6-7-05 Well, I finally upgraded them. It took me a while to get around to putting the 3D background on the empty 20 and a while longer to let the silicone set, but the wait was worth it. The tank looks GREAT! And it makes it look bigger than it really is. With the upgrade came ... well, the multis aren't the only striped fish in there. I came upon four striped A. lineatus in a tank of "Golden wonders" and couldn't pass them up. I'll likely have to move them to a larger tank down the road but they can spend some chunk of their youth being dithers for the multis (who are mostly out and about but, having lived in a tank stuffed with vals before suddenly being put in one with just shells, shells, shells, are reasonably nervous. 5-23-05 The new multis are lovely. I think a spawn is on the way, although I'm upgrading them soon, so hopefully they'll wait. 4-14-04 Hmmm. Shelley's certainly throwing off mixed signals! She's back to her dark color ... most of the time. And now she splits her time between the group of shells she had been guarding and a big shell on the other end of the tank! She sleeps in the big shells but tries, somewhat half-heartedly, to guard all of them. I'm not sure if I should move the big shell into her original shellbed and hope she follows, or leave it and see if she decalres an allegiance. At the very least, it can't be said that these guys aren't fascinating! Boy (Girl?) is still fiesty; she and Shelley have disagreements (girlfights? I should film and sell them ...) which, amusingly, Custer often breaks up. This is an even bigger problem now - Shelley's new shell is in Girl's line of sight, not to mention in Custer's favorite "hanging out in space" area. The girls do a lot more than he does - most of the time he hovers in place, or moves from hovering place to hovering place. The girls are always in and out of shells, digging and spitting sand everywhere, fighting, "talking" to Custer, and now Shelley is constantly moving back and forth, back and forth ... I wonder if she could be raising two groups of fry? Or none, that's the more obvious possibility. She's redecorating around the new shell as much as in the old shell pile, and is even more staunch about keeping Custer out. She clearly prefers larger shells - one would expect she'd pick one where Custer, as a big potential egg-eater, couldn't fit in, but I think she wants to be able to turn around so she can guard from within. You'd think they'd learn to back into the shell, since they can back out, but maybe the Neothauma shells are big enough to allow turning. Boy do I love these fish! 3-29-04 Remember how I was told that dark females usally mean nonbreeding females? Shelley is now about as light as I've seen her ... and staunchly guarding her three shells. She's been fighting with Boy (who I should probably call Girl), which she hadn't done in the past, too. I'm v. excited for the (probable) upcoming fry. Also, the corkscrew vals are doing very well. 3-29-04 I think I'm seeing breeding behaviors. Although most of my research says that these fish are pretty secretive spawners and the first sign of spawning is fry, most people don't keep these guys on their desks. When I'm watching them, at least out of the corner of my eye, nearly all day, I'm bound to see some things. Here's what I'm seeing: Shelley does a series of things in and just above her shell. She appears to be doing something with her mouth (hopefully not eating eggs!), and goes in and out at slightly different angles - moving eggs? At some point during the ritual, she enters the shell fully. Custer hovers an inch above the shell for a moment (until she "gives the signal"?) and then lays his belly over the opening of the shell - just the position I would expect him to spray milt over the eggs with. They've repeated this at least ten times in the last half hour or so. If I see fry within two weeks I think I'll know this is spawning behavior! 3-25-04 I was advised to add a second female to the tank, so I purchased the smallest multi available, but ... I think it's nonetheless a male. I'm calling him Boy. Here's something interesting I noticed recently ... I moved Custer and Shelley back here after spring break in shells, in separate bags. When I returned, Custer wouldn't leave his, very abnormal for him. After a few hours, I decided he was likely stuck. Let me tell you, striking a hole in that shell with a hammer was neither easy nor fun, but I got him out. Well, as you can imagine, he his for several days, completely petrified of me. But now he seems to have forgotten the incident entirely. I don't think it's that he's just gotten readjusted; I think it's actually faded from his memory and he's reverted back to his normal behaviors. So, not a "three-second memory": more like five days. 3-11-04 The female, Shelley, has moved from her former shell some three inches from that of the male, Custer, to one touching it. I'm hoping this is a sign of impending breeding, although she remains the dark colors that I've been told are normal for a non-breeding female. Baensch and Rudiger report in volume 3 of their atlas that given an abundance of shells, multis won't bury them, but mine are burying shells right and left, even the ones they aren't using. Actually, the two shells they're using stay above ground, although they seem to enjoy going in and out of the buried ones. The way they excavate is quite different from the Ocellatus in my 44: they pick up sand in their mouths and spit it in some other direction. Very funny to watch. They've also "tunneled under the fence" to the opening of the large decorative conch, creating a subterranean cave that seems to be a playground and last-ditch hideout. Custer regularly patrols most of the tank, although I've yet to see him for within three inches of the righthand wall of the tank; possibly that's more than he wants to control? Shelley stays largely within an inch or so of her shell, but goes on little excursions with Custer to bury other shells (I should say, the openings stay open, pointed up, with sand piled over the rest of the shell) and dive in and out of them. They're just as willing to take flake as BBS, maybe more so. The BBS, in floating all over the tank, come right to them and are small and no challenge, but the falling flakes have to be hunted down and picked apart, and they seem to enjoy the hunt and kill of it. I look forward to seeing them eat grindal worms.

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