Operation Save the Fancy Guppies!
Fish Rescue !!!
I haven't been in a position where I could afford to rescue any more animals for years. And believe me, it's been hard turning away any animals that needed help! I've turned down so many cats, dogs, even the sweetest and tiniest, most well behaved male bunny that I've ever met. (Who went through so much bad stuff, which could have been avoided had I been able to (had the resources) to rescue him!) Bunnies require special food. (And special treats.) I don't have any bunnies right now. That would be an extra expense. Bunnies also require a lot of time with their humans (or at least some time!) And they require a certain amount of work to keep their environment clean and ultimately their quality of life good. I had no choice but to refuse any and all animals (as I said, I had to and still have to turn any animal that needs help, away. And I've had to do this for years, for financial and other reasons).
Sadly though, I found out that after I said no, that the bunnies toes had ended up getting bit off, by a dog. It happened right before it went to a new home, I feel so very bad! If I could do it over, I'd take the bunny. Especially knowing then, what I do now! I had no say in the matter. The bunny was given to someone I'll never know, and I'll never hear the story of what happened to that sweet bunny. This is very sad for me.
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However, now, you may know that I have fish tanks. Fish are a lot easier to save, if you have a nice seasoned aquarium to add them into. They don't eat much and they don't take up much room at all!
It's not often that I get the opportunity or a request to rescue fish, but this was going to be a very unique situation.
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Saving Fish and Preserving Strains!
Neighbors of mine, sadly just went through something that was very hard to witness! Here I will explain what that has to do with how I came to rescue some fish.
There was always a nice older woman who lived on my street. My mother called her the "ceramic lady". I guess she had taught my mother how to do ceramics (long ago) and she had lived on our street about as long as my family, which is about 40+ years. My entire family : great grandmothers and great grandfathers. grandmothers and grandfathers. my dad, my mom. And it seems as though every one that they knew from cousins to friends, all made ceramics in about the 70's. It could be earlier for all I know, since I wasn't born yet. :)
I knew this lady, more recently, as the neighborhood "cat lady". She always had food and water out for the kitties. She also fed the birds on the side of her house. It wasn't uncommon to see about 20 birds hanging out near her doorway. I thought she was very sweet! And I knew she was getting very old and had heard that she was getting sick. About a year ago, she passed away, leaving the house to someone else.
(Don't worry, all of the cats that she fed did/do have owners. They are well-fed and well-cared for. They would just visit her often and loved her food. I'm sure they miss her too!)
I never knew it, but it turned out that there had been two young adults there, that weren't completely mentally stable to begin with. They had been living there the entire time and I never knew it. Sadly, "their mental illness seems to have gotten so much worse since their grandmother died." So much worse that it even "spilled out of the house" recently. Up until then I didn't know how bad things had gotten for them. Now, since they were mentally ill, their grandmother made sure they were left with a caretaker. The house had long been paid off, but the person left in charge, the caretaker, took out a reverse mortgage on the house. They were able to keep the house for about a year. Finally they can't make payments any more. And they are losing the house. They are "packing up" and moving out, much quicker than I'd be able to do! I feel so badly for them! I can't imagine losing my home!
I've heard that they will have good places to go (the two young-adults.) So that was good news. But it is so sad to see the house go up for sale, when it's been occupied by such a wonderful woman, for so long (the ceramic lady). Anyone that knows her, has only wonderful things to say about her. She was simply a wonderful person!
I guess someone in the house had fish. I'm not sure who, they may have belonged to the ceramic lady. I was told that no one seemed to care about the fish and asked if I could take them in. So,,, someone brought me a bag of mixed guppies. There was about 40 fish in the bag. The guppies look kind of old and they are all fully mature. But some of the females are clearly gravid and going to drop some live guppy babies very soon. So,,, they are fancy guppies, and there are a few popular "fish store" strains, judging by the males. But I truly have no idea until I see the babies what they will look like once grown.
They all had ripped up fins and looked kind of depressed! Yes, the fish looked depressed. The water quality was only barely livable.
I took the fish out of the dirty water and immediately added them into a large 40 gallon long fishtank. The tank has excellent water quality and only had snails in it, plus a few random guppies. Now, a few days after adding the fish into their new home, one of the females has dropped her batch of fancy guppy babies (they are so cute, and some of them are blondes.) And all of the fish look happier! They are swimming around the tank as if they've lived there forever.
They have plenty of places to hide and a lot of free swimming space. The tank is perfect! There is so many plants floating around that most, if not all of the baby guppies survived and won't even need to be removed. The rescue guppies are perfectly happy! They adjusted so much better than I expected! :) Mission Guppy Rescue is a success!
Soon I will try to separate the colors/strains of guppy to preserve their colors and make their bloodline, as close to "pure-bred" as possible. The goal, will be for the strain, to "breed true."
I'll update about these rescue guppies ASAP. :}
Until next time!
* RainyFerns *
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