Austin360 blogs > Globe-Jotting > Archives > 2009 > May > 09 > Entry
The guppies — they’re great, too
The fish, all 20-plus of them, are doing splendidly, thanks.
Pretty much. A snail and two fish have died in the month since I started seeding my large cube of heated, filtered water. The snail was a punk, the two fish loser runts. “Survival of the fittest,” the fish store people mutter mantralike. Darwin’s all smiling.
One of the frogs (tiny, African, boingy) seems too skittish to eat — he ducks his head under the coral, his little behind poking out — but his spotted, frosty-white pal is a glutton, especially fierce when it’s time for the frozen bullion of bloodworms to appear. Feeding frenzy!
They mesmerize. I find myself constantly peeking over the book I’m reading (now: Geoff Dyer’s comic travel novel “Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi”) to watch the fluttery fishies. They soothe. They inspire small wonder. What are they doing in there? They school and chase each other and kiss the plants and gravel with their rubber lips, puckering, plucking. They look happy, but mostly energetic, lusty.
When I jam my arm into the crystalline depths to adjust a plant or drop in the bloodworms, lots of the fish come circling around and kiss my skin, like it’s an enormous live shrimp, yummy.
Now that I’ve skipped my spring trip, reluctantly but wisely, I think I’ve cinched my fall trip: Brazil and Argentina. I don’t know much about either countries, but I’ve only heard raves.
I don’t expect to spend more than a few hours on the beach, unless snorkeling is involved, and many deep in the cities — Rio, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires. Also: waterfalls and glaciers, that kind of thing. I’m excited enough that my head is gurgling, ready to explode. Come on, October.
Glaciers, Argentina
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