Extraordinary Fish Stories!

[Chibils]

Please share any wild aquarium stories; I just made one of my own.

My sump is a 30G tank under a 90. It's a little tight, but workable (sometimes). About fifteen months ago, I got a ywg. I also brought home some chaeto for my sump (with about 10G dedicated to a refugium). I've been letting the chaeto grow out until recently, when a few strands went through the return pump and claimed a huge chunk of real estate in my tank. They grew into a 14" ball . Anyways, the ywg appeared sickly. He was skinny and never ate well. After about a week and a half, he disappeared. I presumed him dead after a thorough search of my rockwork, overflow, sump, and floor turned up nothing. Tonight, I finally cleaned out my 14" chaeto ball and a whole 5.5G tank's worth from my sump. And out pops this little yellow fish.

So he's been living in my little 10G 'fuge area for the past fifteen months, with no supplemental feeding (algae and pods) and a 24/7 light cycle... This poor fish! I just moved him into my display and he's breathing heavily and swimming the same length up and down my tank. He's been doing so for the last hour and a half. Will he be okay? Is he just stressed?


Either way, please post any wild stories of your own. :)
I'm still stunned that my sickly, starving little goby lived in those conditions for over a year!

[T Man]

That's nothin'...........my last reef breakdown, the only thing left was the six inch deep wet sand bed. Two weekends later while removing the sand.......out pops my missing yellow coris wrasse!

Another one is...I watched a startled damsel bolt into a LR hole that was too small - the next mornin' he was still wedged in and "sleepin'" ;) T

[91yota]

friend of mine lost a dottyback once while pulling all of his rock out of the tank to cook it... 6 months or so later, after he finished cooking the rock, he found the dottyback in the container with the rock... 6 months or so of PITCH BLACK, no feeding, etc... scooped him up and placed him back into the DT where he lived just fine for quite a while

[chrisstie]

Wow thats pretty amazing.

My first tank was a 12g aquapod. I had a YWG and pistol shrimp that were great for about a week. Then come to find out the YWG went missing for over a month. Calling it quits I got a new YWG. In 2 days this one, too went missing. I knew it wasn't me, although new to the hobby back then I picked out superb specimens and the shrimp was fine.

Turns out theres 4 compartments in the back of an aquapod to make for a sort of overflow area. There is also a horizontal cubby running underneath these so the return pump's intake can stick out properly, otherwise it wouldn't fit in the space provided.

I stealthily snuck over one night with a red flash light (never found anything with white) and low and behold there are TWO yellow watchmans sitting next to the pump. I darn near dismantled the tank and did a lot of fish herding to get them both into the display. Then I had to figure out what to do with 2 YWG but was tired and was like well, they're going to have to wait until morning.

The next day they were both in a cave with the shrimp and have been paired since 2 years ago and still with the same shrimp. They now reside in a Red Sea Max tank which is a bit more goby proof than the aquapod!

[Chibils]

That's nuts. Who knew these little fish could be so tenacious?

[Snail-po]

ha! i love the dottyback story.:)

[JHemdal]

O.K., here is my fish story:

In 1973, while in high school, I worked for a major tropical fish importer. As shipments arrived, we would stack the styrofoam boxes against a wall and then re-use them when packing fish for ship-out. I needed a particular size box for an outgoing shipment, so I dug down and pulled one out. As I emptied it of old bags and newspaper, out dropped a tiny bag with a betta in it. The bag was collapsed and the water was amber colored, but the fish was alive. I checked the date on the box and it had been sitting there for two months! I moved the betta to new water but it died in a few minutes...probably pH shock

Jay

[tewkes]

My tailspot blenny went missing for a few weeks. I spent hours trying to find him, or his body. I figured he'd jumped out and my cat or dogs got him.

Last month I broke down my old tank and still didn't find him. I shut off the heater, lights, drained the tank about 3/4 of the way.

Approx 3-4 days after breaking down the tank, I was getting ready to move it outside. I looked in the overflow box and couldn't believe it. He was in the overflow box still alive. No heat, no food, and the overflow box smelled like a septic tank from sitting stagnant for several days. Not to mention I keep my house pretty cold in the winter.

I quickly scooped him up, did a brief acclimation and added him to my new tank. He was super skinny looking and I thought for sure he would never make it.

It's been about a month now and he's still alive and healthier than ever.