How popular and well behaved is your pet?

The answer may be crucial as new research shows pets can provide a good indication of their owners' personalities and state of mind.
 
Be happy, own fishPeople who have dogs tend to be cheerful, while cat lovers are dependable and emotionally sensitive, and reptile owners independent.

But no-one is happier than a keeper of tropical fish, according to the research.

Richard Wiseman, who led the study, said fish owners stand out as the most contented of individuals.

In fact almost 60% of us are convinced that their fishy friends have a personality and a sense of humour.

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Contrary to the first impressions of many, the Maldives islands are not especially hospitable to plants, mainly because the soil does not have the nutrients to support a large and varied diversity of plant life. The main type of vegetation include coconut trees, vines, banyan trees as well as mangroves. Also found are Breadfruit trees and Bamboos. Flowering plants include Bougainvillaea and Frangipani.

The islands have an incredible number of colourful, tropical fish and when you visit you’re bound to see many of them. A few of these include Butterfly fish, Dolphins, Anglefish, Parrotfish and Flutemouth. The colours and shapes of some of these fish are as varied and intriguing as their names would suggest. Divers are sure to have an experience of a lifetime in the Maldives.

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 15  /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A team of Rhode Island inventors today will be awarded the grand prize in the International Smart Gear Competition for a fishing gear innovation that could save thousands of fish and other sea creatures from dying accidentally in fishing nets each year, World Wildlife Fund and its partners announced.  The winners will be officially announced in Seattle today at the Pacific Marine Expo.

The Grand Prize winning team consists of University of Rhode Island Fisheries Center researchers Laura Skrobe and David Beutel and fishermen Jon Knight, Phil Ruhle Sr., Phil Ruhle Jr., and Jim O'Grady.  Their invention -- aptly named "The Eliminator" -- captures haddock while reducing the accidental netting of other marine species. The device works by taking advantage of the haddock's tendency to swim upward but not over the headrope when encountering the large mesh net invention, instead of swimming downward where they can escape the net, which is the tendency of other fish.  The Grand Prize winners beat out more than 70 other contenders from 22 countries.

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By Mica Rosenberg

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - A tropical fish that lives in mangrove swamps across the Americas can survive out of water for months at a time, similar to how animals adapted to land millions of years ago, a new study shows.

The Mangrove Rivulus, a type of small tropical killifish, seeks refuge in shallow pools of water in crab burrows, coconut shells or even old beer cans in the tropical mangrove swamps of Belize, the United States and Brazil.

When their habitat dries up, they live on the land in logs, said Scott Taylor, a researcher at the Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands Program in central Florida.

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