The fish are still doing well for the most part. I had an outbreak of ich disease last week but have been treating it relatively easily. The only negative is that I had a pregnant platy and I think between giving birth to her babies (called “fry”) and the ich outbreak she isn’t doing well. She’s very listless in the tank and basically keeps to herself. The ich is gone from her tail, but she isn’t active like the other fish. It makes me sad.
Even sadder still – I didn’t even know she had had kids! It was only the other day that I realized that the little orange things I had been syphoning out during partial water changes were not bits of old food but baby fish!! I was devastated when I realized what I had been doing. Fortunately, this weekend I found another fry and was able to save this one. It is no bigger than a grain of rice. I took pictures, but it took about 30 shots to get one good one because it’s so small.
I have it in a breeder’s net that I bought because I have another platy that looks like she’s pregnant. And this time I want to separate her from the other fish so more of the fry survive. No, I’m not looking to have 100s of fish (my tank isn’t big enough), but I’ve read that good local fish shops will “buy back” locally born fish which is cheaper than shipping them in from outside the area. They pay you in store credit – which means that once these guys are big enough I can take them to the store and be able to get food, medicines, and chemicals for free in exchange for the baby fish. You only get a few cents per fish, but it adds up when you consider that most females give birth every thirty days or so and can have anywhere from 5-30 fry in a single birth!!
I also realized I never posted a picture of my finish tank. Here it is:
The white net in the upper right corner of the picture is where I have the baby fry. The rest of the tank is fair game for the other 11 adult fish. As decoration I have the rocks, four plants, a large anchor decoration, and the deep sea diver, which floats in the water. On the left near the heater I also have an air stone for added oxygenation in the tank since the water filter doesn’t aerate enough.
I’m having a blast with the tank, although it truly is an expensive hobby. Fortunately, due to the goings on in getting it established, I pretty much have everything I’ll need for quite some time. And if I AM able to sell back the baby fish to the store, it should cut on expenses in the future.
What’s ironic? When I took the kids to the pet store today they saw the hamsters and both of them went NUTS. I made the mistake of saying, “When we’re done having fish, we’ll think about a hamster.” CootieBoy promptly said, “Mama – I’m done having fish.”
Nice try, buster.