Living with Neon fishes

What are Neon fishes? Well, they are those small fishes with tiny bodies that have this neon blue glow-in-the-dark kind of illumination when light is shone on them at night.

They are also the species of fish which I have long mistaken as guppies. Felt so 'pai sei' when the fish shop aunty corrected me 1 or 2 months ago.

I have always been tempted to buy these little neon fishes to accompany my terrapins at home. Once, the uncle at another fish shop got so startled that I wanted to buy these fishes to rear with terrapins! He exclaimed that terrapins love to eat fish!

Anyway, this temptation (or should I use a milder word - curiousity) has never left my mind. I still remained curious to see how my terrapins would respond to these little neon-ies.

So it all happened today, when I was passing by the fish shop near Blk 85 market this morning. All of a sudden, I felt an urge to go in & take a look. Why? Coz these little neon-ies have always been sold at like $2 - $3 each. To my amazement, today the aunty was selling 10 fishes for $2! Gosh! I was so shocked when I saw the promotion sticker on her fish tank.

I quickly made up my mind to buy 10 of these little fishes. For whatever reason the aunty is selling them cheaply, it doesn't really matter since they may not live that long with my terrapins anyway.

When I reached home, I cleaned out both of terrapins' tanks & added more water to accomodate my new 'bait'. Somehow it all seemed like a scientific experiment to me.

I put 4 fishes into the tank with 2 big terrapins. And the other 6 fishes into the tank with 3 smaller terrapins. At first, both the large & smaller terrapins started to get curious & chase the fishes around the tank. They tried to smell them & attempt to nibble at them. I mean, afterall... they are FOOD. =)

After awhile, they got a bit bored with the fishes, so I presumed that everything was pretty okay. So I went away to do my own things. When I came back, out of curiousity, I saw Jacey (one of the big terrapins) chewing away at a corner! I was shocked! Could it be one of the fishes? I bent over to have a closer look & oh dear! It was one of the Neon fishes! Its body was in little shreds, with tiny shreds of red here & a few more shreds of blue there. These shreds floated & landed under a huge rock & Jacey began scrambling for the remaining scraps of that fish. But it couldn't move the heavy rock, so trying to reach there from other sides of the rock, it finally gave up.

As for the other tank with smaller terrapins, none of the 6 fishes were missing. Which is good.

Later when I came back, I noticed that there were only 2 Neon-ies left with the big terrapins! Oh no! So fast! Are they that hungry? Or just curious? This time, there weren't even any shreds left! You carnivorous turtles! So I quickly picked up the remaining 2 fishes & put them with the other 6 fishes in the other tank.

So the hypothesis proved true in the tank with big terrapins. That terrapins do eat fish.

As for the other tank with smaller terrapins, I noticed that there were only 7 fishes left at the end of the day. That's 1 missing! Well, that fella could be in hiding or it could have been eaten. But I doubt it, coz my other 3 terrapins are nice. The 7 Neon-ies swim freely right next & around them, without a care in the world! I wonder where is the 8th Neon fish. Maybe I'll check again tomorrow.

Overall, it has truly been an interesting experience for my terrapins. A small price to pay (i.e. $2) for a small treat & some fun (to hone their outdoor survival skills when I eventually release them). Let's see what happens over the next few days... =)