I may start to believe in miracles-
Posted: 16 Jan 2015, 18:12
About a week ago I realized I had a spawn from my remaining P comptas. This is the tank where over the years I have had many spawns but only ever managed to get one fry past a day or two free swimming. What confirmed the spawn for me was the discovery about 4 or 5 days ago of an egg outside the cave. I tried to return it but out it cane right away. So I siphoned it into a dip and poor and using a flashlight and even a magnifying glass I tried to detect movement from the very tiny "wiggler" on it, The egg was perfect but the wiggler did not wiggle. For some reason I left it in an inch of unheated water but did drop in a nut of a filter sponge from a filter I had just decommissioned.
The next day or two I repeated the viewing and never once detected any movement and I let it sit. And the egg retained is good color. About 19 minutes ago I was in that room filling bottles with ro/di water. I wanted to get the space neatened up so I could do tank work. This meant putting away the things that we in the way, one of which was the egg in the box. Some odd perverse instinct made me shine a light on the still golden egg before i dumped the water into the sink. To my surprise there was now a wiggling fry attached to the egg and it had grown in size by a factor of 3 or 4 and I needed no magnifying glass to see it.
It is now in one of the Marina air powered hang on traps on the front of the tank. I had seen two other eggs out of the cave after that first one and let them be The dad is still in the cave and still behaving as if there are some more wigglers inside, but he wont let me see them.
I am not at all religious, but considering this egg sat in about 74-75F water with no circulation etc. for a number of days and has not only survived but has managed to grow strikes me as minor miracle of sorts. What makes this even more so is I was trying to sell the five fish and rejected an offer for a pair a few weeks ago telling the buyer I wanted to sell all or none. Had he taken them all this post would not have been made......
Even after 14 years in this hobby I still get to have those OH WOW! moments.
Did I mention the little jig I danced when I saw that wiggler moving?
The next day or two I repeated the viewing and never once detected any movement and I let it sit. And the egg retained is good color. About 19 minutes ago I was in that room filling bottles with ro/di water. I wanted to get the space neatened up so I could do tank work. This meant putting away the things that we in the way, one of which was the egg in the box. Some odd perverse instinct made me shine a light on the still golden egg before i dumped the water into the sink. To my surprise there was now a wiggling fry attached to the egg and it had grown in size by a factor of 3 or 4 and I needed no magnifying glass to see it.
It is now in one of the Marina air powered hang on traps on the front of the tank. I had seen two other eggs out of the cave after that first one and let them be The dad is still in the cave and still behaving as if there are some more wigglers inside, but he wont let me see them.
I am not at all religious, but considering this egg sat in about 74-75F water with no circulation etc. for a number of days and has not only survived but has managed to grow strikes me as minor miracle of sorts. What makes this even more so is I was trying to sell the five fish and rejected an offer for a pair a few weeks ago telling the buyer I wanted to sell all or none. Had he taken them all this post would not have been made......
Even after 14 years in this hobby I still get to have those OH WOW! moments.
Did I mention the little jig I danced when I saw that wiggler moving?