Big drama under the water... (December, 16)

Big drama under the water...

   Two days ago I visited my friend Yulia who lives in Chatan town, close to the school I attend.

Yulia is going to leave Okinawa soon with her new husband Gordon.

They will move to New York in January, where Gordon has his new assignment.

   I didn't visit just to say goodbye. She asked me to "adopt" their tropical fish (the big tank, snails and sea weed are included!) when

they will depart. Before making a decision I needed to know the dimensions of the tank. I also wanted to take a look at the fish, whether or not it was  worth it to bring the whole system into my condo. I left my visit with a good impression. Gordon had definitely spent a fortune on his aquarium set up.

I had also heard of a dramatic story about the "snails" war in the tank, which helped me to make up my mind.

   The story started very plainly. A couple of months ago, Yulia's friend gave her a bunch of "snails" for

the goldfish tank, saying that those creatures will clean the glass by eating the green moss in the tank. I will call the mollusks "snails" because I don't know the correct name for them. 

   Yulia put all of the snails into her big aquarium at the same time, which later turned out to be a crucial mistake. Gordon and Yulia found out pretty soon that snails have very high reproductive potential rate. Soon the tank bottom was filled with small snails and their eggs. Yulia rushed to the nearest tropical fish shop and asked the specialist about what could be done.

   The solution was to buy a bunch of "killer" snails which could eat those reproductive fellas. Yulia purchased the killers squad and put them in the tank.

In a week the tank bottom became covered with empty shells of the original snails. Their eggs were gone for good as well. The problem seemed to be solved. Killer snails occupied the tank bottom and looked so proud of themselves. But who could imagine that killer snails also like to reproduce? Their population started to increase dramatically. The only thing that kept them from total domination

was their lack of food  - the first kind of snails, because the killers nearly ate them all. Now starvation killed almost all of killer snails

but that wasn't the end. Some eggs of the first population managed to survive. Without killers they managed to grow up and reproduce again.

But some of killers survived the starvation, too. So in result they had their food (the first snails) again.

At the moment Yulia showed me her tank, there were representatives of both species, lazily crawling on the tank bottom.

  She said that if I took over her goldfish I would have a chance to observe continuation of the snail survival wars.

It sounds very enthralling, doesn't it? By the way, I must say that the tropical fish in the tank were also  good to have. A couple of big ones, several

small but colorful tiny fish, and one at the bottom, which looks like a small whale. I wish I knew their names! So most likely I would take the tank even without the ongoing snail issues inside it.

I can't wait until January!