Maintaining the Health of Your Koi

Maintaining the Health of Your Koi

When you built your pond, you probably spent a lot of time planning its design. You made sure every plumbing piece was in place. You carefully selected your filter and your pump. Everything seems perfect. While everything mechanical is in place, did you know that you need to plan your fish just as carefully as everything else?

Many experienced fish keepers will tell you that the best way to guarantee long-lived healthy fish is to buy top quality stock from local reputable breeders. This ensures you have fish that have not been overly stressed by transport, carefully bred for quality and grown on the best food.

If you aren't lucky enough to have a local koi breeder, or you've already bought your koi, not all is lost! In fact, most purchased koi are from national-level breeders, have been transported and do not have confirmed breeding standards. This doesn't mean you can't have great fish. It just means you need to be extra careful to quarantine and feed high quality food for continued growth.

Quarantining your koi fish is absolutely necessary for koi health. Every time you obtain a new fish (regardless of source), you need to quarantine your new koi for at least 4 weeks before adding it to your existing stock. If you don't properly quarantine, you risk introducing foreign bacteria and viruses into your stock. There are some fish illnesses, such as bacterial infections, flukes and worms that can kill your stock in one week after introduction.

Proper quarantine means no mixed water, food or contact between your existing stock and your new fish. When quarantining, you need to watch out for signs of stress in your new fish. Signs of stress and illness include a lack of appetite, discoloration on the scales/eyes, torn fins and lethargy. If you notice any such signs, there are several treatment options.

If your fish has torn fins or external lesions, you should treat with antibiotics administered with the fish food. If your fish isn't eating after several days, you may have internal parasites. Praziquantel (a.k.a. PraziPro) or metronidazole are very effective safe treatments for internal parasites, including gill flukes and worms. We recommend NOT using Potassium Permanganate unless you have exhausted all other options. Potassium Permanganate should never be used on fish with external lesions as it will burn their internal tissues.

After you've quarantined your new koi, and all goes well, you can add them to your pond! Depending on your bio-load and the number of fish you add, you may need to up your water changes. Already you should be changing at least 30% of your pond water a week to keep your pH stable and nitrates low. Adding more fish adds more waste to your filter, and it may take some time for new nitrifying bacteria to build up. Water changes keeps nitrites low if you've recently added a lot of new fish.

On top of water changes, you should regularly add salt to your pond. This isn't table salt or anything like that. We're talking about salt that's iodine-free and designed for aquarium and pond use. When you add salt to your pond, your koi will build up a thicker slime coat that supports a strong immune system. Pond salt also helps respiration in koi, and is effective in killing many common parasites. You should add 2 - 2.5 cups of pond salt per 100 gallons. You should only add more salt when you perform a water change (it does not evaporate).

For your koi, you should vary their diet instead of feeding the same pellet every day. This ensures they get enough nutrients from a variety of sources. If you have very young koi, it doesn't hurt to feed them a hearty supply of beefheart so they grow well. Also, it's okay and encouraged for your koi to eat some plants. This gives them plant fiber which helps prevent bloat.

Koi are beautiful hardy fish that can live for years when they're given a stress-free environment, good koi food and stable water quality. They're well worth the effort!

Your Food Label Guide, Part I - The Ingredient Panel

Your Food Label Guide, Part I - The Ingredient Panel

There are basically two parts of food labels you need to review to be educated about the product you are buying: One is the Nutrition Facts label and the other is the Ingredients panel. This article focuses on the ingredient panel.

The FDA monitors and enforces label laws so there are, in fact, rules to what is required, what is allowed, what order certain things are in, and the accuracy of facts. Manufacturers are not allowed to lie about a food product or falsify information. They can, however, say something which is true, but misleading. This is why many consumers don't think they can believe what is on a label. You can figure out what you need to know; you just have to know where to look!

Let me give you a few examples of some very common and misleading terms found on food labels and how to find the facts:

1) On a jar of peanut butter they can say on the label "Cholesterol Free!" This is true because cholesterol is only found in animal products! That means fat in peanut butter (of any brand) does not contain cholesterol. Does this mean peanut butter is heart healthy? Well, it's still quite high in fat; usually fat comprises over 75% of the calories in a serving. So the consumer who's looking for something "healthy" may choose one brand of peanut butter over another because one says "cholesterol free" on the label. This implies that other brands are less healthy and may contain cholesterol. Illegal? No. But quite misleading.

2) Another trick used is on juice labels. A certain brand of drink may boast "contains 100% real fruit juice". This, of course, sounds preferable to one that admits it has water and flavors mixed in with small parts of juice concentrates. However, take note of the wording: "Contains" 100% fruit juice just means there is real fruit juice within the cocktail. Yes, it's in there, but there is also water, flavoring, and maybe even sugars added. There is a difference in a juice drink that 'is' 100% juice and one that 'contains' 100% juice. Just wording, but very misleading, and not illegal.

3) One of the most commonly mistaken purchases is that of bread that the customer believes is healthier "wheat" bread. What do you think makes wheat bread superior to white bread? Knowing the answer can help you find what you want on the label. What you probably want is more fiber and perhaps a more natural grain that has the original nutrients in it. So the first ingredient you'll want to see on the label is "whole grain flour". (Ingredients must be listed in order of the highest content by weight first and decreasing to the lowest content by weight.) What you may find is "enriched flour" listed first. How can they get away with calling this "wheat bread" when it's what most people call "white bread"? Because the grain that is used is wheat! Some companies even use fluffy white bread to appeal to consumers who like this softer texture, and add caramel coloring so it looks like the healthy whole wheat bread people are looking for! Check the ingredient label and be sure "whole grain flour" is listed first.

4) Another trick around the label law is used in cereals. Remember, ingredients must be listed in descending order of weight. Knowing this, several years ago people started scanning cereal labels, deciding not to buy any with sugar listed as the first ingredient. Many cereals which are frosted or have marshmallow or candy bits in them have more than half of their content as sugar. That's right-there is more sugar by weight than flakes! The manufacturers got around this by splitting up all the types of sugars in their cereal when they were listed: So flour is the first ingredient, but it may be followed by "cane sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, honey", etc. all in a row. This means it would be likely that all the sugars together outweigh the content of flour, by weight. Hmmm.

All the answers you need are on the ingredient label, but you must get in the habit of reading them and gathering information. Don't just believe what you see on the front of the label which is an advertisement (Contains Real Fruit Juice!) but look at the ingredients. Note what order they're in. Pick up another product or two which is similar and see what the difference is in the ingredients and the nutrition facts. Then you can be an educated consumer and have confidence you are making the best choices. It will be time consuming the first few visits to the grocery store, but once you know what your best choices are, you'll be back to shorter shopping trips and you'll bring home a healthier bag full of food!

Diets that Reduce Blood Sugar

Diets that Reduce Blood Sugar

Perhaps the food factor that diabetics really need to restrict is fat. When fat enters the bloodstream after a fatty meal, it interferes with insulin's action, preventing it from lowering blood sugar. So blood sugar begins to rise - and then the trouble starts. On the other hand carbohydrates, especially complex ones, help insulin function normally.

J. Shirley Sweeney demonstrated this back in 1927. Dr Sweeney gave healthy volunteers a high-fat diet for two days, then tested their blood-sugar response. In all cases, blood-sugar levels were significantly elevated. When Dr Sweeney put these same volunteers on a high-carbohydrate diet, their blood-sugar levels decreased (Archives of Internal Medicine). Since then other studies have confirmed the same beneficial effects with high-complex­carbohydrate, low-fat nutrition for both the prevention and treatment of diabetes.

Other researchers have found that some diabetic patients - even Type 1 diabetics, can drastically reduce their need for insulin when they eat a diet mainly comprising raw food. The diabetics (who consumed from 50 to 80 per cent of their food raw) ate such foods as vegetables, seeds, nuts, berries melons and other fruit, honey, oil and goat's milk. The researchers theorized that the diet works because of the 'non-inactivated enzymes that are present in raw items' or because of 'the fast transit that is inherent in a raw diet' (Annals of Internal Medicine).

'Transit time' is the time it takes food to pass through the digestive tract. A diet of mostly raw foods - which is rich in fibre - passes through in 18 to 24 hours; a diet of mostly cooked food that is not particularly high in fibre takes 80 to 100 hours.

One Indonesian doctor gets, right down to specifics when he 'prescribes' food for diabetics: eating large amounts of green beans and raw onions may help lower your blood-sugar, says Dr Askandar Tjokroprawiro. In separate studies 20 diabetic outpatients ate the equivalent of 11/2 Ib of green beans daily for a week, while another 20 ate the equivalent of 21/2 oz of raw, chopped onions for the same length of time. At the end of seven days, the subjects' blood-sugar levels were compared with what they were prior to the diet, and the doctor found a 'statistically significant' reduction. Eating those vegetables may have therapeutic value for victims of diabetes mellitus (the medical name for the condition), Dr Tjokroprawiro concluded in a presentation to the 15th International Congress of Internal Medicine.
If your mother told you to eat slowly and chew every bite, she may have known what she was talking about. In a study of 22 patients with a mild form of Type 2 diabetes, scientists rated each patient as to how quickly he or she ate a meal: less than 6 minutes was considered hasty; 6.1 minutes to 9 minutes was medium; and 9.1 minutes or more was slow.

The results showed that the blood-sugar levels of the hasty eaters fluctuated more widely than those of the medium and slow: eaters. Furthermore, the hasty eaters had wider swings in their body weight during treatment. Said the scientists: 'An adequate instruction on eating behavior should be included in the management of the diabetic patient'

Safe Diet Pills That Work

Safe Diet Pills That Work

Most dieters really face a huge dilemma as to which diet pill is safe out there in the market, and to make the matter even more alarming there are thousands of diet pills that are being bough online, how do the people who end up using these drugs know they are safe, most people usually take a gamble on their lives and health when they buy these drugs, especially right at a time like this where the use of a dangerous substance by the name "Ephedra" is being rampantly used by many diet pill manufacturers.

The word "safe diet pill" is quickly becoming a cliche, and many people are fall prey to some very dangerous drugs in the name of safe dieting pills. Some of these so called diet pills have been associated with side effects some have gone to the extent of causing damages to many peoples healths and lives. The mortality rate associated with diet pills is rather high is increasing as the years pass by, therefore its very vital that you buy safe drugs or if you can't its better you choose other dieting approaches, although other approaches are also effective, they rather come at a very high cost.

But of course not all diet pills are dangerous, there are some diet pills out there that are natural, safe and have no known side effects, one question is how do you find them, well there are some few websites and blogs that are willing to give you free advice on safe diet pills.

You just have to know that there are many unsafe diet pills out there, don't loose your focus even if you are in need of a quick fix. safe diet pills are an essential both to your health and life.

Low Carb Diet Plans for Serious Fat Loss

Low Carb Diet Plans for Serious Fat Loss

Low carb diet plans are fashionable these days. Particularly with the publication of the Atkins diet plan. Losing weight is a goal for many people and all of us are looking for the fast and easy method to shed unwanted weight. Most people do not need to drop weight at all but still get stressed over a couple of pounds. Many people have to lose weight for medical factors and may have hundred pounds or even more which they want to get rid of.

There are lots of weight loss plans around including low carb diet plans and the truth is that a lot of them is going to realize fat loss if they are followed correctly. It doesn't mean constantly doing exactly what the diet regime suggests each and every moment of each day. What is far more critical is how you cope with the predictable occasion when you consume a lot or feast on food items that are not on the program. If you're able to write this off and resume the program without providing yourself a difficult time, you are likely to be successful. Everybody has those days - what is important a´re to let them go and acknowledge them as just another step on the way to on going weight loss.

Additionally it is crucial that you locate a diet plan that you can easily stick to. Low carb diet plans suit many individuals considering that the principles are quite straightforward. As the label implies, the diet is made up of avoiding or decreasing food which are loaded with carbohydrates. Examples include breads, pasta, potatoes, rice and also other grains. Sugars is also a carbohydrate. After you realize what these food types are, it's really a straightforward matter to select dishes which stay clear of them.

One of the issues that most people have with low carb diet plans is the excretion of breads along with spaghetti. You can forget toast, spaghetti or pizza! The majority of the foods that happen to be quickest to prepare are generally based upon carbs - hamburgers in their buns, french fries, sandwiches, pasta and sauce. Beer and various alcoholic drinks are generally high in carbs too. It is true that alcohol is usually minimal on any diet program, because it is high in calories and also low in nutritional value, but low carb diet plans put particular focus on this.

There a variety of foods that can be enjoyed on a low carb diet plan. For anybody who is fond of meats you are going to relish the opportunity to eat beef, chicken as well as other animal products. The popularity of the low carb diet plans is obvious from the duration which they remain on the bestseller listings. It's really a matter of what you prefer. Low carb diet plans works for a lot of people.

Leopard Gecko Lifespan - Tips on Prolonging the Lifespan of Leopard Geckos

Leopard Gecko Lifespan - Tips on Prolonging the Lifespan of Leopard Geckos

Leopard geckos have been considered one of the most commonly chosen household pets among reptiles since they are small, easy to keep, appear in varieties of color and design, cheaper as compared to other reptiles available at pet shops and can grow accustomed to handling.

The geckos are among the few reptiles that are bred from captivity to be sold as pets. The average leopard gecko lifespan is seen to be 10-20 years. Nevertheless, their life expectancies vary differently from those that lived in its external environment (20 years) as compared to those raised in captivity (10-15 years). Here are some important tips that every leopard gecko owners and enthusiasts should know to extend the lives of their pets:

1. Check your pet's diet. Most leopard gecko eats live insects such as crickets, locusts and mealworms. Since they prefer live ones, safe-keeping and storage of these insects, keeping them healthy and alive should be a priority. Once in a while, give them treats by feeding them other more expensive insects like butter worms, silkworms and wax worms. There should also be an ample amount of water source available for your pets.

2. Provide good food supplements. Since some insects do not contain the necessary nutritional value, calcium and vitamins should be given to your pets. There are available calcium powders in pet shops which you can dust on the foods you feed your pets. However, be cautious because giving large dosages can be dangerous.

3. Keep a sufficient and adaptive environment. Most geckos are found in the dry, rocky and tropical landscapes. This should be replicated in their shelter such as cages, tanks or aquariums. Initially, sand or other granular substrates were used to cover the grounds. However, these materials cause impactions.

Substrates that are considered safe would include used newspaper, paper towels and wood shavings. In addition, since leopard geckos are cold-blooded and requires external heating, their tanks should be provided with multiple hides (warm, cool and moist). The different hides assist in maintaining the temperature requirements of these reptiles. They may change hides whenever they need warm or cold environment especially during shedding and egg-laying.

4. Lessen the risk of stress. The presence of another leopard gecko in the shelter tends to increase the problem of stress and territorial disputes. These shelters should be large enough especially if you plan to put in two or more in one tank.

An average of 20 gallons should be the ideal measure of a tank for two geckos and an additional 10 gallons per gecko should be maintained. Housing male and female gecko together should also be supervised. Since the males tend to be more sexually aggressive than females during breeding, enclosures should be created to separate the male from the female.

The life expectancy of leopard geckos vary depending on how it interacts with its environment. Those that are kept in captivity can outlive their outdoor counterparts if they receive the proper care, nourishment and atmosphere. Follow the above-mentioned tips and your pets will certainly live longer than what was expected. It will also strengthen the position that we, as human beings, can provide a good environment for these animals.

Low Carb Diets - An Introduction to Atkins

Low Carb Diets - An Introduction to Atkins

You have just been to a social gathering and there are tears playing mischief in your eyes. There are some sorrows that you can't scream out of your existence, pains that don't seem to vanish in a quick puff or drown in a shot of tequila. You look at yourself in the mirror and through blurred vision, you perceive your body frame. You think about that lady in red and carelessly shrug your shoulders to your resigned fate.

Maybe your being overweight will never let you make an impression while your dumber but thinner counterparts get away so luckily. You need to do something about it and yet everyday when you lazily crawl out of bed nothing seems to right. You don't want to go for a brisk walk or a jog around your block. You just want to creep under the rug and go back to sleep again. This way probably your day takes off. Then when you go off to office after hogging your unhealthy breakfast, you wish you had better exercised.

Somewhere in these entire daily marathon and other Olympic feats, you had felt that had you been fitter, life would have taken a completely different turn. Mornings would have seemed sprightly fresh, you could judge for yourself whether the clichéd statement-"Exercise makes me feel refreshed and rejuvenated" is true or not. The office hours would have seemed better and better day-by-day, with people slowly succumbing to your popular nature. All these dreams could be true but first you need to create a good first impression. Lets us look at one the important aspects of this makeover program.

Nine out of ten times, it is noticed that an improper diet is responsible for the excessive weight gained by an individual. We forget the golden rule of "breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen and dinner like a beggar" and keep on piling the calories progressively throughout the day. What we forget to pay heed to is that our body metabolism follows a certain pattern and if we go on disrupting it with our shifting eating habits, it will gradually fail and most of the calories ingested will get stored as fat in the body.

In order to redress the situation, Dr. Robert Atkins came with a miraculous low carbohydrate diet in the 1970's, which he elaborated in his book, Dr.Atkins' New Diet Revolution. Although people didn't take to it then, with its re-introduction into public consciousness during the 1990's, it has become a matter of many coffee table discussions. The Atkins diet has proved to be beneficial in many cases while nutritionists and health experts have exorcised it of all its fame and glory. Let us take a brief look at this oft-cited diet fad-

The Atkins diet is broken up into several different stages based on the portion of carbohydrates included into your food chart. In the archetypal introductory phase, it allows for consumption of 20 gm of carbohydrates per day. In these first two weeks, one subsists on bacon, poultry products, meat, cheese, butter, sausage, seafood and oils and he is barred from consuming food with a high glycemic index like cereals, fruits, milk, grains or breads. In the maintenance phase, the dieter is recommended to increase his carb intake by 5 grams everyday till he reaches a total of 40-90 gm per day. This when he should limit himself from taking any farther carbohydrate or else he will contribute to the adipose tissue again.

Some of the disadvantages of the low carb diet are as follows. When a person reduces his carb intake and stresses the body metabolism to breakdown fat to release energy, at first, things take place in a healthy manner. But when lipolysis occurs due to starvation or if protein breakdown starts taking place in the absence of body fat, one risks the peril of ketone body formation or ketosis.

The ketone bodies formed during ketosis, interfere with your blood cells' oxygen carrying capacity and may permanently damage brain tissues and lead to brain death or coma. So one should stay on the lookout for signs of ketosis. Bad breath is one of the chief indicators of ketosis since the ketone body formed in the digestive system and its interaction with the enzymes and bacteria leads to fermented products. Sluggish movement is also due to lesser energy being released on breakdown of fat.1 gm of carbohydrate release 7 Kcal of energy while 1 gm of fat releases only 4.9 Kcal of biochemical energy.

On the whole, the Atkins diet will prove beneficial if one does it in moderation and combines a regular fitness program with it. Regular exercise reduces stress levels and improves your mood apart from making you lose weight and look better. The better you feel physically, the more calm, relaxed and confident will you be mentally.