Welcome to Brad's online memory archives.

Fish Babies

The fish in the aquarium in my classroom have babies every once in a while. I usually don’t notice them until there are only two or three left. This time, I noticed right away. There are at least a dozen babies. Or, there was yesterday. The adult fish eat the babies, so not many of them survive to adulthood. If they do, sometimes they’re healthy, but sometimes they’re deformed. Fish stock can get a little inbred. After all, the fish in my tank are brothers and sisters. Around here they’d say my fish tank is an awful lot like West Virginia, because West Virginia is often the subject of incest jokes. Not having met any romantically involved brother/sister couples from there, I haven’t observed any substantiation of the stereotype. Still, it makes a good joke. I mean, when does the Pope ever walk into a bar with a rabbi and a Buddhist monk?

Anyway, to help keep them alive I grind up flake food really fine so the tiny babies have food, and I hope they’re smart enough to hide in the plants so they don’t get eaten.

The babies were hard to get a picture of. My camera kept focusing on other things. A baby fish is just to the right of center in the picture below.

Watch out for those big fish!

A closeup:
Awww, it's so cute.

13 Comments

  1. Lauren

    Can they live in your pond? Then they could be the next generation of inbred fish and maybe you’d get some cool mutants!!!

    Here’s a joke: The Pope walks into a bar. There’s a teacher, a mutant fish, and a broken mug. …. I can’t remember how it ends.

    • Carol

      Between you and Brad I have already had to go for tissues because I’ve laughed so well my eyes leaked. Great start to a rainy Saturday around here, Lauren – thanks!!

    • Peggy

      HA!!

      I think the Pope, looking at the mutant fish & broken mug, asks the teacher if the stool next to him is taken. The teacher says …….

      • Lauren

        “Sorry, it’s for Protestants only.”

        The Pope replies….

        • Peggy

          “My dear son, haven’t you heard? Your government has outlawed being Protestant.”

          ……

        • Peggy

          Hey…who’s gonna finish the joke???

        • Lauren

          I thought that was the punch line. Isn’t the government interfering in our lives always the punch line?

          (Grinning because this will make Brad’s blood boil.)

        • Peggy

          Haven’t you heard…he’s sending in his taxes early…to help with the bail out. You can always count on that Brad in a pinch.

        • Brad

          Oh, no you don’t. I won’t let you guys bait me into a rant about the government. The stupid, stupid government. The $700-billion-dollar-spending-on-stupid-people-who-made-bad-decisions-and-we’re-all-bailing-them-out-at-the-expense-of-tanking-our-economy government. Grrr!

  2. Peggy

    Haven’t met any substantiation??? I can think of at least 2 that you teach everyday!

    • Kim

      Fish tanks, West Virginia, Lutheran schools…all a little bit inbred.

  3. Lloyd

    Where I grewdup we had to hide in the plants so that we wouldn’t be eaten too.

  4. Lauren

    Hey, where’s kiwe?

© 2024 bradaptation.com

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑