u/Altruistic-Bee-6695

Poster paint on normal paper. I am not looking to sell my art, I am just a beginner. Just curious to know if it is of any value. It just took a day to complete ( I don't know if that's important for the pricing system).

It was the Northeast monsoon season of 2016. Our home which we moved into some years ago, surrounded by mango trees and paddy fields with no other houses nearby, was a little heaven for all kinds of wildlife.

At night, along with the chirping and croaking of millions of tiny insects and horny frogs and toads, there were the elusive Mottled wood owls. In our language they are known as "Kaalan Kozhi" or fowls of death. They hid in the distant bushes and trees, with their signature eerie "Pooovahhh" sound echoing throughout the night (In my native tongue "poovah" roughly translates to as "let us go"), never allowing us to catch a glimpse of them. I have heard the widespread stories about them before. How their ominous calls at night heralds someone's death, like the Banshee in Irish folklore. I have also read it in my favorite book "Oru Deshathinte Kadha" (Tales of Athiranippadam) by my favorite writer S K Pottekkatt. That monsoon season was a hotspot for Mottled Wood Owl activity if I remember correctly. Every night fall you could hear their calls in the cover of darkness until you fell asleep.

One particular day, I was sitting in our veranda at night after finishing my homework, covered in my blanket (as it gets pretty cold there) when I heard a loud "Poovahhh" coming from a dense undergrowth beyond our property, bordering the fields. Growing up hearing all the stories, I know I should have been scared. But I was curious instead. I breathed in all the air I could muster into my lungs and returned a 'Poovah' to the bush.

It didn't take long for me to get an answer. A loud "Poovahhh" emerging from that same bush. I mimicked a "Poovah" back again to be met with an even louder one. Now, I was really intrigued! We began a back and forth of "Poovahs" which even piqued my parents' interest. My opponent even seemed changing his location from bush to bush and branch to branch, seemingly coming closer to our home. The mysterious grim reaper in the dark and I continued our "Poovah" battle well into that night until my mother drove me away to bed with a ladle.

This continued for the second and the third night as well until the grim reaper finally decided to show himself. I was at the back kitchen door ready to shout another "Poovah" into the night when this large blob of white, black and grey wafted into our view and landed heavily on a low lying mango branch, bathed in the light of our backyard LED bulb.

We were flabbergasted. After moving into our home I had the opportunity to see one or two smaller owls but this guy was huge (and thick and fluffy)! And not only that, the elusive Kaalan Kozhi of myths and legends, decided to show himself to us, to me, right in our backyard under a man made light, starring at us without any fear!

And that's how the big guy began showing up at our home every night afterwards. Even though our rap battle ended, he was very curious. A little too curious for his own good I would say. While his brethren hid deep in the dark undergrowth and tree tops at night, wary of any human eyes, this gentleman would just chill on the pipe right next to our kitchen door catching insects that came attracted to the light. At times when my father would gather and burn the dried leaves on November nights, he would come and sit nearby. It was a sight to see him fly through the orange glow casted by the fire, without any sound and whoosh of air. He could also fly really close to the ground. I decided that even though he looked large, he must have been a young juvenile owl or something due to his lack of fear of humans.

And my suspicion only grew stronger when he stopped showing up at our home, by the end of that winter. He must have grown. His elders must have scolded him to be wary of humans. He must even have had a family of his own. After all these years, even though I now live at my mother's home (surrounded by other houses and people and the only noticeable "wildlife" being the feral cat whom I call "Gundappan"), when the rainy season comes, I still remember him.

Who knows, maybe he was an owl or maybe he was someone or something else. Just like "Mavoottan" the black cat with green eyes who showed up one day, whom our neighborhood grandmother would point and say "that's not a cat". That's a story for another post.

PS: I don't have grim reaper's pictures. Me and my mother didn't have any cellphones back then and it never occurred to me to take one with my father's phone. At that time, due to my daily familiar proximity to wildlife even though I felt all this as very normal, now looking back it feels like something out of a fairytale.

PPS: I recently learnt that the "Poovah" sound is actually a mating call.

He is a mutt born here in a mixed tank. I don't remember what his parents looked like (they all passed away from a heron attack). Does he have some platinum genes?

Also any idea what his offsprings might look like? I want to breed him.

I also want advice on what type of females should be paired up with him to get the best results.

Don't worry, I also added two more females. So it's now one male and three females.

These guys showed up in my two month old infusoria culture. Their population have exploded but my guppies don't seem to like to eat them. Any idea what these guys are?

I have been trying out various traps to catch live food from my surroundings. Mosquito larvae, seed shrimp, copepods, blood worms etc. And finally I have figured out how to catch maximum amount of blood worms. I don't know if it's the location but Indian Almond leaf seems to doing better than banana leaves. But the downside is that I have found mosquitoes don't prefer to lay eggs in Indian almond leaf water (just my experience so far, could be wrong). Put Indian almond leaf pieces in some container, fill it with water and place it in some shady area (I live in India so I don't know if this will work for everyone).

You can find flimsy dirty cocoon like structures attached to the leaves after like a week or so and that's where the worms will be.

Is there any other ways to catch various live food?

The photo is not mine, you know how hard is to get a good photo.

I normally don't get albinos since they are sensitive to slight parameter changes but she was the last remaining one and the only female who seemed to be healthy at the store. So I thought I will give it a try. I know she is already storing sperm but thought maybe in the long run I can cross breed her with the males I have. So I put her with them.

Well the problem is I think my males who have never seen a colourful female thinks she is another species of fish or a male because they are paying her no attention 😂 They still chase and flare at all the females I already have but leave the Koi alone. Well, atleast she is living a good life.

Is there any way to you know, get them going? The males are smaller than her but that doesn't stop them with chasing other bigger females so I guess size isn't the issue here but her color is.

Long rant incoming.

So most of my cousins have body shamed me for one thing or another. I was always considered the clown of the family or the nerdy one while my elder cousin was always considered as the beautiful, outgoing one. The rest of them are boys and they always look up to her except maybe one. The problem is the constant body shaming. I have been hearing it since I was a kid, about my teeth, my weight, my hair...ughh. As I have grown up I have learned to love myself and to overcome my insecurities. I was in braces for 5 years (which they did mess up) and my hair recently started growing after iron deficiency issues. And thus started her long standing beef with my hair.

She kind of takes my personal choice of hairstyle as an offense. I don't know what is the problem with her. In her words "my body looks 2020s and face and hair looks the 90s" and "I have 90s actress Jalaja hairstyle" (honestly, I fail to see the problem). I personally don't like making or hearing comments on people's appearance and considers it shallow. But she and the other family members do it often. Whenever we meet she is on a non stop rant about my hair. She says it's for my own good. For context she has cut and styled her hair and wants me to do the same (which I think looks nice on her but don't like it for myself and I have told her countless times). She wants me to change my natural hairstyle. She will persistently tell me to change it whenever we meet saying the same old 90s stuff and often times try to mess with my hair physically. I always act timid and laugh it off. But she will literally say "you think you look good in that? You don't". Again I would just laugh it off. I know I should have said something sooner.

So yesterday we went to a family staycation with them and the moment I reached there, she started. Yesterday my aunts told me I look good in the group photos taken and she said "ivale nerit kanda parayuo photol ingane aanenn". I was like was that a compliment or an insult, ummm...okay, whatever. Today they were taking single photos and I finally got the courage to have one taken (camera was my biggest enemy) and while it was my turn she began her usual rant about my hair and this time refused to take the photo without me changing my "jalaja" hair right there. I said it's fine, just take the photo and she (the audacity) comes up to me to touch my hair and when I moved away, she forcefully grabbed my fingers and pulled. It really hurt. Bad choice for her. I grabbed her hand in turn, put it down and pushed her away (thalli urutti ittonnuilla, leshm). I didn't laugh this time. I told her sternly that I am fed up and to stop making comments about my appearance and asked her whether I ever did that to her, infront of everyone. That shut her up. Obviously, she was flabbergasted that I stood up, and pouted for some time like a kindergartener(she is in her early 30s and have a kid). I knew she will come around so I let her pout. I don't usually say this but I am pretty proud of myself for standing up. And no, I don't plan to change the way I look. I couldn't care less about how anyone looks like. It's the personality that matters. And I never thought I would say this but yeah, I love my Jalaja look. Eff off.

Found them in my failed infusoria culture. Are they seed shrimp? Are they safe to feed to guppies?

The biggest one is a dumbo platinum red tail female.

These are my recently developed three males, born here. They have this beautiful red colour tail and body. know they are a stable line because their father, who I bought from a LFS also looked exactly like them. Sadly he passed away from a Nycticorax nycticorax (night heron) attack. These guys are the second generation. I have two males from the first generation as well who also look exactly the same and a whole lot of females in another tank. Ignore the dirt at the bottom. Today is siphoning day.

I know the video quality is bad. I don't have a viewing tank and didn't want to stress them out by catching them

I posted this here few months ago but deleted it the next second because I was scared.

It took me a whole day🥲

I don't have anymore tanks or containers🥲😭.

I feed them infusoria water and crushed pellets twice a day, siphon of the debris daily and do 50% water change. Today is crushed pellet day. I gotta increase my infusoria culture as well for these guys and more to come🥲.

They were all born here. I would like to know the genetics at play. Their parents (also mutts) looked nothing like them.

- Cherry shrimp I drew months ago.

I thought you guys might appreciate this. Please ignore the inaccurate shrimp anatomy😅. I was still learning.

I messed up the shadow.