What, You Didn't Know I'm a Fish Midwife?

Well, I didn't either, until last night. I've realized (much to my dismay) that there's LITERALLY something in E's (fishtank) water that is making the fish go crazy with reproductive activity, thus, we had the 5th round of babies we've had in 3 months last night. AND another one of the fish is about to pop any day now.

Now, let me back up for those of you who don't know this RIDICULOUS story... E's fish (Puppy & Puppy - the 2 Dalmatian Mollies that got knocked up at the same time - and they look alike - Dida, Marlin, Nemo, Dory, Sticky -- the Plocastamus -- and Annie. Now a few months back, One of the Puppies had babies - which I have had tanks my whole life and have never ever had fish that got pregnant (twice in 6 weeks), so I thought this was ultra cool. I got this tank net/divider to keep the babies in, so they wouldn't be eaten by the adults and then we kept one (Scooter) and gave away quite a few. THEN, Puppy, Dida, Annie and Scooter died while we were on vacation (something weird happened with all those babies peeing in the water... way too long of a story and surprisingly, this is turning out to be too long too, but I digress... The problem was, my mom, who was housesitting when they died (also a funny story that I'll save for another time), bought us another Puppy (actually two more - thus Puppy and Puppy) and a Dida and an Annie.

All was well - no more babies and new fish. Joy. Then, I started thinking Annie looked suspiciously pregnant - turns out ... she was. Right from the store. So, she had a few babies, and I thought that was it - that's pretty crazy to have 3 rounds of babies by different fish in such a short time. I was so tired of catching all those babies (with my kitchen seive, by the way, since I couldn't find my net) and all that goes with so many babies. Then one of the Puppies had a litter of fry (did you know that's what they're called??) - we managed to keep one, which is currently in the baby net.

So, the past few days, I've been thinking both Puppies look pretty fat... and last night when I was sneaking into E's room to turn off the fish light after she fell asleep I actually SAW Puppy having babies! After I noticed about 5 babies floating at the top of the tank. So I caught them, and was a little aggravated, but I guess I could find homes for 5 more fish. But they seemed to be everywhere - like they were coming out of the woodwork and I was wondering if I looked very hard at the beginning to find them... so 35 baby fish later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!... I'm talking to myself, thinking what the FLIP is going on??? Fish don't have this many babies and here I am chasing them around (with the kitchen tool) while Eden's sleeping trying to save them from the inevitable sure death if they're not separated from the adults. What EVER will I do with trillions of fish? I seriously considered 'accidentally' tipping the net to let them out and letting nature take it's course... we shall see... I still may. Am I horrible? Anyone want a fish? Or 10?