Tuesday, August 11, 2009

A Fish Story

Naturally it was right at bedtime when Greta came running to us saying, "Evelyn's guppy has given birth! There's babies in the tank!"

The big guppies ate most of the babies, but two are now in the breeding net, safe from their hungry parents.
I am amazed at their tiny transparent fins.

And huge eyes.
This is not two, it is one looking at its reflection.
Can you see it in this jar? It is the little thing on the left near the bottom.
We wonder if they'll grow up to look like their mother:

Or their father:

Evelyn plans to breed them for traits she'll select. She got a 50 gallon tank for her birthday from her aunt and uncle and grandparents. Which is large enough that one guy claims to have kept more than 17,000 guppies in such a tank.

That doesn't seem quite humane, so thank goodness the parents eat so many of the babies.

In other Evelyn news...a long time ago the kids entered the Doodle4Googler contest. Evelyn was a finalist and got a Nintendo DS and what is much more exciting, her own logo printed on a shirt.
Here she is sporting the logo she designed. The theme was "What I Want for the World."
"I want the world to get bigger. My doodle shows people leaving earth to colonize other planets. We need to go to other planets so that we have enough room to expand while preserving and even restoring habitat for the animals that we have been pushing out of their homes."

9 comments:

Kat said...

Cool fish story. I look forward to updates on the breeding process. :) And congrats to Evelyn. That is a great logo.

Ashish M said...

Congratulations, Evelyn!

But ... I'm a little disturbed by your tales of guppy cannibalism. I think I'm going to have nightmares.

Susan said...

Kat, Evelyn says thanks for the compliment! I am curious, too, as to how this experiment will go. Clementine wants a big tank so it seems things are destined to get really fishy here.

Ashish, yeah...it was a little strange. The mom was even going after her babies and they were darting out of the way. Weird to produce your own tapas.

Stefaneener said...

Exciting times! It's all Henry Huggins all the time there. Congrats to Ev!

Barbara said...

very cool both the fish and the t-shirt.

a tip for guppies: line the bottom of the tank with marbles. the eggs fall between them and the cannibal parents can get at the eggs to eat them. of course, once they're swimming, they're still vulnerable!

sarah in the woods said...

Really like the shirt design. Very creative!

Susan said...

Stefaneener, Ev is thrilled by the idea that she could sell them to fish stores like Henry.

Barbara, thanks for the tip! And marbles would be pretty, too, in the new tank. That is a lot of marbles, though.

Sarah, thanks! Looks like you've got some very creative little ones over in your neck of the woods.

Kristin said...

Kudos to Evelyn. She amazes me with her insightful nature. I couldn't believe I was reading that she will be breeding guppies for traits. What a kick! What child would consider doing that? I know...Evelyn! Thank goodness she has the fortune of living with parents who allow her to explore and develop her interests.

Unknown said...

Love the T-shirt design! Is a one of a kind or can you get more?