There has been a little turn of events here in the hatchery. So far, mostly good.
The bad: I lost the big marble female my buddy just gave me. No other fish in the tank had any issues so I'm thinking it was just her time. She WAS a huge fish after all.
The good: I've started a guarded happy dance as the new 1/2 black's spawn has hatched. A very high percentage hatchout. I can't wait to see how many are good.
Yesterday, the Zebra Veil male finally came out of hiding and the Zebra Lace female wasn't picking on him too bad. His tube was partially exposed so he must be " in the mood" and that may have intrigued the female.
Today, I saw some lip locking and he was not backing down when she was trying to push him. He is a proven breeder so he knows what's what and I guess he just let her be her until he had had enough. He is in better shape, fin wise, than the 1/2 Black male that she was with so maybe he has a stronger attitude even tho he is smaller than the other male? I can't wait to see a spawn from them. Would love to start a Zebra Lace veil line. I did put the 1/2 Black male in with a proven silver veil female so hopefully, I can get at least 1 spawn out of that pairing so I can introduce the veil gene into a 1/2 black line too. Fingers crossed on that one.
Did my water changes today and got 2 spawns tonight.
I just wish the Black pair would pop. She almost looks like she swallowed a golf ball. I was warned she doesn't spawn often and now I'm hoping she doesn't have any issues carrying that many eggs for so long. Thankfully, I have some Blacks growing from the original Zebra Lace/ Black pair so if she does go, I will have some backups in a few months.
Lastly and sadly, I learned last night that my neighbor, the Koi farmer, died a few days ago. It was a shock to say the least. He was hospitalized the day before memorial day and air lifted to another hospital out of town but was getting better. Then one night, he wasn't and that was it. I'll miss our "over the fence" fish chats we used to have. It's just a reminder for me to get all my information out there before I go to that big aquarium in the sky myself. So ask away!!!