Page 48 - REALLY What A time Book IX

REALLY SO WHAT
What A Time

MY FAMILY

thermometer that floated in the tank. Tropical fish obviously
needed tropical temperatures.

Betas were his favorite fish, and probably the prettiest, red or
blue. He had both red and blue, but, one was special it was
black. They were also known as Siamese fighting fish. In the
tank they were usually about 1 inch long with long flowing
upper, lower and tail fins.

They didn’t like each other and if two were in the tank they
would probably kill each other. If instead of letting two into
one tank you held a mirror up to them they would puff out
their gills and ram the tank trying to get to their mirror image.
Joe tried the impossible with Beta’s. He tried to mate them.

With another tank he separated two of them and proceeded to
introduce them without letting them fight. This actually
worked and at one point they mated and then the male
squeezed the female squirting out a fist full of live bearer baby
Betas. He separated them from their parents, and soon
needed to separate each of the babies. He lost many, but had
achieved an almost impossible endeavor.
From about 9 he became interested in fishing for fish. It
probably began during our family visits to Grandma Anna’s in
Allentown, Pa. Both Grandpa Michael and Uncle Paul were
avid fisherman. Uncle Paul was crippled yet from his wheel
chair he taught lots of kids how to cast and fly fish. He was a
prize winning fly caster.

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