What do you do when you really wish to have a pet, but due to some reason or the other, getting a dog or a cat is not an option? The easiest alternative is to get some fish. A dog or a cat requires a certain amount of space, commitment and a lot of time and investment. People might even possibly be allergic to them. Also, more often than not, your guests may not be particularly comfortable with a dog or a cat in the house. Somehow, most guests find the quiet and peace of fish in a fish tank endearing. And in terms of commitment, all that a fish needs is some food, comfortably sized fish tank and a little bit of love and you are good to go. But at the same time, one needs to ensure that their fish tank is cleaned regularly and they are well fed even if the owner is away. To ensure good health, one can also feed them vet-approved medicines.

The most famous, easily available and loved species among fish is the Goldfish. Its small in size and beautiful to look at, hence earning that name. It was one of the earliest fish to be domesticated, and most commonly kept aquarium fish. It was first domesticated in China, thousands of years ago with various other species of the carp family. It was originally reared as food fish, but slowly gained favor as a pet. Some of these normally were gray or silver in color, but produced mutations in red, yellow or orange. This mutation was first noticed during the Jin Dynasty (265-420). With time, the breed was then introduced in Japan, Portugal and subsequently to other parts of the world where it quickly became popular. There are many different varieties of domesticated goldfish, but due to their bright colors and long fins, they are likely to perish in the wild. Common and comet goldfish can survive and breed in any climate that can support a pond.

Goldfish are usually small and can survive in small tanks but they can grow fairly large. Goldfish as big as 19 inches have been recorded. A 15 inch goldfish in England was known to weigh 2 pounds. This being a pet fish, it is believed that there are several fish in ornamental lakes that could possibly be much larger in size. A fish was caught in a pond in England 16inches long and weighing 5 pounds. It was assumed that it was probably abandoned as it outgrew its tank. In the wild, goldfish usually feed on crustaceans, insects and plant matter. They can’t willingly stop eating, which can cause damage their intestines. Overfeeding can be diagnosed by excessive waste and faeces produced. Compared to typical fish food, goldfish-specific food has less protein and more carbohydrates. Shelled peas, blanched green vegetables, blood-worms and brine shrimp are a favorite, but goldfish preference vary similar to all other animals. Goldfish have the capacity to distinguish between 4 primary colors-red green blue and ultraviolet, thus making their vision the most widely studied amongst all fish visions.

There are over 300 breeds of goldfish available in China currently, almost all of which have originated there. These breeds have differences in their color, body shapes, and fin and eye configurations. Some extreme versions can thrive only in aquariums and are far removed from their wild counterparts. Goldfish exist in colors like, orange, yellow, silver, black and several combinations of these. The Chinese classify goldfish based on their features. Ce goldfish lack fancy anatomical features. Wen have a fancy tail. Dragon Eye have extended eyes, and Egg have an egg shaped body with no dorsal fin. Goldfish reproduce only when there is enough water, right nutrition and the right temperature. Goldfish are egg layers that typically hatch within 48 to 72 hours. The newborns can take almost a year to develop a mature goldfish color. Some highly bred goldfish can no longer breed due to their altered shape, and hence require artificial breeding, that, if done incorrectly can harm the fish.

Goldfish are some of the most intelligent fish. They have strong associative abilities and social learning skills. Due to their visual acuity they can distinguish between individual humans. They are joyful when they spot their owners, or a known face, but hide and shy away from others. Goldfish rarely harm each other, although they can be extremely competitive when it comes to food. They have a memory span of 3 months. By using positive reinforcement, they can be trained to react to visual stimuli or to perform tricks. They are just as friendly and make a good companion as most pets. Goldfish have a tendency to generate a lot of waste, in the form of faeces and also from their gills. This creates a toxic environment in the fish tank, if it is not cleaned frequently. Certain laws are in place that restrict having goldfish in a fish bowl. This is considering the constricted space available for movement and the dangers of a toxic environment. Ideally a cleaning mechanism should be employed in the fish tank to ensure optimum measures.

Another reason why people prefer having goldfish as pets is its value in terms of feng shui. Feng shui is an ancient art of good living. Goldfish are said to bring good luck in the house. In fact according to certain customs a husband gifted his wife a goldfish on successful completion of one year of marriage.  In fact, placing just a model or image of a goldfish in the house is said to bring good luck in the house.  More often than not, it has been noticed that fish don’t last very long. In spite of their short lifetime, they bring us joy the whole time. No wonder, they are loved by all.

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We all love our pets. And why not, the love, loyalty, companionship and the simplicity they bring to your life is so rare to find in today’s world. They make sure you never feel lonely. They are always right there by your side. They will love you endlessly. They are ever so faithful. And most importantly they will never ever judge you. We are surrounded by people and yet we crave for companionship. We crave for someone who will not be silent spectator in your times of grief but will calm us down; someone who doesn’t need to be reached out to explicitly, but somehow always knows what we need exactly when we need it. One would not be surprised to know that these qualities have been well known and appreciated since time immemorial. It is just the feel-good vibes that resonates from your pets that makes life so much better. Their mere presence, physical or hypothetical can significantly improve the quality of life.

The age old principles of Vastu Shastra, widely credited for lessons on how to live better, are native to the Indian subcontinent. These principles are extensively followed, practiced and preached. There are several clauses dedicated to the contribution of animals. It also mentions the importance of their presence in some form in the larger scheme of things. Not only that, but also the ancient Chinese wisdom of Feng Shui gives significant importance to the presence of animals within the household or even the workplace to ensure peace, joy and stability. Every animal has its own unique qualities, and has a distinct contribution to your way of life. The animals in question range from the meekest to some of the most fearsome. This contribution is not restricted only when they are physically present around you, but also when there is any picture or statue or such symbolic presence.

The fearsome animal, dragon is considered one of the luckiest symbols according to Feng Shui. Since one cannot actually own a pet dragon, their presence even in the form of pictures or miniature statuettes is considered a magnet for attracting good chi or positive vibes which translate to good luck. Having images of a dragon in the house or workplace is known to stimulate the growth in one’s wealth. This mythical creature can adorn your place of work or home in the form of statues, panels, dishes, vases or other objects.

Dogs with their knack to guard your homes are popular pets. But it is a relatively lesser known fact that dogs are equally successful at warding of negative influences from around you. Black dogs especially are favored for this purpose. In the various sciences that talk about good luck, one will find references made about dogs and their power to bring peace, happiness and stability. In times of extreme distress, these specialists preach owning black dogs with white paws for maximum gains.

Goldfish are thought to bring good luck, because they move incessantly. It is believed that their movement pattern is akin to that of healthy chi energy. The gold fish was named so, because it appears like gold. This is yet another sign of their importance to increase wealth in your life. As long as the fish is healthy, it doesn’t matter how many one should keep. But generally, odd numbers attract growth whereas even numbers attract wealth.

One might find it hard to believe but frogs too are considered extremely good omens in Feng Shui. The statuette of a 3 legged frog is extremely common in Chinese shops, usually with a coin in its mouth. This is in concurrence with a Chinese folklore where a frog rescued from a well, brought immense wealth to its savior. This symbolizes the income of wealth from an unidentified source. One should ideally place the statue at the entrance of your house/workplace to ensure consistent inflow of wealth.

The Chinese system of Feng Shui credits several other animals as sources of good luck. Some unusual ones include red bats as a magnet of money and fortune. You might be deemed extremely lucky by these specialists if there are bats living in or around your house, even though you might be afraid of the same. If not, a real bat, even the image of a bat in the house can bring you good luck. Cranes symbolize longevity and good luck, whereas elephants symbolize wealth.

A turtle similarly, symbolizes wealth, more so, if you happen to have a pet turtle. In fact, if a turtle accidently happens to wander into your home, you will be considered one of the luckiest people. If not, even images or statues are just as good. Horses too are known as effective sources of stability and growth at the same time, when present around you, even in the form of images or statues.

If there has been any kind of apprehension regarding having a pet, the fact that they can help you in your personal and professional progress is just another added incentive to clear all doubts. After all, there is nothing else that brings you the benefits of a truly loyal companion and a luck harbinger all wrapped in one.

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In school, we are taught of how man has evolved over time. We have learnt that our ancestors were apes. But what about the ancestors of our pets? Were the animals that exist today, the same during pre-historic times as well? I have always wondered which animals my pets have descended from. Therefore, in this post I have put forth in brief, the process of evolution of dogs, cats and fish, and also how they came to be adopted as pets, by humans.
It is a fact that most of the breeds of pets that we see today did not exist in ancient times. What we see now is the pedigree version of animals that went extinct thousands of years ago. But how exactly did these new species come into being? Let us have a look.
1. Dog (Canis lupus familiaris)

The dog is said to be the first animal to have been domesticated. All of the people who own dogs must know that they are actually housing a direct descendant of the Grey Wolf. There are two theories regarding how the dog descended from the wolf. One of these theories states that when wolves started to eat the scraps thrown by humans, their fear for each other lessened slowly. Soon, they became friends and some wolves came to be domesticated by man about 10,000 years ago during the Agricultural Revolution. These wolves stayed with humans and experienced a change in their behavior and physical appearance over the years, becoming dogs. Another theory states that some wolves split from their pack and over generations they gave rise to dogs. This happened 32,000 years ago, somewhere in East Asia. After that, the wolf ancestors of the modern dog became extinct.

The behavior of dogs now differs from that of wolves. Dogs are also different from them in form. They are smaller and with shorter muzzles and smaller teeth. But at the molecular level not much has changed. The DNA makeup of wolves and dogs is almost identical. Dogs like Siberian Huskies still hold a resemblance with their ancestors. But that does not hold good for breeds like Pugs, Pomeranians, Poodles etc.This is because they have been selectively bred over the years, to have a change in appearance.

2. Cat (Felis catus)

The house cat is the most popular pet in the world and is found in every place that human habitation exists.The origin of the cat is often debated but it is most commonly suspected that the house cat is a descendant of the wild cat. Some experts thought that the Egyptians were the first to domesticate the cat, some 3,600 years ago. But recent genetic and archaeological discoveries indicate that cat domestication began in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, perhaps around 10,000 years ago, when agriculture was getting under way.
According to one of the theories of the domestication of cats, the humans were troubled by the mice that would come and destroy their crops and grains. However, when they found that cats were killing the mice, they thought it would be advantageous if they kept cats in their houses to protect their agricultural produce. So the cats, provided with food and other good things, decided to stay with the humans. Thus they became pets. The house cat of today has not changed a lot from its ancestors. However, it does exhibit a few morphological differences namely, slightly shorter legs, a smaller brain and a longer intestine.

3. Goldfish (Carassius auratus auratus)
Out of all the fish, I have only mentioned the domestication of the Goldfish as it was one of the earliest fish to be domesticated and is one of the most commonly kept aquarium fish. All modern goldfish are decedent from Chinese Crucial Carp. Goldfish domestication started more than a thousand years ago in ancient China as was firmly established by around 1000 AD in the Song dynasty of China. One of the mutations of a Chinese Crucial Carp was found attractive by the humans because that mutation caused the fish to become golden in color. So the humans isolated it and started breeding it more and more to produce numerous goldfish.

Unlike the domestication of other animals, the domestication of goldfish did not occur independently in different places at the same time. It started in China and gradually spread all over. This might have been because the goldfish had very few practical benefits. It was only aesthetically valuable. In some regions only the royal families were allowed to keep these fish as a sign of their magnificence.

As we can see in the above species, aggressive breeding has occurred to make these pets look different from what their ancestors looked like. This process is called artificial selection. Artificial selection is the process by which people choose the traits that they want to see in the animals. It is called artificial because nature does not change these animals but humans change them. When people adopted these animals they favored some attributes of theirs over others and hence used artificial selection to eliminate the unwanted characteristics and add the desired characteristics. Thus they created different varieties of that animal by cross breeding over generations.
Initially in animals like dogs, artificial breeding was employed to make these animals capable of performing certain tasks. But later on it was used only to alter the appearance of dogs, cats and also fish, so that they would become more appealing. The traits that were passed on to the animals may or may not be beneficial to those animals but that does not stop people from trying it out. Often it results in sicknesses and genetic diseases getting amplified in these poor animals. So they have health problems and are not as healthy as their ancestors were. Aggressive breeding can produce animals that are attractive enough to win shows but those animals will lead lives of illness and suffering. So let us not be selfish. Let us do for our pets what is in their best interest.

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