While draining the rice field nursery after transplant we noticed that there were several fish and plankton living in the left over puddles. Wondering what they were, we pulled several out and placed them in a holding tank to see what they turned out to be. After two weeks with us, we noted that there are several more fish than what we started with. We are guessing that those from eggs that were in the soil that we brought back with us as well.
We also found an interesting little creature in the tank that we do not believe was with us before. It is a larvae of some kind. More than likely it is a dragonfly or a water beetle of some kind. It is still a little small and hard to tell just yet.
We've been feeding the fish, and the larvae, dried blood worms, which they have been going to town on.
So far we haven't put a pump in the tank with the fish. Since the water wasn't moving from where we caught the fish we didn't want to add too much oxygen to the mix just yet. Eventually we will have to put the fish in a bigger tank and add a pump to simulate the rushing river.
In the new fields we have seen similar fish swimming around. The nursery was watered with well water and the area the nursery was built on wasn't under water, so the fish are an interesting find. The new field where their are several schools of fish swimming around came from both the Delta water and the well water. From the Delta water we might expect fish, but the groundwater well water?
Groundwater comes from surface water, natural landscape recharge and irrigation return water. On some levels it makes sense that there might be fish in the groundwater wells, but many times the water is filled with nitrates and excess salt, which might cause problems for the fish within the groundwater system. At this point all we can do is wait and see if these little guys grow up and what they, grow up to be.
We have placed them in distilled water so we can keep the water fresh.
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