Artificial Jellyfish Ornament: What Kind of Tank to Use?

Zebra tilapias have a pale yellow or off white body with vertical black striping from the region to their eyes to the base of their tale. They are also referred to by the names of other striped animals such as hornet or tiger tilapia. Their stripes will actually change shade according to their mood. They will vary from very light to nearly black. The vertical markings http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/?action=click&contentCollection®ion=TopBar&WT.nav=searchWidget&module=SearchSubmit&pgtype=Homepage#/fake jellyfish tend to fade as the fish grows older.

The zebra tilapia is a larger species of cichlid. They commonly grow up to 16 inches in length. A similarly sized aquarium will be necessary if you intend to raise them. A 75 gallon tank is the minimum recommendation. These fish are mid-level swimmers.

Zebras are one of the most vicious members of the cichlid family. They are best suited for a mono-species tank. They are so territorial that it is not recommended that you attempt to raise them in a group. These fish should be kept as a single fish or a couple only. Despite their innate aggressive behavior they are still reasonably popular with aquarium owners. This is because they are very intelligent creatures.

They are acutely aware of their surroundings. They react to movement outside of their aquatic environment. They often feel their territory is being invaded by a person in the same room will attempt to attack the intruder trough the glass. They are also known to wreak havoc on aquarium substrate. These are substrate breeders and have a tendency to dig up gravel even when they are not in the spawning cycle. They will suck up a mouth full of gravel and spit it out somewhere else creating little hills and valleys in the aquarium floor.

These fish are also very long lived. They will live an average of 10 years and have been known to live as long as 15.

Water temperature should be between 74-78 °F with a slightly alkaline pH.

They are omnivores, so provide them with both meaty and plant-based foods.

Young Tilapia can be fed tropical fish flakes, cichlid pellets, frozen or freeze-dried foods. They will also brine shrimp, tubifex and bloodworms. When they get bigger you can feed them small shrimp, crickets and earthworms. Tilapias are not picky eaters. They will eat their veggies. In fact they have an affinity for blanched vegetables such as lettuce, zucchini and even broccoli. Just throw the veggie of choice in a pot of boiling water for 15-20 seconds, remove the vegetables and let cool. Don't expect to keep live plants with a talpiia. If they have a tasted for the plant they will eat it. If they don't they are apt to dig it up. Because of their size they also produce a lot of waste. Frequent water changes are needed in order to keep them healthy.

Male and females are virtually identical. So you may not be able to tell them apart until they spawn.

Breeding Tilapia

As mentioned earlier, zebras are substrate spawners. They tend to mate in private so you will want to provide them with upturned plant pots or some other form of artificial cave. A slight increase in water temperature indicates spawning season and may induce them to spawn.

They will usually dig a hole in the substrate to deposit their eggs in. However they have been known to lay their eggs on the roof of the mating chamber. Both parents generally care for the young. Though spawning may trigger aggressiveness in the male. If this occurs remove the male and allow the female to tend her eggs.

Fry typically hatch in 4-5 days and will become free swimming in another 5 or 6. Fry can be fed newly hatched brine shrimp, liquid or powdered fry food formulated for egg layers.

In the most general sort of way, as one makes progress from simplicity to complexity, more and more properties seem to emerge, sometimes seeming out of thin air. This is also oft noted as a bottom-up development of the complexity hierarchy or where the whole becomes more than the sum of its collective parts. One termite can't accomplish very much; ten termites just a little; but a colony of termites can build mighty termite mounds and destroy buildings. One brick doesn't do very much, but a million can build all manner of interesting and useful constructions. One electron and one neutron and one proton can't do very much either, but a million of each can produce all of the elements we know of in the Periodic Table and all of the compounds we know as well.

Increasing and decreasing levels of complexity are all well and good and having a structural hierarchy makes comprehension and understanding easier - it's more visual. But ultimately top-down and bottom-up reasoning are inadequate to explain life, the Universe and everything. It would be improbable, IMHO, to predict sociology from an understanding of chemistry, so bottom-up has limits, but then sociology can't come up with chemistry so the top-down approach isn't all that crash hot either.

For example, from the bottom-up, you couldn't predict from either the Big Bang event or quantum physics the emergence and existence of an ecosystem or even the bunny rabbit. And from the top-down, knowing about the workings of an ecosystem or even just the bunny rabbit doesn't predict either quantum physics or the Big Bang event.

On a simpler note, I'm not convinced a physical chemist could predict in a bottom-up fashion, given the properties of chlorine and sodium, including details of their atomic structure and makeup, that the chemical union of the two would produce a solid, translucent, crystalline, substance with a salty taste, which was an essential ingredient for life's biochemistry to flourish. Only an actual experiment would do that. Conversely, from the top-down, I'm not convinced that a physical chemist examining a bit of table salt, even knowing its atomic structure, could predict that hidden within that structure lay a yellow poisonous gas and a volatile metallic solid. That too takes an experiment to discover. I may be wrong about those deductions - I'm not a physical chemist - but gut feeling says no.

Some scientists suggest that from the knowledge of the atomic structure and properties of oxygen and hydrogen one should be able to bottom-up predict the existence of oceans, waves, even surfing! I disagree since you'd need to predict or envision a very large bowl that would contain all of those molecules of water, but the bowl isn't a logical emergent property of oxygen and hydrogen. (You'd also need to bottom-up predict not just water but liquid water and thus a temperature and pressure range, wind, and all the properties that go into making up a surfboard rider, and that's a pretty big ask just knowing about oxygen and hydrogen.)

Regardless, sociology does emerge out of chemistry; ecosystems and bunny rabbits emerge from the Big Bang event and quantum physics; table salt emerges out of sodium and chlorine; and the ocean emerges out of hydrogen and oxygen.

Take for example the simulation game of "Life". Start with just a few 'life forms' that will obey a few simple laws, principles and relationships - the rules of the game - then hit 'enter' and see what happens. More likely as not complexity will spontaneously emerge. That said, it must be stressed that in the real world, while there has been an overall increase in the complexity of the myriad forms of life over geologic time, cumulating in the most complex structure of all, the human brain, natural evolution or natural selection hasn't ever had a goal, an ultimate design or purpose in mind. In the biological world, complexity can revert to something simpler, if the need (survival of the fittest) so arises. It goes against the general grain, but it happens from time to time.

In the context of this little essay, it doesn't really matter if we are talking about emerging properties 'in the beginning' and in and of the cosmos and before the emergence of life, or 'once upon a time' which is the emergence of life, body and mind, on Planet Earth. It's probably more relevant to take the cosmic view since Planet Earth is a subset of that.

SCIENCE BEGATS MORE COMPLEX SCIENCE

In the cosmic beginning was the physics, but has any more complex physics emerged from that distant time since presumably all of the laws, principles and relationships of physics were present and accounted for at that beginning? Well presumably you couldn't have had any radioactive decay until such time as there were atomic nuclei and the binding together of neutrons and protons (plus the associated outer electron cloud). But some might argue that the formation of atoms out of the original cosmic soup of particles is chemistry, not physics, but I don't see it that way. Chemistry doesn't start until atoms start combining with other atoms to form molecules. But clearly, no matter how you slice and dice and define things, chemistry emerged from physics and complex (multi-atom) chemistry emerged from simple chemistry and very complex organic chemistry and hence eventually biochemistry emerged out of that mess. But the mention of biochemistry notes that biology emerged out of complex chemistries and from that emerged the mind and all of the facets (like intelligence, awareness, etc.) we associate with a mind (and not just a human mind either as we are often inclined to associate the mind with just the human mind). All sorts of other 'sciences' then emerge from having a mind like psychology to sociology to conflicts to more traditionally human ones like economics, culture and a sense of history.

TIME & SPACE

Time is an emergent concept when change occurs in the cosmos and there is an awareness of that change by something - presumably a living thing that responds to that change in a manner that can't be predicted by the laws, relationships and principles of physics. That's actually my definition of what life is. Anyway, if there is no change there is no time. Space is an emergent concept that comes into play the nanosecond there exists matter and energy within, a something that fills that space and gives meaning to the concept of space. If there is no matter and energy, there is no such thing as space.

INFORMATION

Many hold the view that information is fundamental to the cosmos, in fact is the fundamental construction behind the cosmos. Everything in and of the cosmos is bits and bytes - information. 'Information' may have existed before life came into being, but I fail to see what good information was until such time as there was a mind to recognize information for what it was and to make use of it.

PERSONALITY

Personality is an emerging property of life. It's difficult to think of an electron or an atom of carbon as having a personality since their substance and structure never changes. Of course one could argue that if an electron absorbs a photon or meets a positron (anti-electron) change will occur. Then too more complex structures like the weather or a star might be said to have a personality. A warm sunny day is differing in 'personality' to that of a raging hurricane. Our Sun's temperament changes over a regular cycle - sometimes sunspot free and tranquility reins; sometimes emitting massive coronal ejections and solar flares.

EMOTIONS

Surely emotions are an emergent property of life. My cats may hiss and spit or softly purr but I can't image any rock doing that. However, as noted directly above, complex systems can display differing 'personalities' from time to time. It's probably a bit farfetched however to suggest that an exploding stick of dynamite is angry or that a tranquil pond is contented. Emotions tend to suggest intent and it's difficult to think of any non-life form having any sort of intention towards you regardless of how nice it might be to bask in the sun at the beach, or conversely get the fertilizer knocked out of you by a huge wave! Neither the sun nor the wave had any deliberate intention to either warm you up or knock you senseless.

LANGUAGE

Language is an emergent property of life. Life can communicate with life, or at least the same sort of life like an ant colony. Birds communicate; cats communicate; humans communicate sometimes by sound, sometimes via body language, sometimes via smell, etc. But the Universe too has a universal language, at least according to some theorists: Mathematics. One can certainly 'speak' and understand the language of mathematics. The Universe operates according to precise mathematical relationships. In order for one part of the Universe to understand and respond to another part of the Universe, it needs to understand the language of mathematics. For example, gravity understands the mathematical language of the inverse square law. As an aside, if we exist in a Simulated (Virtual Reality) Universe, then that Universe too is in the language of mathematics - software.

CONSCIOUSNESS

If there was nothing rather than something, there could be no consciousness.

Consciousness is rooted in matter and energy - no matter and energy, no consciousness.

Consciousness is an emergent property of life that only emerged when life itself emerged - or is it? Consider quantum physics as the exception.

Every living thing from humble microbes to plants, jellyfish to frogs, birds to cats to primates have consciousness because all respond to external stimuli in ways that are not predictable by classical physics (unlike a rock expanding and contracting as the temperature rises and falls). From conception to brain death you feel and respond to stimuli 60/60/24/7/52, like gravity and temperature, etc. If you respond, in un-rock like ways, you have consciousness.

Consciousness is a synonym for your state of awareness or being aware. If you are in a state of consciousness, you are aware of your surroundings, both external (it's hot outside) and internal to the body (as I have a tummy ache) and internal to the mind (thoughts, ideas, emotions, creativity, and other mentally generated perceptions). Once conscious or aware, you then respond to that awareness.

Consciousness is not a fundamental property of the cosmos. There was a time before life existed and the cosmos got on quite well without being aware that it actually even existed.

The best way to come to terms with consciousness is to distinguish that state from when you are not conscious - being asleep; under anesthesia; drugged into an unconscious state; being passed out; having fainted; being knocked out (as in boxing), etc.

You'd say you're conscious right now and probably say you were conscious ten minutes ago, but how do you know that? You know that because you remember being conscious ten minutes ago. But, you're remembering that something you're remembering in the present now, not ten minutes ago, so that's not a reliable indicator.

FREE WILL

Free Will would appear to be an emergent property of life. Okay, maybe a plant doesn't decide to do, or not do, something, but in the animal kingdom animals make choices many times a day, even the invertebrates decide to do, or not to do, and one could argue even unicellular critters make decisions. It would be difficult to think that inanimate objects, all of that nonliving cosmos, from the fundamental particles on up the line, have free will. Well, anyone who is conversant with quantum physics knows full well that elementary particles have some sort of awareness and can make decisions, albeit under some quite considerable restrictions, but choices nevertheless. Such free will straightjackets applies to life forms as well (I can't flap my arms and fly; my cats can't decide to learn algebra).

For example say you have one light source. Let's make http://moreinfoproduct.tk/getdetail/square-fish-tank-stand it the Sun. You have one normal everyday clear and clean pane of glass. Some of the light (photons) from the light source will pass clear through the clear glass, but some of those identical photons will reflect off the clear surface of the pane of glass. One set of circumstances yields two differing but simultaneous outcomes. That violates cause-and-effect. That's crazy, but it happens as you can verify for yourself. Or, the photons are aware of the pane of glass and are deciding of their own free will whether to pass through, or reflect.

MEMORY

Memory is an emergent property of life - or is it? Memory isn't really memory if... When an electron meets a positron (an anti-electron) does reach 'remember' what it must do? What about the 'spooky action at a distance' - quantum entanglement.

We all know about working memory, short-term memory and long-term memory and how we seem to remember unique one-offs, things that happen that are out of the ordinary, like when you get into your car but slip and fall back out in front of 20 other people - that's you'd remember. But you also have a collective memory of the generality of you getting into your car that's not specific to any one car entering event - all of which you have individually forgotten. But all those individual car entering events have merged together to form a general collective memory of entering your car. Most of our memories seem to be of this collective kind. You might have a collective memory of enjoyable evenings spent in front of a warm fireplace with a glass of wine, even though each specific occurrence has been sent to your mind's wastepaper basket.

CREATIVITY

Creativity would appear to be an emerging property of life, but then the Universe creates things like galaxies, stars, planets and of course life. Perhaps creativity is not creativity if there is one and only one way to create something. There's not too many ways Mother Nature can create water; there are numerous ways a human can create a chair. However, one could ague that Mother Nature took the basic fundamental particles and from that, using the laws, relationships and principles of physics created all of the diversity we see in the cosmos. There's 92 natural elements (not counting isotopes) and as close to infinity as makes no odds, molecules, all constructed or created from just that trilogy of basic fundamental particles - electrons, neutrons and protons (albeit neutrons and protons are in turn composed of a trilogy of quarks). There might be only one way to create a star, but there are many varieties of stars, just like there are many varieties of chairs. There's not just one variety of galaxy, but many types of galaxies. There's not just one type of planet, but a huge diversity of planets both in our solar system and as we've discovered as exo-planets forming around other star systems.

ABSTRACTIONS

One emerging property that must be confined to having arisen from the human mind is the concept of concepts, or abstractions, things which have no real independent reality outside of the human mind. There are concepts like Wednesday, time & space, love, theology, freedom, architecture, probability and a whole host of ism's - theism, sexism, racism, feminism, etc. There are also the concepts of things that exist in themselves which isn't the same thing as the actual thing itself. One can have the mental concept of a wheel which is separate and apart from an actual wheel; one can imagine a manned landing on the moon which isn't the same thing as an actual landing on the lunar surface.

MEANING AND PURPOSE

Humans at least of the life forms we know assign a meaning or a purpose to their existence and to their finite time on this abode - that Third Rock from the Sun - which is all well and good as long as they themselves do the assigning and not pass the buck up the line to