The Betta Who Thinks He's a Cory

[hedgehog]

I got Horton from PetCo when he was really small and put him in a community tank with four cories. Since then he's acted as if he thinks he's a catfish too. He tries to school with them and when they sit together he also needs to be part of the group. He's really taken it to a whole new level though.

This morning I got up to check on my fish and there were eggs all over the tank. Apparently my bronze and green cories (both coryadora aeneus) spawned last night. It's their first spawn and totally unplanned (from what I read they wouldn't spawn in the tank because the temperature was higher than they liked but apparently the major cleaning I did on Thursday really worked wonders). Thing 1 managed to lay some eggs around the top of the heater and along the tube coming out of the filter which is where Horton sleeps. Since he found the eggs he's been guarding them and ate several of the unfertilized ones. He has at least 50 eggs that he's still looking after and the catfish have probably another 50 that they are casually snacking on. It looks like the betta's catfish babies will do better than those actually in reach of the cories.

[masshiimarro]

lolololol aww thats just too cute :3 we need pics!

[LittleBettas]

AW! hes a surrogate daddy!

[ForbiddenSecrets]

Ha ha ha your boy and my boy need to realize that they aren't catfish XD he sounds like a cutie though c:

[crezelda]

mine has learned to eat like a catfish, and steals my cories food nonstop

[MMAsac]

lol, that is too funny. Post pics of him gaurding the cories eggs, sounds funny to see.

[dramaqueen]

Any updates?

[hedgehog]

Horton was a good 'daddy cory' but the actual cories were more destructive to the spawn. Since it wasn't a planned spawn I left the adults with the eggs--most were eaten but some hatched. Horton and I keep looking for them but we can't find any and the cory fry are supposed to be the same color as the sand in the tank. Maybe if there's a future spawn Horton can keep some more of his eggs.