How to make your own chlorine neutraliser for your aquarium

Tap water contains chlorine or chloramine as a
disinfectant to control bacteria. Chlorine and chloramine in tap water is harmless to humans but is deadly to fish unless a chlorine neutraliser is added.
Making this chlorine neutraliser is easy and cheap to make and you don,t need much to make it.

Things you will need:

• sodium thiosulphate

• a measuring cup

• distilled water

• a teaspoon

1.  First you take your measuring and throw some sodium thiosulphate crystals in, the more crystals you throw in, the longer you,l wait until its dissolved.
2. Next you throw some distilled water in to, the water should be equal to the crystals otherwise the chlorine neutraliser will be ineffective.
3. Wait. It takes a long time before the chlorine neutraliser is finished and that time is about at least overnight.
4. That's it! it,l look like this when its finished. After you used the sodium thiosulphate, put in the refrigerator for later use otherwise the crystals will melt. About 3 drops is enough to treat 10 gallons (37 liters) of fresh water.

This is not a snake.

 This weird snakelike thingy you see here is actualy not a snake but a lizard! Now you will probably wonder why this lizard doesn't have legs? Well the reason why is because it spends most of its time underground and because of this it also doesn't have eyes. These lizards have a very good sense of smell and that is how they find their food. I found this one when my sister saw it and thought it was a snake.It turned out to be a burowing lizard according to my snake and lizard guide.I like to identify animals and learn about them as much as I can.

This one was very interesting!

Stag Beetles

This foto you see here is a Southern African stag beetle female and is a very rare insect in Southern Africa and is listed on the red data list. The stag beetle on this foto is a stag beetle I found in our yard while I was walking around. I were so surprised when I saw it. Stag beetles are not pests like everyone thaught it is. In fact it is a good creature cause stag beetles eat only rotten fruit that falls from trees and the larva eat only decaying wood. Stag beetles can,t eat solids- their huge mandibles are useless for eating and therefor they eat only soft stuff like rotten fruit, females use their large mandibles for digging into decaying wood to lay there eggs and males use their large mandibles for fighting. Here is a little foto of a male stag beetle, its mandibles are strong enough to chew a pensil! Here is a link if you want to see how a male stag beetle fight:Stag beetles fighting.

The baboon spider of Lydenburg

This you see on my hand is a golden brown baboon spider I found on a trip around Lydenburg area.Its latin name is Augacephalus breyri and it eats anything it can overpower and grows up to 6 cm long. I were so exited when I found it,offcause it was my dream to discover one of those. I first  wanted to keep it but then thought about my iguana that died (see label campaing against import of  alien  animals) and then decided to leave the spider in the wild where it belongs, even though I would have liked to study it for a while.


                                                                   
                                                                                                   (above)Baboon spider on my hand.

                                                              

                                                                                          Baboon spider on my arm(above).