I’m A Fish Daddy

In an unlikely turn of events, I’m a fish daddy.

I have a small tank, sort of a hospital/nursery tank for plants in the big tank,battered by the ravenous goldfish or for new plants hopefully growing strong roots for their turns vs. the fish.

Several types of snails crawl around the bottom and sides of the tank. When I admit a plant to the hospital, the snails will fairly quickly find it and clean it of any traces of algae, kind of like the guys at a car wash who descend on clean cars to quickly wipe off any water droplets, not quite as fast as the car wash guys, but surprisingly quick for snails.

There are several baby snails crawling around and I was checking them out the other night when I saw what I thought was insect larvae. Turns out they’re fish. Tiny fish, technically fry. Two that I know of.

There have been no adult fish in this tank for at least six months so it wasn’t obvious how the little guys got there. They don’t look like goldfish, more like minnows you might see in a small stream, mini minnows. I scratched my head and went to bed.

In the morning, the little fishies are still there. The only explanation I can think of is that some fertilized eggs attached to a plant and hitchhiked into the snail tank.

I got a strong light out and they look a little like goldfish. They have tiny butterfly split tails, a defining characteristic of “fancy” goldfish. Single tail goldfish sell for less than $1 in pet stores. Nice fat fancies can sell for more than $100.

It’s Spring and the house is warmer, so the water in the big fish tank is getting warmer, which triggers breeding behavior.

Female goldfish get a raw deal. They can’t release their eggs at will. If the eggs don’t get released mama can die. On the other hand, the natural alternative is that they get chased around by males who will express the eggs rudely, often violently, by banging the girls against rocks, plants or whatever. Females can die from this courtship, as well. In almost 10 years of keeping goldfish, I’ve never had a girl die.

I’ve also never had fry before.

Goldfish will eat anything, including newly fertilized eggs and any young ones that might get so far as to hatch.

I have no idea how many fertilized eggs made it into the snail tank. I assume snails enjoy fish eggs. All I know is that at least two got to the point of swimming around in a tank without predators. I have no idea what the chances are for them. Frankly it will be a hassle if they do survive. They will outgrow the snail tank long before they are ready for the ruckus of the big tank. Stay tuned.