#there's also a few in common that i'd added to my own playlist before finding his so i felt pretty good about that lol

[gale-force-storm]

Gale Playlist

Been slowly building up a Gale playlist and decided to post it in case any of y'all are curious

Here is it on Spoitfy

And the same playlist on YouTube

I generally just continually add to my playlists whenever I find something that feels like it fits, so it'll almost certainly grow over time, too

[quillyleaf]

fish anon again ^^ thanks for replying to my ask!

basically, my mom and i were given an aquarium from a friend, and we wanna get some fish for it, but have no idea how to choose. are there any types you would recommend for some first time fish owners? any tips? and if you have resources yes pls i'd love for you to share them !!!

have a nice day <3

Hello again!!

I decided to put a quick summary up at the top because this got super long:

Before you get the fish:

What’s your tank size?

Get a filter that fits

Get a heater that fits (and a thermometer)

Get enough substrate for the tank size (natural coloured is best)

Get your decorations (live/silk plants are great! Driftwood and natural stones, too!)

Research what fish can live well in that tank size (and which ones would get along if you’re getting multiple!)

CYCLE YOUR TANK

There are a bunch of “starting a new tank” chemicals that kickstart the cycle that can shorten this cycle from weeks to a few days

Adding in hardy and small fish (tetras, barbs, platys/mollies/guppies) can also help the cycle go faster

“Cycling a tank” is basically just getting the chemicals inside the water to a stable level. Most importantly, you want NO AMMONIA.

Fish! Recommendations!

(Be aware I have limited experience here)

Small, hardy fish are best for beginners, but you can definitely get something else if you do your research: Tetras, barbs, most livebearers (like guppies, swordtails, platys, and mollies)

Cleanup crew! Fish that will cleanup algae and leftover food: Snails, shrimp, algae eaters, plecos, loaches

Flashy highlight fish! If you plan on these, I recommend choosing just ONE and basing all the other fish in the tank on what gets along with them. Flashy fish can be very aggressive, so beware! Bettas, gouramis, cichlids (I know nothing about cichlids, I might be very wrong), that sort of thing

Goldfish are great if you just want one type of fish, and only one or a few to focus on, but beware: THEY WILL EAT ANYTHING SMALLER THAN THEM.

I personally recommend KGTropicals Fish Keeping 101 Playlist if you like clear and comprehensive youtube videos. Specifically, their video for new fishkeepers is a nice starter!

Also: MAKE SURE YOU COMPLETELY CYCLE YOUR AQUARIUM BEFORE YOU ADD (most) FISH.

After you watch through that new fishkeepers video, here’s some tips for possible fish! (Under the cut ‘cause this is longggg.)

Firstly, disclaimer: I only have experience with some limited fish types, so I’ll give some info on those!

I have two bettas in a divided ten gallon tank. It’s divided in half, so it’s technically two five gallons! Originally I had one in a community tank (with other fish types) but they ended up getting nippy and aggressive so I gave them their own. ^^ With bettas, they have really fun personalities and swim around and can even be easily trained to do tricks as long as you take care of them properly!

But having a betta means you can only have one “highlight” fish, the betta. So if you want more than one fish with longer fins, or really pretty colours, or a flashy personality, bettas aren’t a good idea. Gouramis are a little less aggressive, but a similar fish in that you don’t want to put them with other larger/flashy fish because they tend to get nippy.

In my twenty gallon tank, I have platys, a gourami, weather loaches, and kuhli loaches. I would actually recommend getting a larger tank for weather loaches, I’m just keeping them in this tank temporarily while they’re smaller until I get a larger tank. ^^

In the past, I’ve had guppies and african dwarf frogs. Unfortunately, due to either disease right from the store, or from my own inexperience, these fish passed away a while ago. :c I wouldn’t recommend african dwarf frogs to beginners: feeding them is remarkably trickier than you might think. Guppies can be a great beginner fish, I just got really unlucky with them and I don’t want to get them again. ^^’

Livebearers in general are usually great beginner fish if you have a large enough tank and you want a group of lovely colours and cute personalities. Guppies, mollies, swordtails, and platys are some of the common ones you’ll find. Some of these can be more aggressive than others, so do your research, but the great fun with these is that they breed readily when healthy and happy. HOWEVER, these fish DO tend to be short-lived, so I wouldn’t recommend these if you get attached really easily.

LOACHES are my favourite favourite favourite fish ever because they are!! SO SILLY AND DERPY and so fun to watch! They’re extremely easy to take care of, eat up all the leftovers at the bottom of the tank, get along really well with other fish (because they can be really peaceful), and they can even be extremely friendly (and can even!! ENJOY BEING PET!!). HOWEVER. All loach types are different, so do your research. ^^

I don’t have personal experience with these, but tetras and barbs are also said to be very hardy fish, cheap, have many varieties, and are little and therefore are good for beginners.

Also!!! Technically not a fish! But! SNAILS ARE GREAT. They clean up algae and leftover food and keep your tank nice and clean, and are also fun to watch~ Nerites are known as the best for algae clean-up, but apple (or mystery) snails are also really good. SHRIMP ARE ALSO GREAT for a similar reason! Just make sure your other fish won’t eat them.

Hopefully that helps? Mostly this was just an excuse to rant, though. ^u^’

[acerstella]

On music and American media

Tl;Dr - American media discrimination sucks and it makes me angry and sad.

This is probably the 4th or 5th article I've read in the last week that boils down to "Wow, they're amazing...especially because they're not American"

*sputters*

Why do we need a qualifier there? Because Americans think they're the absolute best and if it's not what fits in their specific niche, they're not going to care. The niche in this case, is that the song is completely in English and reminds them of American/British boy bands.

Don't get me wrong; Butter is an absolute delight and I'll probably have it playing on my music player til I die. Whatever accolades BTS gets for the piece is well-deserved and bravo to them for making such an all-round pop song that almost anyone could dig. But I've got at least 20 other songs of theirs on my listen-til-I-die playlist and aside from Dynamite, they aren't in English. This is also nothing compared to the 60-70 other artists I listen to that are not in English and multiple songs I listen to from them.

I really don't wonder so much as secretly seethe as I know it's sadly true. Had this song been at least half or fully in Korean, only their fans would be talking about it, certainly not most American media. It wouldn’t have mattered if it broke every YouTube record, did crazy good outside the US, or became part of some widely released movie soundtrack. American media does not promote those that do not cater to their supposed wants, especially "foreigners."

Actually come to think of it, they don't even promote domestic acts if they don't fit either. Case in point, Backstreet Boys didn't find American media welcome to them either at the start. They built their fan base in Europe years before the US finally gave them any airplay and even then, they weren't considered a US success until much later. American media often has to be "convinced" that things are worth their time (read: money).

Perhaps I'm a bit jaded about this. I'm saddened because American youth have been given far more tools to experience our multicultural world (far more than millennial me) and yet, due to the influence of the US media, this is either ignored or shoved away because it's "other."

Bless my parents for not restricting my what little access I had to the outside media world. I know of some parents at the time that would have mocked or threatened them if they blasted Japanese pop songs, watched subtitled / imported TV shows and spent many days researching the rest of the world while the super bowl was on or some other All-American event. Mine, while rolling their eyes occasionally at my fervent excitement about all things outside our borders, encouraged me to explore and try the new. Thanks to their moderate support, I enjoy my pop-influenced music in multiple languages without a second thought. It's art and just because you don't recognize the words, doesn't mean you can't recognize the intent, the heart of a piece.

I felt the same way during the Grammys, knowing ahead of time due to only the biggest categories getting TV time, that BTS hadn't won. I still stuck around to watch the performance but I felt the gnaw then, questioning if Dynamite hadn't been in English, would the academy even have given it a second glance? Possibly not. Not that they're an exceptional pulse on good music, as much like the Oscar's, they're a few generations behind and thus slow to recognize anything decent. But they're respected as authorities so on and on we go.

It made me think back to other artists. Celine Dion didn't make it big in the US until she began singing in English. Same with Enrique Iglesias, same with Ricky Martin, Shakira and others even though these artists already had large followings in their native countries and among speakers of their native language. The common thread was obvious and disheartening.

While understanding that radio stations have to cater to their audiences and tailor their playlists, I believe doing the first purge of anything not English (although on occasion something Spanish will slip through) robs the listeners of experiencing the greater diversity of the music world as whole. In fact, it's not even just non-English songs this applies to but even English that's not American in origin. Country music, possibly one of the more American genres out there, discriminates by generally not playing country artists from Canada and Australia until they're endorsed / promoted by an American artist!

This may be why younger people have walked away from broadcast radio and the like. They can cultivate their own playlists and with the wide open internet, they can cast a large net to find their own loves. I whole heartedly hope these international fans find what they crave that they can't find at home, like I did (and still do) and embrace it.

But I'd also like the American mainstream media to get their collective fingers out of their ears and quit treating the rest of the world with such xenophobic tendencies. We're not the best. We’ve never been, in terms of being better than anyone else. We're one country out of a couple hundred. Our cultural bias needs to be abandoned before the world abandons us.