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Texpat

My wife's friend has a beauty salon in Udon Thani and I always admired the giant pot out on her step. It contains a few plants and the most gorgeous tiny fish I've seen. Giant guppies flashing colors on their tails. Fat, wobbly goldfish that poke and explore around the lillies.

So my lovely and talented wife thought it would be nice to have a fish pot (technically not a tank, more of a ceramic pot) on our back porch. So two months ago, off she goes to buy a pot and a few plants -- not as big as her friend's but good enough. We visited the local fish store and bought TEN, count 'em, 10 fish. Five males and five females.



Life was good for our new pets. Until they started at it. Within days two of the fish appeared bloated and I thought wifey was feeding them too much. I was wrong. A few days later there were about 20 kids bobbing around lookin for dinner.



Wow. We were a bit amazed that we selected two preggy bitches out of the five females. We also noticed several water snails suckin the scum off the sides of the pot.

Today, I looked again, and I'll be dipped in shit. About 75 fish in there and it looks like that number is going to grow. And there are probably 25 snails, but my wife confirmed that she'd eat those bastards if they got to thick.

And then I noticed this.



What's in these tiny fish pellets the pet store guy sold me? Whatever it is, it's puttin the horn on these buggers and ain't none of 'em a narwhal. Is this normal? To go from 10 to almost 100 in two months? Will they slow down or take a break? My wife said the best thing to do is separate the males and females but I have two issues with that idea.

1. I can't, even with a magnifying glass, see any lil fish willies.
2. If I were a fish in a tank of other male fish, I'd grow extremely irate and start killing things.

Short of getting another pot, I'm not sure what to do. Is there a requirement for the size or type of fish that go into Pah-la?

Any and all advice is welcomed.

Happyman

Just let'em be.

Mynah birds and visits from pond herons will regulate the numbers.

I have a similar bowl in my aviary and as you did - started off with about 20 tiddlers.
Now seem to have balanced out at about 100 and kept under control by the thrushes I have ( same as Mynahs) and a watercock - before that it was outside in the yard and mynahs and pond herons did the same .
Live food !

terry57

Its normal for these guppies to breed so quickly, especially in an ideal climate like you have there in Udon.

Give some away to your friends.

John

It is a great idea. The mosquitoes are looking for water to lay their eggs and watchful fish do a great job to kill them. Here is a lot of Dengue Fever already. This is caused by the daytime mosquitoes - so no real way to escape. But different to Malaria there is no treatment at all. You might survive one kind of Dengue but not an other. I had Dengue here already. Got it in the middle of Pattaya. For me every mosquito could mean the end. Should go back to the cold Europe...

Ivor Biggun

Very nasty place to get it. Lower down it'll have got your bollocks.

Loombucket

The BIL's g/f has a similar problem in her garden. She started with two males and two females in a little pot. She hoiks the babies out every now and then and gives them away. I don't think it's the food. Lack of predetors maybe.

Texpat

Just out of curiosity, what does she get for, say, a dozen young mosquitoes?

I do believe with a small fish pot with nearly 100 full-time residents, any mosquito larvae will be lunch. On that note... wouldn't it be advisable to welcome the local mossies to deposit their brood into such a consumptive arena?

Maybe I will get another.

kingwilly

i would think that the fish numbers and size will balance out according to the size of the pot.

hooter

^ NR is right.

Let the pot find a balance, which will come over time with predators etc.

The water will become toxic for the fish due to over population (shitting) as they are living in their own toilet.

Let them get on with it.

no1dad

i agree , i think there's something fishy about the story anyhow