toddnbecka
01-25-2009, 7:20 PM
When I stripped down half of my 30 long to siphon the pleco poop (6 L333's, 4 BN's growing out) I discovered that the BN's are now large enough to spawn. I placed a cluster of large barnacle shells in the tank some time ago, in hopes that the L333's would find them suitable when they matured. When I lifted the cluster out of the tank, there were BN's hiding in 3 different shells. Not unusual, with a spawning pair of chanchito's on the other end of the tank. Only 1 BN released it's hold when I repeatedly dipped and rinsed the shells, the other 2 stubbornly refused to vacate. When I looked closer, I saw that the larger one was semi-wrapped around a quarter-size cluster of orange eggs. Since it's almost certainly the first spawn it remains to be seen whether they'll be lost from the disturbance or simply inexperience. The ironic part is, the last time I stripped the tank for a thorough cleaning like this, a few days later the cichlids had their first spawn of wigglers hanging in the floating mass of Najas in spite of their "cave" (sunken ship ornament) being moved around, and it looks like they're guarding eggs now.
No clue which BN was the mother, but I suspect they may be carrying the long fin gene. In any case, time will tell.
No clue which BN was the mother, but I suspect they may be carrying the long fin gene. In any case, time will tell.