Last Monday is was the death of the favourite resident, today it's a birth. Well, births to be precise - 25 to 30 of them! The female Guppy, Blackie, whom I managed to catch late last night did indeed drop her fry this morning.

She was sitting quietly at the back of the ice cream tub, with most of the fry swimming around the other side of the tub. I was amazed that it happened so easily, that I guessed the right night (first time!) that they would be born and how big the fry are! I would guess that they are each 5mm long and actively swimming around.

The other baby we have - the possible Danio, isn't gowing that quickly, although it is growing. So since we now have a tub in the top of the tank setup for growing on (if only for a week...) we're in the process of moving him over as well. It means only 1 baby tank to care for but the benefit for him is that the water in that tank is far warmer - heated by the water around it and the lights overhead in the daytime.

I read that Guppies do show growth spurts when a water change takes place, and the danio fry has been in the same water with only small amounts changed. Given the position etc of the tub I'll be changing water from it quite frequently. I'm not sure how long they are in the tub before they get to a size at which they can be released to the main tank. I did read that they are mature at 1 month - so it can't take too long.

And the other good news is that I'm sure we have not one but two shrimps carrying eggs. I saw the second one for certain yesterday, without eggs, so she's only laid them overnight. Looks like one is making the other maternal. I suppose it's nature's way of producing more baby shrimps at the same time and thus increasing the chances of some surviving.

So the cold baby tank might have 2 shrimps in it soon enough!