A BREEDING UPDATE
Hi all, hope you're well š in a very fun and slightly disconcerting turn of events, I noticed I have an extra pygmy cory - they've only gone and bred without warning me first š«
I did notice quite a smart, smaller Cory a while back but didn't clock that it wasn't one of the original 6 (which then became 5 after the demise of raggedy man). Lo and behold, I fed them this morning and voila! 6 Corys shoaling at the front of the tank. I thought my eyes were failing me, and even checked the receipt from when I bought them, but theres definitely a new one. This renders the post I was going to make "bullying or breeding behaviour?" totally null and void.
I'm delighted - they've become my favourite little fish in the tank, and it's great to see them breeding. Although it's mindboggling that I never saw any fry or eggs, only for an extra adult Cory to just appear. I'm really happy my tank can support breeding conditions and that at least 1 of them has survived to adulthood with no intervention from me. I was thinking the rasboras and tetras would clear all the fry and bought a floating mesh breeder that I could hopefully transfer eggs into to increase survival rates, but there's clearly space to hide. Woo!
I had a dream (recurring nightmare) last night that Id massacred a tank of corys and Otto's that all had severe fin rot, so seeing an extra Cory this morning has thrown me for a bit of a loop. Now I don't know what to believe š