No Thanks! Mr Murphy

You never run out of things that can go wrong

~ Murphy’s Law

Mr. Murphy visits me every year in the TVR breeding season. Last year, a number of breeders and show fishes were accidentally killed due to my negligence - in my rush to work, I forgot to administer anti-chloramine after water change. The year before, a batch of fries were drained off due to a loose plug in the drainage. Yet in another occasion, I forgot to put back the air stones and many young fishes suffocated. The lists of my silly mistakes goes on… sometimes, I took many days to forgive myself. Every fry means so much hard work that only the avid goldfish breeders would understand.

Just when I hope to complete the TVR breeding earlier this year with an earlier start, most of the spawns do not have good fertility rate. Batches #2 to #4 were bad in quality and none was left after the second culling. There are some decent fishes in batch #1, but they got sick and some had perished in the bad weather. They are now on medication and all feeding has stopped. Tragedies that struck when the fries have grown so big is always a very sad thing tho happen.

This year, the weather in Singapore is particular bad, one moment it was so hot with bush fires and the next moment there will be torrential rain. Drastic temperature fluctuations signify the peak of the spawning season and also causes more outbreak of diseases. Now, who was rain dancing just few weeks ago and complaining about the rain now? :)

It is very easy to cook up excuses to blame Murphy and the weather. However, all these mishaps simply mean that I have to improve on my self-discipline, techniques and facilities.

I managed to collect some eggs again, lets start over and hope for the best.

Pictures:
1) Casualties of chloramine poisoning
2) 21 day old fries.
3) Improvised "Tawashi" to collect eggs