Over the next month, Georgie did not die and was by far the healthiest guppy in class. She liked to play with the water plants and swim in fast circles when she saw us. As the resident fish doctor it was my job to regulate her progress, and I grew to love her. As the end of the project was coming up, I volunteered to bring her home; my older sister had a guppy too and could help me take care of Georgie. Finally the last day of observation rolled around. As I walked into class there was a bit of a buzz around my group’s table. I walked over and asked what was happened, worried that Georgie might have finally kicked the bucket.

Somehow, they told me, there were now 2 guppies in our pond. A small baby had been born! In awe, I stared into the murky water and saw the tiny new fish, with eyes almost equal to the size of her body. Somehow, miraculously, Georgie, not having met any male fish in the past 2 months, us having never seen any eggs, her being in a completely closed environment, had given birth. It was the first time something like this had happened in that Biology class and Georgie would serve as an example for future classes. I named the new guppy Georgia. At the end of the school day I got to take their mini-pond home.

Once Georgie and Georgia had survived the bus trip back to my house, I burst through the door and proclaimed that I was now the proud owner of 2 healthy guppies. My mom was NOT happy about that (For context, my mother has never liked pets, and generally doesn’t allow them). She told me to find a pond and dump them into it, but I insisted that they were bred in captivity and would die if we released them, so she countered with ‘they’ll die here too’, but I had rooted myself and wasn’t about to kill my two fish babies. Finally, we agreed to wait until my sister came home, since she was the resident fish expert.

She came home and we filled her in on the situation. She agreed that it would be best for them to stay with us, but we’d have to get them a tank and properly take care of them. Plus, there were no ponds close to us that we could dump them in. My dad came home and looked into their small pond. A bit confused, he asked how many fish babies there were supposed to be. We said 1 fish baby, and he told us that now there were 2. Georgie was popping out babies by the hour, it seemed — we named the new arrival George. No other children were born and it was decided that we would visit the pet store the next week.

In the meantime I had to move them into a 5-gallon bucket and feed them with my sister’s fish food. They almost died twice and once we thought they were dead (but they were just sleeping and my brothers were being melodramatic). Finally they had their own fish tank, but the troubles weren’t over yet. I learned that guppies have no qualms about eating their own children so we had to buy aquatic grass the babies could hide in. Although Georgie wouldn’t have eaten them anyway, since she kept stealing their food. Adult guppies needed to be fed once or twice per day, but the babies needed feeding up to 7 times.

Soon their personalities became clear. Georgie was a glutton, always eating something. Georgia was intelligent and curious, being the first to explore the tank and find out that the flakes I was giving them were food. George was timid and spent most of her time hiding. This dynamic resulted in George being the smallest of the three and almost never getting to eat her share. Lately she comes out at mealtimes but still mostly hangs out near the plants. So there you go. My fish are absolute miracles, living through months-long airtight captivity, secret childbirth, awful living conditions, and my mother’s pet prejudice. I love them to pieces <3 The end

YEE

Thank

Please don’t drink cocaine o.o;