Fishies

Can you guess what the boys are looking at in our aquarium? 

. . . 4 years ago Big Daddy built an addition onto this old house which we made our living room.  It is the one room I have very little control over.  Our living room is home to a huge elk head, several deer heads, a bobcat, & a 300 gallon aquarium.  We’ve kept all kinds of fresh water fish in here.  Usually whatever big catch the boys get calls this bad boy its new home.  We have never, in 4 years, had the pleasure of seeing a fish have babies . . . Until NOW!!!!

This fish wasn’t eating & was growing rather “skinny” as Big Daddy described.  He assumed she was sick, until he got a close look inside her mouth!  Where he found THOUSANDS of babies swimming around.  This particular breed (I can’t remember the name & Tyler is sleeping & Big D is already gone to work), they mouth brood.  They carry their eggs in their mouth until the babies hatch & are big enough to swim out.  It is the coolest thing ever!  As we watched this mother of thousands of babies protect them I suddenly felt a little sigh of relief with just 6 to protect.  :)  It was such a blessing to be able to see God’s hand in this experience.  She had thousands of babies & if just one swam out she was doing everything to get it back – 1 out of a couple thousand.   

Typically, you would add moss to a tank & separate the mother & babies from the rest of the tank, but that was nearly impossible for us to do in a 300 gal tank.  We added moss to the area she was claiming as hers, & despite her protective motherly instincts her babies all eventually swam out & were eaten by the bigger fish.  I almost cried every time I witnessed this.  So sad.  Yes, I totally used this as an example to my kids!! “See, see what happens when mommy tries to protect you & you leave my protection?  Those babies were safe with their mama, but they wanted out.  They didn’t know or understand that she was just trying to protect them from the outside world they were so eager to be apart of, that was full of bigger fish waiting to devour them.  See, sometimes mama’s do know better.  Next time you better trust mommy or you’ll be eaten by bigger fish!”  

   

Sadly, all but 5 survived.  They are now living in a smaller tank in my bedroom. 

They are the cutest little fishies!!!

God is amazing!!!!