My-dog-sheep-cow-and-rooster-encounter

Sometime back during the Chinese New Year in Feb, while visiting my family members, I took the opportunity to snap some interesting creatures around my hometown and my in laws house.

Don't be fooled by this cutie beagle look. He is actually my brother-in-law's pet and we called him Nickki. His eyes looked pitiful but that is his usual tactic to get our sympathy to allow him to go into the house. He is extremely greedy and for such reason, when we allow him to go into the house, the first thing he will do is running to the kitchen to search for food. This type of breed is extremely intelligent and having very sharp sense of smell surpassing some other dogs such as fox terrier. No wonder this dog is used to detect drugs smuggling. Nickki is about 4 years old now which equivalent to roughly 28 years old of a human being but still very playful at his age.

In my hometown, I encountered this healthy looking rooster stood boldly on the greenery. This one was cackling for a while which left me wondering what on earth did the rooster cackling in the evening. Isn't it suppose to do that as part of the morning call. I guess the world is turning upside down and this rooster also got himself confused. Probably, he was trying to show off to the rest of the chickens.


Not far from this rooster stood this dirty looking sheep. The rain just stopped and clearly showing this sheep completely drenched. Rearing such animal in the tropical hot and humid climate in Malaysia does not seem to make the cut. Nobody is going to buy the wool. Anyway, I found it interesting to look at this uncommon animal in my neighbourhood.

Adjacent to the sheep is this cow staring at me. I had to be cautious as she looked quite fierce and at any instances, may charge towards me. I found out that this cow is a friend to the sheep. No wonder she is staring at me while I was taking the photograph of the sheep probably thinking I was trying to harm her good friend.

Coincidently, all these four animals fall under the 12 Chinese zodiac animals.

1st-Malaysia-International-Guppy-and-Betta-Charity-Competition-Gurney-Plaza

The 1st Malaysia International Guppy & Betta Charity Competition was held sometime back in June 2010 in Gurney Plaza, Penang. There were many varieties of Guppies and Bettas. The latter was my interest as I did rear some Bettas during my school days.

The fighting fish scientific name is Betta Splendens and usually live from 2 to 5 years in captivity. Male fighting fish exhibit a very strong colour and will expand its gills and fins when facing its rival. As its name called, the male fighting fish will fight against each other and sometime could be fatal. Nowadays, many Betta enthusiast rear this fish as pet for its boastful color and beauty. You can see a wide range of colours and fancy fin through selective breeding and imports.

Rainbow Fish

Most of my tropical aquatic fishes have been with me for about two years since I moved into my condo. My all time favorites are the rainbows and clown loach.
My 4 ft length aquarium can accommodate for 16 gracious fishes of mine. I provide them with natural surrounding which consist of fresh aquatic plants, driftwoods, stones and sands.

I have a couple of Rainbow fish species. These fishes originated in Australia or Papua New Guinea. Rainbow fish easily became my favorite mainly on its vibrant colour and easily adaptable to other non-aggressive fish.

Rainbow Fishes

The growth rate of this fish is quite slow which can live about 5 years depending on species. Most of the aquarium shops sell this fish when they are young. The young fish is dull like in colour but once it mature, it's like an ugly duckling transform into a beautiful swan. This could be the reason why these young fish are easily skipped and are scarce among aquarist.

Keeping a few yellow rainbows scientifically known as Melanotaenia boesemani, blue and red rainbows easily turn my entire fish tank into a lively colourful atmosphere. Most of them were bought from a big fish shop in Sungai Buloh, Selangor, selling freshwater and saltwater fishes.

Boesemani Rainbow Fish

Boesemani Rainbow fish is quite commonly seen in many fish shops. Like many rainbow fishes, the male ones are more vivid in colour. The first half of its body is dark blue and the second half is yellow. Female rainbow is less vibrant and greenish in colour.

Red Rainbow Fish

Blue Rainbow Fish

The other two rainbows that I have are the red and blue ones. Surprisingly the red rainbow growth rate is faster and is the largest among all my rainbow fishes. The blue one seems to stop growing. Perhaps, this is the mature size in captivity.

Clown Loach

Another favorite of mine is the clown fish scientifically known as Chromobotia macracanthus. This happy fish get its name mainly due to its weird attitudes and sleeping behavior. There was once when I thought this fish was dead as its body lying flat at one corner of my aquarium but once I approach the aquarium, it quickly switches to life position….. What an intriguing clown like act…..

Hey!Stop sniffing my butt...

Happy-happy impatiently swimming in front of my aquarium every morning for food.

Clown Loaches are very lovable and like to move and sleep in pair especially inside the driftwood holes. They are nocturnal fish and are bottom feeder.

My other fishes are the silver dollar, black widow tetra and corridoras catfish.

A pair of my black widow tetra. One with long fin and the other one with short fin.

Silver Dollar

I noticed that mt fishes are very shy on camera and it takes a lot of patient to take some good shots on them. I came to love this hobby when I was small. It gave me a peace of mind by looking at these playful fishes gracefully swimming and chasing each other.

Thiania bhamoensis - Jumping Leaf Spider

This jumping spider was once popular during my primary school. It is known as Thiania bhamoensis and can be found in South East Asia. Its fighting ability(males) when meeting each other was the reason why we rear them as pet and compete for 'first king' status.



It is easy to distinguish between the male and female. The frontal view of the male is white while the female is black.


Male

Female

This eight legged arachnid lives between two leaves after binding them together with vertical strand of silken retreats. They can be found on many kind of plants and I prefer to find them on the spider lily leaves.


The size of this spider is barely bigger that our thumb nail.

The fight can be brief to a couple of minutes long. Typically, it started off with a dancing act of the two males showing off like a scorpion posture with the butt bent to one side and slowly approaching each other. Once they meet, both males will extend their frontal legs and mandible to push or sparring against each other. The fight ended with the retreat of the weaker one.





I came across a forum mentioning some rare males show no interest to fight. This type of male spider seldom display the dancing act and only interest to attack and kill. It may just rush to its opponent, grab and try its luck to bite the weak side of its opponent body i.e abdomen.


It is tricky to catch this tiny creature as it is agile and will leap away swiftly when senses threat. With patient and skill, this will not post a big problem to catch them. Each spider is kept in a well ventilated container with some fresh leaves for this spider to build a home. Ensure dripping some fresh water droplets for the spider to drink as it gets thirsty easily.


It will hunt for life insect smaller that its size i.e mosquito. It can be fooled easily with dead insect as meal by dropping them into its home. Once this spider is comfortable, it will not leap away as crazy as it did during the catch.

From top view, the thorax of the spider exhibit various colours. The colour that I came across was green, blue and to the rarer ones, black. It was a common belief that the black males are the most aggressive.


When the male meet its opposite sex, the behaviour is different. It started off by extending its frontal leg and vibrates. Once approaches the female it will start poking the female face. But, the fun part is that this male spider can be fooled by immediately interchange the female to another male. It will still think its opponent is a female and continue to poke its opponent while the opponent try to fight him. After a couple of poking, then it started to realize and the actual male sparring begin.

I guess this sort of interest is not known to many children nowadays. I was fortunate enough to experience it and had the opportunity to learn more about this spider behaviour.