26 Today I constructed a brand new shelf in my hood. I love hood shelves. You can put chemicals on them, solvents, glassware… all kinds of things that would ordinarily go somewhere else more… public. After I was done constructing my masterpiece I began to admire my handiwork and populate it with things (mostly chemicals) but, while I was standing there talking with my hood neighbor, the consensus was reached that the new shelf begged a novel hood design: it needed hood Feng Shui.
While I have no idea what Feng Shui actually is, I’m 99% certain it has something to do with colorful fish or those lucky bamboo things they sell at Target and since 99% is basically 100% I figured my hood needs a fish inside of it.
Of course, I’m a realist. I can’t put a whole aquarium in my hood – that would be chest slappingly short bus retarded. Since I don’t want to run an air pump through my hood I need a labyrinth fish. The king of such fish is the betta fish or the Siamese fighting fish. And because I’m 99% sure Feng Shi also means making sure your shit matches, it needs to be in a round bottom flask. (That useless 29/42 ground glass is suddenly less useless!)
So, I’m thinking about something like this:
I would put the fish in a flask on my shelf, where I would feed it and it could watch my reactions for me at night (and tell me who the fuck keeps turning my hood’s airflow alarm back on).
Alternatively, I could set up an ant farm and run the ant tubes all over my hood. That would prolly kick ass, too.
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GFP fish … imo!
While I have no idea what Feng Shui actually is, I’m 99% certain it has something to do with colorful fish or those lucky bamboo things they sell at Target and since 99% is basically 100% I figured my hood needs a fish inside of it.
This is the greatest quote in the history of chemistry blogging.
I approve.
(and demand photos.)
Make sure you give the fish a lot of air. You’ll need to flow some in.
Labyrinth fish need no bubbles. They breath from the air at the water’s surface.
Did not know that.
just dont fill up the round bottom too much. we had a beta in a tequila bottle that died that way… its all about surface area
You need an online poll for naming the fish…
I actually recently bought a labfish – a betta – but was too chickenshit about solvents or other volatiles finding their way into the water if I kept it in the lab, even in miniscule ppms so it’s not on my desk yet. Please please get the fish and tell us if it lives!! It’d be so much less lonely with a friend nearby!
The betta won’t really need airflow; stagnant water is just fine, as long as your cork has a small hole in it. I also second the naming poll!
It sounds like Master Kyle should visit his auspicious Chinese trinkets dealer and purchase a luo pan. With it he can generate the best arrangement of his flasks and stirplates, and thereby avoid the wrath of PETA. Although i think it would in general be a good idea to dump a gallon of red paint on his pastey white ass regardless.
That is wholly unacceptable on several counts, including a Federal waiver for housing vertibrates – it is a sensory-depauperate environment. BTW, fish crap. We had a pre-med in a small cage and fed it pizza crusts. Pre-meds crap, too.
Hooks on the hood’s walls, plastic mesh bags. That covered earthquake safety re shelves. Color-coding the bags for contents’ hazards arose. If you meet a bureaucrat on the road, kill it.
60% of the time, it works all the time.
I’ve got at least 3 hood-shelves, but no room for a fish.
PS, if you don’t want to devote a cork ring or clamp, get a flat bottom flask:
http://www.vgdusa.com/Boiling-.....Bottom.htm
So are we going to hear about accidents in which you dropped various interesting chemicals into the fish flask? Bring em on!
I used recycled HDPE boards for my hood shelves. They look strange when used as decking, I think, but are a natural for a hood.
I had a lab mate who collected bugs which had been sucked into the lab in the intake air. He put these in vials and displayed them in his hood.
(insert “Cool story, bro!” image here)
We’ve had a beta fish in the lab for over year now, it was an April Fool’s present and was originally kept in a giant (+5 L)Erlenmyer flask. Alas algae means that those are a real bastard to keep clean, some snails did the trick eventually.
did you try to silanise the glass surface? (Me2SiCl2 + tri-n-butylamine in dichloroethane is the commercial mix, but pretty much anything like TMSCl+(TMS)2NH also works, then rinse with water). Algae should have rather hard time attaching themselves to lipophilic surfaces
I want one for my hood too!!!
http://www.science.uottawa.ca/~rben723/Photos.html
check these out – fish in rbf’s, sep. funnels….great stuff
Meh. Real men get whip spiders to watch over their hoods.
“Hm, my vacuum line isn’t working. Well, Kyle’s out for the day, I’ll borrow his for a sec- HOLY FUCK WHAT IS THAT! It’s like the love-child of a cockroach and a bear-trap!”
Don’t know about FengShui? Let Master T teach you. Heh..heh…
To improve the flow of prosperity and fertility (if u want to), get a nice wind chime, hang it in the hood, every time you switch on the hood, the thing will clink-clank away. Chasing away the bad chi and leave you felling calm and “productivity” will improve.
If they misbehave (like trying to jump out out of the flask), just put them under reflux condenser and turn on the stirring – that will teach them
I have to admit Kyle, you always surprise me.
I think you’re attempting to manifest a metaphor for your own situation. Will the fish know its in a cage? Surely it can see off into the distance. It must believe it has a future out there somewhere in the great blurry beyond. If you force fed it ambien would it even care?
I think the future is more certain than you think.
http://globaleconomicanalysis......-cost.html
Both those fish you mention are territorial and cannibalistic. You can only have one male per tank or turn up the next day to a smug-looking, lone fat fish.
Unless you are into that sort of thing…
or… you and labmates could raise them individually and have them battle!
That is a great idea x2. The shelf but even better the fish. U could also stick some sort of mini rodent or amphibian area up there in lieu but this would require much more planning. Perhaps food coloring in the water may go a long way towards making things match!
Well Feng Shui is for those who have surplus money and don’t know where to spend or for those who donot believe in their own self. But you can still keep the fish watching out your hood at night.
Regards,
Benzyl Salicylate .