436 tails of baby fishes

New discovery

This event happened on 13 Apr 08.

Today is a very special day, though my routine is still like normal.

As usual I went to the big pond to look at the fishes after I fetched Ying Ying back home. Initially everything seems like normal and I feed them as usual. Suddenly I found there is some thing very strange at the edges of the pond. There is a lot of tiny little things swimming there and at first I tought they are mosquitoes. However, I decided to take a closer look and to my surprise they are not the mosquitoes but apparently they are very small tiny little fish fries just hatched. I shouted and scream and was so excited to inform all others, "our fishes are breeding!"

Big fishes are eating the tiny little ones

Soon after, Ying Ying discover that the bigger fish is eating the tiny little ones and of course we become so nervous and I quickly called Mr. See (my fries supplier) to get advise from him if I should quickly separate the tiny little ones from the big ones. Of course, obviously we have to do it as quickly as possible.

So we tried to scoop them up but they are so tiny and couple with the fact that the water level is about 1 1/2 feet below, it is quick difficult for us to do that from the ground. So I decided to go into the pond!

In the pond

In the pond, the job become much more easier and I can't really remember how many scoops I have picked up. Luckily the tiny ones like to swim up to the surface and that make the job lots more easier.

"Ah!" Suddenly I felt like something bit my foot! I quickly look down in the water and it seems one of the biggest tilapia is brave enough to come close and bite me. I lifted my leg and expect it to be scared and go away. It did swim away a little but surprisingly it came back! This is a bit strange! There are about 50 tails of tilapia in this pond, all the others kept a distance from me but why this particular one not only it is not scare of me but keep coming back to bite my leg!

I became to wonder, could this be the mother or the father of the little ones? I think it is the mother and I shall call it 'Mei' for the beautiful flowery pattern she has. Of course it is very likely but I can't get the answer immediately. To find the answer, I believe I would need to catch it to examine further on its sex. Luckily, it's bite were not so painful and I continue to scoop all the tiny little ones.

When the job is completed, I came out of the pond and still observe that Mei kept circling around the place where I stood just now while all the other fishes are still far and away. Occasionally some fishes get closer but they will be quickly chase away by Mei. She seemed sad but trust me, I have done this to secure your babies.

Transfer to the side pond

Luckily my side pond is empty after we have transferred all the bigger tilapia to the big pond. I decided that we should count the number! With the help of my maid, we counted slowly. Every time we scoop up, we can only try between 3 to 5 tails because we would be able to count correctly because they are swimming around quickly.

Finally we counted all, it is 430 tails! When my son came back from school, he was so excited too and he managed to catch another 6 tails, so the total is 436 tails!

Video

Below is a short video taken after a few days, the tiny little ones are growing!





1 May 08

5 days I was away to Labuan for the Malaysia Water Festival job from 24 Apr to 29 Apr 08, these little babies have grown up to about 2 cm long.