I'm a grandma!

It started last week when Sneks told me she saw my baby male spawning. Wait, lets back up. It started LAST YEAR when I tried everything in my and my advisors minds to try to get my fish to spawn. I watched at all hours of the day, different numbers of fish, different ratios, different lighting. I even had a small tank that I moved into my office to try to get them to do it. Nothing worked. I emptied the tanks and got busy with other projects till collecting season in the spring. One particular tank was extra gross so I never emptied or cleaned it. When I finally did- to my surprise there were fry in it. Even better- they were the species I had been trying to breed!
I ended up with 6 of them after 3 died of illness. One is larger than the others, a male who is aggressive and in breeding colors. The next largest is a big fat female. I watched but never saw spawning. THEN Sneks said she did. I watched more and saw nothing. Definite interest by the male in the female but no action.

My latest advice from others was to use 'spawning mops'. Some of my knitting readers know these as yarn pom poms that are tied to a rock. I took away all other spawning substrate and gave them a mop yesterday. There are at least 5 eggs in it.

I love arts and crafts science. I love it even more when SOMETHING FINALLY WORKS in over a year of trying....