Life Will Find A Way -- Update

A little while ago I mentioned that while cleaning the pond out front, I happened upon a baby fish. I thought that this was cool since it indicated that my adult fish were comfortable enough to have spent some time after one of their parties committing to settling down and talking about the future. Well, more than talking actually.

It's been a long journey for these fish. The initial members of the pond were definitely aquarium fish, and they were not exceptionally wise in the ways of nature. They would come to the surface when we fed them, and would swim about in the open humming little fish songs. As a result, a fair number of them were eaten by predators. I had to rescue one little guy from the roots of one of the pond plants. I have no idea how he had gotten himself in there, but I had to pull the plant out of the water to free him.

But it appears that they have adapted. They are more wary now and lurk amongst the plant leaves, spending much more of their time near the bottom of the pond under a protective covering of three and a half feet of water. When we feed them, which is not often since they are able to live nicely off the environment, they will dart to the surface, gulp and dive back to the bottom. So during the day, it's hard to determine who is in there.

At night however they swim about much more freely. With flashlight in hand, we went fish spotting. To my delight, we spotted no less then EIGHT little fry squirting about. There may be more since, even with a flashlight, we can not really see the deepest recesses of the pond. But I am happy. Life will find a way. And I'm sure that mom and dad have already said to the kids, "look, we don't know everything, but we know this: keep your head down!"