Friday, October 12, 2012

Wigglers!

After a few days in which the mama and papa rarely sleep but remain vigilantly protective of their eggs, they will begin to hatch.

When they hatch, the parents will scoop them into their mouths and take them to a new spot. In this case, it's a red amazon plant. They spit them onto the leaf so their heads stick. Then the baby wiggles and wiggles for several days while their bodies grow and begin to take form. It's a little like watching tiny tadpoles.

Here is a picture of a group of wigglers:



They look almost like eggs except they are longer. They are slightly larger than a pinhead - and apparently taste very good, so the parents are extra protective of them.

And here's a video where you can see them wiggling:





In my books Vicki's Key and Secrets of a Dangerous Woman, Vicki and Dylan are CIA operatives. But their neighbors think they are angelfish breeders. They use an old carriage house on the property and actually raise angelfish and do quite a nice business with it - in between their CIA missions.

Next week, I'll show you what they look like when they pop off the place where they've been stuck by their heads.