Fish Hobbies

Bird ... Modern birds are characterised by feathers, a beak with no teeth, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a lightweight but strong skeleton. All living species of birds have wings—the now extinct flightless moa of New Zealand were the only exception...

Pet ... In many locations, animals that are considered pets by their owners but are legally classified as livestock, including horses, pigs, camelids, and fowl may be banned from being kept within the city limits or restricted to property of a certain larger size. The cities of Berkeley, California, and Boulder, Colorado, have passed laws stating that people who have pets do not "own" them; rather, they are the pet's "guardian."...

Mercury In Fish ... The presence of mercury in fish can be a health issue, particularly for women who are or may become pregnant, nursing mothers, and young children... This results in the bioaccumulation of mercury, in a buildup in the adipose tissue of successive trophic levels: zooplankton, small nekton, larger fish etc... Anything which eats these fish within the food chain also consumes the higher level of mercury the fish have accumulated...

Aquaculture ... The reported output from global aquaculture operations would supply one half of the fish and shellfish that is directly consumed by humans; however, there are issues about the reliability of the reported figures... Further, in current aquaculture practice, products from several pounds of wild fish are used to produce one pound of a piscivorous fish like salmon... Particular kinds of aquaculture include fish farming, shrimp farming, oyster farming, algaculture (such as seaweed farming), and the cultivation of ornamental fish...

Fish (food) ... The modern English word for fish comes from the Old English fisc (plural: fiscas) which was pronounced as it is today... There are issues with fish contaminated with heavy metals such as mercury and lead, or by toxic chemicals such as those containing chlorine or bromine, dioxins or PCBs... Mercury Fish products have been shown to contain varying amounts of heavy metals, particularly mercury and fat-soluble pollutants from water pollution...

Fish Anatomy ... The caudal peduncle is the narrow part of the fish's body to which the caudal or tail fin is attached. The hypural joint is the joint between the caudal fin and the last of the vertebrae...

Fish ... Commercial and subsistence fishers hunt fish in wild fisheries (see fishing) or farm them in ponds or in cages in the ocean (see aquaculture)... Fish have had a role in culture through the ages, serving as deities, religious symbols, and as the subjects of art, books and movies...

Disease In Ornamental Fish ... Due to their generally small size and the low cost of replacing diseased or dead fish, the cost of testing and treating diseases is often seen as more trouble than the value of the fish... Issues in diagnosis and treatment Due to the artificially limited volume of water and high concentration of fish in most aquarium tanks, communicable diseases often affect most or all fish in a tank... An improper nitrogen cycle, inappropriate aquarium plants and potentially harmful freshwater invertebrates can directly harm or add to the stresses on ornamental fish in a tank...

Fishing Bait ... Studies show that natural baits like croaker and shrimp are more recognized by the fish and are more readily accepted... Artificial baits See also: Fishing lures and Artificial fly Many people prefer to fish solely with lures, which are artificial baits designed to entice fish to strike... Natural baits See also: Bait fish The natural bait angler, with few exceptions, will use a common prey species of the fish as an attractant...

Diversity Of Fish ... Unlike groupings such as birds or mammals, fish are not a single clade but a paraphyletic collection of taxa, including jawless, cartilaginous and skeletal types... Lampreys attached to a lake trout Mouth of a sea lamprey Pacific hagfish resting on bottom at 280 m Stir-fried hagfish, from Korean cuisine Cartilaginous fish Cartilaginous fish have a cartilaginous skeleton... Because cartilaginous fish do not have bone marrow, the spleen and special tissue around the gonads produces red blood cells...

Live Fish Trade ... The live food fish trade is a global system that links fishing communities with markets, primarily in Hong Kong and mainland China... Consumer demand Within the live food trade there are certain types of fish demanded more often by consumers, particularly smaller and medium-sized fish... According to the book While Stocks Last: The Live Reef Food Fish Trade consumer demand has caused the fish captured on coral reefs to be the most valued fish in the trade...

Fish Diseases And Parasites ... Specific defences are specialised responses to particular pathogens recognised by the fish's body, that is adaptative immune responses. In recent years, vaccines have become widely used in aquaculture and ornamental fish, for example vaccines for furunculosis in farmed salmon and koi herpes virus in koi...

Fish Farming ... There is an increasing demand for fish and fish protein, which has resulted in widespread overfishing in wild fisheries... However, farming carnivorous fish, such as salmon, does not always reduce pressure on wild fisheries, since carnivorous farmed fish are usually fed fishmeal and fish oil extracted from wild forage fish... The global returns for fish farming recorded by the FAO in 2008 totalled 33.8 million tonnes worth about $US 60 billion...

Shoaling And Schooling ... Fish derive many benefits from shoaling behaviour including defence against predators (through better predator detection and by diluting the chance of individual capture), enhanced foraging success, and higher success in finding a mate...

Cleaner Fish ... The symbiosis does not break down because the abundance of these parasites varies significantly seasonally and spatially, and the overall benefit to the larger fish outweighs any cheating on the part of the smaller... Mimicry Many cleaner fish have a distinctive combination of a long narrow body, a longitudinal stripe, a blue colour, and small size... "Convergent signalling among cleaners, using size, stripes and colour, should facilitate their recognition by fish clients." The sabre-toothed blenny Aspidontus taeniatus is a blenny that mimics the ritualised dance the cleaner wrasse makes when passing fish swim by...