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June 24, 2005
Yellow Fish
dave
01:09 AM
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The big yellow fish worries about the slight scaling to his jaw while some of the tiger barbs mill around behind him.
I don't actually know what this fish is — if anyone knows, feel free to inform us in the comments.
Photographing fish like this is surprisingly tricky. For starters, there's almost always a large reflective glass wall between you and the fish, so your flash will do serious damage to the picture. What I've done here is to turn the on-camera flash down as low as it'll go (1/3 power) and use that to trigger a larger flash (Pentax FTZ-500, set to slave mode and 1/4 power) which is working through a diffuser at the top of the fish-tank. You also have to tilt the camera to avoid reflections.
It's tricky, and requires either very careful metering (hah!) or lots of experimentation. I went for experimentation. Set the camera in manual mode, with the shutter speed equal to your flash sync (usually 1/60sec) and adjust the f-stop until the resulting picture is ok. (or adjust the power of the flash, if you don't want to compromise your depth-of-field
One thing I found was that the light falls off very quickly from the top of the fish tank to the bottom. So, the big flash will need to be set at 1/16 or 1/32 power for a top swimming fish, 1/4 or 1/8 for a mid-level fish (like this one) or 1/2 or even full power for a bottom dweller.
May 19, 2005
Hangin' out at the Bronze
dave
08:53 PM
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A Bronze Cory lurks near an abandoned snail shell. The Bronze Cory (Corydoras aeneus) is a bottom feeding catfish. It's very sociable and gets along well with other fish. Good for a mixed tank, it's also quite useful as it sifts through the detritus at the bottom of the tank for food.
May 18, 2005
Preposterous Plecostomus
dave
10:07 PM
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The Plecostomus Catfish lurks at the bottom of the fishtank, waiting to attach his sucker parts to any juicy piece of green algae around.
The plecostomus (more info here) is a useful fish, which tries to keep the algae from clogging up the aquarium. They prefer to hide during the daylight, but they seem to come out when the moonlight is on.
December 19, 2004
Gourami
dave
12:00 PM
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TrackBack
One of my Blue Gourami swims in the deep blue of the moonlight bulb. An Albino Tiger Barb can be seen in the background.
April 12, 2004
Walking Catfish
dave
11:49 AM
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I just discovered what my catfish are. They're Clarius Batrachus, or Walking Catfish! They can grow up to 18" long, are omnivorous and can walk! I'm definitley keeping the bedroom door closed at night!
New Additions
dave
01:03 AM
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There are some new additions to the family. I got some sharks and a stone-fish today to add to the aquarium. The sharks bully the catfish, which is good. The stone-fish lurks. He's a world champion lurker. He's got a great face - sort of a cross between Yoda and Obi-Wan.
Mind you, I just remembered seeing stonefish in the Wan Chai market for sale. Apparently, they grow to about 18 inches long. Ho Hum. If I'm complaining about the two steaks per day that my fish require in a year or so, you can remind me that it's all my fault.
April 05, 2004
Tropical Fish
dave
01:01 AM
Comments (1)
A question for the more savvy readers out there. When you have some tropical fish in a tank in the living room, is it normal to hear some of them eating from two rooms away?
We have three catfish, which I bought when they were about one inch long, that have now grown to about ten inches long each. Ten inches of lean, mean, wriggling, eating machine.
The kids are under orders not to open their bedroom door unless whatever is trying to get in can speak.
September 21, 2003
Neeeeeeeemooooo!
dave
10:40 PM
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We went out today to buy a proper fishtank. We had one before, a small one (15"x8"x9") with which we had terrible luck with the fishes. They never lasted very long.
When we moved to the new flat, we brought the fishtank, although by that time we had no fish.
Chinese believe that having fish in the house is very lucky. Seeing as how we could do with a little luck at the moment, we went out to get a good tank.
The best place to go for fishtanks and fish in Hong Kong is Tung Choi Street, near Prince Edward MTR station. It's shop after shop of tropical fish and associated paraphernalia. (There are also a lot of bicycle shops, which is very surreal.) We got a 24"x14"x20" (width by depth by height) tank for HK$180 and some small fish to go into it. We got a bunch of really small fish, this time, all about one or two centimetres long so that they would shoal around. We had goldfish the last time, and they were a little too big for the tank.
The amount of water which goes into a big fishtank is truly amazing - I've filled the tank to a depth of 16", so I reckon that there's 88kg of water in there! I guess the whole thing weighs as much as I do! The little fish look a little lost in the big tank, but they seem quite happy to shoal around.
Meanwhile, the kids, of course, are fascinated by it.
If I can get a long enough USB cable, I might put the webcam facing the tank.
June 19, 2002
Pets
dave
12:00 AM
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One of the budgies was injured too severely to survive and died last night. The other is looking very lonely. We may have to get another bird to keep him (I think) company. I took some pictures of the surviving budgie and of the fish. If I can get my scanner working, I might put these (and more pictures of Roxanne, of course) up on the site.
June 18, 2002
Pets
dave
12:00 AM
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We acquired a pair of Budgerigars over the weekend. (That's the royal we, meaning Sandra.) Unfortunately, a cat got at one of them yesterday and he's (or she's) looking the worse for wear. One wing is badly hurt and I don't know if budgies heal from that sort of thing.
Meanwhile, one of the goldfish died on Sunday night. The little one went. Now we've got four left - two black ones and two white/red/gold ones.