One of the best things you can do, is to buy a 5 - 10 gal. tank and keep it aside for use as a Quarantine tank. A smaller tank, that can fit into your utiity sink is best, as you want to sterilize it with bleach between each use. Never- EVER introduce new fish into any established tank until they have been quarantined at the VERY LEAST of 2 weeks, 3 is even better, regardless of how healhy the new fish appear to be. If your main tank is healthy, use at least 50% water from it to set up your Q tank. When you bring your new fish home, slip them from the bag into a small plastic container and float it in the Q tank, then slowly, add 1 cup of Q tank water to the container. Wait 10 minutes, then, 1 cup out; discard- and 2 in from the Q tank. Repeat for about a half hour, then net the new fish into the Q tank. They will be acclimated to both the temp and water parameters and if healthy, should do just fine. If not, you will lose only them and not the rest of your fish. Then, sterilize the net and keep it only for that tank. Nets are a lot cheaper than most fish. I use a 50% bleach solution as a net dip, followed by a super hot rinse. Once it's been soaked in a bleach solution for a few minutes, then literally cooked by the hot water, it simply cannot hold any living aquatic organisims, good or bad. But generally: a dishpan, bleach and very hot water can and will do more for disease control in your main tank than most medications, because an ounce of prevention still beats a pound of cure anyday.

If you want to limit the number of mantids in your garden next year, look for their egg cases. They are very distinctive. I find mine on the sides of the house, on my red wood trellises, etc. At first I didn't know what these were, and I kept finding lots of them. Now I know, and I'm going to start trying to "limit" the number of mantids for the garden. Praying mantids are cannabalistic when they hatch. Though you can get up to several hundred hatchlings from one case, usually only a few survive the feeding frenzy. So save at least one case that you can locate. They are considered beneficials - except when it comes to caterpillars and butterflies. I find them in either different stages of growth, or different species, I don't know for sure how many species there are. Scroll down the page I linked to for you, and you can see a photo of the egg case. The ones I have are very hard shelled and I'll probably have to smash them with a hammer or something. They kind of remind me of a petrified caterpillar, and in color from tan to brown to reddish brown. These are the ones I find in my yard anyway. Susan Here is a link that might be useful: Praying Mantids Egg case

Fluoride is a carcinogen. No one denies this. Its risk of lethality is vanishingly small. The issue surrounding fluoridation of the public water supply is one of cost:benefit for the population at large. Personally, I come down on the side of mass-fluoridation but it seems to me one of the (few) public health issues where reasonable minds can disagree. This said after a lot of careful study of the problem. Since in the case mentioned by Pamela legislation isn't suggested, or mass-forcing of elders to install induction cooktops, the comparison isn't really apt. Learning about the safety benefits of the appliance, in particular conjunction with the needs of elders, is basically just a win-win situation (especially for the manufacturers! ;) ). And thanks, pamela, for pointing out this issue of fire-hazards. I hadn't realized it was so big. Frankly, I am guessing many of us middle-aged sorts on this forum are just beginning to learn about the issues surrounding our aging parents. Linking them to more plebeian issues of consumerism is an eye-opener. And for those of you beyond the divide (of middle age), couldn't you just take in a little bit of the love and concern considered here by your 'children'? There is, maybe possibly, a slight tradeoff to be affected between freedom and safety. But we who care about you place some value on the safety part perhaps at slight expense of the freedom-part. This is the stuff of negotiation, not excoriation. IMHO. Also, note that the anxiety surrounding the issue for many has its own 'cost' -- hard to quantify for sure. But it does belong in the cost:benefit analysis somewhere, not just the literal numbers of deaths. And that anxiety exists among all, elders and their children and gchildren too. It's a hard thing to tote up but really pervasive. I think that's at the heart (pun winked at if not originally intended) of Pamela's post, frankly.

Beautiful bird, unfortunate fate. I've never seen an ovenbird out of a forest. I live in the middle of a suburban area pretty far from any big forests. Unfortunate my only sighting was a dead one out here, though. Don't want him to just rot away but if anything why not let the bugs do their job. I might just move the body to a heavily planted area to let the little ecosystem get to work.