o-m-g, y'all -- immaculate conception?!

Once again, I'm back to ask the epic question plaguing all fishy owners: food or bebehs?! The subject of my inquiry is, of course, Sunshine Daises, since she is my one and only remaining fishy from this summer's death-a-palooza in the tanks. You will note that not so very long ago -- indeed, in my very last post -- I asserted that she could not possibly be preggers, for reasons that should be obvious: she has been alone for months now, making conception. . .unlikely.

But she has grown, people. In a very noticeably preggers-suggesting sort of way. You doubt me?

Let's go to the evidence:

Sunshine Daisies on August 24, 2010. Note the aloofness and generally flat-tummied appearance after her move to the small tank.

And a familiar photo from not very long ago:

This is from September 8, 2010. You'll note that I did realize she had grown, but attributed the wide tummy to gluttony. Perhaps I was wrong.

How do I know?! I submit my final, and most damning evidence:

I mean, Good Lord. This was shot this very evening, September 24, 2010. That is not just food, people. Something else has got to be going on here. An undershot for good measure (note the prominence of the globular belleh:

You also can't see it well in these photos, on account of my having a relatively crappy camera, but the area just behind her belly is darker orange and has black dots in it -- a telltale sign of BEBEHS. (For the nerdier among you, this is called a "gravid spot" in pregnant platies, and the black dots are bebeh fish eyes as they're developing.)

How could this be possible? I went, as I always do, to the interwebs! According to an entry on the discussion boards at TropicalFishKeeping.com, a platy can save sperm and have up to six batches of fry (aka, bebehs) even without a male fish in the tank. Given this possibility, the only thing left to do. . . is wait.

*sits back, watches tank *

I'll let you know how this goes. Fingers crossed for some adorable fishes!

Stephanie

some good news! hurrah!

Not much to report, except that Sunshine Daisies is still alive after my two-week trip home! She's actually gained some weight, too, on account of the automatic feeder I left balanced ever-so-delicately on the edge of the tank:

Normally I would do my whole "food or BABEHS?" bit at this point, but since she's been totally alone for weeks on end now, and since there is a pile of food stacked up on the edge of the aquarium frame where it didn't all make it to the water, I'm going with total and utter gluttony on this one.

I have to note that the placement of a feeder on the tank has not in any way improved my status with Sunshine. Even in this photo, she's totally eyeballing the camera like, "WHAT? You wanna START SOMETHING?" Then she does little bad-ass poses with her fins.

I didn't catch that part on film. But it TOTALLY happened. *nods solemnly *

At any rate, the punchline here is that Sunshine is alive and well, if not respectful or even particularly happy with my return. One out of two ain't bad.

More later. For now, school is about to start, and I must read for my first class! Yay for small victories!

Stephanie