fry – Mr Knitter

As most will know, I keep a few aquariums in the house. My large tank has African Cichlids in it. Quite a few of them go through the routine of the mating dance, but nothing happens. I have giraffe cichlids in there and the male had gone from brown to a lovely electric blue with a yellow stripe on his dorsal fin. He has mated twice with one female who unfortunately died after laying eggs (she keeps them in her mouth until hatched) due to a swim bladder problem, however, one baby survived being eaten by the other fish and is getting quite big, he was from her first clutch. The other female mated with him and for the last 30 days she has not eaten and I know that she had the eggs/fry in her mouth. Two days ago she seemed to look like she was listing to one side, so I put her in the breeding net to watch her. This afternoon I check in on her and saw that the breeding net was full of baby fry. Most in the bottom away from her, not that she would eat them. I quickly get her out and into the main tank and fed her as she needed sustenance. She and the male keep looking in on their fry, but all seems well with her and the babies.

I took a quick video of the fry in their temporary home and thought I would share them with you all. I am amazed at how many fry there are, I estimate about 60, although she could have had as many as 100+. For a sense of scale, they are about 2mm long and the video is taken through the side of the tank, but as they get bigger I will record from above.

I cannot believe it is Friday already, the week seems to have flown by, and I feel I have abandoned you all by my lack of updates.

My sweater is coming on well and I have nearly finished the back, but due to the instructions, I have had to have moments of contemplation to make sure I am doing it right, especially when it says to knit till 80cm, then talks of reducing by 2cm, which did not make sense, so after putting it all down and reading it many times, I sussed out that it meant 2cm from top of the finished front measurements, which meant in essence, knit till it is 80cm. Pointless instruction really, but I am past that quandary, so the back will be finished this weekend, if not tonight and the arms started.

Wednesday I decided to take M and Harper to Blackpool for the illuminations as the weather had finally settled and we had a day without rain. I have been going to Blackpool Illuminations since I was a kid, not every year though. We took my mum last year with us and the two dogs after spending the day in the Lake District (boy was that a long day). I thought it was a good idea, but, and there is always a but, the traffic was terrible. All the kids are off for half term and it was like the whole of the UK had come to the seaside to see the same thing. The tower was not too far away, and we saw the light switch on at 6:30pm. We then sat in traffic that just seemed to move at a snail place, and it was close to 8pm by the time we had got to the tower. We headed north and then turned about to go the full stretch and see all the lights. Now, this should have been easy and free of congestion, but no, it was almost standstill. The illuminations are 6 miles long (10km), but rather than taking about 30 to 40 minutes to drive the length and see all the lights it took us 3 hours. Yes, three long hours to do 6 miles. So you could image the frustration of just sitting there, hoping for movement. We had hoped to park up and get fish and chips, the staple of any seaside visit, but alas, this did not happen as we just could not see anywhere to park until we got close to the end of the lights, but all the chip shops had closed. We arrived home about 20 past midnight, a little exhausted and of course, starved. I thought I would treat you all to the view I had for three long hours, the back of this blue car that constantly had their brake lights on.

My aquarium levels have settled and I have new life in there. Some of my fish have been breeding and as a result, the babies have managed to get into the weir through the little grills, then swept through the pipework into the sump where they are having a great time. The first batch of babies are about half an inch long, and the new ones are only a one or two millimetres long. Not sure how many we have in there as it is not very bright in there, which is good as I do not want the larger babies to eat the tiny ones. My reedfish, which is like a snake is getting longer, and s/he is out all the time and has given up hiding in the big giant head.

Apart from all that I have been having sleepless nights again with full on insomnia, and when that is not in full swing I have really bad nights sleep, restless and mostly snoozing and not much proper sleep. I am used to it, as I have been like this for 20+ years, but sometimes this really does tire me out, this week is no exception.