I fed the fish brine shrimp this morning, and as I watched I thought I saw a particularly large shrimp moving as frozen thing ought not to. And then I realised that one of the males had obviously got lucky, because it was a baby molly! And there were more of them! I’m not entirely sure, because they move a lot and hide in the plants (I am very glad I haven’t cut the plants recently – I was going to do it today!), but I think there are nine. I’m not sure whether they were born during the night and a few have been eaten, but they currently don’t seem to be getting eaten – which, given the fish were few about two hours later than normal today, is interesting, especially given everyone seems to say that you should put a pregnant fish in a separate tank with all sorts of stuff to stop her from eating them. Of course, I didn’t know we had a pregnant fish.

They are so cute! And I guess the death of the angels isn’t all bad, in an odd way, because I am sure they would have et the lot. Of course, I do miss my angels.

We’re going away today, to Ballarat and then Adelaide, and won’t be back until 28 Dec. I’m realistic enough to know that the babies might not actually last until then. I’m not sure whether they will get eaten, and I’m not sure whether they wil starve – they did eat some flake this morning, crushed up small, and there aren’t any greedy angels to eat all the food now, so maybe they will be OK. I have set up an auto feeder, to keep them all happy. Even if the babies don’t last, at least we know it can indeed happen, and maybe next time it will happen when we’re staying around! They really are cute.

One of the gouramis seems to have decided it’s time to build a bubble nest, even thought there are no ladies around to take advantage of it. He’s taking advantage of the free-floating roots hanging off the lily-pad-like plant (which is now almost as long across the surface of the water as it is from the gravel up, providing lots of hidey holes for babies), moving them around and blowing bubbles around them. Poor guy – all that work for nothing!

The babies are adorable, and so small!