CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Is the dwarf snapper going to change color?

1. Is the dwarf sea bream going to change color?

It is related to light. If the environment is dark, it will turn darker.

2. How to distinguish male and female Spanish sea bream?

The general way to distinguish male and female bream is: males are slender and darker in color, and many species of males have special colored fins and tails; females are short and thick and darker in color. (The above rules only apply to purebred bream)

As the name suggests, the Spanish mackerel is a bream in Lake Malawi. The Spanish mackerel is very territorial and will fight to the death for territory. To reduce the fighting, try to use a large aquarium during the aquarium landscaping process.

When raising red snappers, the number of fish should be configured according to the size of the fish tank. Small fish will not fight, but when they grow up, they will occupy the territory in order to reproduce, and fights will occur from time to time. The weak will be bitten by the strong, and even die.

An 80cm tank can hold about 5 to 6 large fish. Red snappers like to dig in the sand because it marks their territory. If you set up a hole-like object like a nest for them first, the fish will not fight.

3. What do the pen, ink, paper and inkstone represent?

1. Pen

The earliest brush can be traced back to more than 2,000 years ago. Although there are no physical brushes since the Western Zhou Dynasty, some signs of brush use can be found in prehistoric painted pottery patterns and Shang Dynasty oracle bone inscriptions. Brushes were widely used to write on bamboo and wooden slips and silk in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. A brush from the Spring and Autumn Period was discovered in the tomb of Zenghou Yi in Leigudun, Suizhou City, Hubei Province, which is the earliest brush discovered so far. Later, the Warring States brushes unearthed from Zuojiagong Mountain in Changsha City, Hunan Province, the Qin brushes unearthed from Shuihudi in Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, and Fangmatan in Tianshui City, Gansu Province, as well as the Han brushes in Mawangdui, Changsha, Fenghuang Mountain in Jiangling County, Hubei Province, Wuwei City, Gansu Province, Xuanquanzhi and Majuanwan in Dunhuang City, and the ancient Juyan area in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and the Western Jin Dynasty brushes in Wuwei are all rare and valuable materials left over from ancient times.

The origin of writing brushes in my country is very early. Judging from the uncarved oracle bone inscriptions, primitive brushes already existed in the Xia and Shang dynasties. Judging from the patterns on the painted pottery in the Neolithic period, the creation of brushes can be traced back to more than 5,000 years ago. By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, all countries had already made and used writing brushes. At that time, the brush was called "Bu Lu" in Wu, "Fu" in Yan, "Xing" in Chu, and "Bi" in Qin. After Qin Shihuang unified the country, "Bi" became the fixed name and has been used to this day. Legend has it that the brush we use now was invented by Meng Tian, ​​a general of the Qin State during the Warring States Period.

In 223 BC, the Qin general Meng Kuo led his troops to fight against the Chu State in Zhongshan. The two sides fought fiercely and the war dragged on for a long time. In order to let the King of Qin know the situation on the battlefield in time, Meng Tian had to write battle reports regularly and send them to the King of Qin. At that time, people usually used a pen to dip ink and then write on silk cloth, which was very slow. Although Meng Kuo was a military general, he was full of literary talent. Writing battle reports with the pen mentioned above often affected his thoughts. The pen was hard, and if the ink was not dipped enough, he had to stop and dip it again after writing a few words. If the ink was dipped too much, it would drip down and dirty the very precious silk. Meng Tian had thought about modifying the pen before, and this time he had to write a lot of battle reports, and this desire became stronger and stronger.

During the intervals between wars, Meng Tian liked to go hunting in the wild. One day, he shot a few wild rabbits and brought them back to the barracks. Because there were so many rabbits, they were heavy to carry in his hands. One rabbit's tail was stuck to the ground, and blood was dragging on the ground, leaving a zigzag trail. When Meng Tian saw this, he couldn't help but think: "Wouldn't it be better if I used the rabbit's tail instead of an ordinary pen to write?"

After returning to the barracks, Meng Tian immediately cut off a rabbit tail, inserted it into a bamboo tube, and tried to use it to write. However, the rabbit hair was greasy and did not absorb ink. The words written on the silk were intermittent and did not look good. Meng Tian tried several more times, but still failed. A good piece of silk was wasted. In a rage, he threw the "rabbit hair brush" into the rock pit in front of the door.

Meng Tian was not willing to fail, and still took time to think about other ways to improve. A few days passed, and he still didn't find a suitable way. One day, he walked out of the barracks to get some fresh air. When he walked through the rock pit, he saw the "rabbit hair brush" that he had thrown away in the pit. Meng Tian picked it up, pinched the rabbit hair with his fingers, and found that the rabbit hair was wet, and the hair color became whiter and softer. Meng Tian was greatly inspired, and immediately ran back to the barracks to dip it in ink. The rabbit tail became very "obedient" at this time, absorbed enough ink, and wrote very smoothly, and the font also looked round. It turned out that the water in the rock pit contained lime, and after being soaked in alkaline water, the rabbit hair became soft. Since this pen was made of bamboo tube and rabbit hair, Meng Tian added a "bamboo" head to the popular pen name "Xing" at the time, and called it "Ben" (abbreviated as "Bi" today).

There are many varieties of ancient brushes. In terms of the materials used for the brush hair, there were rabbit hair, white wool, blue wool, yellow wool, sheep whiskers, horse hair, deer hair, musk hair, badger hair, raccoon hair, mink hair, mouse whiskers, mouse tails, tiger hair, wolf tails, fox hair, otter hair, gorilla hair, goose hair, duck hair, chicken hair, pheasant hair, pig hair, fetal hair, human whiskers, thatch, etc. In terms of performance, there are hard hair, soft hair, and mixed hair. In terms of the texture of the pen barrel, there are water bamboo, chicken feather bamboo, spotted bamboo, brown bamboo, purple wood, chicken wing wood, sandalwood, nanmu, rosewood, Kuangxiang wood, carved lacquer, green lacquer, snail hair, ivory, rhinoceros horn, ox horn, unicorn horn, tortoise shell, jade, crystal, colored glaze, gold, silver, porcelain, etc. Many of them are precious materials.

2. Ink

Ink may seem a bit monotonous, but it is an indispensable item for writing in ancient times. With the help of this unique material, the fantastic and wonderful artistic conception of Chinese calligraphy and painting can be realized. The world of ink is not boring, but rich in connotation. As a consumable, ink that can be presented intact today is very precious.

Before the invention of artificial ink, natural or semi-natural ink was generally used as writing materials. Prehistoric painted pottery patterns, oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, bamboo and wooden slips, silk paintings and calligraphy, etc., have left traces of primitive ink use everywhere. According to literature records, ancient ink punishment (tattooing), ink rope (used by carpenters), and ink turtle (divination) also used ink. After this long process, in the Han Dynasty, artificial ink products finally began to appear. This kind of ink raw material is taken from pine smoke. It was first kneaded by hand, and later molded, and the ink is solid. According to the "Han Guanyi" by Ying Shao of the Eastern Han Dynasty, "The Shangshu Ling, Pu, Cheng, and Lang were given a large ink of Yu Mi and a small ink of Yu Mi every month." Yu Mi is located in Qianyang County, Shaanxi Province, close to Zhongnan Mountain. There are many right pines on the mountain, and the smoke used to burn ink is very famous.

From making tobacco materials to the final product, it has to go through many processes such as adding glue, mixing agents, steaming and pestling, and there is also a molding process. The carving of the ink mold is an important process and an artistic creation process. The shapes of ink are generally square, rectangular, round, oval, irregular, etc. The ink mold is generally composed of six pieces: front, back, top, bottom, left and right. The round or idol-shaped ink mold only needs four or two plates. The ink agent is built in, and the finished product is hammered tightly. The inscriptions are mostly engraved on the side to facilitate easy replacement when the ink mold is reused. The appearance of ink is diverse, and can be divided into natural color ink, lacquer ink, gold-washed ink, and lacquer edge ink.

3. Paper

It is one of the four great inventions of ancient China and has made outstanding contributions to the spread of culture in history. Even today when machine-made paper is popular, some traditional handmade papers still play an irreplaceable role and shine with unique brilliance. We can still get a glimpse of ancient paper in the ancient calligraphy and paintings that have been handed down.

For a long time before the invention of paper, what did people use as a material for recording events? According to literature and physical materials, the earliest people used knotted ropes to record events. They tied a knot when encountering something and untied it when the event was over. Later, words were engraved on tortoise shells and animal bones, the so-called "Oracle Bone Script". After the emergence of bronze, inscriptions were cast on bronze ware, namely "Golden Script" or "Bell and Tripod Script". Later, words were written on pieces cut from bamboo and wood, called "bamboo and wooden slips", such as thicker bamboo and wooden pieces were called "slips". At the same time, some were also written on silk products. Before the Pre-Qin period, in addition to the above record materials, words engraved on stones were also found, such as the famous "Stone Drum Script".

It is generally known that paper was invented by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty. However, archaeological excavations in recent years have raised questions about this. With the progress of archaeological work along the Northwest Silk Road, many Western Han Dynasty sites and tombs have been discovered, among which there are also relics of paper. These papers are named according to the places where they were unearthed.

The chronological order of the unearthed ancient papers is as follows: Fangmatan paper from the early Western Han Dynasty, Baqiao paper, Xuanquan paper, Majuanwan paper, and Juyan paper from the middle Western Han Dynasty, and Hantanpo paper from the late Western Han Dynasty. These papers are not only earlier than Cai Lun paper, but some of them also have ink marks on them, indicating that they were used for writing documents.

4. Inkstone

Inkstone, also known as inkstone, is praised by ancient people as the first of the four treasures of the study. Because ink must be ground with water before it can be used, and the stone that can produce ink is the inkstone. Among them, there are pottery, clay, bricks and tiles, metal, lacquer, porcelain, stone, etc., and the most common is stone inkstone. There are many kinds of stones that can be used to make inkstones. my country is vast and rich in resources, with famous mountains and rivers everywhere, so there are naturally many kinds of stones. Wherever there are stones, there must be stone workers, so the places where inkstones are produced are all over the country.

The most famous ones are Duan Inkstone from Zhaoqing, Guangdong, She Inkstone from Anhui, Lu Inkstone from Shandong, Longwei Inkstone from Jiangxi, and Chengni Inkstone from Shanxi. The requirements for inkstones are: fine texture, moist and pure, crystal clear and smooth, beautiful texture and color, easy to release ink without absorbing water. Some have nipples, some have eyes, some have belts, and some have stars. It is better to produce them in places with mountains and near water. For example, Duan Inkstone was produced in Fu Ke and bathed in the Zhukeng of Jiangwei Duanxi. Although they are produced in the same place, their stone quality is also different, such as blue and white, sky blue, banana leaf white, fish brain jelly, ice pattern gold star, rib pattern, eyebrow, red silk, swallow, purple gold stone, turtle stone, etc. The stone must be good and the craftsmanship must be fine. The carving of inkstones has long formed an art, and the ingenuity can be applied from stone selection, material selection, molding, groove, grinding, carving, etc. Some fine inkstones are no longer practical. Because of their preciousness, they can only be used as antiques for appreciation and collection, but they are reluctant to be wetted with water to release ink. The value of inkstones varies depending on the stone they are made of, the workmanship they are made of, or the fact that they are used by famous people, etc.

The inkstone needs to be washed frequently and must not be contaminated. Every time you use ink, you must use clean inkstone and fresh water. The older the ink stick, the better, because the glue will naturally dissolve over time. However, the water cannot be old, but must be fresh. If you are afraid of oil stains, you can use lotus pods or old tea leaves to brush it when washing. It is better to add lukewarm water, and never add boiling water to prevent it from bursting. Therefore, calligraphers should not only know how to use the inkstone, but also know how to maintain it.

Pen, ink, paper, and inkstone all have their own uses and particularities. The famous inkstone and clear water, the old ink, the conventional pen, and the old paper are a whole set. When we write our words, they become our unique traditional calligraphy art. It is not only for our own appreciation, but also attracts more and more attention and love from people all over the world. ]Pen holder: Also known as pen inkstone, it is used to test the thickness of ink or straighten the brush hairs. It is often made into a leaf shape.