"Somewhere beyond the sea..."

"Fish weren't meant to live in a box, kid. It does stuff to them."

The past 27 hours have been an interesting bit of life, animal behavior and domesticity vs. wild. I was awoken from a nap yesterday for dinner to find that in the two hours I was sleeping one of my angel fish laid eggs. I have spent the past 27 hours researching, talking to people and watching the goings on to figure out what the heck to do. The thought of breeding angels has crossed my mind a couple times. It'd be awesome. The main problem being I'd probably have to get a bigger tank and if I really do have two females, buy more angels to create a school and hope that in that school there is a male and female that decide to pair off. Until then, I guess I'll just have to watch my golden lay eggs and hope the spotted is a male and finally learns that he's not supposed to eat the eggs. He's supposed to fertilize them.

It amazes me that a fish who shares a small 15 gallon tank with eleven other fish would be comfortable enough to raise young in such an environment. Amazing that both angels will gaurd the eggs and the ten other fish will stay on the other half of the tank. Amazing that danios, such small fish in comparison to other fish in the wild, are naturally the sheep herders of the fish world. Amazing that fish can actually have personalities. Amazing that not only is it relaxing to sit and watch fish, but also relaxing. Amazing that a fish laying eggs can make me so nervous that I have a hard time sleeping, hard time focusing on work, hard time not wanting to be home to protect them. They are just fish! My goodness!

But I love them and they are the only pets I can have. For now.