Eggs.
Yes, my kribs have finally laid eggs. It is not has joyfull, as I imagined. I was completely stunned when I discovered them. It could not have happened at a worse time. That tank that has been stable for months just strangely went way off.
Well, it has been a chain of events. First, the ditters switcheroo: I decided to put the Harlequins with the Gouramis and the Cherry Barbs with the Kribs. The H were getting pretty big and one big female looks pretty much like Jaws. (she is one tought looking dyke) The CB are little wooses when they get chased a little and they hide. It worked, the Kribs seemed to enjoy the quiet and they moved into the cave. Save for the male, the tank looked completely empty: the female mostly stayed in, but she got out everytime I approached, so I thought nothing was happening.
Then last Saturday, my little nephew, the one with TB, was visiting. He was looking at the tank, coughed, a giant ball of TB infected mucus lands in the tank. First, I punished the child by putting him in his thinking box for a little time out, then went on to take care of the tank situation and do a partial WC. By moving the cave for clean up, I touched the female on the nose. She was not going away from that coconut shell, but still hyper about the toxic mucus situation, I did not investigate further..
The next day, after I let little Chad out, he wanted to apologize to the fish, I told him not to bring food in my bedroom, but since he has a major ear infections in both ears and that the mucus fusionned with wax almost completely blocks any sound, he did not ear me. He went next to the tank, dropped a banana peel, stepped on it, slipped, his egg benedict flew into the air and landed into the tank. I know these eggs are disgusting, but that is all the kid eats, he's allergic to everything else but bananas. As I run in the room, I see Chad putting himself in his thinking box, the Ghost Shrimps are already munching on the sauce. I decide to do a partial WC. I notice the female has a little white dot on her nose, but I can't see well, she is in the cave. As soon as it is done, I go to talk to little Chad to explain to him why he would stay in the box until the next day and that if he needed to drink, I would give him water even if his mom told me not to. Of course, he is in a box and his ears are still blocked, so I had to scream all that really loud, and it got quite tiring.
In the mean time, the kribs were now acting a little differently, but I blamed that on Chad's incidents and punished him preemptivly to prevent the next mishap. It did not work...
The next day, well the next evening, (warning, mature content ahead) after I put Chad to bed, a very special friend a mine came by, we went to my bedroom, and you know, proceeded to do what normal people do in a bedroom, in a bed with whipped cream, honey, ropes, Saran Wrap, elastic bands, a 9V battery, duct tape, a flathead screwdriver, safety pins, olive oil and a candle when that candle was somehow tipped over in all the action and started a fire in the curtains. I always sleep with a fire extinguisher under my pillow, so I put it out no problem, but all the noise woke up little Chad who ran into the room to see if the tank was OK. I was doing the same so the lid was open. I got surprised, turned around , tried to hide my Johnson with the fire extinghisher, but it slipped out (my hands were oily..), landed in the tank upside down, it hit a rock and fired up IN THE TANK.. Little Chad has to fish it out since my hands are still oily. The next WC was to be done the next day, so I went to bed after putting Chad to sleep again and untying Chris who had been good emotional support and a pretty good sport given the circumstances.
So the next day, I go to do the WC, I see the female out and about with that little white spot looking like a bruise, so the nurse in me says lets give her a little salt bath while we clean up (it helped before with another fish, so..) I fish her out, and the male is acting really like he cannot believe what is going on. I move the cave around, flip it and BOOM, there they are. Krib eggs. With the cave moved around , with the female bagged and salted and the male freaked out.
At that very moment, I realize that this first successful attempt at reproduction by this pair might not be happening in the best of situations..
This is now the day after and they are back at their antics of the last few days, the female comes out only to eat or when she thinks she is gonna be fed, and that is everytime anything or anyone gets close to the tank.
Will they hatch, these eggs??