stephbg: I made this! (Default)
stephbg ([personal profile] stephbg) wrote2012-03-08 11:28 pm
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Wildlife of the day: Baby fishies!

Was *very* excited this afternoon to discover two baby fish in the pond. No idea yet whether they're minnows or perch, but as [livejournal.com profile] leecetheartist has reported baby minnows in her pond appearing just yesterday it strikes me as more likely these are baby minnows. Statistically too, 15 minnows would stand a better chance of reproducing than 3 perch, particularly as Disco Stu was brought in for stud duties well into the season. Now I look back on my discovery of non-snail eggs on the pump housing even then I thought them more likely to be minnows.

Lives! Tiny lives!



Baby photos were attempted without much hope - these are extremely small beasties, and fast moving and under water to boot. But since when did picture quality ever deter proud grandparents?

Here are the twins:

baby-fish-1

OK, so maybe scale is a little difficult to determine. Here's one with a grown up relative:

baby-fish-3

Grown up relative being about an inch long. Try this for scale:

baby-fish-2

i.e. not very big at all.

I do hope they survive and I get to watch them grow. That was one of my greatest pleasures when the goldfish bred at my old place. There were so many eggs I brought some inside to incubate in a bowl and keep a close eye on them as they developed, and most excitingly as they developed their individual colouration.

It gives me enormous pleasure to think that I have provided an environment good enough to encourage creatures to breed. Sure, they're not exactly pandas, but it means I must be doing something right, and I intend to savour the victory. (I don't feel I can claim much of a hand in successful water snail reproduction). I look forward to Winter and the possibility of frogs :-)

[identity profile] rdmasters.livejournal.com 2012-03-08 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Baby white clouds are amazingly cute - especially when the light catches their eyes, which glow like little headlights.

Congratulations on your brood!