It was a dark and stormy night or perhaps, a full moon. Maybe it was the new neighborhood. Whatever it was, I missed it.

Several years of irregular water changes, different plants, ceramic caves, driftwood, rock arrangements and different tank mates, nothing seemed to matter. The Belontia signata, Comb- tailed Paradise fish, seemed totally indifferent to each other.

One day I purchased some "Scarlet Kribs" and put them in the same tank. Everything seemed to be normal and everyone was getting along just fine. Then the Kribs decided to spawn and I had to move my Belontia signata to a different tank. I had a twenty-nine-gallon tank with odds and ends of tetras, a couple of Ancistrus, rocks, driftwood and lots of water sprite littering the surface of the water.

Then I watched the Kribs make several attempts at having a successful spawn. Before long there was a small school of tiny Kribs devouring everything in their path whether it moved or not.

Meanwhile, back in the corner in the dark shadowy aquarium, the Belontia signata decided to spawn. Did they get the idea from the Kribs? I donít think so. Was it the lack of attention or the dark aquarium? Maybe. Whatever it was, itís a mystery, but I do have some clues. Several weeks later when I was feeding my fish one evening I discovered several fry swimming through the water sprite. "These are a good size," I say to myself, "they must have been here for a while." I wonder if I will have enough survive to BAP? Over the next few weeks there were more fly than I had first seen and they survived. I even had some left over to sell a few bags at the auction.