shatin

Hello from a fellow South African - now in Hong Kong - wow Durban - How I miss my trips from Joburg where I lived to Shefflield Beach where we have a holiday house.

At least I am close to the beach here in Hong Kong and can start my day with a walk on the beach before heading off to work.

Most of all the pap and rooibos tea - and how much I hated the taste of Rooibos when I was in SA at least a number of South Africans live here in Hong Kong - we from time to time have a get together so that we can have our blitong, rooibos and pap - the bier does not work with me as I am one of those boring people who do not drink alcohol.

Hong Kong is great and each day brings some new learning

Cheers en totsiens vanuit 'n vrek warm Hong Kong

armadillo

Groetjes van uit Den Haag, NL, my fellow fishlorians.

ANGELA

Hi, Im Angela, I just signed up I have lots of questions, my roommate directed me here. He has learned alot from the memebers amd I hope I can to.

Butterfly

welcome Angela! We have a lot of fun her, we also have members of all ages and experience levels from all over the world
Carol

COBettaCouple

welcome to fishlore Angela!

shatin

Welcome Angela

Yep you are at the right place to learn a lot from people who a great source of inspiration and information.

To all thanks for helping me to save my fish friends from ICH - the water changes, rock salt, Ich and white spot meds seems to have done the trick. I removed the carbon from the filter and today is day for on the treatment, coupled with feeding my fish a self made mix of shrimps, peas, and three varieties of flakes all ground together - doing three small feeds a day seems to have pulled them through. I lost two fish - the other two that yesterday seemed to be on their way out is eating and swimming around this morning - being far more active and alert than the previous two days.

Many thanks to all of you

Elize in Hong Kong

fish07

Hi all. I'm new the forum but have had tropical fish and gold fish all my life. I'm currently running a 36 gallon bow front, 5-g beeding tank (Guppys) and 2.5g isolation tank. Seems like a great forum to learn something new and maybe leave some information. Hopefully I'll talk to everyone soon!!

Howeyg

welcome what you planning to have in your 36 gallon?

COBettaCouple

welcome to fishlore.

atmmachine816

Welcome to fishlore

Franciscus

A big HELLO to all,
My name is, Franciscus, live in New Zealand
My apologies for not introducing myself first, I got too exited reading all your posts on fish
I am a single guy, (happily divorced ) Not available Born optimist. Besides fish, I paint (art)
Over the years, I have had a few tanks, large and small, and bred a few fish in my time, but never saltwater fish.
At he moment, I am setting up again, after 12years of missing my little mates.
My present tank is not large, it has 6 little Black Phantoms in it. Today, I am off to get my 17 Gall tank.
If all goes well, in a few weeks or so, I hope to put a photo on the net with my new friends in it.
Well, this is about it, I am a man of few words.
Greetings,
Franciscus

Franciscus

A big HELLO to all,
My name is, Franciscus, live in New Zealand
My apologies for not introducing myself first, I got too exited reading all your posts on fish
I am a single guy, (happily divorced ) Not available Born optimist. Besides fish, I paint (art)
Over the years, I have had a few tanks, large and small, and bred a few fish in my time, but never saltwater fish.
At he moment, I am setting up again, after 12years of missing my little mates.
My present tank is not large, it has 6 little Black Phantoms in it. Today, I am off to get my 17 Gall tank.
If all goes well, in a few weeks or so, I hope to put a photo on the net with my new friends in it.
Well, this is about it, I am a man of few words.
Greetings,
Franciscus

AlisonChristine

Figured I ought to post here before commenting anywhere else, as a sort of courtesy thing, you know?

Hi, I'm Alison, going to be a college sophomore (Kansas State University), and I re-caught the fish bug while working at a petstore this summer. It was just supposed to be a summer job, little did I know... I randomly applied because I've grown up with all manner of pets, had tanks when I was younger, wanted to play with cute little animals and get paid for it. After a month of cleaning up after little furry things, I realized that I liked fish ever so much better. They stay where they're put, don't bite (the ones at the store don't, and nibbling doesn't count), are pretty, and are just as entertaining. And now I've got a raging case of MTS, (discovered the term while loitering around the forum), and can't do anything about it, because moving too many fish back and forth from school and home would be a pain, and not too good for them either. That has been my biggest frustration lately, but no one around here seems to understand...

But, for some reason, I keep picking up fish fry at work because they're free, and just so dang cute!

COBettaCouple

welcome to fishlore Alison! yea, fry are irrestiably cute.

purple_phoenix

Hi everyone!

A bit about myself... I'm Laura, I live in England, in a little area surrounded by farms and not many pet stores
I'm 15, but already know a fair bit about freshwater tropical fish and goldfish. I love all animals, and plan to own a lot more in the future. I have a 4ft tank at the moment, but may be getting another 6ft one, if I can persuade my parents that there IS enough room in my bedroom
I love music; You'll rarely find me not listening to, or playing it. I play flute and a little bit of piano
I'm currently awaiting the results of my science and languages GCSEs, which I took early (they come on the 23rd!!)

I think that's about it. Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself a little

COBettaCouple

welcome to fishlore.. those GCSEs!

purple_phoenix

I know... lots of hard work! Trouble is, they went and put three of the French and two German exams in three days. I really messed those up
Still.. it's better that they're out the way now.

susitna-flower

Welcome Laura, Sounds like you are an interesting person. Well rounded, and on the ball, as the saying goes. I hope you enjoy your music all your life, and fish can likewise give you pleasure at any age.

GCSE - can you explain these for a old grandma type! Actually I have a 17 yo son who is in his last year in high school, and here in Alaska we have High School Qualifying Exams. It doesn't qualify them to get in, but out of high school. My son passed them in his 10th grade year, but still has to get the credits from attending classes through the 12th grade.

It is always interesting to see what others here on the forum are into.....

Fish in the Frozen North

COBettaCouple

it does sound like they put too many of those tests on some days..

susitna-flower

I know what you mean FLB.... why is it we put our kids through to make them ready for 'the world' When once they get out in the work force, almost never is it so tough! Even college is a breeze compaired to high school! So what's up with that, are we pushing our kids to fail? Weed out the ones that won't measure up? Seems to me we have enough folks that feel inadequate, and depressed, we should be in the business of building up our kids especially, to have confidence and a sense of self worth!

OK I'm off the soap box....

Fish in the Frozen North

purple_phoenix

It does feel like that a lot of the time... I sit and wonder if I'm going to have to be pushed this hard for the next 70 years or so. Keep telling myself that there's only one more year to go, then I can do what I like.

GCSEs.. Right, I'll start from the beginning. You start compulsory education at 4yo, right? Classes are done in years, rather than 'grades' here, so:

YR, Y1, Y2 - Primary school, Key Stage One
Y3-6 - Still Primary school, KS2
Y7-9 - Secondary school, KS3
(With SAT exams at the end of each Key Stage, and CAT exams in each year in KS3. SAT exams are pointless. They're putting 6 year olds under so much pressure, to see how well the school's doing, compared to others in Britain. Sure, they know if they need to improve, but is that the only way they can think of? CATs are mainly maths and logic problems. It's like an IQ test, really.)

Year 10 and 11 are the 'GCSE years'. Unless you're some sort of child genius, all GCSEs that are studied for in school time are taken within these two years, and depending on which subjects, they can be built up of exam grades and coursework. You only do the core subjects and 'choices'. You have four 'choices'. One of mine HAD to be Humanities, and one HAD to be French. GCSEs are the first real qualifications you get. They'll get you into sixth form and some jobs, depending on your grades which can range from U (You get that if you don't write your name on the exam paper ) and then A*-F. Most places will look for A*-C grades, so the school always gives you the impression that anything less is a fail, but they're not. There's more pressure to come when you get the reports, which give you expected and minimum grades.
At the end of year 11 you're either 16yo or very nearly, and that's the end of compulsory education. Sixth form (years 12 and 13) are optional, but will become compulsory quite soon. This, again, I think is stupid, because some people are kind of 'suited' to it. They're okay with staying on in school, but others have had enough with strict rules and timetables and exams and go to college or get a job. If everyone goes to sixth form, it's going to be so much harder to get a good job, or go to university or college, as everyone will have A-level grades. Their "value" will go down. I know what I'm trying to say here, but I'm not explaining very well..

Well, yes. I think that's all. Well done if you're reading this because you've read all that's above it

COBettaCouple

well, the way the compulsory education system is here in the US is, if anything, even crazier.. part of the problem here is politics have taken over the educational system. and we all know how stupid politics are.

purple_phoenix

How do you mean politics are taking over the educational system? :S

Only thing about politics to rant about here is how crazy they are for covering American politics in the curriculum, and not our own. We spent over four months learning in depth about how things work over there, how they have in the past, past presidents, etc etc, and 'covered' British politics in a one hour lesson. Same with the slave trade and WWII; we were taught about everyone else's involvement, but only touched on our own. It's like they're trying to cover up what happened. I don't know why they won't change it... If anything's going to be useful in the future, it's not what we're being taught.

COBettaCouple

it seems like politics determine what's taught in schools and it's more important to be politically correct than factual or educational. they don't cover up our history here, they've just rewritten it to suit today's politics and not offend anyone.

susitna-flower

So true, about politics and school. For example, and this is a rather obscure point. My father used to work in Leadville Colorado in a mine. My father was a college educated man, talking to the locals (of Catholic decent) he was talking about the "Spanish Inquisition", and how the Catholic church was responsible for the massacre of the indigenous peoples of south America. The local people told him he was lying, and that they had never heard of it! My dad went to the library in that town, because he was going to prove it to them. Low and behold, any book he came across in that library that talked about that period in history, either had blank pages, or pages missing that covered that subject.
Another instance that is in "vogue" right now is the attempt to say that the Holocaust never happened in WWII. That hasn't taken hold at this point, but many people would just love to see it written out of the history books.

Last week on the forum there was a great discussion about Global Warming. This evening as I was telling my mom (76 yo lady) about the discussion we had been having she reminded me about something that was covered very throughly back in the mid 1960's. Right after the 1964 earthquake that struck Alaska, scientists documented the shift in the earths crust under the Pacific Ocean, and predicted at the time that the Japanease current would take a significant shift to the north, which would bring a warming trend to the northern regions!......Well why has this been forgotten? When the politicians want to manipulate public opinion to their own ends!!!

OK I'll get off that soap box again.

Fish in the Frozen North

Gozer_1

Uh Oh You said Global Warming.................... Mustn't get worked up............ Mankind in denial................. Planet warms and cools but man has compounded the effort........................ We don't recognize the power we hold in our VAST numbers alone. It's not just the climate changing. It's not just the oil running out. It's not just the deforesting. We make a concerted effort to thwart nature at every turn. Why do we fight against the place that brought us life? OK I'm shutting my trap now. I am a nature nerd. Regardless of the result, we need to realize our impact on the world. It may not be all our fault, but we have to admit we are a force to be reckoned with. Sorry shutting........... We out number the rats you know.

purple_phoenix

Hey guys! Results are in!!

German - A*
Italian - A*
French - A
Science - A couple of marks off an A*, but that grade was only based on coursework, so I can retake it for free up until May next year.

I'm really pleased with my results - remember I took them a year early too

armadillo

Congratulations to Phoenix and Gwenz on their GCSEs! (Phoenix, at least I assume that's GCSE's, imagine 5 A's at your A levels!)

purple_phoenix

Yes, they're GCSEs. I'm still doing GCSEs next year too, though.
And in place of the subjects I took early, I'm doing A level German next year (Year 11)

5 A-level As would be amazing! But yeah... I have to concentrate on getting decent grades in the rest of my GCSEs now. Pressure's on, looking at my minimum grades....

armadillo

Do you know what you want to study?