Tharulya's Diaries

  Life of a Fighter fish                                        Life for a baby Fighter fish (Betta Splendens is the scientific name) starts from a small egg, spawned out of the female Fighter fish. The male Fighter fish first makes a bubble nest under a leaf. He spends all day making it.  male with his bubble nest (this is actually a photo of a male with babies hanging in the bubble nest). The next day he leads the female under his bubble nest. then he and she spawns. The male curls around the female tightly to expel her eggs out.   spawning Small, white colour eggs come out. Then the male picks up the falling eggs in his mouth. Then he coats them with saliva and attaches them in the bubble nest. The female spends about 1 minute on the surface of the water, looking like she is dead. Then she starts to move. She goes to help the male pick up the eggs. But she c...

  This is the painting I did day-before-yesterday (October 4 2021). This is the grey heron we saw in October 03 2021 when we went to the Pepilyana marsh in the evening. This grey heron is popping its head out of the paddy and weeds in the paddy field. Done with colour pencils.   I did this painting today (October 6 2021). This is my male fighter fish, who I named Blue. I used two different photos to paint this. One photo of Blue, and one photo of my aquarium for the background. Blue is staying inside the log of my fish tank. I have painted Blue’s father, Redgem, in a different painting too. Following is that painting. In Blue’s painting, I painted the inside of the log and the tree on the edge of the painting with watercolours. I did the outer bit of the log with pastel. And Blue with colour pencils.    

  Four paintings I did in September,2021. The first one is two egg-laying (called spawning) Common Clownfish (Amphiprion Ocellaris). They both are spawning in a cave under their home sea anemone. The female tends the eggs. And the male waits in the background. This painting is done with colour pencils. The next painting is a coconut tree in the beach.    this is done with pastel. The next painting is an Adult Red-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer) feeding its chicks.   The adults have built the nest in a garden full of trees. This painting is done with colour pencils too. The last painting is a stamp of a White-faced Starling (Sturnus Senex). I did this painting in September too. This one too is done with colour pencils. I did one today (October 3 2021) too. following is that painting. It is a male Orange Migrant butterfly (Catopsilia Scylla) on a small plant. This butterfly belongs to the family Pieridae. This one is done with colour pencil...

  Today’s (October 2 2021) evening was full of animals. They were mostly birds. At about maybe 4. 45, birds flew and had sang everywhere. Birds such as Tailor Birds, Red Vented Bulbuls, Black Robins, Rose-ringed Parakeets, Purple Rumped Sunbirds, Spotted Doves, Blue Tailed Bee-eaters, White-Bellied Drongos, Mynas, Yellow Billed Babblers, a Sri Lanka Lesser Flameback and a Green Imperial Pigeon was there.   White-bellied Drongo         Purple- rumped Sunbird, Male Tailo r Bird Purple-rumped Sunbird, Female   Green Imperial Pigeon Blue Tailed Bee-eater Lesser Sri Lanka Flameback the Sri Lanka Lesser Flameback, two Spotted Doves and the Blue Tailed bee-eater are all seen here. Yellow Billed Babblers Green Imperial Pigeon     Red Vented Bulbul  Common Mynas Black Robin   And a Common Squirrel.   I took all these photos. hope you enjoy it.  

  I drew this poster today (September 6 2021). It shows some cichlids from lake Malawi. Coloured with colour pencils.

  Painting I did today (September 5, 2021). This is a Guppy fish tank. There are the water plants straight Vallis, Amazon Swords and a Cabomba plant. There is one male Rainbow Guppy, two male Blonde-Red Guppies, one male Dragonhead Tuxedo Guppy, two male Green Snakeskin Guppies, one male Neon-Blue Guppy and a female Guppy. There are two Bronze Corydoras, two Clown Loaches and two Coolie Loaches resting on the floor too. Done with colour pencils.  

  Painting I did today (September 3 2021). Two fish in the Amazon forest’s river. A Pike cichlid and the silhouette of the Red bellied Piranha in the distance. There are two water Lily plants, and both of them have flowers. A fallen log is on the pebbles. Pike cichlids have a spot in their caudal peduncle that looks like an eye. That is for protection against fin nipping Piranhas.   Done with colour pencils.    

    Painting I did today (August 30 2021). A green sandpiper looking for food. in a puddle In the middle of the paddy field on the Papilyana marsh. This is a wader bird. The puddle is surrounded with paddy plants, another short tree and some grass.   done with colour pencils.  

  Painting I did today, (August 29 2021). Five of the fish in my other fish tank. There are, two of my pink and green coloured zebra danios on the top, a female paradise fish named Pearl besides them, a male Fighter fish whose name is Redgem, (the biggest fish) and one of my yellow colour black widow tetras beside the two trees. Done with colour pencils.

  Painting I did today. Pigeon blood discus (big one) with juvenile yellow checkerboard discus, (smaller one) and bronze corydora fish (under the log). They are three of the fish in my fish tank. Done with colour pencils.      

  Once again, a bulbul comes to our house. We tried chasing the bird, but he kept coming inside. The birds made a nest on the curtains again. From some days after the bulbuls ware finished making their nest, one day we saw one bird was sitting on the nest, that means…..they have laid eggs.           The bulbuls ware sitting on the nest more days than last time. They were sitting on the nest more than a week. One day we saw one adult bird was bringing food. We started to think the eggs hatched. The eggs have hatched. Because they kept bringing food. They fed the chicks.   One day I saw one chick who was screeching it’s wings a bit. That chick’s wings was already ready to fly. Another day, when the adult bird was feeding I saw one chick was way smaller than the other 2. A bit later in the same day I was in the sofa. I saw the adult birds ware doing something together. then I saw something gre...

  Mottled Emigrant butterfly      A mottled emigrant ’s scientific name is Catopsilia pyranthe . It is in the order Pieridea. Their food plant is Panithora . The caterpillar is green with black and white stripes on the sides.    Emigrants are green colour butterflies. The female mottled emigrant has spots in her wing.          Their pupa is like a rolled up leaf. Like the emigrant caterpillar and butterfly, the pupa is green colour. `       

This story begins when a red vented bulbul comes to our house, it lands on our lamps and curtains. The bird selected our curtains. We knew that the bird was building a nest because it was bringing sticks. One day I found a stick witch has fallen down from the nest, it was longer than the bird itself!   With help from another red vented bulbul [witch must be the male or female bird] they finished building their nest from some days.        Sometime after building the nest, the female red vented bulbul kept sitting on the nest. We started to think that the female laid eggs. She left the nest time to time to look for food. She sometimes sits on the nest at night. But sometimes she doesn’t. from about one week we found an eggshell thrown away by the red vented bulbul parents. When we are inside our house, I saw one of the adults taking some food for the hatchlings. Both parents bring food for the hatchlings. ...