Anyone do aquascapes?

In reply to Carbon (Forum Supporter) :

Trapping a raccoon with rabies is illegal? The police said it was OK. They'd tried to shoot it!

I'll reiterate needing a balanced ecosystem in there.

The good thing is that the larger a body of water you have, the easier it is to keep it healthy. Make sure it's about 3' deep in a section, get some water loving plants, make sure the waterfall is splashing well, and put in some mosquito fish. Keep the dead leaves and such out of it.  Once the mosquito fish are established (and have plants to hide in) put in some goldfish.

NOT A TA said:

captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

If they're comfortable and friendly with you, skunks are cool, it's just the smell when they're threatened that makes them uncool. 

Racoons though, they're the kings of cool with regards to small woodland creatures. 

True story:

I sent an employee out to weed some planter beds in front of a retail store I owned.. About 5 minutes later I look out the window to see him twirling as fast as he can with a raccoon attached to him by biting his pant leg and was swinging out at a right angle. Knowing he's going to get dizzy instantly I grab a big wrench and run out to !!beat the raccoon off!!!! By the time I got to him he was on the ground and the raccoon was scampering across the parking lot. Then the raccoon ran into a 6' drainage pipe. Employee wasn't injured so called the police who came and tried unsuccessfully to shoot it.(long dark pipe).

Guys who ran the shop next door had a have-a-heart trap and decided they wanted to catch the raccoon. So they set up the trap near the end of the drainage pipe. Next morning they checked the trap..... Skunk!

Employee was a teenager who's mother was a nurse and freaked out.  The doctor (of course I sent him) said skin wasn't broken so no worries of rabies. His mother forced him to go through the series of shots week after week. Raccoons like many animals are best kept at a distance IMO.

See it now? ;) 

Few things are as special as the love between a man and raccoon.