#interpet

[dk-thrive]

Sometimes we see only what we want to see and what will serve our own purposes.

— Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women, A Novel (Simon & Schuster, June 6, 2023)

[aquariuminfobureau]

Less famous than Nick Dakin's two previous Interpet titles, is this 1996 work, titled The Interpet Questions & Answers Manual of the Marine Aquarium. Though this volume, which is part of a series of books, in not much more recent than his earlier books on this subject, it does have a much more contemporary feel to it. Though needless to say, it feels old fashioned in parts.

The graphic design is excellent, even by the standards of Interpet. Photographs and diagrams adorn the pages alongside useful charts and informative text boxes. Before the author moves onto the animals, he presents pages on the subjects of setup and maintenance, including water changes and fish health.

He even dedicates pages onto the subjects of moving home and going on holiday. These problems are often asked of retail store staff, and aquarium magazine columnists. Each of the headings is accompanied by its own, pragmatic series of questions and answers, as you would expect, per the title of the book. Clearly designed with beginners in mind, the format achieves well what it's concept set out to do.

Whereas British books had previously mentioned 'live rock' only on passing, Dakin by 1996 dedicates pages to this nowadays ubiquitous, but problematic approach to reefkeeping. Which is equivalent to dumping mud from a South American stream into a blackwater tank. It never really made much sense to me, for a few reasons, even though people did (and do) swear by live rock with protein skimming, often without other filtration.

As presented below, good quality live rock can introduce fascinating inhabitants for free, and be aesthetically stunning. However this example is atypical in its being so photogenic. When live rock is exported to us, it is removed from the water, causing deaths among the organisms. The delayed decomposition of boring organisms such as sponges, can even pollute and 'crash' a tank after it appears permanently cycled.

The stressful and lethal process of curing the live rock, effectively filters out all but the toughest organisms. And unknown organisms that are tough, might be resilient and damaging - think of rats, mice, cockroaches, kudzu, cane toads, and indeed humans, as invasive organisms. This is surely the number one pathway by which Aiptasia sp. colonises our aquariums for instance.

By 1996 the Brits were not only learning about live rock, but also the debate about sand beds in reef aquariums. For the welfare of certain animals, a substrate is obviously essential. Without a substrate one cannot keep jawfishes, sleeper gobies, snapping shrimp, fighting conches, sand sifting starfishes, and the like. Some sessile animals and macroalgae also prefer or require siting on a sand or similar substrate.

However a bottom scouring system is otherwise worth considering, to prevent detritus from accumulating at the bottom of the aquarium. Calcareous sand (and rocks) also assist with maintaining the correct water chemistry, so a volume of an appropriate sand definitely has its benefits. There is a risk of a sulphur smell and a tank crash if dirt accumulates in the sand, however, so the substrate should not be too deep, either.

By 1996 British aquarists were shifting their attention, from big tangs, angelfishes, groupers, puffers, and triggers, onto smaller fishes creating less bioload for filtration systems. Or was Dakin writing with the US audience in mind? Either way, the US was ahead and the UK was catching up, though in my opinion, it's only after 2000 that home 'reefing' really caught on.

So that when Dakin dedicates pages to wrasse, he presents them in two separate size classes. As with the concept of a dwarf cichlid in the freshwater side of the hobby, dwarf wrasse are certainly not a phylogenetic grouping or clade. Earlier books by Dakin, Mills, and other authors, had not treated dwarf wrasse as distinct from larger wrasse

Strange as it sounds, British aquarists in the 1990s were not really aware, of the omnivorous natures of Centropyge sp. angelfishes, nor of certain other fishes such as blennies. When the behavior was reported in magazines, it tended to be dismissed as a behavioral aberration, an opinion admittedly supported by the fact some of these fish are observed to 'take nips' at corals and clams more than others, even within a species.

In fact stable isotopes provide powerful evidence, that wild Centropyge sp. habitually consume sessile fauna, beyond the incidental but nutritionally important ingestion of epibionts on algae. By 1996 British authors were coming round to this realization. Centropyge will not bother corals with powerful stings, such as Euphyllia sp. but are definitely capable of bothering corals and clam mantles.

Following the introductions to the different groupings of marine fishes, are those to the world of coral and other 'invertebrates'. These follow the same format of questions and answers, as do the pages on the fishes and throughout the book. Compared to Dakin's earlier titles, much more effort is spent on the subject of the corals. Already in the later 1990s, British retailers and home aquarists were getting more 'clued up' about coral and anenone care. As were book authors.

That an aquarium book organize ornamental animals as 'invertebrates' is expected. However a reference to Phylum Crustacea is unexpected in 1996, with it being a reference, surely, to past ideas about arthropod polyphyly, according to which insects evolved separately from velvet worms and also perhaps leeches. This is disproven, arthropods are instead a monophyletic group, velvet worms are their sister, and leeches are related to earthworms.

It seems especially silly nowadays because insects nest among the traditional crustaceans. Which has received a phylogenetic definition that has been falsified, by the phylogenetic placement of the insects. Like 'invertebrate', the word 'crustacean' makes sense as a historical and legacy term only. Dakin's use is equivalent to the multicrustaceans, and would properly exclude ostracods, fish lice, cladocerans such as Daphnia, and the clam, fairy and tadpole shrimp, such as Artemia and Triops.

As regards Dakin's choice of 'crustacean' species, it is oddly old fashioned. Hermit crabs are represented only by the showy Dardanus, not the ubiquitous little scavengers that are traded much, much more often today. Similarly in his pages on gastropods, he still features the tiger cowrie but not the small trochoids, that are surely the most popular snails in our tanks nowadays.

Without a mention of the standard 'CUC' assemblage, this '90s book feels decidedly old fashioned. I do however agree with Dakin, that detrivorous brittlestars are the most efficient 'janitors' for our tanks. They can reach and access food that other scavengers are likely unable to, and each brittlestar has the biomass and food requirements of several little hermit crabs. I am also fond of their appearance and behaviors

Cephalopods fascinate the public, and Dakin features armored nautiluses, cuttlefishes, and octopuses. Following a cliche he predictably tells us to avoid buying the notorious blue ringed octopuses, genus Hapalochlaena, only because of their venom. The personal risks can be avoided with carefulness, simply by not sticking bare hands into the aquarium, being the primary method to avoid envenomation.

Blue ringed octopuses are in fact a manageable size for aquarists, and because they are a staple species in behavioral research, their proper care is extremely well studied. Other than their venom, there are probably no better octopuses for the aquarist when they are available in the trade.

Reportedly they have even been housed alongside fishes, though I don't have details as to which fish. Planktivores significantly larger than the octopus would neither bother it, nor would they regard one another as potential prey. Incidentally, there is more than one species of Hapalochlaena, not one.

Dakin mentions in his page on cuttlefishes that they should not share aquariums with fishes. He is very wrong on this. Nowadays and for quite a while, it has been standard for public aquariums to house cuttles together with fishes, although tankmates must of course be selected with care

Another old fashioned aspect of the books, is the advocacy of a trap device to remove helpful bristleworms. Bristleworms vary in their feeding ecology, but the ones in our tanks are in fact very helpful scavengers. The reputation of bristleworms as harmful on the whole, is attributed to a subclade named the fireworms.

These are destructive corallivores, and furthermore their bristles are toxic to man upon contact, creating a namesake burning sensation. It's amazing how paranoid some people can be about benign reef fauna, yet advocate the use of live rock which is how they arrive.

[ike2910]

応募用です🌸 　#nexnekoインターペット　　　#応募用 ご縁がありますように✨ 以下リポスト文🍀 　Repost @neuneko.2021 with @use.repost ・・・ ～インターペット2023　無料招待券プレゼント～ ★インターペット2023に無料で入場できる招待券（2枚）を、2名様にプレゼント🎁！★ 【応募締切】 2023年2月20日（月）23:59 【応募方法】 ①@neuneko.2021をフォロー ②ハッシュタグ『#neunekoインターペット 』をつけて、本投稿をリポストorスクショした画像を投稿 （当選者数　2名2組様） 【当選発表】 2月21日（火）に、ダイレクトメールにてご連絡いたします。 ～インターペット2023～ 開催日：2023年3月31日（金）～4月2日（日） ※チケットは上記期間のうち、引き換え日当日限り有効です。 開催時間：10:00～17:00 開催場所：東京ビッグサイト 詳しくはインターペット公式サイトをご覧ください。 #キャンペーン #キャンペーン実施中 #キャンペーン開催中 #プレゼント #プレゼント企画 #プレゼントキャンペーン #猫のいる暮らし #猫好きさんと繋がりたい #ねこすたぐらむ #にゃんすたぐらむ #neuneko #neunekoインターペット #interpet #interpets #interpets2023 #インターペット #インターペット2023 https://www.instagram.com/p/CooOnr1hKG4/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[mistercroissant]

Funny

[flamingpudding]

Fictober23 Prompt: 17 - "I never said it would be easy."

Fandom: DPxDC

Rating: T

Warnings: -

A/N: I saw a post with a comment that Dan chronological wise is ten years old according to a wiki, I haven't seen it myself but I decided to run with it for this anyway.

It was supposed to be a normal morning but that got quickly interrupted by a long drawn out shout of 'Bruce' and a white and black blur suddenly flying though their ceiling right at Bruce. Two out of four present bat-kids instantly sprang up from their chairs into defense positions and with drawn weapons. The other two only arched an eyebrow before turning their attention back to their breakfast with a suppressed laugh, they had seen that black and white blur often enough during their times as Robin.

Damian glared at his older brothers as he stood with drawn throwing knives while Tim after a second of realization sighed, righten his chair from the ground and sat only slightly embarrassed at how Dick and Jason laughed.

Hovering above their breakfast table with his hands on Bruce's shoulder was now Phantom also known as Danny Nightingale, looking completely frazzled. The source of the yell as well as white and black blur from seconds ago.

"Bruce! I need your help! Please! I can't ask Jazz because she is busy and I sure as hell won't ask Trenchcoat. I don't think Supes can handle them and you're like the only one else I could think of to ask! Bruce, please!"

None of the bat kids really knew how long exactly Bruce had known Phantom. The man had only recently admitted to personally knowing the Ghost Hero when Nightwing had caught Phantom collapsing onto Batman and de-transforming and Batman handling it like that hadn't been the first time. They only knew that he had been an unofficial member of Justice League Dark and was the one that helped Jason with his Pit Madness as well as came to visit every now and then as Danny. What they had learned additionally from Alfred was that Phantom was the adopted son of Alfred's old friend and that when Bruce had been younger, he often came to visit or to hang out with them to escape his own family drama.

The bat-kids had figured out that way that Bruce and Danny were probably something akin to childhood friends that both also worked in the hero buisness.

Either way no one was in danger and so they watched on with curiosity as to what Phantom wanted. So far the Ghost Hero was still rambling on and on about something he couldn't entrust to anyone other than Bruce, while their father was leisurely taking a sip from his coffee completely pokerfaced like he was used to the other man rambling at him like that.

"Danny." Bruce finally cut in as the other was about to restart his entire plea for help. "World ending or personal."

The white haired man blinked as he finally floated to the side and let his reformed feet touch the ground. "Both? Sort of?"

Bruce grunted, the universal sigh for the other man to elaborate and the children payed attention interested on what was going on.

"I have a diplomatic meeting with the Tempest Dimension. One of their Demon Lords discovered that interdimensional travel is actually possible by having created a portal when he tried to teleport somewhere in their Dimension. I can't take Dani and Dan with me for this, the last time I allowed them to accompany me they nearly caused a dimensional war. Clockwork doesn't want to watch them, Jazz is to busy trying her newest psychological tortur- I mean therapy on Joker and I can't make the fruitloop watch them since both Dan and Dani swore they would wreck havoc if I leave them with him during football season."

Bruce arched an eyebrow and Danny pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yea I know, but last time Trenchcoat watched them he nearly sold his soul again to never ever babysit them again. And Clark is too nice to watch them, they will use it against him."

Bruce hummed. "How old are they now?"

"Five and ten body wise since the assimilation process with their bodies finished a couple years ago. They should start normal aging soon."

The bat-kids exchanged confused, disturbed and partially horrified looks at what the two men were talking about. There were so many questions they had. They were wondering if they could make Bruce talk about his childhood and get some information about Phantom that way. Tim had attempted researching him once and barely found anything besides some disturbing information about a haunted tourist town called Amity Park that was Phantom's territory.

"Bruce! Please! They have a dragon with a human body in that dimension! I just know that Dan or Dani will attempt to fight him!" Suddenly an idea popped in Dicks head and exchanged a glance with his siblings, checking if they had similar thoughts.

"We could watch them!" Dick then piped up, this was their chance to find out more about Phantom and his relationship with their dad.

Wide green eyes blinked at Dick and for a moment he felt like he had made a grave mistake, especially as he noticed Jason was sneaking away now like he decided he did not want to be part of any of this. Which is fair but come on, this was their chance.

"Are you sure?" Phantom questioned him carefully, side eyeing Bruce who was still calmly sipping his coffee and gave phantom a slight nod.

"You said five and ten, right? How bad can it be watching kids their age! They can even hang out with me and Dami!"

"Do not involve me-" Damian's complaint was shushed by Tim stuffing a pancake in the others mouth, earning him a death glare from their youngest but it was good to know that at least one of them was on his side with this plan.

This time Danny exchanged a full on look with their father, it appeared like they were silently talking. Something Dick doesn't really remember Bruce doing with anyone in the way he saw it right now.

"Well if you say so…" Phantom slowly agreed before reaching with his hand into a green portal pulling out a heavy looking bag. "This is the medicine box. If either of them look the slightest bit melty use the syringes in here. That's ecto-dejecto and basically ghost medicine for them. Though for emergencies there is a portal amulet that leads right to Frostbite."

The bat-kids looked stunned at what Danny was holding up before putting it back into the medical box and pulling out a silver green thermos front he bag. "If Dan misbehaves in any way or form use this to put him in time out. Just point the open Thermos in his direction and press the button down here. Pressing the button again will release him, but if he misbehaves to the point of having to use the thermos you can leave him in there until I pick them up again."

They knew that Phantom wasn't completely human but was that normal parenting? Hadn't they seen him use that thermos on enemies of the JLD before? And he was using it to discipline his kids?

"They know better than to overshadow anyone to get their will but in case one of them does, these bracelets should keep you safe from it. Otherwise call Bruce, he is one of the four and a half adults they listen to too."

"Is all of that really necessary? I am just babysitting them right?" Dick asked, still a bit stunned as Phantom handed him the bag.

"Yes. I never said it would be easy." The man only answered before opening another portal and sticking his head through for a brief moment.

A little girl of five hopped out of it a second later looking like a perfect copy of Danny Nightingale's human form, though what was more shocking was the hulk of a man with flaming hair coming through the portal growling and snarling at them as the grown man stood behind the girl with crossed arms. From the corner of his eyes Dick saw Phantom pinching the bridge of his nose. Before he floated over to the tall man and quite frankly pinched and pulled on that man's ear.

"Dan. Human-form now."

The man continued to growl and snarl for a moment with blazing red eyes before two white circles formed around his middle. A transformation they had seen a couple of times before from Phantom after Bruce had admitted to knowing him personally and introduced him as Danny.

Instead of the hulking beast of a man there was now a ten years old boy that looked surprisingly similar to Damian just lighter skinned and blue eyed. The boy still growled at them with his arms crossed while the little girl giggled. Damian was looking at the two with narrowed eyes before he turned his stare on Bruce.

"This is Dani and Dan." Danny introduced the two kids and Dick heard Tim mutter something about unoriginality when it came to naming. But before anyone else could comment on anything or even greet the kids an eyeball appeared out of thin air. The ghost hero and his kids looked at it for a moment before the man sighed dismissing it with a wave of his hand.

"I have to go now! Dani, Dan behave and play nice. If anything goes wrong Bruce has my emergency summoning pendant!" A second later Phantom disappeared through the portal the kids had come in, the little girl, Dani, gleefully shouting a quick "Bye mom!" Before the portal closed.

There was a moment of silence before Damian decided to break it. "Father, I believe there is something you have failed to inform us about."

"And that would be?"

"The existence of blood related siblings you have sired with Phantom."

[writing-biting]

I think one of the best things about Billford is that they're both very unreliable narrators. This is twice as bad in Reverse Falls where Will "I've never done anything wrong in my entire life" Cipher and Stanford "I have never done anything wrong in my entire life" Gleeful, make out sloppy style both convinced that they're the victim of some higher, unfathomable power.

[acediscowlng]

wait so like. let's back up here a bit. was charles under the impression that edwin's jealousy of crystal was platonic????

[royaldoge7370]

《Partytime!!》

Augh I love em..

Speedpaint/Timelapse below vv

Music:

Blue Holiday - Mladen Franko

[cinnamon-flame]

Your art style is like.

Very rounded/you don’t have a lot of flat shapes, and also you use a lot of stripes and spots everywhere, but I think most people do so I don’t know if that counts.

Mostly the first part. Like round but not necessarily soft, though people often put them together I don’t think you usually do. Honestly most of you art looks like I’d reach out and feel leather or scales.

Sorry if this makes no sense but I saw the post about describing art styles and drawing without them and figured I’d give describing it a y ry

Here it is! Hailstorm and Pyrite for the evil style challenge. The total opposite of round and sharp! It's spiky and soft! Also since you made your piece with lineart I decided to draw mine completely lineless.

I thought that maybe doing with a soft shading would minimize the defined textures of scales on dragons? It kind of worked? Also instead of stripes and dots I gave them triangles

[sunny-superstar]

tos spirk went as canon as it could in 2024 and haters are still on here like “its no more canon that it ever was” “this is just a shitty demo reel for AI technology” “paramount didnt release this” WHO CARES i saw those old men hold hands and stare lovingly at each other again and i FELT it and that’s all that matters !

[pinky-lemon]

the best kind of eye-shape duo

(original prompt(?) by crying_anabell on twitter!)

[thenameslovvie]

yeah ok y'all here's supper except everybody's full and just had dessert

[one-chaotic-neautral]

I feel like Kayne is the biggest shipper of Private Eyes, like he's treating them like a tv show and occasionally intervenes when he doesn't like where the writing is going. He prolly has little fan theories and fiction in his head as he eats popcorn watching Arthur suffer.

I'm imagining him like this, covered in blood and allat

[aviomons]

song: a march into water - pierce the veil

under read more is some solo shots (w/o texts) and some comments/thoughts from me

photos (ft. the background of the last frame because im not giving solo pics of the little grian guys. im not going on my computer to upload this)

this animatic was mostly because i haven't been able to draw for the past 2 days because of vaccine-related incidents (my arm was so sore.) so!! i needed to get everything out immediately. this took *checks watch* like 4 hours. probably would've taken triple that amount if i tried to color it so.!!

my favorite frame HAS to be frame 6. i have no idea if thats correct perspective but it came out like i wanted to and it looks nice so!! i do Not care!! ^3^

also the backgrounds are half-assed. that is why they are not the vocal point yippee. proportions and features might also change but thats what happens when you make something in not-so-much time

sketches above! only a few changed composition (mostly 6 & 7) but i’m pretty happy with it!

i did these sketches yesterday, actually, without half the use of my right arm so. you can get the art of the artist but not the artist out of the art or something like that idk

wait fuck i just realized i forgot grians freckles on everything but the first frame

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

having Cassandra and Apollo thoughts...

thoughts about how she still calls Apollo "the god I love", even after the curse. how he gifted not just her, but her twin with the gift of prophecy. he loved both of them. they loved him.

I know people claim Athena avenged Cassandra's rape at the hands of Ajax but tbh that wasn't Athena avenging Cassandra - that was Athena punishing Ajax for violating the sanctity of her temple.

if Cassandra hadn't been inside Athena's temple, Ajax would have gotten away with it. and in a way, he did anyway.

and then when you think about Cassandra's death...the one to avenge her is the god she loves. Apollo. he cursed her, yes. but he still loved her too.

because think about it. apollo did not give a flying fuck about Agamemnon. if it was just Agamemnon who died, Apollo would have thrown a party.

but Cassandra was also killed. someone Apollo loves, and a favored priestess.

...remember what happened to Agamemnon when he insulted a priest of Apollo? a plague fell on the Achaeans.

and when Cassandra is killed...Apollo finds a way to make her murders pay the price. He gets Orestes to kill his own mother to avenge Cassandra.

frankly, I love them. I want more of them. This messy, complicated relationship with so much more meaning than "apollo got mad because she wouldn't sleep with him". Even with the cursory view I have, I can see there is so much more there.

Gods, I need to get my hands on those primary sources so I can obsessively read about them in full.

If anybody has recommendations on which primary sources have Cassandra and Apollo please tell me

I am begging you.

RAWRRAWRARWR I LOVE THEM👀

I also have thoughts about Apollo and Orestes but that's for another time

[jevilowo]

Im not really a fan of Speeding Bullet. But Running Blind is still my favourite tf2 fic. And I think it is objectively the best Scout ship. And I reblog most fanart I see of it. Truly a conundrum.