A month or two ago Toby and I finally thought the fish babies were big enough to leave the nest. Somewhere along the way we noticed that there weren’t 25 young fish but maybe only 10 or so. Not sure what happened to the other 15. A mystery.
We took out four or five (keeping several) and delivered them to the guy at the fish store (not Jeff Spicoli but one of his colleagues). A couple of weeks later I finally cleaned the tank. I’m surprised any fish survived in the pool of poop and debris. I exhausted myself cleaning it as best I could — scraping the algae off the sides, removing and thoroughly cleaning the gravel, emptying half of the water and replacing clean water and gravel. It looked very sparkly when all was done. And I guess the fish were happy because, not long after, babies were on the scene! Just as Spicoli had warned. I had asked Fish Store Guy if we could bring him the mom or dad, since I didn’t want more babies to care for, and he said, “I don’t think you have to worry about anything–the other fish will just eat the babies. They’re just food.” Oh, ok–so the hungry, big brothers will eat the fry. Understandable in some circles I guess.
Except we’ve seen at least two “litters” since then and it wasn’t Big Brother we witnessed eating the babies. Nope. It was Mama Fish. Tonight Toby and I watched her gobble nearly the whole batch of fry in lightning speed. I’m guessing the rest will be gone by morning.
Mystery solved. Toby looked shocked. Mama Fish has needs, I told him, and then I growled and told him to get his tush in bed or else.
