Last year we set up an aquarium, complete with pirate ship and skeleton captain. We populated our little water world with tiny guppies from BigMama's tank. Since those first days the girls have been asking, when will the guppies have babies? And I was able to push off their queries by saying, "They're just babies themselves."
But that answer only held water for so long. Still no babies -- for over a year. That is, until a month ago. One day I noticed a baby swimming about. But two days later, it was gone. Then a week of so after that, when we came down for breakfast we noticed the one of the females was actually giving birth. And right after a little one popped out one of the males would eat it!
Shrieks of, "Mommy save them!"arose.
Quickly we scooped her out, placed her in a mixing bowl full of water --- and then watched her give birth to twenty more little ones. After she was done we noticed she started chasing her own babies. Before she could eat them, we put her back in the tank.
That day I went to the pet store and bought a nursery net to hang inside the tank. That way I got my mixing bowl back and the babies would have a safe place to grown up. They have been in there, growing for over a month.
Today, I tried put a few of them into the greater tank population. No sooner had they started swimming about when the males started circling. I gathered them up and put them back in their sanctuary. It was then I noticed one of the female's fins were all chewed up. She would swim a bit and the then one of the males would come over and nip on her again. I scooped her up and put her in with the babies. Hoping neither would try to eat the other. So far, both babies and female are coexisting.
I now realize that my tank needs some intervention. They need to learn that fish are friends and not food. Maybe I should show them Finding Nemo. Maybe not...
Fish are friends, family -- not food.
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