CanadaquaBetween Pond and Tanks

BN eggs

Update: The babies are barely 3/4″, and we already have eggs again. At this rate I’ll have to part the lovers. I don’t have room for so many babies. They’re awfully cute, though, I must say.

Update

Most of the muck’s out, and the fish are back in. Usually I also put the tropical plants back in on spring-cleaning day, but they will have to stay inside until the last frost day. We’re so unbelievably early this year. But with the heat we had turning the water yucky, it was time to get the pump back in and the filter going.

Spring cleaning

Muck day for us means Spa Day for the fish. Meanwhile the frogs are all: ‘Dude, what’s going on?’

BN hatchlings

This morning all but three have left the cave, but daddy’s vigilant to the end. He’s just declared a blood feud on French-cut green beans.

BN Hatchlings

I think 5 of them have left the cave now. Here are some pics of daddy doing the guarding thing, the cave dwellers and one of the bold explorers.

 

Yay!

All three of our goldfish survived the winter. The pond is mostly ice-free by now, and I also saw 5 of the minnows and a frog.

BN Eggs

The first two or three enterprising youngsters have left the cave and are whizzing around all over the tank. Daddy’s still faithfully guarding the bulk of them, chilling in the cave.

BN Eggs

Just snuck a peek into the cave with a flashlight. Very briefly, so as not to set daddy BN off again. Some of the eggs seem to have hatched, still attached to the wall, but lotsa wiggling going on in there.

BN Eggs

He’s fanning those eggs furiously every time I look. And when he sees me coming around the corner, he turns and displays his barbs. He might only be two inches long, but he’s fierce, baby.

BN Eggs

Came home Sunday night to my BN pair’s first eggs. Only a few of them in the cave, but the male is taking his daddy duties very seriously. I was trying to help him along today by dropping an algae cookie by his side, and he wen completely ballistic. Muck churning, he drove that little tablet as far away from the cave as possible. I think we can safely say the algae cookie is dead now. Whoa.