Good morning!
I'm Cavity Angel, a guy who was so traumatized by the catchphrase (open call) "Mom, I'm going by train after all." that was displayed in front of the station in my childhood that it caught my attention!
I'd like to introduce the guppies, the main characters of this aquarium.
The original goal of Biocube was to "aim for a change of generations of fish", and for that reason we ordered a custom-made aquarium and took out a 35-year loan to build it starting from our house.
It's no exaggeration to say that my life is guppies, by guppies, for guppies.
And yet, talking about guppies is a terribly difficul
t mission.
In the world of aquariums, or rather tropical fish breeding, there is a saying, "It starts with guppies and ends with guppies".
That's how easy it is to get into guppies, how deep they are, how long they have been kept as pets, how many people keep them, and how they have been extensively studied in terms of breeding and breeding methods.
There are also plenty of Wikipedia articles and countless videos on YouTube.
It is impossible for someone like me to provide new information about guppies or information that only a few people know about at this point.
My experience with raising guppies is just dropping five pairs of mixed guppies that I received by mail order into a huge unsealed tank without properly adjusting the water or temperature (because I was exhausted from fighting the crucian carp).
That's all I have ever done.
I just observed them.
A person like me has no right to talk about guppies.
If there is something I should talk about, it might be why I, who have been in aquariums for quite a while (10 years), have been doing activities that have nothing to do with guppies up to this point.
The reason is that I entered the world of aquariums with the goal of creating a Mini-Earth from the beginning.
At first, I was obsessed with making shrimp successful, and it was many years before I seriously considered the possibilities of fish.
Also, until I started to go down the hellish path of 24/7 air conditioning, I found killifish and red-fin fish more attractive than guppies, which require heaters, so they were not really an option for me.
However, when it comes to constant air conditioning and a 1-ton tank, the topic suddenly becomes guppies.
If they are hardy, small, and ovoviviparous, then you pretty much have two choices: guppies and platies.
Unlike normal fish that lay eggs, ovoviviparous fish give birth to fry directly.
Even if they are not separated from their parents at the moment they are born, their chances of survival are much higher.
Of course, there is still a risk that the fry will be eaten by their parents.
But at least they will not be eaten at the egg stage.
That's why many people have found that they multiplied rapidly just by feeding them randomly, without having to go to the trouble of isolating them.
That's why they are called million fish.
In Japan, it seems to be customary to call guppies "ovoviviparous medaka," but as their unusual nature of ovoviviparity indicates, they are a species quite distant from medaka, and are closely related to the mosquitofish, which are medaka's rivals in the natural world.
And when it came to choosing between guppies and platies, both of which are famous for being ovoviviparous, guppies were chosen due to their small size and the large number of fry they can produce at one time.
I think "Start with guppies, end with guppies" is a copy of "Start with courtesy, end with courtesy", but if you think about this kind of copy, it is rare that it makes sense all the way to the end.
Even in this example, setting aside the first half's assertion that guppies are a good introductory species, I don't really understand why the second half, "End with guppies = guppies are the end?", is the case, and I'm sure there are many people for whom this is not the case.
However, I may be the aquarist who didn't "start with guppies" but who best fits "end with guppies".
In Mini-Earth, if you're looking to change the generation of fish, I don't think there is any better choice than guppies!
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