Of fighters and sword ‘tales’

- Bernard Fernandes

The topic suggests a combat- however it’s not.  It’s rather about a passionate hobby.  It got started as a therapy, and is turning out to be a happy addiction. Diabetes, unacceptable levels of cholesterol, and an investigation of sorts brought me inadvertently to the doorstep of a relaxing and engaging past time. Thus opened the floodgates of knowledge of a different kind – fish tanks and their inhabitants!

The first fish tank arrived from distant Naigaum – our Salesian school out there was generous to part with the extra five footer tank that they had.  In came the tiny guppies and the mighty sharks, small mollies and swordtails, together with the exotic flower horns (florans, in India) and parrot fish. Aerators, filters, sand, colorful pebbles and shells, shrubs and plants, all found their way to the aquarium. Children flocked to it, visitors admired it, I loved it.  Smaller fish tanks were now a part of my room and office décor, and soon, another bigger fish tank followed in the school.  The fish (in all sizes and colors) kept coming – cichlids, angels, tetras, discus, piranhas, arowana, black ghosts, platys, oscars, red caps, gold fish, turtles, cat fish, suckers, silver dollars and gourami.

A closer observation, and you get the amazing behavioral patterns of the fish. I learnt that smaller guppies are a ready meal for the bigger grown up gold fish and turtles; cichlids, parrot fish and sharks can coexist; flower horns are to be kept in isolation, oscars are social as long as they are young; and angel fish are no angels! Fighters – so named, because they fight with their kind, to the extent of tearing the fins, and even killing the other – are no fighters in a tank of discus, angels, red caps and gold fish.  Sadly, they are the attacked. 

The male fighters have decorated fins – in fact that’s what makes them so attractive.  The female fighters – and that’s true for the majority of fish – come a distant second with a shorten fin and duller colors. And I wonder why! What caught my eye was the manner in which the fighters breed.  The mating season and after, has all the ingredients of an intriguing courtship: the bubble nest prepared by the male fighter, the embrace, the scooping of eggs from the bottom of the tank to a meticulous placement in the bubble nest by the male, and then the sole concern for the care and the breeding of the eggs and the fry by the possessive male, is a lesson in upbringing and ‘baby’ care. Why we have so many cases of foeticide (female?) and abandonment of infants in bins!

The swordtails and the guppies have it in them to ‘be fruitful and multiply’, albeit in a unique way.  The female swordtail can produce more than one batch of fry in a span of 2-3 months (without the presence of the male to mate for the second or the third reproduction cycle!). This is because the female can store enough sperm to fertilize six batches inside her body! Mind boggling! As of now, I have got two batches of fry by the same female swordtail in the absence of a male partner.

There you are…quite some facts through observation. It’s not even a year, and nature has thought me this much.  Never dreamt that I would put my hands to such an engaging and absorbing activity, and enjoy some peace of mind that comes along with it!  For all of you out there, it is not important that you go out and buy a fish tank – I confess it’s a difficult and ‘messy’ stuff – or go scouting to some far off places for some exotic fish.  Rather, stop running – some lessons from ‘The monk who sold his Ferrari’ here? – and stop to enjoy the wonderful nature around you before nature stops in its tracks and find you gone!