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New Aquatic Plant and Funny Name



Hi, everyone,

I didn't want to post this but Daphne Freeman said I should.
She said it will drive some of you nuts.  Well, maybe it
will or maybe it won't and maybe that's how Daphne gets
her kicks :) so here it goes......

I got a new plant the other day.  If you are looking for a plant
that will carpet your substrate like a lawn, is easy to grow,
hardly needs any pruning and most of all, is very beautiful to
look at, this must be it.  It's called Mini-Riccia.  Now,
please don't go ranting at me about not giving the proper name
to the plant (that's you, James) but that's what the fish shop owner
whom I bought the plant from calls it.  As the name suggests,
the plant looks exactly like Riccia fluitans except that it's much
smaller.  The strands are also much more tightly knitted together than
normal Riccia and doesn't seem as buoyant.

The fish shop where I bought it from had plenty of it in their
display tank and grown on rocks or driftwood, they look
like lichen.  It pearls easily too as I found mine pearling
vigorously when I positioned it right in the centre of my tank
where the lighting is strongest.  The fish shop specialises in plants
from Taiwan and that's where they say the plant is from.  I doubt
Oriental aquarium or any other aquatic plant import/exporter has it as I
have never seen the plant in any other fish shop.

I would share the plant with you all but what I have now is just
a 3 inch square.  It came sandwiched between a wire mesh
and a piece of fine netting.  And it costs me big bucks.  Kind of
reminds me how it was like with the Christmas moss a few years ago
when they were charging exhorbitant prices for just a few grams.  I
would post pictures of it on my website but I haven't got round to
borrowing the digital camera yet.

Well, that's about it.  Maybe one day when I have plenty to spare,
you can try writing me for some.  In the meantime, keep your
fingers crossed that I will be as successful with it as I was with
the christmas moss :)

Okay, that's the part about aquatic plants.  Now that my post
has sort of qualify as being aquatic-plant related, I like to
add on my piece along the funny name thread.

My brother-in-law's name is Cheng Yew Fatt.  Just a run-of-the-mill
Chinese name, Cheng being his family name and Fatt a popular name
among the Chinese because it means "to prosper".  In 99.99% of all
Chinese names, the word Fatt is spelt in English as F-A-T-T but in
my brother-in-law's case, his Fatt is spelt as F**K.  I really don't know
how he can end up with an unprintable name like that but it could be
because the clerk at the registry of births had a twisted sense of
humour or maybe his father offended the clerk or something.
In the old days, if you are uneducated and can only speak Mandarin,
it's up to the clerk to spell the English name anyway he likes so long as it
sounds something like the Chinese name.

Anyway, the funny part about his name was that, being illiterate,
he never knew his name was a vulgarity until he came to
Singapore as a young adult to seek his fortune.  That's when he
kept seeing his name scrawled on the walls of elevators and
public lavatories.  He thought he must have been named after
someone famous until he went into a bank to open a savings
account.  The lady teller took one look at his identity card
and turned red in the face.  She signalled for her fellow colleagues
to take a look and they all roared with laughter.

My family didn't know too until my sister, the girl he wanted
to marry, approached me for help to fill up an application
form to get his name changed.  No way my sister would live
with such a name in her marriage certificate so the name
had to go.  The poor fella actually went through a lot
of trauma and embarassment before the name change.  But I
used to think that it could have been much worse for him.
Imagine if his father had called him "Fatt Yew" instead of
"Yew Fatt".  That would really be hilarious!!!!!

Hope I didn't offend anyone with the story but it's a true one.

Loh K L