# My CPO's doing the hokie pokie



## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

So I picked up a pair of CPO's recently. While acclimating them to the tank, I walked away and one of them decides to jump out of the container when the water was reaching the top >.<
Took me a long time to find her, but I did eventually all dusty.

I put her back in, and instantly, the male jumps on her and does the hokie pokie. I don't think he was successful though as her tail was all curled up.
At first, I thought they were fighting....but I did a search on youtube and found the same position when mating 

Have a look! 

Female I believe:

IMG_2172[1] by ChangJay, on Flickr

Excuse the dirty glass. Rated 18+! 

IMG_2212[1] by ChangJay, on Flickr


IMG_2213[1] by ChangJay, on Flickr


IMG_2214[1] by ChangJay, on Flickr


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Yep, looks like she got a little dirty and he took advantage .


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

That dirty beggar, couldn't even wait till she got a shower~ 

You got babies coming  In a few days you will see her with her tail curled under a bit and if you look carefully you will see the eggs, but she might hide for a while too. If you have a ceramic shelter or small plant pot that would be a good area for her to hide in...the male might harass her, or she might kill him. They get aggressive. 

Sometimes with 1st Mom's the eggs won't hatch or she'll eat them, but I have had them hatch in 30 days all little orange ones....congrats!

I took my female out closer to the time and put her in a breeder box or small tank by herself until she dropped the babies then I put her back and just fed the babies up in the tank until they were about 4 weeks old then I put them in a few tanks. Too many in one tank and they eat one another.


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

*Update: December 18th, 2012*

She is soon to release. Eggs started turning pale and eyes started growing! 
Love the breeder box to see this as it goes through the process


IMG_3091 by ChangJay, on Flickr


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

gonna need some driftwood or lots and lots of moss in there once she drops them....take her out immediately or she'll snack on them 

I have had the female eat her newly born hatchlings just because she could find them, but if you put lots of moss in there, its not as easy for her to see them as they hide right away once she drops them....they often are not orange to start (some are, some are whitish and only change after a week or so to the orange color, so watch for this).

I had a 2.5 gallon with about 10+ babies in it, and they all picked an area to hide/hang out in, so they never really saw one another that much, and they managed to stay alive. If they see one another the babies will fight and kill each other....strongest will survive....so keep them separated with moss, as much as you can fit in the tank/box area. They will pick biofilm off the moss too to eat. Crushed algae wafers is a good food too, but not too much, as you don't want to foul the tank/box with uneaten food. Put a ramshorn or small pond snails in to eat the leftovers, then you can use them to feed the babies as they grow.

Once they are eating good (crushed pond snails is a very good source of protein for them and gets rid of the darn pesky things at the same time  and they will grow fast on this diet, I kept some just for that purpose in their tanks and just squashed them every other day...the babies ate the meat) then you can move them to a bigger tank once they are about 2 weeks old.

Good luck, keep us posted with pics if you can.


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

bettaforu said:


> gonna need some driftwood or lots and lots of moss in there once she drops them....take her out immediately or she'll snack on them
> 
> I have had the female eat her newly born hatchlings just because she could find them, but if you put lots of moss in there, its not as easy for her to see them as they hide right away once she drops them....they often are not orange to start (some are, some are whitish and only change after a week or so to the orange color, so watch for this).
> 
> ...


man, read this in the morning and before I left for work, I put a bunch of moss in there, lol.
Better safe than sorry. 
I'll check on her when I get back to see if shes released them. If she has, I'll put her into another section of the breeder box as I dont want her to fiddle around in the shrimp tank just yet

I have a few snails I can crush and put in there  Never knew I could feed them snails so thats a good thing to know 

I'll keep everyone posted on the progress of these lil cute things,


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