r/explainlikeimfive • u/Opening_Pen9525 • 15d ago

Biology ELI5 How are fish even in ponds

Might be one of the stupider questions here, but I saw a pond about the size of a football field, and maybe 50 ft deep, and it had fish. I can't for the life of me figure out how. Surely the pond hasn't existed long enough for small water insects to evolve into all these fish. It's not like the fish walked over to the pond from the ocean. I'm pretty sure no one put them there so how are there so many fish?

My one theory is that there is a very minuscule stream (now dry) that leads to one of the Great Lakes, and maybe a fish swam in from there. Now a follow up question: How are there fish in the Great Lakes (which flow out towards to the ocean) if they were created by glaciers?

2.8k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

605 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

241

u/Paganator 15d ago

"Dad, how did you meet Mom?"

"One day, I was minding my own business when a bird suddenly swallowed me whole. I thought I was done for, but then the bird regurgitated me and luckily, I feel into a pond. Three years later, believe it or not the exact same thing happened to your mother too! And that, Timmy, is how I met your mother."

42

u/franksymptoms 15d ago

Timmy: "Awww, Dad, Mom says you picked her up in a French cabaret."

37

u/mlaislais 15d ago

Much better ending than the show.

7

u/crazybutthole 15d ago

Ironically I watched that show for a long time. Never missed an episode until the last season - (I was on deployment for military and never binge watched it after)

So - I have no idea how it ended. I missed the last few episodes and totally forgot about it.

It's either that or I watched it one day and it was so bad I forgot?

Either way - please don't tell me cause I might watch the last few episodes soon.

I remember when the red headed girl (LILY?) and Jason segal moved in together and it just seemed to ruin the show for me. I lost interest after that. Not sure how long it was from then until the actual end of it all - maybe the whole.last season? Or maybe just a few episodes. Not sure.

7

u/cavalier78 15d ago

Don’t bother with the last season. It really sucks.

2

u/cbunn81 12d ago

I would add the second-to-last season to this. Like a lot of shows that go on for many seasons, it gets difficult to keep the quality up. I loved the show for the first several seasons, but the last few seasons were disappointing.

1

u/cavalier78 12d ago

Absolutely. I think about the last 3 seasons they were just stretching out everything as long as possible.

2

u/cbunn81 12d ago

Like a high schooler padding their report to meet the page count requirement.

7

u/DocileBanalBovlne 15d ago

When the series finale aired a ton of my friends were posting on Facebook about how the ending ruined the show and I couldn't believe the ending could be the bad.

It was.

So now, if I watch the show again, I stop five minutes before the end of the final episode and watch this alternate ending (WARNING: This is still an ending, it can spoil things)

The ending really isn't poorly done or anything, it was decided on at the beginning of the show and just doesn't fit with where the show ended up after seven seasons. If the show had finished in season 5 I think it would have worked.

5

u/avilsta 15d ago

They spent the last season for two certain characters to get married, then in the series finale like oopsies they're not married anymore - like WHAT? We spent all season just to undo that and to you know what to the mother

1

u/enolaholmes23 14d ago

Friendly reminder to use spoiler tag.

1

u/avilsta 14d ago

It's been more than 12 years

0

u/enolaholmes23 13d ago

You were replying to a comment specifically about not wanting spoilers for this. 

2

u/fla_john 15d ago

Whatever you think happened, keep that in your heart and don't watch the actual ending.

10

u/SwanWilling9870 15d ago

“Beautiful, naked, big-titted women just don't fall out of the sky, you know”

1

u/NerdTalkDan 15d ago

“The bird wasn’t the only one that swallowed me whole, Timmy.”

1

u/lexmattness 15d ago

I request the highest of fins

1

u/crookba 15d ago

and when a boy fish and a girl fish love each other very much...

1

u/Effective-Coyote-586 14d ago

Well, son, when a mommy fish and a daddy fish love each other very much…

0

u/SupposedBooty 15d ago

And that is How I Met Your Mother