Hi! I'm new here and from the Minnetonka area in MN. I'm a school bus driver by profession and a novice aquarist though I've had aquariums most of my life.
Currently I only have one 20 gal.tank going, housing a small assortment of fish. There is large female guppy, her 2 small suitors, 4 young surviving progeny and a new batch of, at last count, 6 babies. Then, there is one pleco who is rapidly outgrowning this home and whom, as soon as I can repair and properly age my 29 gal. tank, will be moving.
My favorite fish though, are my Corys. I had two female? Spotted Corys...about 3 years old. One died a while back and now after about 4 months of being alone, the other started laying eggs like crazy. Since she needed companions anyway, and I was hoping to find her some males, I recently added 3 small Spotteds, and because I have limited self-control, 3 small Emeralds and 2 baby Albinos.
Immediately, upon finally releasing the newbies, the little Spotteds swarmed all over "Mama" and she seemed delighted by the company. They all are doing great and I love watching them frolic around.
As to the egg laying.... I've never closely watched the courtship/mating behavior of corys before. Very interesting.
I'm still trying to figure out whether she is just hanging on to the boy's fin to make him hold still, or if she is taking his milt to deposit where she wants to lay her eggs. Three of the new ones (two spotteds and one emerald) appear to be males and fluttering around over, under and in front of her wherever she swims. She is mainly laying her eggs in a nice fluffy mass of algae that I regularly prune back and that grew after introducing a variety of plants harvested from Lake Minnetonka a few years back.
If a few of these eggs hatch it would be great. But I'm not holding out a lot of hope unless I do some preventitive measures. The mama guppy thinks they are a delicacy. I've only had one baby make it.... many years ago. And that one only because the egg filtered down into the "crawl space" under the decking of an under gravel filter where it hatched. We only knew there was a baby when he made an appearance one day by swimming up in the airline shaft. He was a pretty good size... about 1/2 inch by then.
Now...to go and see how many eggs she's laid and feed them so they don't snarf all the eggs down.
Currently I only have one 20 gal.tank going, housing a small assortment of fish. There is large female guppy, her 2 small suitors, 4 young surviving progeny and a new batch of, at last count, 6 babies. Then, there is one pleco who is rapidly outgrowning this home and whom, as soon as I can repair and properly age my 29 gal. tank, will be moving.
My favorite fish though, are my Corys. I had two female? Spotted Corys...about 3 years old. One died a while back and now after about 4 months of being alone, the other started laying eggs like crazy. Since she needed companions anyway, and I was hoping to find her some males, I recently added 3 small Spotteds, and because I have limited self-control, 3 small Emeralds and 2 baby Albinos.
Immediately, upon finally releasing the newbies, the little Spotteds swarmed all over "Mama" and she seemed delighted by the company. They all are doing great and I love watching them frolic around.
As to the egg laying.... I've never closely watched the courtship/mating behavior of corys before. Very interesting.
I'm still trying to figure out whether she is just hanging on to the boy's fin to make him hold still, or if she is taking his milt to deposit where she wants to lay her eggs. Three of the new ones (two spotteds and one emerald) appear to be males and fluttering around over, under and in front of her wherever she swims. She is mainly laying her eggs in a nice fluffy mass of algae that I regularly prune back and that grew after introducing a variety of plants harvested from Lake Minnetonka a few years back.
If a few of these eggs hatch it would be great. But I'm not holding out a lot of hope unless I do some preventitive measures. The mama guppy thinks they are a delicacy. I've only had one baby make it.... many years ago. And that one only because the egg filtered down into the "crawl space" under the decking of an under gravel filter where it hatched. We only knew there was a baby when he made an appearance one day by swimming up in the airline shaft. He was a pretty good size... about 1/2 inch by then.
Now...to go and see how many eggs she's laid and feed them so they don't snarf all the eggs down.
