FoxTrot Classics by Bill Amend for October 29, 2020

yikes

Aren’t you supposed to, uh, NOT have guppies in the same tank as larger fish?

I’m reminded of an anecdote about conservationists proudly watching two endangered species together. One of them was about to hatch. After doing so, it promptly ate the other species, leaving the conservationists scratching their heads.

This isn’t very angelic of the angel fish. If the fish food isn’t fully digested yet, then the angel fish is eating the fish food along with whatever surrounds the fish food.

Welcome to the cruel realities of nature, Paige!

She obviously didn’t study the subject before she bought her fish.

Many years ago we bought an aquarium, and let our boys pick out the fish. I’ll never forget the pet store employee patiently explaining to them that if one fish can fit inside another fish’s mouth – it will.

Welcome to the wonderful wide world of Nature

Add a couple of Siamese fighting fish.

SURPRISE!! Aren’t fish tanks wonderful, Paige? :-)

IF you try to keep Angel Fish and Guppies together, you need LOTS of plants for the guppies to hide in. Once you get your tank established, the Angel Fish can help keep the guppy population down, because believe me, I know from experience they can quickly take over the tank.

Lesson learned

Had the same issue with an angel fish when I was a young boy, it was the terror of the tank.

She should know better!

Peter can relate with the angel fish.

Cats have kittens,

And dogs have puppies,

But guppies just have little guppies.

How many fish would a fish make fish food if a fish made fish fish food?

Went to a Buddhist ceremony a while back where they bought several big bags of guppies and were going to release them in the wild (actually a large lake). The ceremony was supposed to give the guppies a new lease on life by releasing them from captivity. After much fanfare, the guppies were released in the lake, and were promptly eaten by the larger fish in the lake..

Goldfish eat guppies also, learned that pretty quickly when my little sister thought her goldfish was lonely and threw it in my fish tank with the guppies. Whoopsie daisy!

Not much of an angel

LOL!

Another one of life’s little lessons? Big fish eat little fish? Reminder,,,get little fish tank tchotchkes for little fish to hide from big fish.

This eliminates a problem I identified yesterday, of too many fish raising the ammonia level too fast and killing all the fish. But maybe the angel fish identified that as the true problem, and THAT is why he ate all the guppies immediately.

Good news: guppies do indeed reproduce quickly. ;-) This is also why petstores often only stock males — very few customers want the fish-pocolapyse that will result from having both males and females in the tank. Rabbits have nothing on guppies — they’re livebearers, and the females will produce dozens of fry each time they give birth. It’s staggering.