Fishing
a Guppy Fish
Fishing
a Guppy Fish out of misery is not easy, especially if it jumped out
into the cement floor of the rooftop garden (from a water plant pot).
Let
me start with saying that my major interest is water plants.
I
breed guppies only to control mosquito menace.
I
am successful up to 90% of the time, after many years of trial and
error.
Mosquitoes
do lay eggs, but they are cleaned up by guppies, when I do not feed
them, one day out of 10 days.
Roughly
10th day they come out as larvae, quickly to be devoured
by hungry guppies.
Water
plants grow fast when there are lot of fish adequately fed.
Their
urine is my fertilizer especially for the lilies.
Toady
I pulled out the Japanese water fern in excess to give more freedom
for the guppies to swim and one accidentally jumped out.
Once
they are on the cement floor catching them is not easy.
One
cannot hand pick.
If
you do that one squeezes the kidneys and they die within 24 hours.
I
quickly dam the drainage outlet of the cement floor with water plants
(growing out of the top of the containers).
If
you don't the fish reaches the drainage pipe by default (it follows
the water flow by instinct) and gone in few minutes never to find
again.
I
open the tap in full throttles and look around to see where the
guy/girl is?
It
is often very difficult to find and it is in panic mode anyway.
Once
found I pick them with a leave made into a funnel with little water
at the bottom.
It
took over 10 minutes to locate it but quickly cornered it and landed
it on its rightful place.
My
cascading principle of letting water into the next pot of plant at a
lower level works most of the time for wondering fish but not when
one takes a mighty flying jump.
Even
though, I used to enjoy a fish soup instead of wine now, seeing a
fish in death dance is painful experience.
Every
day, I see fish (fresh water fish) vendors selling live fish (from
Mahaveli River) just out of water from the river or pond.
This
city is called Kandy.
Mind
you the magpie (local
singing bird) steals
my guppies every day.
Being
a bird lover growing lilies (the
leaves are a cover for the fish)
has its own surprises.
