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.
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.
posted by k-maub @ 9:56 AM
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