Busy Day

Just a crazy day. While I was pulling out a young, tall tiger lotus from some shade, I was considering pulling out the breeding net since none of the eggs looked viable. Then, I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye.

Upon closer examination, I saw a tiny fishie swimming about: a cory fry! Of course, I had to stare for another 15 minutes, and I believe I saw a total of four at once. Not terribly great odds out of the 100+ eggs I put in there, but it was a welcome surprise after I had written the entire clutch off. Here is a video (with the camera held sideways) that attempts to do the sight justice:


Two more (shorter, more ambiguous):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEgO7UR8U78
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G09dDfrXwiw

Of course, since I didn't think any eggs were going to hatch, I had never tried to hatch any baby brine shrimp. I got that breeding box set up as soon as I could; it's a little patchwork right now; I wanted to make sure the water was warm so that I'd have some babies before I left town on Monday morning. I ran air (which was pretty messy) until most of the eggs sank to the bottom, as I believe they are supposed to do (the instructions on the packet say the egg shells will float up once they hatch).

As I was cleaning up the sink at night (I had to shuffle the siphon around to change 50% water on the 5 gallon tank), I found a snail shell. I thought it odd that I would forget a snail shell there; when I picked it up, I saw the operculum was shut tight. Sure enough, I dropped her in the tank, and she started opening up. The edge of her shell that was exposed when the operculum was pulled past it showed signs of weakness, leading me to believe she had been out of the tank for at least a day.

When she finally opened up all the way, I noticed she spit out some sort of fleshy carcass. I'm am at a loss for what that was, but I found myself more concerned with the fact that she immediately began sprinting up the tank wall to the filter, as if she were going to try to escape again. I'm hoping the tank doesn't suck that much; maybe she's looking for an appropriate place to lay some eggs.

No Sunday Rest

Well, I was wrong. There were more eggs in the morning, which I quickly moved to the net before heading out for my typical Sunday rituals.


Upon returning, there were still more eggs! That's over 24 hours of breeding for anyone counting out there. The groups of eggs now were numbering in the double digits, whereas previously, they were typically in groups of 3-6. Needless to say, the egg transfer was becoming something of a chore; I would guess I collected well over 100 eggs. With those kinds of numbers, even a modest hatch rate would leave me with my hands full.

In preparation, I went out and bought a baby brine shrimp (BBS) breeder. Actually, the first one I bought was missing a piece, but PetsMart let me exchange it for a complete one without much hassle.


From what I've read, the cories will hatch and feed on their yolk sacks for a day or two. Because the BBS need only 24 hours to hatch, I will put off hatching them until I see some cories hatching.

Lazy Saturday; Or Not

I noticed the cories behaving a little strangely this morning. Lots of wriggling and writhing going on. Pretty entertaining, but nothing to write home (or a blog entry) about. However, I noticed some clusters of white eggs. Too big to be snail eggs.

I looked more closely, and sure enough, a cory was spreading groups of five or so eggs on whatever she considered a suitable surface every few minutes. Thinking I would like to try and raise the spawn, I went out and picked up a breeding net at Alamo Aquatics. None too soon either, because the eggs I noticed were missing when I returned. Not so mysteriously, either; over the next few hours, I spotted male cories closely trailing the egg-layers and slurping up loose eggs. I also saw rasboras snack on any eggs that lost their grip and started sinking to the substrate below.


So, having seen the fate that awaited unprotected eggs, I set about the task of moving them to the relative safety of the breeding net, which I had placed on the right side of the tank. I bought some new, clean razor blades, but found it cumbersome and ineffective at scraping the still soft eggs off of the glass. So I gingerly used my fingers to massage them one or two at a time of the glass and onto some surface interior the net. Some plant parts I plucked off in their entirety and set them in the net.


This was a never-ending process because the two cories simply did not stop laying eggs. I knew to be poised for a deposit when I saw them clutched by her lower fins. Only once did I see their characteristic "T" behavior, where the female attaches her mouth to the underside of the male to accept his sperm.

It seems they're finally tapering off, and I can probably go to sleep tonight without having nightmares about helpless eggs being gobbled up.

Unraveling the Mystery

My thread on Aquamaniacs.net has started to yield some answers. I was led to this website which has let me to believe I captured a Gordian, or horsehair worm. The description matched what I have, from the tapered, indistinguishable ends, to the thin, coiled/knotted body positions.

Fortunately, it is not dangerous to me or pepper. At first, I thought it harmless to my fish and shrimp for that matter. According to this website, however, it preys on invertebrates as well as insects. In fact, thinking back, I remember seeing a white, squiggly mass in one of the ghost shrimp I bought, but at the time, I blamed that oddity on something he ate. Since mine was the adult form, he probably was harmless, but on the off chance that he managed to spawn, I put him down the sink anyway.

Snail Overboard -- Worm Out of Board

I was about to go to bed last night when I heard something fall over in the kitchen. I contemplated ignoring it, but my cat was with me, so a random noise like that was a bit unusual. Sure enough, on my kitchen counter was one of the larger mystery snails, which had retreated into its shell.

I'm guessing it must have fallen about 2 ft (I saw the wet streak up the filter), but I hopefully placed him back in the aquarium on the rotala indica. Sure enough, in the morning, he had moved somewhere else, so I'm guessing it's okay.

This evening, however, I found that a suspicious looking root I had spotted a couple days ago was not a root at all. It had moved to another part of the tank and appeared to be moving itself about. I reached in with my scrubber brush to scoop it out, and it coiled up a half dozen times as I lifted it out and placed it in a water-filled ZipLoc bag.


Because my camera battery was dead, this camera-phone picture I was the best I could do. It continued to writhe and wiggle, but could not infect the rest of my shrimp from my new home. I just hope my cat doesn't get into it...