bribery goes a long way.

Happy Mother's Day to My Mom, Jeanie

It's the Mother's Day 2008, and I just want to say "Wish you a happy Mother's Day!" to my mom, Jeanie. Here are some picture her since her teenage years. Isn't she cute?



Then, we came.... me, my sister, and my brother.




Now, at the age of (beep beep), she is still energetic and beautiful.



:) Happy Mother's Day, mom~

New Cat Tree... bigger is better!

We purchased this cat tree from DealsDirect.com.au. It's around $80 including shipping. It's a pretty good price for a cat tree this size. The package is delivered to our door in 2 days. No missing parts, easy to assemble. We highly recommend this online store.


M,"What's in this?"


M,"A gift for me??"


M,"Oh boy, it's better than Christmas!"


M,"let me help you to open it!"


M,"1 box - check, 5 poles - check, platforms - check, and screws... "

M,"OK, you just take this pole and put it right there... "


M,"The foundation is always the most important part. Let me double check the structure integrity..."


M," Careful now, put it down gently..."


M," Let me try reaching up at this angle... what? I'm not playing, just testing!"


M," Oh, you did a good job." kiss kiss...


M,"What? there is more!? awesome~"


M," get it together already! I can't wait any longer!"


M,"Oh Yes~~ It's ALL MINE~~~"

Misty misses her mommy

We received a letter from Misty's breeder. Misty noticed the letter from home...


Misty, "Oh, this package smells like mommy!"


Misty, "Let me open it up~"


Misty, "What's in there?"


Misty, "Oh, mommy wrote to me. I miss you, too!!"


Misty, "I miss my mommy..meow meow...".
Scott, "Oh~ It's OK. You have us now..."
cuddle cuddle....