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| FishAn absorbing hobby I have been involved in since 2007 is fishkeeping. At present, February 2010 I have 2 adult Sunset White Cloud Mountain Minnows - offspring from 5 originally bought in 2007 - and 25-30 young ones who hatched November 2009. White Cloud Mountain Minnows are peaceful fish which were found rivers in the White Cloud mountains in China and can happily live outdoors in ponds in New Zealand or indoors in heated or unheated aquariums. They are called egg scatterers, the female releasing eggs usually in plants in the aquarium and the male fertilises the eggs. The young are called fry and will hatch out of the eggs usually in about 2 to 3 days and can be seen clinging to the glass while they develop. They live on the egg sac until after about 5 to 7 days they are strong enough to rise to the surface of the water. By the time they are 4 to 5 months old they are big enough to sell. These fish grow to a maxium of 4 cm.
In a 30 litre corner UFO aquarium I have 2 adult female guppies and 16 babies. These have been bred in unheated water and are not so colourful as fancy tropical guppies, yet still fascinating. The females give birth to live babies and since buying them, the one mature female has had 4 different deliveries since November 29, 2009. Apparently she can store the male seed and perhaps arranges her delivery time to suit conditions, otherwise it appears to be about every month. One of the second lot of babies is a male and has developed colours, an orange tail and end of his body with a dark blue spot on each side of his body, similar to his father.
The image of the UFO tank was when it housed about 16 Sunset Minnows and 2 Leopard Danios. I sold the Danios when they became to boisterous during spawning and then I added the guppies. In introducing some new plants and the guppies, also came infection and all of the Sunset Minnows died except for 2 adult females which I now have in a separate aquarium, and the male guppy. I had to completely empty the tank, discard the gravel and plants and run a formaldehyde solution through the tank and filter for a week, before setting it up again. At present this tank holds all the guppies.
05/04/2011 update - I have been selling cold water bred guppies. They bred very well. Some of he males developed fan tales, with coloured irridescent bodies The UFO tank now holds about 12 females and 60-80 young ones. As the males come to maturity I transfer them to a all male tank.
 In another aquarium I have 5 Dwarf Lemon Barbs, tropical fish, little cuties. They come from parts of India. Their maximun size will be 4 cm. These fish are also egg layers.
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 In a small outdoor pond I have 5 orange and 1 black Comet 'goldfish', together with about 10 young ones who are from eggs that I kept inside and raised the fry inside. The young fish are 2 years old and some of the black ones have changed colour to gold. There are still 2 or 3 which have not changed colour, and may not ever change.
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