On 2 Mar 2006 23:58:43 -0800, "ko57" wrote:

I wanted to see if my male betta could get along with an albino
cory...didn't know if it was a male or female, I did get one of the
kind of plump ones from the store. Well, all seemed well for the first
night, next day okay, but yesterday Rudolph started going after the
Cory, so that was that, and no more trys for company for him.

I had bought a small 2.5 Minibow tank, set it up yesterday just in case
this might happen. I have a filter that I just changed from the 5
gallon hex and threw that in with the little bow, put in the older
Amazon sword from the hex and some of it's gravel into this tank. So
the cory's not bothered, Rudy's not perplexed/exasperated by the almost
constant movement of the cory, and all seems fine, and another tank
cycles on.

Well, I see these little white spots on the side of the tank, didn't
check them with the magnifying glass, so read up on white dots-calcium
deposits. I went to Petco and PetsMart today-out of town, picked up
some sinking pellets for the cory, canned catfood and-hey-Elaine-some
Flourish gravel. Something kept telling me to get the little baby net
tank thing-either one at either store. I got one on order from
PetsMart online earlier today, a clearance item, will see what that's
all about.

Get home, feed the cory, then the cats-4 legged, then Rudy, sit there
and look at the white spots again. Grab the magnifying glass-there are
moving things in there-got to be cory eggs?? So I guess I picked up a
female?!! It looks like their mouths are eating the sacs-something
opening & closing in there...got to be at least 9 of these splattered
on the inside walls of the curmudgeonous betta tank.

So if these are eggs, any way to save them?? I have to go in at 7am
tomorrow, it looks like the sacs are okay...I'm thinking shut off the
filter, scrape them off into a plastic container with some tank
water...after they eat the sacs...start feeding...??? I just have the
one Cory, no male, wonder if the eggs were fertilized, but something is
moving in these sacs.

Kerry

So who fertilized the eggs? If, through some miracle not yet added to
the book of wisdom, they are viable eggs, you can remove them with a
razor blade - drop them into a small container, a liter will do, add
an airstone or airline to keep the water moving just enough so that it
is continuously circulating around the eggs, add some methylene blue,
enough to darken the water but still be able to see the eggs, I use
MarOxy instead of the blue stuff, I hate blue stuff. Live baby brine
shrimp is a good first food, but if you're not up to hatching some,
you could try some commercial liquid baby(egglayer fish) food. Water
change at least 50% daily. Siphon detritus with an airline sized tube.
Or you could leave the eggs with the mama and feed her well, this
would be a good time to stuff her with her favorite foods, like
bloodworms, and hope she doesn't eat the eggs. Eggs that turn opaque
white are dead. If any of these eggs turn into real swimming, tail
wagging fish, check in for further suggestions. If you are simply
hallucinating the movement inside of the eggs, please tell us what
you've been smoking, I'd like to try some of that.

-- Mister Gardener