Monday 13 April 2015

Guppies!

Did you guys have a good Easter long weekend and enjoy the rest of the week off? I sure hope so!

My weekend was rather peaceful. My dad's been thinking about getting a couple of catfish because the fish tank has been getting increasingly green, algae-wise. After a year and a bit of owning aquarium snails, I have discovered the hard way that snails excrete more waste that that of what they eat. So on Sunday we went out to the markets to purchase a couple of catfish only to come home with two catfish and nine guppies.

There were two stalls that were selling fish. One stall belonged to a man who we had purchased fish from before and a lady who we'd seen a couple of times before. The man had only a couple of very young Suckermouth Catfish which he was selling for quite a lot of money. We were talking to him about the catfish and he said that the ones he had grew up to around 45cm! After talking with my dad, we decided that these catfish weren't right for our aquarium. 

We reached the lady's stall and she had a wide variety of tropical fish. Heck, I had no idea what half the fish there were called! Eventually after watching various catfish swim around we decided to pick two Bristlenose catfish. Just as we were about to leave my dad spies a tank with cheap "assorted" fish! So there he goes to pick out nine of them out. I've never had Guppies before but I'm pretty sure they're Guppies. If they are, then the lady's tank of "assorted" fish were all female Guppies. 

When we got home I got on my computer to do a bit of research on them and voila, I discovered that one of them is very close to giving birth! I move her to a separate tank but I really wished that the heater we ordered had come now! The past few months the weather has been absolutely boiling so there wasn't an urgent need for a heater but just last night the weather got chilly! This morning I was in the yard manually pollinating pumpkin and bitter-melon when I literally froze my toes and fingers! Many a day in the past nearly seven months I wished the weather to cool down but now I wish it to warm up! For the sake of the Guppies and the Catfish! 

Guppies in a holding tank

Pregnant Guppy - I think she's very close to birthing. She's definitely showing the right behaviour for it!

Guppies in a holding tank
The heavily pregnant Guppy is slightly confusing me. I've been keeping a close eye on her because I want to keep the fry but I don't have a birthing trap or breeding trap. According to various sites showing at least three behavioural signs of birthing means that they're going to give birth within the next 24-48 hours. My guppy's been hiding, not moving a lot and breathing heavily for the past couple of days. But she's been eating normally which contradicts since apparently they release a hormone which disables their hunger for a period of time. In addition to all of that, I think she was having contractions last night... she was "shimmering" and moving her fins in a way that looked like she was pushing but there were no fry. I did accidentally feed her too much in the afternoon and she was pooping a lot. Could it be she was pooping and it wasn't a contraction? I know I shouldn't "midwife" the Guppy but... what can you say? It's a nursing habit...

Update: It's now been a week since I've had the guppies and the heavily pregnant guppy is showing more signs. She's been hiding more than ever and she's still doing weird shimmering actions but not as often as last week. Her appetite has slowly decreased over the last couple of days. In the main tank, I've realised too late that there's at least one male. He's been chasing the female guppies and impregnating them. The other guppy which I think is a male looks to be young. 

I hope all goes well,
A

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