second try for Pinki + BC

[guppler]

Yep, they did it again.
I noticed my 2 cory aenus getting kind of frisky and snugly again, so I was watching, but they still managed to surprize me. For one thing the mourning doves with a nest under the roof of the front porch were busy too. Dadwas singing and Mom was watching, and both took turns flying down to wisit their most recent fledgeling which appeared content to wander around the plants and table between the window and the door for most of the day. by the time baby dove decided to move on, I had the tank ready and started tranfering about half a dozen clusters of eggs averaging around a dozen eggs each. I had to go back for more twice, once after midnight, at which point I turned off the lights and decided not to look again until morning.
One of the things I'm most excited about is that they put some eggs on plastc plants, which made them easier to transfer than the onesglued to walls.
I'll still be happy to get 1 or 2 babies, but there could be a potential for close to 100 this time, and I'm guessing there's a good cance for about a dozen at least if any of them make it, depending on haw many are fertile. I think there were 15 or so on the fake plant leaf that I was first so happy to see them on, and it's harder to tell exactly how many on the longer branch of fake plant. I didn't see any on real plants. I must have missed some, but ther posted so many this time, I'm not too concerned about getting every one. I also have more confidence in being able to get somevto grow up now that I know a little more and have a little experience.
I was even thinking about sending the happy couple on a private getaway or moving them in with the ottos if the guppies with them were less sick and numerous. I was planning a couple more water changes at least, but Pinki and BC don't wait for me. I even put in some stuff to prevent fungus before the eggs this time.

 

[Erised]

That's great Guppler!!!

I really hope you'll have more luck this time! I thing you will do though Once again, I wish you all the luck in the world with the eggs and hopefully fry!

 

[guppler]

Thanks Erised!
I don't think they are hatching yet, but they are changing color and i don't know if that's good or bad. Most of the eggs are getting sort of brownish. I don't know if that's because something's growing inside or because something's not growing or maybe the wrong something is growing. I don't know if the relatively white ones are the healthy ones or the unfertilised ones, or the albino ones. I've just started seeing a little of what might be fuzz around a couple of the eggs or clusters. Is the appearance of the eggs suposed to change? How ? When? Shape? Color? Can I tell if an egg has hatched?
I don't see anything moving except snails and bits of debris caught in the current. I'm imagining babies almost the size of the eggs. Would that be right? I'm almost afraid to take water or gunk out, especially close to hatching time, in case the fry are almost invisible, but the snails do make a mess, and I don't want to leave stuff sitting around that could damage the eggs. There are only a few snails that came with the plastic plants from the comunity tank, but I think they're already reproducing. They look like mostly rams horns and at least one pond snail.
Will the fry be moving almost constantly or do they stay still a lot? Are they easily disturbed? How much do they eat? I just started some baby brine shrimp and I've dripped in liquifry once and given them a couple of tiny sprinkles of powdered fry food in case they hatch hungry, but i think at this point the snails will have to clean that up. The temp. has been between 82 and 85 F, just because that's the temp. of an upstairs room in Sacramento about now. (poor goldfish)

 

[Polardbear]

When my cory eggs hatched I noticed that they looked like someone had popped a hole in them. The fry are tiny little transparent guys that spend a lot of time sitting absolutely still blending in to whatever they are on. Mine tended to sit on the silicone seals in the corners of the tank. If I hadn't happened to catch a hint of movement out of the corner of my eye I wouldnt have seen them.

 

[Erised]

The eggs turning dark is a completely normal thing The eggs turning fuzzy however, that's fungus on them. It's best to remove the ones with fungus on them, seeing as it can spread onto the other ones

The fry when hatching, are a lot smaller than the eggs really In length they're pretty much the same (cept that you pretty much see through the tail completely, and by doing so only see something half the size of the length of the egg!) and it's just a slice in height really. They're really difficult to spot, seeing as they don't move a lot. Mine have always been easily disturbed though. Try knocking on the glass once and see if anything moves Mine also go around a lot when turning the lights on for the first time in the morning.

Are you sure the tiny things you see are snails? Really, the fry don't look like anything more than a simple dot ( . ) when you see them for the first time! I would do water changes as soon as the fry hatched, but not bother with cleaning the bottom just yet. Just take water out from the top and fill it up with clean water. Once the fry have grown a bit you can do a water change and clean the bottom through an airline! Doesn't that sound like fun? It takes forever, so I recommend only using it to get the crap of the bottom, and do the proper water change with a normal syphon hose or a cup to scoop out water

Good luck again!

 

[guppler]

Thanks.
i'll have to look closely at my sealant in the corners. They do sound hard to see. One thing that i've been wondering about is that some of the eggs seem to swell up while others don't. i'm guessing one is healthy and the other isn't. It looks like mostly light colored eggs are growing, and most of those don't have fuzz ore slime. I'm still worried about axccidentally sipjoning fishes when trying to clean up moldy eggs or snaily-poo. I am totally sure most of the moving things are snails, because some of them are big enough to tell easily and i've even been using a magnifying glass at least once a day, but it isn't a great one and it's hard to see clearly things that aren't just the right distance. I have pretty good eyes anyway. I'm the only person in my imediate family who has never needed corective lenses. I was really bummed about the eggs on the nice flat leaf. They all got enveloped in a cloud of fuzz. I hate to throw them out even when I'm pretty sure they won't hatch. There are some spots where I thought there were eggs, but they seem to have disapeared or moved. That could be a good sign, I think. I guess I should do a little cleaning before adding brine shrimp. I usually use a turkey baster, which can take a long time if I'm trying to move much water, but it works well for getting small dirty spots, like mould. My regular vacuum that I use on my bigger tanks is not very fast either. I got a bigger vacuum with a fatter tube and it goes so much faster than what i'm used to, I'm not sure i'd feel comfortable using it in any of my tanks except the gold fish. I might try it on the comunity, but I'd have to be ready to retrieve a stessed out minow or tetra from the bucket. I've done that for young guppies. Once I even found a damselfly naiyad in my water bucket. It was interesting to learn about, but could have eaten a few fish. I usually search the bucket with a flashlight after siphoning any tank that could have fry in it, but i don't know how much that will help with these guys.