Molly gives birth....fruit of 'Our' labor ;)

The fish craze was still hanging around...and we were as always ,busy with talking n feeding the 2 aquariums ..(one with Gold fish n the other with Molly). Molly were lucky to be a part of the 'planted' aquarium... MIL's fav was still our old Gold Fish. Sad part was, all the Mollys died except for 2 , a pink and a black one.

Now this fish bug soon began to enter into the Family..including our cousins.. Abhi's niece who stood first in her class, wanted a pair of gold fish. This time again i was the carrier of the Bowl, stones n 2 fish... We handed the gift safely n wondered how the 8year old and the 2year old kids will 'take care' of their priced possession!! Abhi gave instructions to the entire family about the fish, water changing and food habits... We had a good lunch there n got back home and continued with our routine ..

14-Apr-2010, 6:20am,I was just out of my bath when i heard MIL calling my name. I rushed to the spot n saw MIL n SIL smiling at the smaller aquarium (fish poop...not again!!)... but no...there was something this time..I went closer...n then saw them...15-20 Molly babies..pink from nose and black on the tail. A perfect combination of the 2 mollys alive. We all forgot our other chores..I started shouting for PIL n Abhi...we all were surrounding the tank n counting the small ones.. Now the questions started popping up...when were the eggs laid? when the hatch? should we separate out the big ones from the small ones?? what should we feed them... uff...so many doubts...

We all rushed to office without actually in a mood to do so :(
Mails were floated to friends n relatives abt the samll ones being born n then one more round of R&D... we got to know that Mollys give birth (though not a mammal)..
That evening when we went back, we found MIL to be sad...reason, one of the parent molly's died :( . It was a mixed bag of happiness n sadness...

But we were anyways happy about the new ones...and out labor of spending so much money and time eventually bore fruits!! Next day Abhi's niece calls up, she was all in tears ...her throat was choking.. she told Abhi in her choked voice that both the gold fish at her home died...
Abhi had to console her by telling about the Baby mollys and promising a couple of them to her..
(what a couple!!!)

While this was happening, we found MIL standing near the gold fish n talking to them.. She has instructed the gold fish to lay eggs...that too within a month!!

Big question--will this happen? If yes then how??(need to edit thsi post, written in a hurry)

The Craze continues...

Well..I've decided to write the complete story of Abhi n his Fish in a set of 3...its in vogue to create and think in Trilogy...Like..Meera Nair...Fire, Earth n Water...Like RGV..the unstoppable.. Phoonk1, 2 and may be 3 ...and Rohit Shetty of Golmaal1,2 n 3...(weird inspirations...hai na? i know u have a sarcastic smile lingering :) )

Just to rewind..the first episode was about Abhi's introduction to the world of Fish n then we ended it with the family wondering on what to expect NEXT!!
Well the craze continues..he would make us sit around him n tell us about the various types of fish..we also started taking real interest in all this activity and knowledge sharing :) .. Me n my SIL were looking fwd to breed fish...we used to imagine small baby gold fish floating and had the typical GIRLY expressions of 'o chooo cweet' n all... So this was the next thing was was googled and youtubed :)

We got to know that Goldfish lay eggs which form a thin strand (small eggs joined ) and that at a time a fish can lay many in numbers ....
Now...we put on the thinking hat (we thought so) and started observing the movements of the fish and try to decipher which is a male n which one female.. One fish chasing the other was considered to be their mating play (stop having that weird expression now...it was but natural)..
Information on this kept flowing from our constant source Mr. Abhi...n his friend ..rem'ber the Fish(y) expert? was consulted on this more than twice..

MIL n PIL took good care of the fish...don't forget by now we had 2 aquariums...one for the set of Gold fish and the other one was the MASTERPIECE ...self made one..got it? So coming to the point... various experiments became one of our major tasks for the day.. The fish was fed small piece of rotis (without salt) ... solidified aata (dough), peas, bread pieces..egg...along with its own prescribed food... n to our surprise they ate all these with equal enthusiasm...

The gold fish was found to be always hungry..then I found a piece of info that Goldfish has a memory of 3seconds(this part is still under debate as per few research papers and there are many who are working to know about this.Can you imagine? Human himself is not sure of his memory, but finds time to work on GOLDFISH MEMORY!!) ..Anyways.. so the family concluded it being the reason for the fish to forget about its dosage...

Many more such information kept flowing...and on a busy Monday morning..my SIL, like every other day was leaning and talking to the fish...n suddenly we heard her calling our names..we rushed n found her pointing to a looong thread like strand.. We had done enough of research now to need an explanation...immediately a bottle, a big plastic one, was filled with water n this strand (these were goldfish EGGS!!! we had read about it)... We had also read that the hatching period is 7 days...so the countdown began...we had 3 things to take care now..the 2 aquariums and the strand of eggs... at the end of 5th day...still no change...

Finally the 7th day...the strand had broken into pieces... we got more excited...we dint have time to read on it further as this was engrossing enough...
8th n 9th day passed too...n finally 10th day..we though that the eggs were not good n hence dint hatch... A sadness pervaded over the entire household...

Suddenly my MIL burst out into fits of laugh...n that too pointing at me n my SIL... it struck us quite late, that the long was nothing but the Fish SHIT (or should i say poop?).. n the explanation, the food habit of the fish had changed and so did the outburst (!!!!????)...

We the fish crazy people ...had actually preserved and taken care of fish poop for 10 complete days and used to WATCH it closely for Hatching!!!

This time we became the laughing stock....Abhi joined my MIL n PIL n making fun of us...n we to joined...
That night as well we all slept at 1am...but not before having a bath at 12pm..
Some revelations do strike a bit too hard ;)

Abhi smitten by 'Fish-Bug'..

My husband Abhilash, has been smitten by the 'Fish Bug'...well its not a new bug, but just that he is in luv with fish.It's not such a long story as to how this happened.
Last year(2009) when we were thinking of what to gift his sister on her b'day, he came across this idea of gifting an aquarium. A cute idea I should say.
Now which breed to buy? How to maintain? these were some of the questions..Abhi has a very good friend, who is totally into this monkey business of breeding and re-breeding fish ;) sounds weird i know!! but he is a crazy fellow, who knows everything about fish..
So this good friend was contacted, who suggested on going for Gold fish that has low maintenance. A few more R&D on shop and the things needed, and we decided that I would be leaving early from my office and he would pick me up from a pre-decided place. Then from the shop, we would pick up a 2*1 sized aquarium...with 4 gold fish and 2 angel fish..I was seated behind him on hsi bike with this scary thing on my lap!! The plan was successful and the entire family was happy about the fish.. Our day started with them and ended with them... feeding them, looking at them, staring at them, talking to them and ofcourse playing with them...
After this first set of fish, we have changed a few fish coz of compatibility issues and blah blah...so now we have finally 3 normal Gold fish and 4 shubunkin Gold fish...

Well...this was just the beginning and the story behind how the 'fish-bug' hit him.. now Abhi being a kind of person...whose brain keeps working (even when asleep..ask me!!)..got an idea of BUILDING his own aquarium...from the scratch...
He bought books on aquarium building...was glued to youtube for related video ...spoke to people about it..I'm sure he wouldn't have put so much of effort during his school and college days...well..passion u see ;) Anyways.. the fact is..each day we all would expect something unexpected ..and yes..he was upto it!! broken glass panes arrived first...glues,cutter,stones,mud, broken tube and broken bottles, Calcium Carbbonate (for oxygen pump)followed..and yes...this was supposed to be a planted aquarium..a SELF MADE PLANTED AQUARIUM..Man!!! Sounds awesome.. :)

So our protagonist..set his task..would not talk or even eat..Saturdays n sundays were spent in the research and finally one day the tank was READY!!! and yes...it looked beautiiiiful...no second thoughts...Next what? we needed plants and Fish...a new set of fish...he wont agree of putting the old ones in this..
So off he rushes to a sophisticated shop...bought a set of 14 mollys (fish ka type yaar) and 2 plants for 50bugs each (:-0)...

14 small fish n 2 beautiful plants were finally planted in the newly built fish home :)...and a brick made stool was also made,alongside the wall (everything SELFMADE)..it was covered with a table cloth n out beauty was placed atop...

Finally..Abhi admires his work...n takes a deep breath..
Its 1am..we all are were dying to land into our beds...
Abhi looks at us ..smiles..we all smile back with affection (and happiness that the ordeal is fianlly over)...he winks and says ..'next i would build a marine aquarium'

We all are left speechless...thinking of what would follow!!!