My fish... need birth control

Ok. Let's break down the groups of babies.

The first group that was born, the ones I discovered thriving at the bottom of the tank, are my second graders. They're fiesty, they're developing, gaining color and nipping. They're even floating to the middle of the tank at food time.


Then, there's the pre-schoolers, who are about to go into Kindergarden. These are my little ones that are in the breeder net. They are doing well, feisty and should come out of the net when I come back from Ala in early March.

Then, as I discovered last night, there are newborns. At last count, there are three newborns. I discovered one last night, swimming between the breeder net and the tank. I was like, "Wha?" Then realized it was a tiny baby. I had to chase that sucker down, too. And he wanted to stay at the top, dangerous dangerous. So, he's in the breeder net. You can -definatly- tell a size difference.

The other two newborns are at the bottom next to my clam that's supposed to open and close, but when retrieving my dead (beautiful too. :() male, I knocked it loose. This is where the nipping comes from from my second graders.


So, all in all, if I've done my count right.. the first Momma, a beautiful dark blue female, had around 8.

The mother of the pre-schoolers, was a lighter almost metallic blue, and she has about 9 in the net. There -may- be more, they like to hide in the little plants that came with the net.

The female that delivered the newborns is a deep red/yellow and I had mistaken her for male. I -thought- she was squeazing her tail fin night before last, this was when I decided she was most definatly female. I was right and she -had- been in labor. The count on hers as of right now is three.

So, that leaves me with 20 babies. (I put in the colors there for the females to give you an idea of what colors came close to them. :))


They're so sweet! They even come up out of nowhere when they hear the Tap! Tap! on the tank that I only use to say "COME AND GET IT!"


YAY!