Water Babies

I got the news from our house-sitter, while we were on vacation.

"Congratulations, you're a Grandpa!"

This was a bit surprising to me, as one daughter was sitting next to me and I'd seen the other a few weeks back.

"Uh, did I hear you correctly?"

"Sure you did; congratulations. Looks like three, no four, five.....six! Six of them! Beautiful babies!"

"Baby.....what?"

"The fish! The goldfish had babies! Lots of them!"

It's true. The over-wintered goldfish came through with a new batch of babies. Actually, it may be two or three batches, as there are definitely differences among them.. One is jet black and about two inches long. A couple others are about an inch long and mottled gold, white, and black. Then there are the real juveniles, looking like translucent fingernail clippings darting among the roots of the floating water plants.

We kicked up the fish feeding schedule to twice a day, to try and keep the kids off the menu for the adults. In a week or so I'll start sprinkling flake food as well as the granular stuff, so that the babies will have something other than algae to eat. Hopefully, they'll grow enough through the fall to be able to survive the winter. In any case, with the number of fish we now have, we're going to have a pretty dilemma on our hands come winter -- which fish to leave outside, and which to bring into the indoor tank?