PART 15: HOME, SWEET HOME!

<< Previous Done with our vacation, refreshed and tired, we arrived at our sweet home. We were so happy and relieved to be back at home. The sweetness, however, vanished as soon as I took a look at the fishbowl housing the platy-babies! The water was cloudy and there were dead bodies. Immediately, I started working on it. I changed the water, took the rotten uneaten food and the bodies of the dead baby-fishes out of the fishbowl. I counted and found out that 12 of the fish-babies were dead. The goldfishes were fine in their bowl. I changed the water and cleaned their bowl, too.

After I was done with the cleaning and water-change, I felt better. And, my fishes felt much better. It was a lesson I learnt the hard way. It was not a good idea to leave the platy fry without any human attention. But, I did not have another choice. I went back to my routine of frequent water-changes in the fishbowl that housed the baby-Platies. It all went fine. However, despite my best attempts to provide the best possible care, the platy-baby population continued to shrink. It came to a point where, I started worrying about it; but, continued with whatever I was doing to care for them. I thought, it was natural that all of them were not going to survive to see their adulthood. I stopped keeping count of the Platy-babies. The babies continued to grow in their Fishbowl home. Their growth was slow. But, they appeared healthy. Few of the babies grew better and faster than their sibling.

Three of those Platy-babies, especially, grew faster and bigger. Two of them were Plain Red Platies and one was a Wagtail Platy. At their birth, all of them appeared to be females. And, they continued to appear so over the next several weeks and months. I was hopeful that those three would help the platy-population in my Fishbowl grow again. The biggest among those special three was the Sunset | Light Orange Wagtail platy. There was something interesting that happened NEXT. NEXT >>  << Previous

PART 15: HOME, SWEET HOME! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

PART 14: NATURE. THE BEST TEACHER!

<< Previous What more would an aquarist expect to come across? During my October 2011 Goa visit, I had been to Anjuna Beach. I was raised in a coastal city (Puri, Odisha). So, beaches are not new to me. However, this one (Anjuna Beach) was really very special and different. Beaches are either sandy or rocky or muddy, usually. This one was a combination of a massive (partially algae-clad) rock-bed and golden sand. I had not seen something like this earlier. The part that was sandy did not have any rocks. It was just pristine sandy. And, the sea here was relatively very calm! I have been an 'aquarium and fish enthusiast' since my school days. I have always found it absolutely interesting to step into water-bodies to get a glimpse of fishes and other aquatic animals. However, accomplishment of that mission has generally been difficult and challenging. Once I step in, the fishes become frightened and go away to disappear in the depths of the water-body in question. 

At Anjuna, I was delighted and surprised to find that there were tiny waterholes on the rocky surface and those had many varieties of fishes in them! Those were, in fact, small and complete self-sustaining ecosystems. At least, those appeared to be so. Those tiny natural water-holes inspired me to think seriously about making my aquariums more self-sustained in the true sense of the term. I spent some quality time watching those fishes in those waterholes. It was so wonderful an experience. It felt as if I went back to my school days and that boy in me became curious to explore the interesting stuff around. There were beautiful pebbles decorating those waterholes. I could not resist my temptation to collect a few of those pebbles for my aquarium. I was a bit scared initially to put my hands into those waterholes. I knew, there could be many dangerous elements in those seemingly innocent waterholes with crystal-clear water. However, the boy in me overpowered the judgmental (logical) adult in me. I collected some beautiful pebbles. I did not try to catch any fish, though! Not only did I collect some pebbles, I took some pictures and came back with beautiful memories. Another beach that I really liked and collected some pebbles from was Sinquerim Beach near Fort Aguada. After three wonderful days in Goa, I headed home. However, something unfortunate was awaiting us NEXT! NEXT >>  << Previous

PART 14: NATURE. THE BEST TEACHER! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

PART 13: HOME ALONE!

<< Previous Within a couple of weeks, I was going to go on a vacation with my family for three days to Goa, leaving our fishes alone at home! And, the question flashed in my mind. Who was going to take care of the fishes? I considered multiple options. I thought of Food | Feed Blocks, Automatic Feeders, letting a friend feed my fishes, handing the fishes over to a neighbor for three days etc. I, personally, had a not-so-good opinion about the Feeder Blocks and Automatic Feeders because of their obvious side effects. Feeder Blocks have a very bad reputation. Those usually negatively affect the water quality. And many a times, fishes do not like those as food. Automatic Feeders can result in overfeeding in some cases. And, that in turn may deteriorate the water quality. The other options could not pass my sustainability-test. I was reluctant to bother someone just for the sake of my hobby! I wanted to find a way that was more natural and sustainable. I thought, it was just a matter of three days and it would not be hard to find a solution.

A couple of days before going on our vacation, I thought, the tiny fishes would not need much food to stay alive for three days. And, I created a plan accordingly. Just before leaving the fishes alone, I changed the water. I kept a couple of shelled and a couple of non-shelled green peas and a few slices of cucumber for the goldfishes in their container. I placed a small piece cut out of a hard-boiled egg-white and a slice of cucumber for the baby-platies in their Fishbowl. This was the idea. Goldfishes would eat the shelled peas (Green Peas without the transparent inner cover) first. Eventually, the cucumber slices would become softer for the goldfishes to munch on. And, after that, the non-shelled peas would be soft enough for the goldfishes to try and eat. I wanted to make usable (suitable) food available in phases for the fishes in an automatic fashion, to avoid overfeeding. The case was not much different for the platy-babies. They, I thought, would take small bites off the cucumber slice and the small piece of boiled egg-white. When I introduced the cucumber slice and the boiled egg-white to the baby-platies, they got into action and started nibbling. I found this arrangement quite satisfactory. And, we started for our vacation with a belief that when we got back home, we would find all our fishes healthy and happy. This was what happened NEXT! NEXT >>  << Previous

PART 13: HOME ALONE! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

PART 12: THE BABIES GET A NEW HOME!

The babies were happy and healthy in the bucket-nursery. However, a few of them died eventually. I thought, that was natural. And, anyway, I did not expect that all the 50+ babies were going to survive to see their adulthood. Their population was going to be substantially smaller eventually, naturally. I wanted to take them out of the bucket-nursery to a new home. I thought, the ‘water processing and stabilization’ unit would be a great choice for the purpose. That was a 15-Litre all-glass fishbowl. When it comes to aquariums, I like it all-glass, always! We were going to celebrate my daughter Aditi’s 3rd birthday in a couple of days. I thought, it would be a good idea to make the new fishbowl ready with the baby-platies in it. I guessed that Aditi’s guests would certainly be pleasantly surprised to see the smallest live fish they had ever witnessed in their lives. With that thought in mind, I started my work.

I did not have to do much for the purpose. The fishbowl was already clean and I just had to add a little more water. I thought, it would be better to just have a few babies transferred to the fishbowl. In that way, I would be in a position to monitor their health and take a decision on transferring the rest of the babies to the fishbowl. I transferred 8 baby-platies to the fishbowl. On the day of Aditi’s birthday celebration, not only the invited children, but also their parents were so happy to see so tiny beautiful fishes in the newly setup fishbowl. Most of the children just wanted to stay near that fishbowl to watch those tiny fishes. I told them that there were 8 babies and they might try to locate each of them. There were ample number of hiding places in that fishbowl and it was a real challenge to locate each of the 8 babies! After a couple of days, I was sure that there was nothing in the fishbowl that could negatively affect the babies. With that thought, I transferred the rest of the baby-platies into the fishbowl. I understood that naturally only a few of them were going to survive to see their adulthood. Life went on fine for the babies in their new home. And, I was going to come across a very interesting experience NEXT!

PART 12: THE BABIES GET A NEW HOME! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.