Lots of babies...

I have lots of babies now. I think I have around 60 black mollies that are about an inch long. I also have several batches of baby Velvet Red Swordtails. I am not sure exactly but I think I may have around 70. I really enjoy watching the tiny little fish grow bigger, and bigger. I was never able to have baby bettas. The male would build a buble nest but the parents would fight and ruin the nest and I never got them to spawn (lay eggs). So I'm a little dissapointed about that, but it would have been hard to care for all those babies I imagine. Bettas do not always get along, especially the males who will kill each other, so I would have had to have several hundred containers to keep all the babies in once they got bigger. That would have been hard. I do enjoy the baby livebearers though.
~Samantha

More babies...

Yesterday my black molly had about 60 babies!!! Yay! That's a lot of tiny little fish!
We also got a few new fish from the pet store yesterday. I got 3 neon tetras, and one female guppy with an orange tail. Paige got two little algae eaters for her tank.
I am probably going to start a new project on this blog. I have a fish keeping journal and I want to post the entries up here. The entries are not really in date order in the book, but are dated. So I plan to post them from oldest to newest. The first entry is from 2005, when my first batch of babies were born. :)
I have been keeping fish for about 7 years now, but I didn't record anything for the first few years.
~Samantha

No stand, and more babies.

Well I set the tank up on my new stand...it sloshed quite a bit if I pushed on it. I was afraid it might actually move, or tip over if the cat were to jump off of it. (My cats like to sit on the fish tanks sometimes) And even if nothing disastrous happened, it really sloshed to much. So I am looking for a piece of furniture to set the tank on...
This past week I had baby guppies, as well as baby swordtails born. I have about 14 more baby guppies, and 16 more baby swordtails. I already had about 20 guppies, and 1 swordtail that are about a month old. They are in a 5 gallon tank. I added all these little babies to that tank.
I will keep looking for a stand for the tank, and hopefully be setting it up soon.
~Samantha

Another tank

Well right now I have one 30 gallon and one 15 gallon high tank set up. I am also 'borrowing' Paige's 5 gallon tank to house my babies. Yesterday my parents picked up another stand for me. It will hold a 10 gallon tank on the top and I can move the 5 gallon frog tank to the bottom. I only paid about $20 for the stand, so I think that's worth it! I will soon be setting up the tank, and my goal is to eventually move my babies into this tank. Right now I have most of my adult fish in the 30 with one female Betta. In the 15 I have several small guppies and a few half-grown swordtails. I also have one female Betta in there. I have my male Betta floating in a small plastic tank inside the 15. I let him out sometimes. He and the female get along okay. He just chases her sometimes. The two females DO NOT get along. They have gotten into some interesting fish fights before...
The 5 gallon frog tank has our African Clawed Frog in it. He cannot go with the fish because he would probably eat them.

Baby guppies

Several days ago this female guppies had babies. This picture of her was taken a day or so before she had her babies. I think she had about 2 dozen. I just got this guppy about two and half weeks ago. The babies are healthy and the mom is okay. The mom's usually take a week or so to start looking healthy again, though. When baby guppies are born they are clear; after a few days they will get some black color, then they get more color as they grow up. Guppies only take a few months to grow big enough to be in community tank. When they reach this size they can usually be recognized as male or female. They continue to grow, but usually the males only grow to be about 1 1/2 inches and the females 2 1/2.

Betta Splendens

Siamese Fighting Fish-do they really fight???
Yes, male bettas will fight another male betta. They are usually fine with other non-aggressive types of fish, but never mix two males! But it is very interesting to show a male betta his reflection or a picture of another betta. He will put on quite a show for you! My betta was doing this tonight as I showed him pictures of other bettas. He flared his fins and puffed up his gills. He looked like a dragon! They are very beautiful fish!

Chinese Algae Eater

Last week my Chinese algae eater died. I have had him since August of 2003. This is longer than most fishes stick around! He was fairly small when I got him but eventually grew to be about 5 inches or so. He quickly devoured algae, cleaning the tank up in no time, when he was small. When he got bigger he didn't want to eat algae anymore. He would eat fish food or algae pellets. He was a fish with a mind of his owe... He would stare at me like he was mad or something! My mom said he looked like he belonged in a river. He was a semi-aggressive fish. He was usually okay, but as he got bigger it got worse. When he was still small, I looked into the tank one day; he was no where to be found! I looked all over the tank. Finally I looked in the filter. There he was, looking mad that we discovered him! He apparently swam against the current and into the filter looking for something delicious to eat!
He was an interesting fish. He survived a lot. I kept him in many, many different tanks over the years. When I got him I had no idea what I was getting into! I have enjoyed having him though, I'm not ready to get another one...