..:://BIO

..:://PETS

We have four family pets, two cats and two rats. Despite what most people think or expect, the cats are not the slightest bit interested in the rats. The cats are both about 8 years old and the Rats are just over 1 year.

Rats make great pets, for anyone who can deal with the thought - and their tails!. They make excellent pets for children, because, unlike gerbils, hamsters and such, they do not have a tenancy to bite, in fact there has only been one occasion in our house of the rats biting, and that was when bran decided to take a pin and poke them... not a pleasant thing to do, but he learnt his lesson.

Before the rats, we kept Tropical fish for about 10 years. Most of the time as a community tank, moving onto being a tetra tank then finally we kept Tiger Oscars. Oscars demand a lot of work, being pretty messy fish. They pull up, eat and destroy anything they can, and excrete more mess than you can imagine. Naturally they are pretty large, and grow fast.

The community tank we had employed the Dennerle System, which meant it had C02 pumped into the tank to feed the plants, by aiming to keep the plants in the tank healthy and fed, created perfect water and constant amounts of Oxygen for the fish. It was rather strange to 'keep plants', which is what it often felt like, but the results were worth it, The tank often look impressive with its abundant greenery and happy brightly colour fish inhabitants.

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