As I Xi It v2.3

On Sunday I came across a pond with some Lemna minor (duckweed) and Riccia (crystalwort). Being the biologist (& fishkeeper) that I am, I scooped up a sample and took it home.

Once at home, I filled up my tiny tank and floated my newly collected specimen. When I dropped it in, there were all these teeny tiny worms (possibly flatworms of some sort) which dropped to the bottom. They were very thin and about 1 mm long. Then there were some tiny worms, perhaps nematodes or some of annelid thrashing about. Of course, there were the obligatory Daphnia and some isopods and coepepods.

I stirred it with one of my ice lolly sticks and a leech dropped out! Further disturbance made some more drop out. Anyway, here’s a vid of two of them in motion. Perhaps I’ll do some photomicroscopy later. No doubt there’ll be some algae in the sample.

Not content with mooching around on terra firma. Cici decides to pop onto window ledge for a stroll.

Well, I guess summer’s here then. Click me.

Went to my favourite central London LFS the other day and picked up a few red cherry shrimps. When I tipped them into a bucket to drip acclimatize them, I noticed something white and crawling about in the bit of Java moss that they threw in. Turns out its a micro crab (Limnopilos naiyanetri).

Super red cherry shrimp

Micro crab

Did a bit of a tidy up and refurb over the weekend. Trimmed down the water wisteria and added some Limnophila, Didiplis, Alternanthera and Rotala.

The shrimp tank is still devoid of shrimp since there weren’t any red cherry shrimps at my LFS.

60L nano aquarium

20L shrimp tank

I never thought I’d be so thrilled with the purchase of a new battery for my netbook! The original 3 celled battery that came with my Aspire One initially gave me some 2 - 2:30 hours for Wifi and web surfing. About six months later, it dropped to around 1:20 hours. Pitiful for a mobile device.

So, the other day I decided to get an extended battery, one of those 9 celled ones and it might be about three times the size of the original battery, but it gives me about 6 - 7 hours of continuous use! Due to its size and design, it sticks out the rear and increases the hight at the back. Normally when I’m typing on a desktop keyboard, I like to have it flat, but with the netbook raised at the back, I actually find it more comfortable when typing reclining, on my knee or on a table. There is one issue though, with the back raised, it could slide around if you used it on a desk, so to solve that, I stuck on some rubber tape to the bottom of the battery.

It’s well worth the £55 or so I paid for it. Made by some third-party, Camera Sino it says. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s also made in China.

Original 3 cell on the left, brand spanking new 9 cell on the right.

In response to this.

This one didn’t fall out a tree.

I saw this and just had to share! I’ll be serving these up at my next function.

Click me!

My brand spanking new tripod is pretty cool. Lightweight and virtually infinitely manouverable while also being extremely steady. The only issue I have is how to conveniently carry it while scrabbling around out in the wild. My Lowepro Primus has a tripod holder built in, but it kinda puts you off balance when you’ve got a tripod strapped in and can be a bit awkward. If I’m using a monopod, I tend to strap it to the side and stick one end in the water bottle holder. For tripod carrying, I prefer to use a strap. I didn’t fancy springing £20 for a dedicated tripod strap and Amazon had the Lowepro Transporter camera strap on sale (£10) so I figured I’d do something with that.

Why the Lowepro Transporter? Well, it’s got a slidey shoulder pad. I initially used a knock-off Optech weight reducing strap I had lying around, but since the neoprene was in a fixed position and too far from the end, I took it off. It was way too long as well, even at its shortest length. It’s not compulsory to use Lowepro Transporter, but I found that it worked best for me. I guess you could substitute it with whatever strap works for you.

For this mod, you’ll need the following items:

• 1x Lowepro Transporter camera strap (or equivalent)
• 1x racket grip tape (or bicycle handlebar grip tape)
• 1x small cable tie
• 1x dog collar with quick release
• 1x rubber band style bracelet (for some reason they became very popular at one point in recent years)

Illustrated instructions below.

At some point in the near future, I’ll make some tripod leg pads.