Uncorporative trifaciata trio

["Tomoko Schum" <tomokoschum@knology.net>]

Hi y'all,

I have a fairly young trifaciata trio that refuse to give me
babies (unlike my previous trio who used to breed well in my
medium hard water.)  I tried a variety of things - soft
clean water, live food, etc.  I don't know what I am doing
wrong here.  Hope some of you can help me to get them to
corporate.

They were purchased from a reputable source as young adults
last October.  The trio shares a 20GL heavily planted tank
with five pygmy cory cats.  The tank sits in the lower side
of the dual tank metal rack in my bedroom (the traffic there
can get rather heavy from time to time).  I confirmed that
one of the females laid eggs by actually seeing a very small
number of eggs inside a flower pot.  However, the eggs
disappeared shortly.  I figure the mother fish ate them.
Since then I saw spawning activity periodically yet I get no
fry.   Pygmy cory cats are all driven to the back of the
tank where they stay most of the day.

Out of frustration, I decided to grow them out a bit more
and stopped softening my medium hard tap water (by DI water)
for awhile (almost 2 months now).  I am ready to try again
to get them to spawn.  They are well fed with live daphnia,
grindal worms and dry flakes.  I have a plenty of DI water
(the conductivity of 0.512 microsiemens) to start softening
their water.  A good thunderstorm on the way as well.  I
would appreciate it if you could tell me what else to try.
Should I move these pygmy cory cats out as a starter?  Try
blackworms, perhaps?  I don't know if I can move the trio to
a quieter spot at the moment due to the tank space
limitation.

TIA,

Tomoko






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