| vivint |
| Vivint APX Alarm Don't sign the contract Calgary, Alberta |
| 9th of Mar, 2011 by User683233 |
we signed up with Vivint Alarms when they were APX alarms, the salesman gave us the " Mrs Jones up the street had her home broke into, do you know Mrs Jones"? of course we didn't but being in a new house (just moved in) and not knowing the community I thought it would be a good Idea, the main thing I was concerned about was my garage so I made sure the garage was included, the free system cam with two fobs and I asked the rep what was the range and he said 100 feet so using the fob to set the alarm from the alley was supposed to work. The installers were around the corner and at my place the min we signed the three year contract Should have been my first clue, the main feature that I liked about the system was the fact i could just arm my garage and not the house in case i was out in front etc so i asked the installer how to activate this option while he was showing me the system and he said it didn't do it (my second clue). Then we went for a drive to the mountains and set the alarm from the key fob and upon returning we found the fob would not set the alarm, we were gone the whole weekend with our house unprotected (third clue) we called APX/Vivnt and was told we need a extender installed in the garage (another 100.00). The last couple of weeks the system would not arm every once and a while and i found if i opened the garage sliding door and re-closed it it would arm, so I'm out for coffee today and my wife calls me and told me the alarm went off so I said don't call the police I'll head right over, I was told the garage door was open, I get there and everything is locked, nothing open so i called Vivint and was put trough to tech support, I did all the work, changing the battery testing the system for the tech support guy to tell me the sensor is defective, its going to cost me a service call and possibly the part, I said
nope I've had enough of the nickle and diming and had the tech walk me through on how to disable the garage door. (4th clue) the main reason I had the system installed was for the garage, i work from home, so I contact Vivint to inquire on when my contract was up and they said Aug 2012, the wife said we signed up for a three year term in May so I grabbed the contract and asked the rep to show me where it said 39 months not 36 as it was not visible to me, three minutes later he found it, I said while he was looking its pretty bad when i Vivint rep has a hard time finding it, sure enough the contract reads 39 months, the sales rep said three years, who the hell has a 39 month term???? so I said how do i get out of my contract and they said to find another alarm company to buy it out so I called around and inquired and found a company that would pay for 6 month on it but they require a installer code to access the system, i called Vivint again and was told Nope, can't get the code, they tell you to find another company and then won't pass it over. There are a lot of people in my community that got this system and I will insure they all know about the clause on the automatic one year contract renewal, if you don't give them written notice within 60 days of your contract expiring you
automatically resign for a year. I'm afraid to set my alarm when I leave my house, the back door chime just went off, it was wide open to begin with. Vivint is a ripoff, buyer beware, read the fine print with these crooks, its
all empty promises with a faulty system that they won't back. In order to get out of my contract I have to pay the remainder of the bill at 750.00 (50.00 per month) and I said, I have to pay you for getting rid of you to which they said yes.the company I just called ( supreme alarm Calgary) which is local charges 35.00 per month and have security cars that check your property. sure beats having two police cars at your house when the faulty equipment goes off. Which brings me to my next rant, I'm picking our daughter up from school, while I'm waiting Im talking to my wife on the phone, after I hang up there's a new message, its a lady with a heavy accent saying my alarm went off, to call a number to stop the police from showing up. I write down the number and call it and someone answers Vivint home security, i think who's Vivint? I'm with APX and tell them i have the wrong number, i call back and listen to the message and check the number, its Vivint, long story short they changed the name of the company and didn't inform there clients first, i get home and there's two Calgary police service cars parked in front of my house. I called Apx back and tore a stscam of them as I'm sure the Police have better things to do with there time then go to false alarm calls because a company changes there name without informing the people who pay for there service. three weeks later i get a letter informing me of the name change stay local people. I'm going with supreme lxxx Cxxxxx.
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fish fish fish
AUTHOR: Tril Busi - (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Monday, April 11, 2011
POSTED: Monday, April 11, 2011
A fish is any gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate (or craniate) animal that lacks limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups. Because the term is defined negatively, and excludes the tetrapods (i.e., the amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) which descend from within the same ancestry, it is paraphyletic. The traditional term pisces (also ichthyes) is considered a typological, but not a phylogenetic classification.
Most fish are "cold-blooded", or ectothermic, allowing their body temperatures to vary as ambient temperatures
change. Fish are abundant in most bodies of water. They can be found in nearly all aquatic environments, from high mountain streams (e.g., char and gudgeon) to the abyssal and even hadal depths of the deepest oceans (e.g., gulpers and anglerfish). At 31, 900 species, fish exhibit greater species diversity than any other class of vertebrates.[1]
Fish, especially as food, are an important resource worldwide. Commercial and subsistence fishers hunt fish in wild fisheries (see fishing) or farm them in ponds or in cages in the ocean (see aquaculture). They are also caught by recreational fishers, kept as pets, raised by fishkeepers, and exhibited in public aquaria. Fish have had a role in culture through the ages, serving as deities, religious symbols, and as the subjects of art, books and movies.
Contents
[hide]
1 Diversity of fish2 Taxonomy3 Anatomy
3.1 Respiration3.2 Circulation3.3 Digestion3.4 Excretion3.5 Scales3.6 Sensory and nervous system
3.6.1 Central nervous system3.6.2 Sense organs3.6.3 Capacity for pain
3.7 Muscular system3.8 Homeothermy3.9 Reproductive system
3.9.1 Organs3.9.2 Reproductive method
3.10 Immune system
4 Diseases5 Evolution6 Importance to humans
6.1 Economic importance6.2 Recreation
7 Conservation
7.1 Overfishing7.2 Habitat destruction7.3 Exotic species7.4 Aquarium collecting
8 Culture9 Terminology
9.1 Fish or fishes?9.2 Shoal or school
10 See also11 Notes12 References13 External links
Diversity of fish
Fish come in many shapes and sizes. This is a sea dragon, a close relative of the seahorse. Their leaf-like appendages enable them to blend in with floating seaweed.
Main article: Diversity of fish
The term "fish" most precisely describes any non-tetrapod craniate (i.e. an animal with a skull and in most cases a backbone) that has gills throughout life and whose limbs, if any, are in the shape of fins.[2] Unlike groupings such as birds or mammals, fish are not a single clade but a paraphyletic collection of taxa, including hagfishes, lampreys, sharks and rays, ray-finned fish, coelacanths, and lungfish.[3][4] Indeed, lungfish and coelacanths are closer relatives of tetrapods (such as mammals, birds, amphibians, etc.) than of other fish such as ray-finned fish or sharks, so the last common ancestor of all fish is also an ancestor to tetrapods. As paraphyletic groups are no longer recognised in modern systematic biology, the use of the term "fish" as a biological group must be avoided.
Many types of aquatic animals commonly referred to as "fish" are not fish in the sense given above; examples include shellfish, cuttlefish, starfish, crayfish and jellyfish. In earlier times, even biologists did not make a distinction – sixteenth century natural historians classified also seals, whales, amphibians, crocodiles, even hippopotamuses, as well as a host of aquatic invertebrates, as fish.[5] However, according the definition above, all mammals, including Cetaceans like Whales and Dolphins, are not fish. In some contexts, especially in aquaculture, the true fish are referred to as finfish (or fin fish) to distinguish them from these other animals.
A typical fish is ectothermic, has a streamlined body for rapid swimming, extracts oxygen from water using gills or uses
an accessory breathing organ to breathe atmospheric oxygen, has two sets of paired fins, usually one or two (rarely three) dorsal fins, an anal fin, and a tail fin, has jaws, has skin that is usually covered with scales, and lays eggs.
Each criterion has exceptions. Tuna, swordfish, and some species of sharks show some warm-blooded adaptations—they can heat their bodies significantly above ambient water temperature.[3] Streamlining and swimming performance varies from fish such as tuna, salmon, and jacks that can cover 10–20 body-lengths per second to species such as eels and rays that swim no more than 0.5 body-lengths per second.[3] Many groups of freshwater fish extract oxygen from the air as well as from the water using a variety of different structures. Lungfish have paired lungs similar to those of tetrapods, gouramis have a structure called the labyrinth organ that performs a similar function, while many catfish, such as Corydoras extract oxygen via the intestine or stomach.[6] Body shape and the arrangement of the fins is highly variable, covering such seemingly un-fishlike forms as seahorses, pufferfish, anglerfish, and gulpers. Similarly, the surface of the skin may be naked (as in moray eels), or covered with scales of a variety of different types usually defined as placoid (typical of sharks and rays), cosmoid (fossil lungfish and coelacanths), ganoid (various fossil fish but also living gars and bichirs), cycloid, and ctenoid (these last two are found on most bony fish).[7] There are even fish that live mostly on land. Mudskippers feed and interact with one another on mudflats and go underwater to hide in their burrows.[8] The catfish Phreatobius cisternarum lives in underground, phreatic habitats, and a relative lives in waterlogged leaf litter.[9][10]
Fish range in size from the huge 16-metre (52 ft) whale shark to the tiny 8-millimetre (0.3 in) stout infantfish.
Taxonomy
Fish are a paraphyletic group: that is, any clade containing all fish also contains the tetrapods,
which are not fish. For this reason, groups such as the "Class Pisces"
seen in older reference works are no longer used in formal
classifications.
Fish are classified into the following major groups:
Class Myxini (hagfish)Class Pteraspidomorphi † (early jawless fish)Class Thelodonti †Class Anaspida †Class Petromyzontida or Hyperoartia
Petromyzontidae (lampreys)
Class Conodonta (conodonts) †Class Cephalaspidomorphi † (early jawless fish)
(unranked) Galeaspida †(unranked) Pituriaspida †(unranked) Osteostraci †
Infraphylum Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates)
Class Placodermi † (armoured fish)Class Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish)Class Acanthodii † (spiny sharks)Superclass Osteichthyes (bony fish)
Class Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish)
Subclass Chondrostei
Order Acipenseriformes (sturgeons and paddlefishes)Order Polypteriformes (reedfishes and bichirs).
Subclass Neopterygii
Infraclass Holostei (gars and bowfins)Infraclass Teleostei (many orders of common fish)
Class Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish)
Subclass Coelacanthimorpha (coelacanths)Subclass Dipnoi (lungfish)
† - indicates extinct taxon
Some palaeontologists contend that because Conodonta are chordates, they are primitive fish. For a fuller treatment of this taxonomy, see the vertebrate article.
The position of hagfish in the phylum chordata is not settled. Phylogenetic research in 1998 and 1999 supported the idea that the hagfish and the lampreys form a natural group, the Cyclostomata, that is a sister group of the Gnathostomata.[11][12]
The various fish groups account for more than half of vertebrate species. There are almost 28, 000 known extant species, of which almost 27, 000 are bony fish, with 970 sharks, rays, and chimeras and about 108 hagfish and lampreys.[13] A third of these species fall within the nine largest families; from largest to smallest, these families are Cyprinidae, Gobiidae, Cichlidae, Characidae, Loricariidae, Balitoridae, Serranidae, Labridae, and Scorpaenidae. About 64 families are monotypic, containing only one species. The final total of extant species may grow to exceed 32, 500.[14]
Anatomy
Main article: Fish anatomy
The anatomy of Lampanyctodes hectoris
(1) – operculum (gill cover), (2) – lateral line, (3) – dorsal
fin, (4) – fat fin, (5) – caudal peduncle, (6) – caudal fin, (7) – anal
fin, (8) – photophores, (9) – pelvic fins (paired), (10) – pectoral fins
(paired)
Respiration
Most fish exchange gases using gills on either side of the pharynx. Gills consist of threadlike structures called filaments. Each filament contains a capillary network that provides a large surface area for exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide.
Fish exchange gases by pulling oxygen-rich water through their mouths and pumping it over their gills. In some fish, capillary blood flows in the opposite direction to the water, causing counter current exchange. The gills push the oxygen-poor water out through openings in the sides of the pharynx. Some fish, like sharks and lampreys, possess multiple gill openings. However, most fish have a single gill opening on each side. This opening is hidden beneath a protective bony
cover called an operculum.
Juvenile bichirs have external gills, a very primitive feature that they share with larval amphibians. Many fish can breathe air via a variety of mechanisms. The skin of anguillid eels may absorb oxygen. The buccal cavity of the electric eel may breathe air. Catfish of the families Loricariidae, Callichthyidae, and Scoloplacidae absorb air through their digestive tracts.[15] Lungfish, with the exception of the Australian lungfish, and bichirs have paired lungs similar to those of tetrapods and must surface to gulp fresh air through the mouth and pass spent air out through the gills. Gar and bowfin have a vascularized swim bladder that functions in the same way. Loaches, trahiras, and many catfish breathe by passing air through the gut. Mudskippers breathe by absorbing oxygen across the skin (similar to frogs). A number of fish
have evolved so-called accessory breathing organs that extract oxygen from the air. Labyrinth fish (such as gouramis and bettas) have a labyrinth organ above the gills that performs this function. A few other fish have structures resembling labyrinth organs in form and function, most notably snakeheads, pikeheads, and the Clariidae catfish family.
Breathing air is primarily of use to fish that inhabit shallow, seasonally variable waters where the water's oxygen concentration may seasonally decline. Fish dependent solely on dissolved oxygen, such as perch and cichlids, quickly suffocate, while air-breathers survive for much longer, in some cases in water that is little more than wet mud. At the most extreme, some air-breathing fish are able to survive in damp burrows for weeks without water, entering a state of aestivation (summertime hibernation) until water returns.
Tuna gills inside of the head. The fish head is oriented snout-downwards, with the view looking towards the mouth.
Fish can be divided into obligate air breathers and facultative air breathers. Obligate air breathers, such as the African lungfish, must breathe air periodically or they suffocate. Facultative air breathers, such as the catfish Hypostomus plecostomus, only breathe air if they need to and will otherwise rely on their gills for oxygen. Most air breathing fish are facultative air breathers that avoid the energetic cost of rising to the surface and the fitness cost of exposure to surface predators.[15]
Circulation
Fish have a closed-loop circulatory system. The heart pumps the blood in a single loop throughout the body. In most fish, the heart consists of four parts, including two chambers and an entrance and exit.[16] The first part is the sinus venosus, a thin-walled sac that collects blood from the fish's veins before allowing it to flow to the second part, the atrium, which is a large muscular chamber. The atrium serves as a one-way antechamber, sends blood to the third part, ventricle. The ventricle is another thick-walled, muscular chamber and it pumps the blood, first to the fourth part, bulbous arteriosus, a large tube, and then out of the heart. The bulbus arteriosus connects to the aorta, through which blood flows to the gills for oxygenation.
Digestion
Jaws allow fish to eat a wide variety of food, including plants and other organisms. Fish ingest food through the mouth and break it down in the esophagus. In the stomach, food is further digested and, in many fish, processed in finger-shaped pouches called pyloric caeca, which secrete digestive enzymes and absorb nutrients. Organs such as the liver and pancreas
add enzymes and various chemicals as the food moves through the digestive tract. The intestine completes the process of digestion and nutrient absorption.
Excretion
As with many aquatic animals, most fish release their nitrogenous wastes as ammonia. Some of the wastes diffuse through the gills. Blood wastes are filtered by the kidneys. Saltwater fish tend to lose water because of osmosis. Their kidneys return water to the body. The reverse happens in freshwater fish:
they tend to gain water osmotically. Their kidneys produce dilute urine for excretion. Some fish have specially adapted kidneys that vary in function, allowing them to move from freshwater to saltwater.
Scales
Main article: Scale (zoology)#Fish scales The scales of fish originate from the mesoderm (skin); they may be similar in structure to teeth. Sensory and nervous sstem
Dorsal view of the brain of the rainbow trout
Central nervous system
Fish typically have quite small brains relative to body size compared with other vertebrates, typically one-fifteenth the brain mass of a similarly sized bird or mammal.[17] However, some fish have relatively large brains, most notably mormyrids and sharks, which have brains about as massive relative to body weight as birds and marsupials.[18]
Fish brains are divided into several regions. At the front are the olfactory lobes, a pair of structures that receive and process signals from the nostrils via the two olfactory nerves.[17]
The olfactory lobes are very large in fish that hunt primarily by smell, such as hagfish, sharks, and catfish. Behind the olfactory lobes is the two-lobed telencephalon, the structural equivalent to the cerebrum in higher vertebrates. In fish the telencephalon is concerned mostly with olfaction.[17] Together these structures form the forebrain.
Connecting the forebrain to the midbrain is the diencephalon (in the diagram, this structure is below the optic lobes and
consequently not visible). The diencephalon performs functions associated with hormones and homeostasis.[17] The pineal body lies just above the diencephalon. This structure detects light, maintains circadian rhythms, and controls color changes.[17]
The midbrain or mesencephalon contains the two optic lobes. These are very large in species that hunt by sight, such as rainbow trout and cichlids.[17]
The hindbrain or metencephalon is particularly involved in swimming and balance.[17] The cerebellum is a single-lobed structure that is typically the biggest part of the brain.[17] Hagfish and lampreys have relatively small cerebellae, while the mormyrid cerebellum is massive and apparently involved in their electrical sense.[17]
The brain stem or myelencephalon is the brain's posterior.[17] As well as controlling some muscles and body organs, in
bony fish at least, the brain stem governs respiration and osmoregulation.[17]
Sense organs
Most fish possess highly developed sense organs. Nearly all daylight fish have color vision that is at least as good as a human's. Many fish also have chemoreceptors that are responsible for extraordinary senses of taste and smell. Although they have ears, many fish may not hear very well. Most fish have sensitive receptors that form the lateral line system, which detects gentle currents and vibrations, and senses the motion of nearby fish and prey.[19] Some fish, such as catfish and sharks, have organs that detect low-level electric current.[20] Other fish, like the electric eel, can produce electric current. Fish orient themselves using landmarks and may use mental maps based on multiple landmarks or symbols. Fish behavior in mazes reveals that they possess spatial memory and visual discrimination.[21]
Capacity for pain
Further information: Pain in fish Experiments done by William Tavolga provide evidence that fish have pain and fear responses. For instance, in Tavolga’s experiments, toadfish grunted when electrically shocked and over time they came to grunt at the mere sight of an electrode.[22]
In 2003, Scottish scientists at the University of Edinburgh and the Roslin Institute concluded that rainbow trout exhibit behaviors often associated with pain in other animals. Bee venom and acetic acid injected into the lips resulted in fish rocking their bodies and rubbing their lips along the sides and floors of their tanks, which the researchers concluded were attempts to relieve pain, similar to what mammals would do.[23][24][25] Neurons fired in a pattern resembling human neuronal patterns.[25]
Professor James D. Rose of the University of Wyoming claimed the study was flawed since it did not provide proof that fish
possess "conscious awareness, particularly a kind of awareness that is meaningfully like ours".[26]
Rose argues that since fish brains are so different from human brains, fish are probably not conscious in the manner humans are, so that reactions similar to human reactions to pain instead have other causes.
Rose had published a study a year earlier arguing that fish cannot feel pain because their brains lack a neocortex.[27] However, animal behaviorist Temple Grandin argues that fish could still have consciousness without a neocortex
because "different species can use different brain structures and systems to handle the same functions."[25]
Animal welfare advocates raise concerns about the possible suffering of fish caused by angling. Some countries, such as Germany have banned specific types of fishing, and the British RSPCA now formally prosecutes
individuals who are cruel to fish.[28]
Muscular system
Swim bladder of a Rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus)
Main article: Fish locomotion Most fish move by alternately contracting paired sets of muscles on either side of the backbone. These contractions form S-shaped curves that move down the body. As each curve reaches the back fin, backward force is applied to the water, and in conjunction with the fins, moves the fish forward. The fish's fins function like an airplane's flaps.
Fins also increase the tail's surface area, increasing speed. The streamlined body of the fish decreases the amount of friction from the water. Since body tissue is denser than water, fish must compensate for the difference or they will sink. Many bony fish have an internal organ called a swim bladder that adjusts their buoyancy through manipulation of gases. |
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