A Day of Surprises.

Went home yesterday to find one of my store-bought guppy males stricken with some kind of fin fungus. His left frontal fin had a fluffy, white margin and appeared to be disintegrating on the edges. He was not looking right for the past three days or so - moving slowly while his colour was pale - so in a way this wasn't a surprise.

Off he went to the hospital tank. The pet store gave me something called Pimafix (or such - sorry, can't remember the name right now). But I'm not sure it will do the job. I may change to the Jungle Fungus Remover.

Second surprise? My big Guppy momma dropped her fry last night and I had the priviledge of witnessing the event for the first time in 20 years. She was breathing hard and was obviously struggling but every now and then a little tail would appear and then a tiny guppy popped out. Unfortunately, as it often happens in fishy world, the aunts and sisters were more than happy to help the little ones into their mouths... But still, most of them survived. It's truly amazing to watch these little bits of string with two eyes have such a strong survival instinct. The moment one of the bigger fish came over, they zigzagged super fast into the gravel where they could hide quite effectively.

I also noticed a very strange behaviour during the happy event. One of the younger females, who is about 1/2 the size of the momma, kept bothering her. She swam after her and picked at her back, as if saying, "Hurry up and drop them so we can have a feast!". Well, out she went to another tank, STAT!

Can't wait to go home tonight and check them all out. And hopefully this will be the last litter for the big girls, for a while. I'd love to pair them with my red male but really, I'm running out of space!