Nature Crafts and Critters-Nanaimo, BC

Microworms are a harmless nematode that make a great food for tropical fish fry like guppies, bettas, and amphibian larvae (newts, salamanders and dwarf African aquatic frogs). They are very easy to culture and provide a good volume of live food once cultures are established.  Materials: starter culture of microworms plastic container like a yogurt or margarine container (I prefer the 500mL size as they take up less storage space) lid with small holes in it culture medium (oatmeal, flaked potatoes etc) paper towel cut to size of the container flat wooden stick like a popsicle stick or tongue depressor (or other small piece of food-safe wood) active baker's yeast (optional) You may notice that yeast is optional! If you are starting with a liquid culture, you do not need active yeast. The yeast is just to start brand new cultures that don't have any food for the worms. Once you have a live culture, the tiny amount of media you have them in will start the bacteria, fungi and yeast

Learn how easy it is to attract and collect FREE fish food! Pot worms that can be found in your yard in the Pacific Northwest (BC, Washington & Oregon) make a great food for guppies, tetras, bettas and many other tropical and cold water fish! All you need is a few flat trays, some water, a turkey baster and small collection container. In the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest they are available from November to April. I don’t know the latin name of these yet, but am searching for it.  I believe they are a type of Annelid (segmented) worm. Will share it here when I find it. 

  Today we are checking up on our guppy maternity tank.  As our young adult females continue to produce babies, it is time to move some of the the hybrid fry and young fish to another tank to grow up. This also gives more room in the maternity tank to reduce stress on the females and babies. Some of the young are starting to show color. They are moved from a 20 gal tank to a 15 gal tank that was a snail and scud (amphipod / side swimmer) tank.  Enjoy! Here'a 10 day update on the guppy fry! 

Penguins are a fun and easy critter to make with cones. While not a northern bird, most species enjoy a cold (southern) climate. Did you know that most penguin species have all black or mostly back faces? This is not what people tend to depict in their recreations of them. The white face is just so cute! In this project, we are going to try mixing colors of paint to make our own color for the feet! Can you use this chart of 18 penguins to figure out which species I made? Materials: scissors black or white felt pen ribbon for bow and to hang your penguin from the tree  glue gun and glue paintbrush paint pallet or plastic lid or plastic plate acrylic paint: white , black, red and yellow optional: oak acorn cap for hat 2 googly eyes 1 acorn (head) 1 round redwood cone (body) 1 long wide scale from a pine cone (for tail) 2 scales from a pine cone (for feet) 2 maple keys (for wings) Step 1 Collect your materials so they are all nearby. Step 2 Prepare the Redwood so the acorn will sit on it.

Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer was a big part of my Christmas growing up. This reindeer is one craft I will be making more of, maybe a team of 8 of them? I love the buck's exaggerated antlers and I thought I was being creative to use the spruce for the buck's chest mane! LOL! Materials:   glue gun and glue sticks sharp scissors one small and one larger redwood cone per deer 4 acorn caps a collection of sticks (for legs and fawn neck) one 2 inch soft spruce cone 3 large pine cone scales (for ears and tail) handful of hemlock cones plastic lid (yogurt or margarine container) red ribbon to make bows or reins for the deer (assuming you want to make a team of them) How to: Start at the head and work your way down the animal, adding the smaller bits at the end. This makes it easier for you to handle the body without breaking off pieces. Step 1 Place two pine cone scales in the cracks so they look like ears. You may need to test a couple of cracks to find the best location. Glue scales

When working with cones, bark and other parts of nature, we are bound to get sap on our hands or clothes. While some people enjoy the scent, most of us don't enjoy the sticky mess that follows until we get the sap off our hands.  Removing Sap from Skin An easy way to get sap off skin and clothing is to apply a greasy product. Anything from Vaseline (petroleum jelly, mineral oil), water-based hand lotion, vegetable oil, butter, mayonnaise, peanut butter, coconut oil etc. can be applied and rubbed on your hands or skin where the sap is. Next, wash your hands with soap. Good old-fashioned bar soap works just fine. Liquid soap does too. If there is still some lingering sap left on your hands, repeat.  Using hot water from the tap also helps to melt the sap so it flows more easily off your skin. You may still have some of the pine sap scent left but it will soon wear off.  Removing Sap from Clothing For clothing or other materials, freeze the material first for about 2 hours until sap i