Yesterday I thought I’d take a pair of opallios out of their current accommodation and give them a room of their own. The most suitable place was what was my shrimp tank, so I evicted all the shrimp into a third tank and did a thorough Spring clean of that ex-shrimp tank. The whole process required logistical ingenuity ; it took several hours and there were containers full of water everywhere!
Before moving any Paros, it was necessary to take everything out of the tank ; and before doing that I had to make sure that no fish were lurking in the caves [you may like to refer up-thread to make sense of this!] and prevent them going back in before the water-level dropped. To do this, the rectangle of foam that blocks each window outside the tank is removed and transferred inside the tank, blocking the entrances to the caves. So far so good.
I found a Paros fry that I didn’t know I had ; and managed to transfer two adults (one’s definitely a male and I hope the other is female) to their new accommodation.
After a lot of faffing I was at last ready to reconstruct the main Paros tank. I began removing the foam rectangles from the caves … and was astonished to find a load of eggs adhering to one of them (it was the one picture in Reply #2415, in fact). A quick glance in the cave told me that I hadn’t been very attentive when blocking the cave earlier : there was a male in there – and he must have been trapped in there for about four hours!
I couldn’t immediately think of a way of re-introducing the twenty (or so) eggs to the cave, so I scattered them in a clump of moss in the ex-shrimp tank. They were extremely sticky, but I got them all off the foam eventually. I don’t know what the likelihood is that they’ll hatch? Apart from the pair of adult Paros, the only creatures I deliberately put into that tank are a few cherry shrimps and a small gang of Asellus aquaticus ; I’m sure the Asellus won’t touch them, but I guess the shrimp may find them too hard to resist. I guess I’ll find out in due course!
Back at the main Paros tank, I inspected the cave more closely. There are still around twenty eggs stuck to the roof. During the process of removing everything from the tank, hovering and then doing a partial water-change, the water-level had dropped such that it had been a millimetre or two below the eggs : they wouldn’t have dried out as such, but they would have been exposed to air for at least some of the time. The male is still in there guarding them. That may be a sign that all is still well ; or it may be a sign that he is completely stupid. I guess I’ll find that out in dies course as well!
A couple of bad piccies. The first shows a bit of the male in the cave (before the camera flash made him scarper!).
The second is a fish’s-eye view of the cave entrance, looking out into the tank.
Although I can see the remaining eggs, I’m afraid I can’t get a photograph of them at the moment.