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.

PART 11: AWAY FROM HOME!

Over the next few weeks, there were no fatalities in the baby-fish nursery. I felt so happy about that. It was probably because of the frequent water changes, great water quality and the special food-formulation, the babies stayed healthy and happy. I thought, it was probably just a myth that most of the babies from a brood did not live long to see their adulthood. The very fact that I did not lose any of those babies kept my level of enthusiasm high. I did not get tired of caring for the babies. One day, I came to know that I had to travel to another state regarding some business I was required to get done with. And, that would need me to be away from home over five days! I wondered how could the babies get appropriate care during my absence? Maintaining the water quality in the baby-fish nursery was the challenge. My wife said she would feed the fishes when I was away from home. But, she would find it really difficult to change the water so frequently without accidentally causing any harm to the acutely tiny creatures. I had my own methods and procedures to get done with that task. This was one of the deep rooted old questions. What if I am not around (Who would care for my fishes)?

I came up with an idea. I thought, the goldfishes would just do fine over 5 days with just one huge water change. And, I planned to do that on the day I was going to start my journey. Then I thought about the nursery. I understood that if I could increase the volume of water substantially in the nursery, a water-change would not be required, so much, for those 5 days. But, the size of the nursery was too small for the purpose. So, I brought a 20-Litre plastic bucket for the purpose. I knew that a plastic bucket was not a great choice. Plastic is potentially toxic for fishes. I picked the best one possible after considering a few parameters. I prepared around 15 litres of water for the purpose. Once the water in that new bucket was ready, I transferred just 3 of the baby platies into the bucket. It was an experiment to see if the health of those 3 babies was adversely affected in the new environment (home). I thought, if the babies survived for 5 days in that bucket, I would be able to consider that one safe for the babies. And, they did survive and did not demonstrate any signs of stress or sickness after 5 days. I felt so happy about the result of the experimentation. Without any delay, I transferred the remaining 50+ platy-babies to the bucket. I wanted to keep the bucket-nursery under observation over a couple of days to see how the babies did there.

I prepared water for a huge water-change in the bucket-nursery on the day I was scheduled to start my journey. I explained the feeding routine and other required details to my wife. Finally, it was that day and I changed water of the goldfish-bowl and the bucket-nursery in the morning. I started my journey, got done with my business and returned home after 5 days. While I was away, I kept calling my wife up to check the status of the bucket-nursery over phone! On my arrival at home, I quickly took a close look at the bucket nursery. The water was a little cloudy. I thought, it was probably because of overfeeding. I changed the water. And, I noticed that 3 baby-platies had died. I separated the dead from the alive. I was not sure whether it was the bucket, bad water-quality or just nature that was responsible for the deaths. I changed the water in the goldfish bowl, as well. I thought, the bucket could not be the cause. Had that been so, many more would have died. It was probably just natural. I really wanted to keep the babies in the bucket-nursery. It gave the babies more space to move, play around and grow. I knew that Platies, like many other fishes, released some kind of chemical into the water they lived in.

That is a beautiful mechanism they deploy to bring in a harmony among their environment | habitat, physical size and population. This is how the mechanism works. Those fishes cannot really measure precisely the size of their environment (The size of the water body they live in | the volume of water they live in). Platies are pre-programmed by nature to deploy this magnificent mechanism. The assumption in this case is that the quantity of food available is directly proportional to the size of the environment. Platies (babies | Fry) release some kind of chemical (growth-inhibiting substance) into their habitat (water-body | aquarium | fishbowl) and keep sensing the density of the chemical in their water. If it feels dense, they kind of know that their environment is really small and relatively lesser amount of food and space are available for their living. And, their physical growth gets regulated accordingly. If they feel that the released chemical is really thinly available in their water, they tend to kind of believe that they are in a relatively bigger environment with a lot of food to eat and a lot of space to grow in. They grow relatively bigger physically with the knowledge that they have a lot of space to move around and a lot of food to eat. In this mechanism, this is what usually happens and I have personally witnessed that. A few of the babies grow really fast to attain their natural adult size and the growth of the rest in a brood gets stunted. And, that actually happened in my context, as well. We had a few more interesting events awaiting us NEXT!

PART 11: AWAY FROM HOME! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

PART 10: THE TEAM GROWS BIGGER!

Just a day after the platy-babies came to this world, a question flashed in my mind. What about the other pregnant female platy? I was pretty sure that it was almost on the verge of giving birth to its babies. But, I was not sure about the date and the time. And, I did not want to take any risk. I thought, however, it was too much of work to compose a separate container again for this to-be platy-mom and its babies. For the sake of optimization and efficiency, I wanted to compose an arrangement inside the fishbowl itself. It offered a couple of advantages. I had less work to do; I did not have to stress the to-be mom by transferring it from the fishbowl. Since I was not sure after how many days exactly the babies are going to arrive, I did not want to confine the to-be mom to a smaller container. That would stress the fish and was not good for the unborn babies either. With the baby-safe arrangement done inside the fishbowl, I did not have to worry anymore about how many more days the to-be mom was going to take to deliver the babies. The baby-safe composition was in place to provide safety to the babies whenever they arrived. This method has one disadvantage. In this arrangement, separating the babies from the mom and other adults was going to be a bigger and more complex task. I thought, let that be the case. The advantages were big enough to make that disadvantage look so small. And, I thought, working for results was not better than working for results after actually obtaining the results! So, I wanted to put in hard work after seeing the babies.

Over that afternoon, when I came home for my lunch, I just rushed to the fishbowl and noticed that the swollen belly of the pregnant Wagtail platy had gone flat. It was the time to look for the babies. I took a closer look and could spot a few little creatures hidden in the bushy artificial plants. I wanted to forego my lunch and get into business. I brought a bucket of water. I transferred all the 10 adult fishes from the fishbowl to the bucket. I did not disturb the baby-safe arrangement anyway and took about 70% of the water out. I ensured that I did not take out any platy-baby with water. After decreasing the water-level considerably in the fishbowl, I started dismantling the baby-safe infrastructure. Once I was done, I had only a little water and the new-born platy babies in the fishbowl. It was time to transfer the babies to the container that already housed 20+ 1-day-old babies. I transferred the new-born babies along with that little water to a plastic container. Then, with the help of a tea-cup I transferred them into the platy-baby container (Nursery). I wanted to do the transfer in two stages to avoid passing the mess and dirt from the fishbowl to the nursery. I got a chance to count the babies while I did the transfer in batches. There were about 30+ babies from this mom! So, I got 50+ platy-babies in my nursery. Then, I restored the fishbowl and transferred back the 10 adults into it.

That nursery was a bare-bottom 4-Litre glass jar. I liked that better without any gravel and decoration. I was in a position to clearly see how each of the babies did. The new batch of babies did not take much time to get trained with their food. I kept the babies on finely crushed dry fish-food for about a couple of weeks. Then after some reading, research and experimentation, I formulated a new kind of fish food for the babies. I shall discuss about my fish-food formulation and experimentation in another section. I was so happy and contended to get 50+ platy babies. I knew that not all of them were going to survive. That was natural. Not all fish-babies do survive in the nature (wild). On a closer examination, I realized that some of the babies had deformities. And, those were the ones that were probably not going to stay long. To give the babies their best chance of survival, I changed up to 50% of the water and fed them thrice every day. With the nursery in place, I had to maintain three homes that housed my fishes - The goldfish bowl, the platy bowl and the nursery! That was a little too much work to do on a regular basis. But, my keen interest in my hobby could keep me away from getting tired of the chore. After all my adult platies died, I was careful not to use untreated tap-water, strait from the tap, in my goldfish bowl and baby-fish nursery. I followed a simple method. I brought a new 16-Litre bucket and stored tap-water in that for a span of 48 hours before using that in my goldfish bowl. However, I did not use that water directly in the nursery. 

I disinfected, thoroughly cleaned and restored the fishbowl that had accommodated the adult platies. I used this fishbowl as a little water-processing and stabilizing unit. This is how it worked. To initialize the unit, I filled that with water that had stayed for more than 48 hours in the bucket. Then, I added a little bit of relatively clean water from the nursery to the water in the stabilizing unit. After keeping the water in that unit for more than 24 hours, I added once again a little bit of relatively clean water from the nursery to the water in the stabilizing unit. Then, I took the required volume of water from the unit to use in my nursery. And, then, took the same volume of water (kept for more than 48 hours) from the bucket and added that to the water in the stabilizing unit. I continued this cycle to reduce the variance in water quality. Life went on fine for me and the platy-babies. But, there were couple of interesting events awaiting us NEXT!

PART 10: THE TEAM GROWS BIGGER! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

PART 9: THE NEXT GENERATION ARRIVES!

The paradise was lost! But, it was not over. Nature was on my side. Two females out of my 4 Wagtail platies were pregnant when I brought them home. Their pregnancy was in an advanced stage. I was so curious to see the babies. It was an evening one month before the unfortunate happened to all my platies. I was at my study table. It was so refreshing to look intermittently at the fishbowl that housed my platies. The fishbowl, along with the fishbowl that housed my goldfishes, was placed on my table. Every time I looked at the fishbowl, a question flashed in my mind. When were the platy moms going to deliver their babies? I was so curious. I had never seen any fish giving birth to a baby-fish. I was kind of restless to witness that event. I was eagerly waiting for that special moment. I knew that it was really difficult to ascertain exactly when (date and time) the platy moms were going to deliver their babies. After some reading on the subject, I felt that the moment and the event were too far away. That made me still more restless and curious. I was not exactly looking at the fishbowl and suddenly, I felt as if something was dropped by a platy. I took a closer look and saw that it was a baby-platy delivered. Surprized and thrilled, I shouted aloud to inform my wife that one of our platies had delivered a baby. But, I did not know which one out of those two moms delivered that baby. Because, I did not see the baby coming out of its mother’s belly. The baby-platy tried to swim away and hide itself. However it was not quick enough to escape the jaws of the other platies that really liked a baby-platy snack. And, that unfortunate event happened and the baby vanished into the world of lost.

It was a real challenge. I did not have much time. I had two urgent tasks to do. I had to identify the mom that delivered the baby and to take that mom to a separate container where it would deliver its babies. A platy-mom usually gives birth to 5 to 35 babies in one go. She does that within a span of an hour or a couple of hours. I took a break from my book. And, I watched really carefully the two platy-moms. After about 5 minutes, I thought I had identified the one that delivered the baby. That one behaved a little differently and was restless. And, its birth canal was slightly more swollen compared to that of the other pregnant one. With the identification done, I had two more challenging tasks to perform. First, I needed to setup a separate container where the platy-mom was going to deliver its babies. Second, I was required to take that platy-mom out of the fishbowl as carefully and gently as possible. Pregnant platies get stresses so easily if an attempt is made to catch them and transport them to another place or container. When stressed, a pregnant platy may abort its babies. And, one in the process of delivering babies has a greater chance of getting stresses to death if appropriate care is not taken to catch and transport it. Many aquarists use a Breeder-Box (Breeding Box) to house a pregnant mom that is about to give birth to its babies. However, it is difficult to predict the exact date and time of delivery. So, usually, a pregnant platy-mom spends a couple of days in a Breeder-Box before it delivers it babies. Platies have a tendency to eat their own babies if the babies are not transferred to a separate container immediately after their birth. Breeder-Box, however, is stressful for a pregnant-platy. And, it was not a choice, of course, when it was about a fishbowl and not a fish-tank.

Quickly, I started working on preparing the container. It was a 4-Litre glass-jar. I used white aquarium pebbles (gravels) and a few artificial aquarium plants to design an arrangement. In that arrangement, there was a dedicated space for the platy-mom. There was a barrier that would not allow the mom to move to other areas in that container. The barrier however had tiny openings to allow the babies to escape through from the mom’s space to their hiding space. Their hiding space was built with pebbles and bushy artificial aquarium plants. Platy babies, just after their birth, are able to swim, hide themselves and move away from predators. That is the kind of inbuilt programming the platy-babies (Platy Fry!) are born with. It was about 12:00 AM and I was done with composing the container. Carefully, I transferred the platy-mom from the fishbowl to the composed container. It was stressed to an extent and was restless. I left some food for it in the container so that it would eat that when it would be hungry after giving birth to its babies. In that way, it would be less likely to eat the babies to satisfy its hunger. It was too late for me to wait for the event that was going to span over a couple of hours. My daughter Aditi found it all very interesting and expressed her reluctance to go to bed. I switched off the lights and went to bed. Aditi, too, fell asleep. I got up early and rushed to the container that housed the platy-mom.

The first thing I noticed was the swollen belly of the mom had gone flat. That indicated that it had released (delivered) its babies. Then I spotted a tiny platy-baby. I saw a few more hiding themselves in the bushy artificial plants and the pebbles. So, it was time to separate the mom and the babies. Carefully, again, I transferred the mom back to the fishbowl. I let the babies stay in that arrangement for a few more hours. Then, I took out the pebbles and plants out of the container. I was in a position to take a count. There were, believe it or not, more than 20 platy babies. They looked like tiny transparent pink mosquitos with relatively big pair of eyes! I was so excited to see the babies. Those babies were almost identical. Appearance wise, they had really minute variations which were apparent upon close verification. I served the babies some finely crushed fish-food. They took some time to identify that as food. Once they did so, they got started happily with their first meal. I changed the water partially to get rid of the small amount of mess created by the mom. Let me tell you, changing water was so huge a challenge. There was always a risk of losing a few babies with the outgoing water. I came up with a method. I used a thin transparent flexible hose to induce an outflow. And, I kept a close watch on the receiving end of the hose. If I noticed a baby sucked into the hose, I was ready to close the other end of the hose with my fingertip to stop the flow! And, then, I transferred the baby back to the container. In addition to this mechanism, I added one more layer of safety. I collected the water from the hose in a clean bucket. After the collection was over, each time, I used to check the water in the bucket for presence of platy-babies. In case I found one, I used to transfer that back to the container using a tea-cup. I had the choice of putting a fine net on the receiving end of the hose. But, I thought, that would be ineffective in cleaning the mess created by the babies. Well, it all went on fine and the babies did quite well in their new home. There was something interesting going to happen NEXT!

PART 9: THE NEXT GENERATION ARRIVES! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

PART 8: PARADISE LOST!

The platies got their own home. And, the goldfishes did not have to share their home with anyone else! That very fact was a source of happiness for the goldfishes and the fishes that did not have to share their space with the goldfishes! The new fishbowl looked really good with so many beautiful and playful fishes in it. I kept spending a long time everyday watching the platies in their new home. The 15-Litre fishbowl was in no way big enough for 10 platies. Water in that bowl became dirty sooner than later. That required me to change the water once in every two days. To do absolute justice to the water quality in my platy-bowl, I continued to change about 90% of the water during each round of water change. My intention was to keep the bowl absolutely clean. My idea was simple. I thought, if the water looked really clean, the bowl was truly clean and comfortable for its inhabitants. And, it was not easy on my part to change the water so frequently. In an ideal case, an aquarist spends more time watching and enjoying its aquarium and fishes than cleaning the aquarium and changing the water. Despite the discomfort resulting from that routine, I continued changing the water that frequently. After the death of all of my mollies, I did not want to take any chance and leave any room for error. I was absolutely determined to provide the best possible environment to my fishes.

However, unfortunately, I was continuing to commit multiple serious mistakes. First, I had overstocked the fishbowl. 10 platies are a way bigger population than what was ideal for a fishbowl of that size. 4 could have been a good number. Well, I was the author of the problem! Second, I used untreated tap water in my fishbowl. That was very dangerous for the fishes. Most municipalities or local water companies add chemicals to the water to make it safe to drink (e.g., chlorine or chloramine to kill bacteria)! Chlorine and chloramine are two dangerous substances for fishes. Third, changing water too frequently was really very stressful for the fishes. Stressed fishes fall sick very easily. Fourth, during a water change, ideally not more than 30% of water is changed. And, I was doing 90% for the sake of cleanliness! On top of all these flaws, there was another serious mistake.  The fishbowl was not “cycled” before the platies got it as their new home. Let me tell you what is “cycling” in this context.

Fishes, like all living creatures, produce waste products (pee and poo). These nitrogenous waste products break down into Ammonia (NH3). Ammonia is highly toxic to most fishes. In nature, the volume of water per fish is extremely high and waste products, and the resultant Ammonia, become diluted to low concentrations. In aquariums and fishbowls, that is not the case. It can take as little as a few hours for ammonia concentrations to reach toxic levels enough to kill fishes. The nitrification 'cycle' is the biological process that converts ammonia into other relatively harmless nitrogen compounds. Fortunately, several species of bacteria do this conversion for us. Some species convert ammonia (NH3) to nitrite (NO2-), while others convert nitrite to nitrate (NO3-). Thus, cycling the tank refers to the process of establishing bacterial colonies in the aquarium or fishbowl that convert ammonia into nitrite, and nitrite into nitrate. The fish waste contains the ammonia on which the bacteria live. Usually a couple of hardy fishes are used to cycle a tank or fishbowl. A 100% (well, close to 100%) change of water, in case of a fishbowl without a filter and decorations, takes the helpful bacteria out the bowl in question. Without the bacteria, the automatic (natural) water treatment (purification) stops. That big a water change also leads to a great variation in the water temperature. And, that is not good for the fishes.

Eventually, the combined result of all these above mentioned mistakes took its toll on the fishes. My fishbowl got infested with a highly contagious parasitic infestation caused by the protozoan Ichthyophthirius Multifillis (Fish louse with many children). This is popularly known as the White Spot Disease | Ich | Ick. Although the disease is the equivalent of a skin infection, Ich can easily be fatal to a fish stressed by poor diet or habitat. And, it was! I tried to treat my fishes with Methylene Blue and Aquarium Salt. But, I was not so skilled and effective in executing the treatment. The treatment failed. The platies started falling flat one after another. One of the female Micky Mouse platies was pregnant. Before leaving for ever, it gave birth to a few babies that were not yet ready to come to this world. Those did not survive, either. The dark veil of death covered the fishbowl. It was really so painful a scene to witness. I was too powerless to take control of what was happening. Within a span of 36 hours, 9 out of 10 fishes died. The only one that remained was a relatively young Red Wagtail platy. It was the one least affected in the pack. I tried treating that one with Aquarium Salt, before transferring it to the quarantine tank. I was not sure whether the dose was wrong or the procedure was wrong. When I initiated the treatment it reacted as if it came in contact with high-voltage electricity. In less than 3 seconds, I could take it to a container filled with plain water. It just fell into the water like a stone. There were no signs of life in its body. After a few seconds, it woke up to swim a bit for a second in a strange fashion and fell to the bottom of the container. I was surprised and thought that was the end of it. It woke up again to swim a bit in that strange fashion. I was hopeful this time. Finally, it really recovered and started swimming normally. I thought, at last, at least one of them survived the death storm. I was wrong, unfortunately. I found that platy dead after a couple of hours. I still feel guilty. I think, probably, my wrong treatment killed that poor fish. That’s how I lost all my platies. However, there was something really interesting that was going to happen NEXT!

PART 8: PARADISE LOST! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

PART 7: NEW MEMBERS ARRIVE!

I brought home 6 platies. I have a reason to like platies so much. Platies truly reflect and demonstrate all the magnificent colours of life. If you have platies in your aquarium, you easily get to see, birth, death, love, fight, passion, play, feast and more. Platies are live-bearers. They give birth to babies! A new generation comes into being. The babies grow to become adults and give birth to a new generation, if everything goes fine. That's a wonderful cycle to watch. Platies are playful and very active. So, they entertain the aquarist really well. They adapt to so many kinds of food. So, it is easy to feed them and keep them healthy. Adult platies make love so often. Male takes the initiative and tries to persuade the female into the act. He does not give up so easily and demonstrates absolute determination. Males fight over females. Platies are fierce fighters. However, generally, they are peaceful animals. As far as my knowledge goes, I know of no other aquarium fish that is available in so many colour-varieties. And, platies of different colours interbreed so easily. That leads to yet more colour-varieties and patterns. So, there is always an element of surprize when it comes to the coloration and pattern of the next generation! And, platies are not extremely delicate. They are relatively hardy. And, I really like that aspect about them. Unlike a goldfish, a platy is not really a huge fish for a 15-Liter fishbowl!

It was quite natural on my part to choose platies over other fishes. However, there was a difficulty. I visited a couple of Aquarium Shops and did not find platies. But, I was determined not to get back home without buying platies that evening. Eventually, I arrived at a store that had platies. Those were the famous Micky Mouse platies (Pink and Black). I was actually looking for Red Wagtail platies. I was disappointed but wanted to bring home a few of those platies that evening. And, I thought, 6 would be a good number. So, I requested the store-owner to get me 2 males and 4 females. That was approximately a good male-female ratio. However, the ideal composition would be 2 males for 6 females, in case of platies. However, I thought, 8 of those would be too big a number to start a new fishbowl with. Actually, 2 is the ideal number to start a new fishbowl of that size (15 Litres). But, I was reluctant to start with that small a number of fishes. I thought, with only two fishes, the fishbowl would look almost empty (no fish?)!

Based on my request, 6 Micky Mouse platies (2 males and 4 females) were packed for transportation. One female, out of those, I noticed was not a Micky Mouse platy. That was a plain Red platy and was bigger than the rest five. I was in a hurry and liked the red colour of that female. So, I brought home what was packed for me. Eventually, I came to know that the bigger female was not actually a Platy! It was a Swordtail! Swordtails are usually bigger than platies and are more aggressive. However, it is sometimes really difficult to distinguish between an adult female platy and a not-so-big female Swordtail. Well, I was not very happy about that mistake. The real composition was like this: 2 small male Mickey Mouse platies, 3 small female Mickey Mouse platies and a female Swordtail. That was truly a bad gender composition (ratio). Platies and swordtails may interbreed, sometimes. I wanted to rectify the error. I had two choices: 1. Reducing the male population 2. Increasing the female population. I wanted to go with the more challenging option. It was challenging, indeed. Because, a bigger population was going to result in a need for more maintenance, more frequent water changes and quick deterioration of water quality. I thought, everything was fair in love and war. I loved enjoying a fishbowl full of colourful and playful fishes. And, I was ready (well, almost ready) to pay the price!

After reaching home, I prepared the new fishbowl quickly for the new members of the league. I did not have many ornaments, plants and decorations in that new fishbowl. It was filled with untreated tap water fresh from my bathroom tap. Without much delay, I released the fishes into the bowl. The fishes were a little restless in their new home and in a new type of water. After a few hours, I got them their first meal at my home. Based on my decision to change the male-female ratio by adding more fishes, I went shopping over the weekend. I brought 3 females (2 Red Wagtail, 1 Orange | Sunburst Wagtail) and a young and strong male (Red Wagtail with black dots on its body) platy. The journey from the store to my home was long for these four platies. Two of the females were pregnant when I brought them home. I released those four into the platy bowl. The new members were a bit restless in their new home and the existing inhabitants were, also, a little restless to see new members in their home. These new platies were bigger than the Micky Mouse platies. The Swordtail was the longest among all. So, it was a new 10 member team to run the show! The story was going to take an interesting turn NEXT!

PART 7: NEW MEMBERS ARRIVE! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

PART 6: DISASTER STRIKES!

The water in the fishbowl was slightly cloudy and smelly. It was time for a water change. I just wanted to postpone that by a day. My intention was to observe how the fishes reacted when the water quality was bad. I wanted to check the threshold (How far the fishes can survive the bad water quality). One of my friends had a fishbowl that accommodated two not-so-small goldfishes. He changed the water once a week! A week was too long, I thought. I wanted to check (through experimentation) if it was fine to change the water in my fishbowl once in every three days. I always think, sustainability is the key. The frequency at which I changed the water was not sustainable, I believed. I wanted to make the routine a little lighter on me (and on the fishes as well). Changing the water was always a stressful experience for my fishes. And, there is another truth about it. The smaller the aquarium | tank | bowl, the more you have to do to maintain it. That is why, it is always better to go for the biggest tank possible.

So, that day, I skipped changing the water. It was a Saturday. I, along with my wife and daughter, went shopping. We were back at home by 4:00 PM. I have a habit of just watching my fishes. I especially take a closer look when I reach home after staying away from home for a couple of hours or more. That day, after reaching home, I took a look at the fishbowl and noticed a dead molly! I was worried and felt guilty. I took the dead fish out and examined it to ascertain (guess) the probable cause of its death. I thought, three factors were responsible for its death: Bad Water Quality, Malnutrition and Stress. Goldfishes, in general, are messy. So, with goldfishes in the bowl, the water quality deteriorated really rapidly. Mollies, in general, really do not do great in that bad quality of water. When I fed my fishes, goldfishes, with their big mouths, used to just grab pieces of food and devour. Sometimes, mollies were left with no food to eat. Those mollies were really smaller in size compared to the goldfishes. So, the former could not overpower the later to snatch some food, most of the time. Frequent water changes were really stressful for the mollies. Fishes fall sick, and even die of diseases, when stressed.

I thought, it was not too late and decided to buy another fishbowl to accommodate the mollies exclusively. I brought a 15-litre fishbowl for the purpose. However, I thought, just 3 mollies would not be a good enough population for that bowl. I decided to get a couple of male black mollies. The three I had were females. Surprisingly, even after visiting three aquarium (fish) shops, I did not find male mollies. They said that it was out of stock. Then, after some reading and wondering, I thought of getting a few Platies, instead. I brought home 6 platies. One of the remaining mollies suffered from Dropsy and died shortly afterwards. I moved the remaining two mollies to a quarantine-tank to isolate them from the goldfishes. Those two mollies did not survive long and died one after another within the next few days. That’s how I lost all my mollies! I was left with just two goldfishes. I did not want to lose any of those. But, the story was not going to be over with the death of all the molies. More deaths were there on the card NEXT!

PART 6: DISASTER STRIKES! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

PART 5: AN AQUARIUM COMES HOME!

A few weeks before Pinto met its unfortunate end, I got engulfed by an intense desire to start a fresh-water aquarium, again. I could not just wait till we visited an aquarium shop. On one fine morning, we (my daughter, wife and I) happened to arrive at the aquarium shop even before it opened and started its business on that day! Fortunately, I met an employee (a very young fellow) of that shop and came to know that the owner of the shop was going to arrive in half an hour. I wanted to utilize that time talking to that employee of the shop. It was really interesting. I asked questions about the varieties of fishes they sold, types of aquariums, fish food, prices, fish care. The guy answered all my questions very politely and in a professional manner. After a short while, the owner of the aquarium showed up. He was a young, calm and polite person. He opened the shop and in less than ten minutes, he welcomed us to the inside of his shop. It was just brilliant. The shop was not huge. But, it was clean and well decorated with various types of aquariums and fishes. My daughter and wife were thrilled to see so many beautiful fishes around. After spending some time there, I learnt that a fifteen-liter glass bowl was my only and the best choice. This was because, I wanted an aquarium on my study table and no other type did match the requirement specifications (size and weight)! I really did not realize, then, that a fishbowl was not a good home for fishes. However, I was warned by the employee of the shop. But, I hardly had another choice.

We got done with choosing our fishbowl, gravel and other accessories. Finally, it was the time for selecting our fishes. Usually, childhood memories do influence adulthood decision-making! The first aquarium I got a chance to take a closer look at, in my life, belonged to Nayan Chaachaa, one of my father's friends. He had, in his aquarium, a few Black Mollies, Red Mollies and few other varieties. Then, so many years back, I really liked the Black Mollies in his aquarium. Back at the aquarium shop, I wanted to buy a couple of of Black Mollies. Then, I checked with my wife about her choice of fish. And, of course, she wanted a couple of Goldfishes in our fishbowl. You know, pictures of fishbowls housing Goldfishes are so common! So, her choice did not surprise me. We ended up buying four Black Mollies and two Goldfishes. Later, much later, I realized that the fish population I bought was really huge for my 15 Liter fishbowl! We reached home as quickly as possible. I installed the fishbowl, cleaned the gravel, did the electric (lighting) connections. Once the fishbowl was ready, filled with untreated tap water, I released the fishes into it. Here is a word of caution. Never ever use untreated tap water in your aquarium. I did not realize the potential danger then. However, many aquarium and fish-keeping books have warned about using untreated tap water. However, I was keen on experimenting with tap water. My bad! No damage was done and life went on. May be, I was just lucky! I tried my best to provide the best quality (clean, at least) of water and food to my fishes. Goldfishes are usually messy. They eat a lot and polluted the water so quickly. I realized that it was a bad decision to house Mollies with Goldfishes. I got into the routine of changing 75% of water on every alternative day. However, something unfortunate was going to happen NEXT!

PART 5: AN AQUARIUM COMES HOME! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

PART 4: PINTO MUST NOT DIE!

Tirelessly, I tried to feed Pinto. I had absolutely no idea what exactly Pinto would eat. It was much like the way a new employee is trained in an organization about various aspects of the organization. It was the training-time for Pinto. I tried so many types and compositions of fish food. But, Pinto failed to recognize those as food! I had placed Pinto's jar on my study table. It was in front of my eyes over so many hours every day. I kept trying new foods and kept changing the water to keep Pinto's home clean. After about two days, there was success awaiting me. I noticed that a small piece of food that was placed in Pinto's jar had disappeared. I was so happy to know that. I shared the news with my wife and she felt so relieved to learn that the poor fish finally started eating! I trained Pinto with that exact food composition. And, over the next few days, Pinto was absolutely comfortable with its new home and food. I had removed the glass marbles from the jar. Those had become a barrier between Pinto and the food particles that had fallen through the gaps to the bottom of the jar. With the glass marbles removed, Pinto could easily reach every bit of food available anywhere in its jar.

The scenario felt somehow like this: A person joined an organization. The new employee went through some trainings in the new organization. The new employee took some time to get adjusted and feel comfortable in that organization. And, eventually the new employee no more remained a NEW-employee, but, became just an employee! The case was not much different in the context of Pinto, our new wild river-fish at home. Since the jar that housed Pinto was on my study-table, Pinto probably was an important witness of the effort I had to put into my Executive MBA studies. I am sure, it was not able to understand what was exactly going on around it. But, it, somehow, demonstrated signs that indicated it responded to and acknowledged always my presence around its jar-home. And, that was not unnatural. I used to take a break from my books and watch Pinto. I always felt, it was probably trying to say something. It usually had it's face towards me. I tried my best to get Pinto the best food available and some exercise. Since, it was a wild fish straight from a river, it was not built genetically to live in captivity. However, Pinto seemed happy and did not, usually, demonstrate prominent signs of discomfort. Life went on. I prepared hard for my Executive MBA exams. And, Pinto was a great source of refreshment on my desk. I used to feel recharged and fresh everytime I watched Pinto for a while. It, kind of, became my companion and communication between us was not based on any specific language. With Pinto on my desk, a feel-good factor got added to my study and exam-preparation routine.

To my delight, Pinto continued to stay healthy and strong. My daughter gradually learnt that the name of that fish was Pinto. Sometimes, she called it Pinti! That was funny. After more than a month after I brought Pinto home, I eventually got done with all my Executive MBA exams. And, all those really went well. What a relief it was! That day, I was back at home after my last exam. I fed pinto. I had some good time with my family and had my dinner. I was tired and fell asleep. Since I was done with the last one of my MBA exams, I was not required to study over that evening. I got up very early and, as a practice, came straight over to Pinto's jar. I could not believe my eyes. Pinto was not in its jar and had fallen dead on the floor! I was really shocked. I examined Pinto and realized that it had jumped out of its jar many hours back and had suffered a painful death. It had been more than a month and Pinto had never shown any sign of a slightest possibility of its jumping out of the jar. I could never understand why Pinto chose to commit suicide! I always felt that Pinto was doing reasonably good in its new home. I did not know what went wrong that night. I could not understand what was different that night. But, much later, during that day, it flashed in my mind. I, finally understood what was so different that night. It was the very last exam of my Executive MBA Program. Beyond that night, I was not required any more to struggle with my management-subject books. It was exactly an end of that difficult phase of my life. The day next was going to be a completely different day for me. I was not going to spend hours at my desk again! May be, Pinto came home to add that feel-good factor to my life during that difficult phase. And, it, probably, wanted to go away after that phase was over. I sincerely thank Pinto for the role it played (or the role I felt it played). This was what happened NEXT!

PART 4: PINTO MUST NOT DIE! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

PART 3: PINTO COMES HOME!

Thrilled, excited, energized and a bit worried, I made a quick move to the nearest market in search of a glass jar. The first shop I visited was not that interesting. The jars I saw there were not big enough. I quickly went over to the other shop indicated by the fish-vendor. Then, I bought the biggest (Not really big!) glass-jar available in that shop. I was told that it was the biggest available in that market. It had a capacity of around 4 liters! There was no aquarium | pet shop in that locality. So, it was the quickest choice for me to use a locally available resource (glass jar) to get started with fish-keeping. I rushed home to set the jar up for the fish. I cleaned that up and filled that with untreated tap water. I considered the fact that those fishes were from the river that received so much of untreated tap water everyday along with other harmful chemicals. So, I believed that the tap water would not really result in any discomfort to the fish. After setting up the jar, I rushed to the fish-market. I was under pressure. I had skipped the fish-procurement (the original goal of my fish-market visit) in the process and I had lost precious study-time. There were exams ahead! After arriving at the fish market again, I realized that I was too late. That fish-vendor (with  a bunch of live tiny fishes) was done with his day's business and had left for home! I was so disappointed. Without loosing heart, I bought my regular fish (for our meals) and came back home after deciding to give that a try over the day after. The boy in me was really restless.

I got busy with my studies and work, till the very next evening. However,I had a really hard time waiting for my next fish-market visit. Over that evening, I rushed to the local fish market with high hopes. Like 5 fingers are not alike, each day is not similar. That evening, I was not so lucky. I did not see any fish vendor selling the variety of live fish (in water-filled containers) that I wanted to buy. I was so disappointed. However, I noticed a pile of dead fish of that variety with one vendor. I curiously went closer to that vendor. The vendor spontaneously explained that those were very fresh and those would taste really great. I expressed my intention and asked him whether he was going to bring a live lot of that variety to market over the next evening. He could not guarantee that. During our discussion, however, I noticed a slight movement in that pile of dead fishes. At a closer look, I realized that a few of those fishes were still alive. I just handed over some money to that vendor and asked whether I could hand-pick a few of those. He said that I could pick as many as I wanted. I had taken a double-layer polythene bag, partially filled with untreated tap water, along. The idea was to transport the fish in that bag to my home from the fish market. I got into action and picked a fish that was apparently alive and placed that in the water inside my polythene bag. After placing the fish in the bag, I investigated into its health and condition. I continued (repeated) this process over around 8 fishes. I took the fish out of the bag and placed that back in the vendor's fish basket in case I did not like the health or condition of that fish. At the end of the process, I had three fishes in my bag. I thanked the vendor and headed home. I was so excited. It was so important an event and crucial a moment. Fish Keeping was just about to get started at my home, again, after so many years. It was so wonderful a feeling!

I reached home with those 3 fishes. Those were Stoliczkae's Barbs (Puntius Stoliczkanus). After a few minutes, I placed those fishes in that 4-Liter glass jar already set for them. I had decorated the jar with a substrate of around 200 glass marbles. That was the quickest substrate to arrange from the local market. Those fishes were really not in a great condition and were absolutely restless in their new home!  I was worried and so was my wife. She asked me, with absolute concern, whether I really knew how to care for those innocent fishes so that they could survive! And, I thought, my past Fish Keeping experience would come handy in that case as well. But, that was a thought far from the fact. The first challenge was to feed them. We had absolutely no idea about what they lived on while they were in the river. I tried so many kinds of foods within the next few hours. Those fishes never identified any of those as food! My attempt to feed them continued till late in the evening. My efforts did not produce any positive results. I could not concentrate on my studies. Tired, I fell asleep. I got up very early. Still it was dark. I switched the light on and took a quick look at the fish jar. Two of them were dead! It was so sad to see that. I took the dead fishes out of the jar and changed the water immediately.

We thought, since the fishes did not eat anything, they died. But, there was probably something different in case of the one that was still alive. On a lighter note, I told my wife, it could be a late lunch that the fish had, that gave it a few extra hours of life! And, that one too might also die eventually, I thought! I said, "when all three of these fishes meet each other in heaven, the fish that dies last will say this to the other two: Hey buddies, you always made fun of me as I always got up late, had late lunches and late dinners. But you know what, my last late lunch got me one more day of life back there. And, you guys were not that lucky!". Jokes apart, I was really concerned about how to feed the fish that was alive. We named that fish, without any idea about its gender, Pinto! This was what happened NEXT!

PART 3: PINTO COMES HOME! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

PART 2: THE DECISION WAS MADE, FINALLY!

It was just another visit to the nearby fish market. I usually visited that a couple of times every week. Fish has been a substantial and an important part of my and my family's diet. That day was not any special. It was really cloudy, though, that evening. It was in June-2010. And, I was half way through with the series of my Executive MBA exams. And, my mind and thoughts were overshadowed by the excitement and apprehensions related to those exams (that I had already written and the forthcoming ones). Well, a bit absentminded, I took a quick look at the fish market. I saw the regular fish vendors and routine fish verities. What attracted my attention was the bunch of live tiny fishes in a big flat open water-filled container. That was not, either, a strange and extraordinary sight. There was a river at about just 200 meters from the fish-market. Some of the vendors regularly sold verities of live fishes procured fresh from that river.

During those days, I was quite busy with my life - my studies, work, family. Standing in the midst of the fish market, I started thinking about life, priorities, ambitions, aspirations. Actually, at the fish market, I was away from my books, family and office. So, I was at the right place to relax, think, introspect and reflect, while I was really supposed to just buy some fish for our routine consumption. During my childhood, I had a great passion for Fish Keeping and aquariums (vividly described in PART 1). Over the last many years, life kept me so busy with the mundane stuff. I could not really get started again with Fish Keeping and aquariums. However, the desire and passion were always alive within me. Any time, any where I saw an aquarium, I used to take a pause and stare at that for a while. I always felt a strong urge to bring home an aquarium and get started with that interesting hobby again. However, in tangible and realistic terms, I did not stay (and have not been staying) in "my" home over the past many years! I am a Lean Living Practitioner and I have been staying in rented accommodations. Also, I usually go on a long vacation every year. At least, I did that over the last 10 years. And, my job made me move from one place to another. So, every time, my thought of bringing home an aquarium got dampened by the following questions. What happens if I have to move to a different city | state | country? What happens if I have to move to another house in short order? Who feeds my fish when I go on vacation? How does the required regular water-change happens when I am away? Those questions were strong enough to find me weak at forming a decision to get started with an aquarium again. Life went on and no aquarium came home!

Standing in the midst of the fish market and subconsciously focusing on a bunch of live tiny fishes in a big flat open water-filled container, I kept thinking. I thought, "there are possibly more uncertainties than certainties in life! And, life is shorter than it appears. There are more things I want to do than I have capacity to do. Is it really wise to keep postponing something (Fish Keeping) that I love so much? Is it wise to be logical and judgmental than doing outright what I want to do when I have the very capacity to do it, right here and right now? Should I keep thinking about doing it or I should just do it?" Then, I thought, "I did not really know what awaits me tomorrow, let's do it today". Without thinking further, I just moved ahead over to the fish-vendor who had a bunch of live tiny fishes in a big flat open water-filled container. After taking a quick look at me, he said "these are alive, so the freshest and those taste really good". Then I expressed my intention to buy a few of those to start Fish Keeping. However, there was a concern. I did not have a container to transport the fish to my home. Nor, did I have a container to keep the fish in at home. In a hurry, I asked the fish-vendor whether and where I could purchase a big glass jar for the fish. He was kind enough to point me to the nearest market and he also indicated the probable shops where I could get a jar. So, I finally formed my decision to really start Fish Keeping, again! And, that was the turning point. This was what happened NEXT!

PART 2: THE DECISION WAS MADE, FINALLY! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.