A few weeks ago I decided that I wanted to get some pet fish. Now I have had pet fish for the last 7 years, but not to long ago I gave my two angel fish to a sweet lady that I had met as I had wanted to get rid of my fish and tanks. I had a couple of tanks here that each contained 1 fish. Finally I emptied one of the tanks and moved it lone occupant on tje larger tank with the other one. now I had a small catfish and a "Flying Fox" in the tank. Nothing really exciting, and the tank was mostly empty with two fish that didn't do anything.
Now I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I sent a message to the woman that I had given the Angel Fish to, but she has been away and hadn't replied. Oh what to do.
I was sitting and watching TV as I surfed, and decided that I would get some guppies. Guppies would be interesting, as that breed real fast, so that would mean that I wouldn't have to go back to the store to get more as they died off. But did I really want to do that? I know from time to time I like to get something different to look at, but did I want to just stick with guppies, and what would I do if the tank got over populated? I decided to do some research on the Internet. I noticed that some people kept only male guppies because they found them to more colorful than the females. I then remembered that PetsMart sold them by sex. I also remembered that they had different breeds of guppies, one of which is called a Delta Guppy. More research. I had pretty much made up my mind on Deltas, but then I came across a site that showed different tail types. I saw what I wanted.
I went PetsMart and took a look. The Deltas were nice, but I fell in love with the Fancies. I saw a yellow one in the tank that was being picked on by some of the others in the tank. It was the only yellow one in the tank. I had the girl pick that one and I liked the black ones, so I got one of them. I brought them home and put them into the tank. About an hour later, the yellow one began to pick on the black one. I had to laugh. After some time they would swim friendly with each other.
This morning I awoke and looked into the tank. I could find the yellow one, but not the black one. A few hours later I found the black one on the floor behind the tank dead. I was a little upset, but I had planned on buying some more today, so I figured that I would replace him with another black one.
When I got to the store, I decided that I would buy two black ones, two orange ones, and one yellow one. I came home with them and put them into the tank with the lone yellow. After a few minutes the lone yellow came over and joined the others, even giving them a tour of the tank.
Not to long ago, the light for the tank turned off as scheduled. I noticed something that I found interesting. The fish were hanging together bases on color. The Black ones were together, the Yellow ones were together, and the Orange ones were together. Yes they were all close to each other, but they had paired off into there own section. When one would swim away some, so would the other, but never two colors. I got to thinking about them as I have watched them since the "tour" ended. They have been sticking together based on color. It makes me wonder if this is some kind of racism in the tank? Are fish in a way Racist? If this is true, it makes me wonder if racism is really something that is natural. I'm going to have to keep an eye on this over the next few days.