Sad Fish

The latest thing to hit luxury spa pampering has arrived - Fish Pedicures. You place your feet in a tank of fresh water and let tiny carp fish nibble away. The fish clean off and soften the skin prior to a standard pedicure.

The Yvonne Hair and Nails salon in Alexandria, Virginia offers a service where garra rufa Doctor fish nibble the dead skin of clients’ feet. Proprietor John Ho claims that 5,000 customers have had the treatment so far. It costs $35 for 15 minutes and $50 for a half hour.

Ho was skeptical at first about the fish, which are called garra rufa but typically known as doctor fish. They were first used in Turkey and have become popular in some Asian countries.

In addition to offering pedicures, Ho hopes to establish a network of Doctor Fish Massage franchises and is evaluating a full-body fish treatment that, among other things, could treat psoriasis and other skin ailments.

Ho said the hot water in which the fish thrive doesn’t support much plant or aquatic life, so they learned to feed on whatever food sources were available — including dead, flaking skin. They leave live skin alone because, without teeth, they can’t bite it off.

Ho spent a year and about $40,000 getting the pedicures up and running with a few hiccups along the way

This photograph circulate via email and are often posted to blogs and online forums for discussion. The intriguing little creature depicted in the photograph is commonly misidentified as a "legged fish" or a "fish with legs and hands". Some postulate that the images are actually fakes created in an image manipulation program.

In fact, the photograph is genuine, although it does not depict a fish. This creature is an Axolotl or "Mexican Walking Fish". The Axolotl is an amphibian, more specifically, a salamander. Although they are native to Mexico, Axolotls have become popular as exotic pets around the world. In captivity, they are housed in an aquarium and can have a range of colours.

The smooth trunk fish (Lactophrys triqueter) is usually black and white in color, but at the Flower Gardens, Texas A&M University fish biologist, Dr. Christy Pattengill-Semmens, has documented the discovery of this unusual color morph of the fish - now called the golden-phase smooth trunk fish. A specimen of the fish was collected to verify that in fact it was not a new species. It has only been reported at the Flower Garden and Stetson Banks.

With a head like a fighter-plane cockpit, a Pacific barreleye fish shows off its highly sensitive, barrel-like eyes--topped by green, orblike lenses--in a picture released today but taken in 2004.

The fish, discovered alive in the deep water off California's central coast by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), is the first specimen of its kind to be found with its soft transparent dome intact.

The 6-inch (15-centimeter) barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) had been known since 1939--but only from mangled specimens dragged to the surface by nets.

For female guppies, there's more to life than making babies.

A new study finds that guppies experience menopause just like humans and other animals. The study is the first demonstration of menopause in fish and raises the question of why some female animals live beyond their fertile years at all.

It was previously thought that fish don't experience menopause because they produce eggs throughout their entire lives. Birds and mammals, in contrast, have a finite number of eggs that they are born with.

Guppies typically reproduce about every 30 days and give birth to litters approximately 20 times throughout their lives. The researchers found that as female guppies aged, they began to skip litters or even stop reproducing for extended periods of time, effectively ceasing to reproduce after a certain age. In other words, the guppies were going through a fish version of menopause.

Living longer to have more babies

David Reznick, a biologist at UC Riverside, and colleagues compared the life history of 240 guppies taken from mountain streams in Trinidad. Some of the guppies were from high-predation environments while others were not. The researchers divided the life history into three segments: birth to first reproduction, first to last reproduction, and last reproduction to death.

In a previous study, Reznick found that guppies from high predation environments live longer and start reproducing at a younger age than those that were at less risk. The current study was meant to explore how and why this happens.

Using evolutionary theory, the researchers were able to make specific predictions based on what they knew about the reproductive life history of guppies.

After giving birth to their litters, female guppies don't stick around to provide maternal care. The researchers therefore predicted that if evolution by natural selection was responsible for the longer lifespan of the high predation guppies, then it should only affect their reproductive years. This is because, from an evolutionary point of view, those are the years that are most crucial for the success of the species. Scientists call an animal's ability to produce offspring "fitness."

"Guppies have no postnatal care for their young, so from a fitness prospective, when they last give birth, they might as well be dead," Reznick told LiveScience. "The only reason for them to live longer would be that different parts of their bodies break down at different rates."

The researchers also predicted that the post-reproductive lifespan--the period after menopause--of both the high- and low-predation guppies would be the same.

The study found both predictions to be true.

"The older fish, after they stop reproducing, do not contribute to the fitness of young fish," Reznick said. "As a result, the post-reproductive period is not influenced by natural selection."

Reznick wonders if the same might be true for other animals, including humans.

For hundred of years, the Siamese Fighting Fish or Betta splendens, has been kept and cultivated by people in Thailand (Siam). Today, the Betta is popular throughout the world – though not for the purpose of fish fighting but as a peaceful aquarium resident. Through years of selective breeding, pet store Bettas look vastly different from their original, wild-caught ancestors. Instead of just a few colors, they can now be purchased in an array of hues including red, blue, turquoise, black, white, yellow, and brown.

In addition, their fins have greatly increased in size and are much more elaborate; among the different types of hybrids available are the Veil Tail, Delta Tail, Half Moon, Double Tail, and Crown Tail. Of course, it is only the males that have the long, elegant fins and do all the fighting. Females have much shorter fins and are not as vividly colored as the males. Interestingly, Bettas are air breathers; they use a unique organ called the labyrinth to process the oxygen in the air and they will die if they are unable to reach the waters surface.

The Betta’s native habitat is the warm, still ponds, swamps and rice paddies of Southeast Asia. There, among the leaves and branches of the dense undergrowth, these carnivorous fish hunt for small insects and larvae.

Although the Bettas found in pet stores today have been captive bred, they should be kept in conditions that mimic their ancestor’s natural environment. Therefore, an aquarium (minimum size of 10 gallons) that is decorated with several plants and that has gentle water movement will suit them best. A cover, with a few small openings to allow air circulation, should also be provided to prevent them from jumping out.

Bettas like warmer temperatures so the water in the aquarium should be kept between 76-85 F with a slightly acidic pH of 6.5-7.0. Their diet should consist primarily of meaty foods such as brine shrimp, bloodworms, freeze-dried tubifex worms, etc. Bettas can grow to 3 inches long and live for up to 3 years if cared for properly. As far as tank mates are concerned, Bettas get along fine with most fishes; but do not keep them with aggressive species or any that are prone to pick at their beautiful fins. Male Bettas can be kept together in the same tank only if they are partitioned off from each other – otherwise you can expect some shredded fins, missing scales and not-so-nice looking fish!

A very intelligent fish that can recognize its owner, the heavily built Oscar is an all-time favorite among aquarium hobbyists. Originally imported from South America, most Oscars for sale are now tank-bred. A large aquarium of at least 70 gallons is required to house a pair of Oscars.

The Oscar fish has his own ideas on how to decorate what he considers his home (your aquarium!) he will grab any object including small rocks and plants (doesn't care whether they are natural or artificial) and spit them out of the tank if he doesn't like them -a deep sand bottom and few large rocks will save you a lot of headaches.- Oscars have hearty appetites and should only be kept with fish that are the same size or larger; smaller fish soon become a quick snack for the Oscar. Other South American cichlids and large catfish make good tankmates.

Occasionally the Oscar will pretend he's dying and will lay down on the bottom of the aquarium (don't worry oscars are excellent actors) he will wait for small fishes to get closer; although some people recommend feeding them live goldfish and guppies I personally do not like the idea as you take a real chance of introducing diseases, instead you can feed them vegetarian cichlid pellet, peas, lettuce (this is important to prevent hith disease) blended beef heart, earthworms and shrimps.