it's better than seamonkeys

For a while I let nature take its course in my fish tank, to which nature replied with an abundant colony of snails and two forms of algae.

OK, so that didn't quite work. Next step was to clean the tank which is a slower process than having the algae build because the algae sticks to everything and needs to be scrubbed off with serious muscle power.

After a few weeks I manage to clear away half of the 6 panels so that I could at least see my fish swimming. By that time only two fish remained: an orange molly and one tattered finned blue neon tetra. I attempted to rebuild the fish tank by getting those 15 for a buck feeder fish, but apparently they die if they haven't been eaten in a few days. Let me try this again.

For the second go round I got a clown loach that enjoys the finer dining of escargot. I noticed how the snails attempted to retreat out of the water, but eventually the striped one found them all. Now, I have to figure out what to feed it. I also picked up a couple of mollys and a pair of guppies. It's often a crapshoot sometimes when getting fish from the big pet stores. You just don't know if they're healthy or not sometimes. One molly and one guppy bit the dust today.

Then I noticed as I was feeding them there were these tiny things darting around the bottom of the tank and if I crossed my eyes a bit, I could focus to see that they were tiny fish. Fish fry! (as the Filipino stomachs grumble at the thought of crisp smelt just off the stove) No, no, no, baby fish, specifically guppies. Apparently I was lucky enough to get a pregnant guppy. So, it wasn't just a fat fish. How am I supposed to know what gender it is? Then again guppies are like the rabbits of the fish world.

Anyway, according to the websites guppies come out swimming specifically so they can run away from mama who will eat them "in order to save them from imminent threat" (of who, her?). I watch them dive in and around the plants, sticking close to the gravel floor. They're kind of grayish almost translucent. You can make out their big eyes ever on the watch for the behemoth tankers known as the other fish come along.

They eat the same stuff the big fish do, only that I have to grind the flakes more between my fingers. Some of the sites say i should separate the fry, but I don't really have another tank. I just hope that they can survive for a few more weeks, build up the bulk to hang with the big fish.

They hang out among the rocks and plants and don't venture too high where the current from the filter is strong.

Though I wanted to continue to scrub the algae build up on the walls, I guess it will have to wait. I don't want to give the fry asthma or anything. Life is hard enough as it is without me mucking with it. For now, I do my weekly checks of Nitrites, Ammonia, and pH (which should be negligible, none, and 6.5) and go cross-eyed trying to find all three of them.

So now I must allow nature to once again take its course, that is, until the snails show up again.