About two weeks ago, I dropped by PETsMART to get my male shubunkin, Lico, a new tankmate. Unfortunately, his old tankmate had been grabbed by a critter of some sort, probably a stray cat in the neighborhood. Oy! (I now have secured netting over the tank at all times, unless I am present.)

Anyway, I brought the beauty home, somewhat expecting it to be male (just because my previous luck has always had me bring home males). Lico decided to chase the new fish around a bit, but I didn't see this as anything to hoot and hollar about, as his old tankmate was male, and Lico would chase him around the tank, too. However, a couple of days past, and lo and behold: the new fish had plumped up a little!

Two weeks have passed since Bijo (the new fish) has come to my home, and boy, is she as big as ever! I'm guessing the reason she decided to go into mating season mode is because my tank is outside (in Texas, where I'm currently experiencing 90-degree weather in October!), and PETsMART keeps their goldfish tanks pretty cold. She probably noticed the rise in temperature, and thought "Hey, time to have babies!"

I took a few pictures of her with my digicam, and put them up on my gallery, so you can get a glympse of her plumpness!

http://www.highlyimprobable.com/gallery/pond/DSCN1610
http://www.highlyimprobable.com/gallery/pond/DSCN1601
http://www.highlyimprobable.com/gallery/pond/DSCN1599

Being excited, and being a person with a "Be safe, or be sorry" attitude, I went ahead and prepared for the "worst." My "sophisticated" (yeah, right!
) set-up consists of a 31 Qt Rubbermaid container (which I've filled with 4 gallons of water), an air stone, and a heater (which I'm not sure I'll actually end up using, since the usual room temperature in my house is around 76F, and the tank has been staying about 70F-71F.)

http://www.highlyimprobable.com/gallery/pond/DSCN1587 The "Sophisticated" Set-up

If anyone has any suggestions about my set-up, I'd like to see them! Oh, and I rinsed/soaked the Rubbermaid really well before I started using it, because it's plastic and I wasn't sure. Please let me know if you think I was being over-protective, or if I should use something other than a plastic container. Also, I don't plan on trying to raise all of them, lol! Just a small amount of them.

I have an idea for the transportation of the eggs, so I'll type it our here and see what you lovely people think

I'll wait for the two to finish spawning, and then transport one of the three plants (which I assume will have at least some eggs) from the outside pond to the tank inside. To do this, I was thinking of filling a gallon Ziplock bag with properly prepared water (rinsing it first, of course!) to carry the plant from the pond to the inside tank, as I have to go a pretty good distance (across my house and up the stairs). Of course, I don't really plan to close the bag at any time, just to make sure there's plenty of oxygen. Also, I'm assuming it would be a good idea to let the bag sit in the pond and the tank for 10 minutes, to account for temperature differences.

Okay, long post already, I know, but I have one more thing!

Lico, my male, is doing all the usual chase-around-the-tank and things like that, but he doesn't seem to be all that excited about it. He'll do it for a bit, and then wander off to do something else (although, the fish are almost always right beside each other). He chased Bijo (the female) like crazy when she first came into the tank, so I'm guessing it's just a matter of getting "in the mood." Another thing that bothers me a little is that I can't spot tubercles on him anywhere! I'm sure that he's sexually mature, though, since he's even older/bigger than the female, and he's been chasing her around. Has anyone else experienced a lack of tubercules on a spawning-interested male?

I read blinky000's adventure about the "hermaphrodite" fish, but I'm pretty sure this is nothing like that

I'm about to go do a water change and see if that inspires them at all for the evening (or Lico, at least!)

Thanks for reading, I'll make sure to give updates!

Congratulations, Bijo is beautiful.

LOL it seems as though the people who don't try to breed their fish, have all the spawning fish.

Thanks!

And yeah, it does seem that the unexpecting get breeding fish fairly often, doesn't it? "A watched pot never boils," I guess?

Anyway, I went out to do a water change last night, but the mosquitos were already out and about for the night. Mosquitos seem to really like me, so I decided to wait until today to do the water change. Went out a little after 10am this morning and did the water change. Seems to have been just the thing to get Lico in the mood! Went out there around 1pm to feed them, and Lico was chasing after Bijo like crazy!

He didn't have any problem with taking a lunch break, though.

I guess all that's left to do is chill out and wait for the special event. B)

Well, I'm still waiting for the special event to occur

Bijo (the female) has gotten even plumper, I think, and Lico hasn't had any trouble chasing her around the tank. Infact, I'm pretty sure he chases her around almost all day. I'll go out there every feeding (morning, noon, and night) and watch them for a half hour or so, sometimes even longer, and he never stops chasing her.

I think Bijo's being picky. <_<

If I didn't know better, I'd be afraid Bijo would be so stubborn that'd she'd explode before she'd release her eggs.

Anyway, I'll update whenever they finally spawn. If they do.