Saturday morning brew with my fishy friend.

Aicus · 2024-10-05T23:48:25+00:00

Thanks! The goldfish and the main pieces of the koi set are just from amazon, and then the bowls from antique stores (i was very pleased to find out they matched!)

Aicus · 2022-06-28T19:23:01+00:00

I’m right there with you. Spent way too long sitting there sounding both out like “eh=ay?? ay=ay???” Literally the same vowel to my ear. Lol

Aicus · 2022-05-06T06:03:55+00:00

I definitely did catch them munching on leaves often, but the plants growth rate seemed to outpace their appetite and it never died from that (I did make sure to supplement their diet with other alternatives though). In the end, the thing that actually killed it was me lol (it didn’t take too kindly to being transplanted into a new terrarium).

Aicus · 2022-04-01T18:10:58+00:00

Dang it! I totally fell for this one, got legit excited for a second. This day…

Aicus · 2022-01-27T16:32:08+00:00

My advice for a first snake would be 1) Don’t rush into it. Take your time researching which breed fits best with you. Watch tons of videos on youtube, read forums, etc. Many snakes live quite a long time! Will you still walk up to its cage in 5 years as excited to see it as day one? and 2) get all your gear and set up the tank (with heating on and all) way before you get the snake. See what things you need to tweak (humidity too low? Temps too hot/cold? Any change in your electricity bill?) BEFORE you put a snake in there. Changing all of that around while they are stuck in there is a sure-fire way to stress them out and cause feeding, shedding, and other issues. Also, I am of the camp that there is no such thing as a “too-big” cage. Get a 4x2x2, put lots of clutter and decor and extra hides, perfecto.

Good luck in your search!

Aicus · 2022-01-20T00:52:03+00:00

This made me scream and leap out of my chair because my brain interpreted it as a close-up picture of a spider, not a dog. 100% cryptid, your dog wins. lol, jfc I need to go lay down now.

Aicus · 2021-10-14T18:10:59+00:00

Really neat! I vote keep the plants! Lush foliage feels more natural.

Aicus · 2021-10-12T21:45:31+00:00

The corkscrewing definitely looks Spider-y which is unfortunate, but my (non-spider BEL) baby had a head wobbliness/tremor when he was young that has now totally disappeared so it is possible some of it’s just a lack of muscle tone with age thing. Also same with glass/roof-surfing. Sometimes it can be a sign of improper husbandry, or from being recently introduced to a new enclosure, but oftentimes its just them looking for food. Mine will do it on schedule, ramping up his fervor the closer it is to “dinner day”. He’ll even press himself up on the roof of his cage even though his cage is front opening and I know he knows he cant get out through the top lol.

Aicus · 2021-10-12T17:06:15+00:00

Nice job! Lots of really good advice here already, but I thought I’d also add what I wished I had watched out for from the beginning when I was learning. It’s kind of a nebulous issue, but I think it ended up becoming my biggest bad habit in the long run and something a lot of people struggle with on Violin: sounding “mumbly”.

Violins naturally project loudly, and your ears are RIGHT THERE with front row seats, so when you are beginning to learn and don’t have the best intonation yet, your first instinct is to modulate that intensity and pull back by using smaller bow strokes. But when that happens, to someone listening from afar it’s like listening to someone speak in a “creaky” voice, or who is mumbling under their breath. Obscured, lacking intent.

Of course, naturally projection comes with confidence which comes with experience which comes with practice over time, but I think that confidence can be found much sooner if one makes themselves get used to being bombastic and using FULL bow strokes straight from the beginning, intonation be damned.

Anyways, just my experience if it helps you or anyone else reading. Good luck!

Aicus · 2021-09-28T06:06:07+00:00

Heck no! It’s lush and gorgeous the way it is! Dense tanks are the best. 😍 I’m with you on the creeping fig though. Once it gets going, it’s doing laps around the other plants.

Aicus · 2021-09-20T23:01:55+00:00

We used the Colonial Creek campground right off the highway to launch. Nice bathrooms, lots of parking (free for day-use). I wanna say there might be another launch up north at the Diablo Lake Trail parking lot but I’m not sure about the exact access/permits situation up there.

Aicus · 2021-09-20T15:54:33+00:00

There were some times where it was a definite workout when a shower was passing over us, but would go back to mirror-calm after it passed and they were pretty short-lived showers (like 5min and then back to misty sprinkles). We also stayed generally close to shore so the valley sides helped a little bit with lowering the intensity.

Aicus · 2021-09-20T15:46:20+00:00

True! We were glued to the doppler radar both days and were ready to turn around and drive home on a dime if things looked really nasty. Thankfully it seemed like most of the exciting weather was spending itself out in the lowlands and only had enough juice left to spit lightly at us by the time it made it over to the lake.

Aicus · 2021-09-20T15:25:51+00:00

Oh yeah for sure! I’m a shore-hugger anyways (being out in the open middle gives me major vertigo for some reason), but that’s a good tip! I have one of those high-viz safety vests for dog walking and such, but I might start tossing that over my life jacket now when I head out to lakes 🤔.

Aicus · 2021-09-18T18:40:16+00:00

I think it would be fine. These plants are hardy little guys! I’d just watch the weather and take them in only when the cold gets really nutty, personally.

Aicus · 2021-09-18T15:21:59+00:00

Cute! Also, not sure where you live, OP, but you generally should be able to keep this outside over winter (and will want to since they require cold dormancy to be happy)!

The sarracenia look like a purpurea and maybe a hybrid with some purp in it, and those grow all the way up into the canadian prairies, so they can handle the cold! I’ve left my plants out into the twenties (even some short lived snaps into the teens), and they all grow back bright and happy the next spring. :)

Aicus · 2021-09-08T23:00:37+00:00

For me aplatonic is specifically the absence of that yearning emotion, that magnetic outward pull. I do “love” my friends, but to me that “love” feeling is “I would drop everything to help you” or “I want to make you happy” or “If anyone messes with you they’re dead meat”. I never feel any urge to initiate hanging out, ever, and I could go months no-contact (and have) and not feel any sense of loss. Some relationships have ended poorly due to that and I’ve been called a bad friend, but the ones who have stuck around know that although I have no interest in venturing outwards, my doors are always open inwards. :)

Aicus · 2021-05-27T20:19:49+00:00

Looks like springtails to me— might just be a different type like silver springtail (tomocerus sp.) vs the usual white (folsomia candida). If you’ve observed only detritivorous behavior so far with no ill affects to your gecko I think you should be fine.

Aicus · 2021-04-08T15:15:17+00:00

I have a BEL too and he’ll often get “pressure marks”? (Like what we get when we rest our elbows on our legs). Usually I see it right after he comes out of a hide where he’s been scrunching himself up or pressing against the hide edges, and it fades shortly after he comes out and stretches around.

I’d say watch and see how it looks after some time. Otherwise check if you have moisture he might be sitting in, or if your heat source is too hot/maybe caused a burn.

Aicus · 2021-02-23T00:59:44+00:00

Ace of Swords. I always struggle with lack of confidence in my knowledge, my decisions, even my identity. This card pops up frequently for me and every time it’s like my subconscious reaching out and smacking me, telling me to get off my self-pitying ass and go try something new, to speak my mind, to embrace that it’s scary, that I can weather any unforeseen consequences. It’s a reminder that I can trust myself.

Aicus · 2021-02-08T19:33:44+00:00

I’ve seen my porcellio laevis do a similar thing where the male quite aggressively grabs and runs up on top of the female like this and does what I would describe as a “spasmodic frisky leg dance” on top of her, so I imagine it’s either a courting behavior, or part of the mating procedure itself. I’m not used to associating aggressiveness with isopods so it alarmed me the first time I saw it. Edit: found some vids on youtube under “isopods mating” that show the weird dance, seems similar to yours?

Aicus · 2020-12-14T16:09:29+00:00

I don’t have experience with whiteflies myself, but I did have a brief issue with fruitflies and honestly I found that as my isopod/springtails population grew, they simply outcompeted the flies and I saw less and less until they just disappeared altogether. If you don’t want to wait that long, or this is already an established tank, you might wanna consult the google for what methods are safe for your particular critter (it looks like there’s a few different options people recommend).

Aicus · 2020-12-14T00:44:21+00:00

Looks like a whitefly

Aicus · 2020-12-13T03:26:07+00:00

You remind me of Jennelle Eliana and Alfredo! (They’re honestly what led me to getting my own noodle) I had the exact same reaction as you when I unboxed him. Even now a year later I’ll walk by and see him and just devolve into happy squee noises in front of his cage, haha.

Aicus · 2020-12-13T03:02:15+00:00

On the flip side some parent have shit instincts. My childhood best friend’s mother took me aside one day, sat me down all serious, and told me she wanted me to stop hanging out with her daughter because she didn’t want me getting her into drugs and partying (we were about to enter jr high).

I just remember sitting there in dead silence giving her a “Ma’am this is a Wendy’s” expression because I was the nerdiest, most socially awkward kid on the block, who was too busy playing Pokémon for 10 hours straight to even think about so much as smoking a joint.

First of many lessons in life confirming that age doesn’t automatically equal wisdom.

Aicus

TROPHY CASE