Aug 11, 2006

veechnya

For those of you in the unawares, I recently became the recipient of yet another fish. On to fish #3. This fish is much larger than Stan or Neil could have ever hoped to be. Upon receiving Veechnya, my friend told me that he(my fish) would be my friend forever and I only had to take care of him.
So imagine my suprise when I came home to my bloated Veechnya swimming around his bowl amidst a flurry of floaties. Hmm...how did he get his bowl dirty so fast?, I thought. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that it wasn't dirt at all! In fact, there were about 13 little guppies swimming around Veechnya, who is a girl fish!
I've been had.

But the story continues. Overnight, sadly (but to be expected) most of the babies died. The mom corraled them into a little pile and swam around with the remaining 5. I decided now would be a good time to transfer them from the filth and stench of death into a clean, spring watered bowl of freshness. So I did.

5 minutes later I check back on them to see if they look hungry. As I was pondering how you go about feeding baby fish, I peered closer into the fish bowl.
Where did all the babies go?

Then I saw it. Veechnya was chasing the last remaining baby with lips pursed, mouth open, and a murderous gleam of infanticide in her eyes. It was like a twisted Survivor episode. Luckily, I was on my toes and quickly grabbed a cup to scoop out the guppy. I've heard of maternal instincts, but seriously--why would the mom eat all her babies? Is this normal? Am I doomed to have suicidal/infanticidal/neurotic fish for the remainder of my life? And more importantly, what do I do to keep the last survivor alive?

2 comments:

Eric said...

Holy crap you lead a rich life. And thanks for the use of the word infanticide, it's been a long while.

Anonymous said...

what else can you honestly expect from a fish named veechnya