Over the summer we posted a couple of times about the population growth issue in our fish tank. Our guppies were breeding with gusto. We had adopted a no-flush policy, and had additionally segregated the newborns from the adults so that the little ones would not become tasty snacks for the big ones. But all this solicitude for the babies meant that their numbers were outstripping the room we had to house them all.

We tried various means to stop the fish from breeding. We banned the playing of all Marvin Gaye tunes within 25 feet of the tank. We hovered over the fish, hoping that parental supervision might limit the mating activity to heavy petting. On several nights, I rehearsed lectures about tax law right next to the tank, hoping to blunt the male fish's sex drive. Nothing worked.

And so gradually we adopted new policies. As the bowls of fry grew up a bit, we added them back in with the adult population, and as new batches of babies came along, we adopted a don't-ask-don't-tell policy about cannibalism. Although we had three teenage boys chasing around dozens of females, all day long, the numbers have pretty much leveled off, at least temporarily.

As a longer-range solution, we have decided to segregate the males and the females. The guys are now in a new, smaller tank in my office, where manly things tend to happen; the far more numerous gals have been left in the big tank off the kitchen. (Talk about your gender stereotypes.) Here are the fellas in their transitional plastic bag, which is sitting in their new tank waiting for the water temperatures to even out:

We'll be watching the females now for new offspring, of which there will doubtlessly be some, given the frenetic activity of the males in recent days. We may even resume saving the newborns from their fate as Mom's lunch, since we've got only the three boys and so many more females -- we could use more guys. (Although now I feel like the Communist Chinese.) In any event, if our overall population starts to sag, there will always be opportunities for conjugal visits.