the fish: a mystery post

In case you've forgotten, or are new to the blog, Ansley has had a fish tank for about 10 months now. In that time, we have had two sets of baby fish. Fish really reproduce like, well, rabbits. Fish should be the new rabbits. Or something like that. No one informed us of this, but we have learned.

So a few months ago, in an attempt to cut down on the hanky-panky around here (just for the fish), as well as the over population problem we were having (again, just the fish), we did all kinds of research on how to tell male fish from female fish, and then got Ansley a bigger tank, and put the female fish in her tank and moved her old tank to Christian's room and put the male fish in it. Whew. Got it? Ansley gets the girls and Christian gets the boys. Easy to remember. So, we checked and double checked to make sure we had it right - girls in Ansley's tank, boys in Christian's tank. Problem solved.

Here is Christian's fish tank, with all boys. We made sure, you know. They throw rocks and chase each other all over the place. That's how we know they are boys.

Christian loves having fish in his room. He wakes up from his naps, pointing to it and saying "fish." It may come out sounding more like "da", but I know he means fish, since he's pointing right to it.

And here is Ansley's fish tank, which just for reference, is two times the size of Christian's, or her old one. And Ansley's tank, of course, is filled with fun-filled, frilly girl fish. Of this we are certain. They have tea parties and are partial to pink. That's how we know.

And Ansley really enjoys her fish tank as well. She is responsible for feeding them, and they really are pretty low maintenance, and entertaining.

This is the first group of babies we had, who have now turned into fine young fish.

So these three all happened to be female (we know this from our research) so they are in Ansley's tank. Safe and sound, away from the male population. There was one male from this original batch, which is in Christian's tank, of course.

Then we had a second batch of babies, and that was when we decided we had to do something about this, because we were getting more fish than we had room for. So we got the other tank, but we left these babies in their original tank, which is Christian's, because we didn't want to traumatize them. Well, that, and teeny tiny baby fish are extremely difficult to catch. So we aren't sure what the gender of these fish are just yet, but they are still so little, so we have some time. They are really cute, and, sadly, big fish eat little fish, even if they belong to them, so they have to hide under rocks or in the plants. But they are quick, which definitely works to their advantage.

Here is Batch Number 2, in Christian's tank for now. There are three of them.

Like I said, the kids really enjoy having the fish, and they provide hours of entertainment for them.

Or, at least minutes. And they are entertaining to watch. And there are many teachable moments that come from having fish: responsibility, counting (wow, more every day), sorting, male versus female, loss of fish, and even reproduction.

(To note: the kids both got a little trim the other day. Ansley got about an inch and a half cut off, and Christian just got cleaned up.)

Oh, speaking of reproduction - funny thing. We were cleaning their tanks last night, and noticed something interesting in Ansley's tank, which, if you recall, is full of female fish. Only girls, we are sure.

FIVE BABIES.

Um, was I absent the day we learned about how fish procreate?

Comments

[amber]

L-O-V-E it! You have me nervous about our newly acquired swimming pets. Scott said that he asked for only males, but I'll be keeping a look out for baby fish!

[Christina]

I guess happy fish are a good sign of a happy home, eh?? (LOL)
Hope you all have a wonderful trip!

[ReNee]

I laughed until I cried. I can just hear you "reading" this outloud! What a hoot! I've shared this story at least 3 times with folks around here that you know. :)