Snail Spirals

Well, we made it to Friday Harbor. The trip was pretty uneventful, though I truly hate the stress of packing and moving. Especially un-fun was the stress of packing for three months. We're basically setting up housekeeping here for the summer, but Shaun also had to bring a bunch of lab equipment, so the space in the car was limited. In addition to the aquariums and the cat, I wanted to bring my spinning wheel and some fibery things to play with during the summer, Emma has a few toys, Shaun has his bike and assorted training gear (running, swimming, biking: he's doing a triathlon in July). We did save some space by leaving the big litterbox at home and getting a smaller litter pan, and having the car-top carrier for the suitcases and non-fragile gear really made it possible to bring all our toys.

We're actually not supposed to have pets (cats or dogs) here at all, so we're being all illegal and sneaky-like. We did end up leaving Cobalt (our dog) at home, since she's too hard to hide, but we had to bring Naia (the cat) because our housesitter is allergic to cats. We're also not supposed to have anyone else but us live in the house in La Grande, according to our lease, so I guess this is our summer of sneakiness and rule-breaking.

I won't even go into all the feeling of guilt and abandonment that I feel about leaving Cobalt behind. She is doing much better, and has somewhat recovered from her troubles last spring, but she's still not her old self. I hope she doesn't have any more problems before we get home. I've never been away from her for this long, since we got her in 1994. And to abandon her when she's semi-ill.....I feel terrible. (Because she's more than a pet, she's a friend.)

Anyway, I'll move on to The Panda Cory Show. Season 2.5 started yesterday.

I had the four fry, and seven eggs that I found on June 1. When I was breaking down the tank for the move yesterday, I found seven more eggs on the java fern in the main tank. So I packed up the four big fry and the 14 eggs in their own cooler container, the adult fish in a separate one, and piled the fry tank and all the aquarium supplies in the empty tank. Tra la la, off we went to Friday Harbor. Eleven hours later, (7 1/2 hour drive (including breaks for lunch and dinner), 45 minute wait for the ferry, and 2 1/2 hour ferry ride- I love how the last 20 miles takes a third of the total trip time), we got to the island. First thing I did was to open the fish containers so they could get some air. When I opened the fry container, I saw this:



Every single egg hatched during the drive! I now have 18 panda cory fry! I'm pretty impressed by the toughness of this species. The adults recovered much faster from the trauma of the ride than the tetras did, and were actually mating about half an hour after I put them in the tank. The tetras were still looking a bit pale and stressed (different water, shock of travel, etc), and hiding under the driftwood, but the cories were, well, yeah...

It's amazing how much the older fry have grown. They are 20 days old today, and the difference between them and the day-old fry is huge.



I mean, yes, they are both pretty tiny, but what a difference three weeks makes! I put all 18 into the fry tank, and the younger ones immediately dove for cover. If I didn't know they were in there, I would have no idea. The older fry nosed around a bit, ate some of the flake food I put in, and took up their stations under the rocks and plants. The largest of the four big fry likes to hang out under the front of the rock with the java fern on it.



He seems to rest there a lot, in between trundling around the tank, sifting through the sand and looking for food particles. I just love these fish.