A Fishy Story

Funny the things you think about. I was sitting here this morning and trying to think about what I would post as my first installment of Fishy Friday. Having not too much experience with fish, primarily because I generally can’t keep them for very long despite trying to take really good care of them. They die. So I just stopped keeping fish because it feels really bad to be a fish killer. But then I remembered an event when I was about 10 years old that, in thinking about it, makes me all “warm & fuzzy”…sort of.

When I was ten, I was suddenly interested in setting up the dirty, old, tiny aquarium that had sat unused in our guestroom, for, only God knows how long. I cleaned it out, and got everything working and now all I needed were fish. I went to my local pet shop, which was right around the corner. At 10 years old, my funds were limited, so how excited was I that they had a sale on pregnant guppies? I bought a whole bunch. I couldn’t tell you how many, but suffice it to say, it was really more than the aquarium could handle. But I just couldn’t wait to see the baby guppies.

So, I waited weeks, and weeks not knowing what the actual gestation period was, and didn’t see any babies. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, until someone told me that guppies eat their young. NO WAY!! I didn’t know that at the time. So I added some additional plants to the already crowded aquarium and waited a week or two again and then I saw them…..the little fleshy nubs with two huge eyes. I didn’t see too many of them but was excited that some had been able to deliver AND survive. But this didn’t last long. I guess just the crowding in the tank made survival for these youngins nearly impossible. So I just sort of gave up and took the best care possible for the fish.

Then one morning, I woke up to a dead, pregnant guppy. I felt so bad. But at this time, I was also going through a very “scientific exploration” sort of phase. So I had some tools. I got the brilliant idea to do a c-section on this guppy and save the babies. I knew that if I could do this, I could definitely save the babies. I put the mama on a piece of paper towel covered with Saran Wrap and took my scalpel and sliced open her stomach as carefully as possible. As I did that, out popped the babies. I was so amazed, and to be honest, wasn’t quite sure it was going to work. But I scooped up the babies in a spoon and dropped them into the little fish “bowl” I had set up for them. They immediately started to move around. I was soooo excited.

Unfortunately, they didn’t last very long. About a week as I recall. I have always assumed that it was because I didn’t have an additional pump and filter but really it could have been anything that caused them to die. But I was happy that I was able to at least save them for a few days.