...or monsters will eat them. One of the best things about this hobby, I suppose, is that you're always learning new aspects&having some sort of surprise thrown at you... even if it does tend to be through horrible, horrible ways. But if you're a taxidermist like I am, dead things are worth gold, though it's always depressing to see one of your babies dead :\
Bought a big, lovely albino tiger oscar today, about 6" I guess. He was doing well in my massive 'carnivore' tank when I acclimated him earlier.
I figured he would be perfectly fine, considering how big he is and how dorky/unaggressive the rest of his tank mates tend to be. Probably because they're spoiled... no kidding, they're about the nicest monster fish you ever saw. They all get along great, weirdly enough. Machete my clown knife, Toothless my bichir, and Fearless my leopard ctenopoma were all grown from about 1-2" from Petsmart into the 11", 9 1/2", and 5 1/2" beasts they are respectively. They rest on each other&have no territory issues. My pacu, blood parrot, and texas cichlid are 6", 4", and 2" respectively and have been with me only a few months now. Seriously, 2" of fish? I can't manage to catch him and no one can seem to eat him. He's a fighter.
Anyway, I take a nap for about an hour&a half, only to wake up & notice I don't see the albino oscar anymore. My pacu is eating something in the back on the floor of the tank, however, where I can't see... so I get up to take a look.
Half of the albino oscar stares back at me. He was completely torn in half&eaten. The bichir, blood parrot, and pacu would each take turns taking a nibble from the corpse as I watched.
At this point, all information is so inconclusive... if a tiny texas cichlid can hold his own in this tank, what happened to this gigantic oscar? My thoughts went from everything to a piranha-like feeding frenzy [maybe there was an initial fight] to a sudden-death scavenge, but he was perfectly fine for several hours before I took that nap. The entire day, in fact.
I feel like I can't necessarily fix something I did wrong here, but I will DEFINITELY keep my eye on the monsters all day after a new addition. Poor baby!
I've had many lessons learned with jumping fish, too. There probably isn't any experienced hobbyist out there who hasn't lost at least one fish to jumping, but when it all turns out in your favor it couldn't be better. The bichir mentioned previously jumped out of his tank when he was only 2" long, about 3 years ago. 6 hours later I came home and found him on the ground. He was like a brown, stiff noodle, but actually managed to recover completely over a week, though he was really effed up for a few days.
While most of my other fish who've jumped died, I got lucky while I was out one night; my brother was looking for me and walked into my room to find my favorite clown loach, Marlon, on the floor. [yes, all my feesh have names<3] He must've JUST jumped out within 2-3 minutes or so. Assuming he was dead because of his terrible-looking condition, my brother ended up throwing him in another of my community tanks, in a panic. Seeing Marlon was still alive, he quickly took it back to the tank he came from&a couple months later, Marlon the clown loach is still kickin'.
He lost most of all his fins, and a good portion of the skin on his body. He was really screwed up&I didn't think he was going to make it, but over time has begun to grow his fins back, his stripes are wiped away, but his orange-red color is returning&is back to his old self. He looks like he's been through a fire with the intense scarring on his head. Can't wait to see him fully-healed.<3
Tomorrow I will be drying out the rest of the oscar's head&body for my beetles; should have a beautiful, large, clean oscar skull within a day, if they're not too full from a 7' boa. It'll be a nice to have a gruesome contrast picture. Will be making jewelry out of his body like usual.
So remembah, brothas&sistas, to keep your eye on your children, even if you think it might be okay...& keep your tank COVERED!
Bought a big, lovely albino tiger oscar today, about 6" I guess. He was doing well in my massive 'carnivore' tank when I acclimated him earlier.
I figured he would be perfectly fine, considering how big he is and how dorky/unaggressive the rest of his tank mates tend to be. Probably because they're spoiled... no kidding, they're about the nicest monster fish you ever saw. They all get along great, weirdly enough. Machete my clown knife, Toothless my bichir, and Fearless my leopard ctenopoma were all grown from about 1-2" from Petsmart into the 11", 9 1/2", and 5 1/2" beasts they are respectively. They rest on each other&have no territory issues. My pacu, blood parrot, and texas cichlid are 6", 4", and 2" respectively and have been with me only a few months now. Seriously, 2" of fish? I can't manage to catch him and no one can seem to eat him. He's a fighter.
Anyway, I take a nap for about an hour&a half, only to wake up & notice I don't see the albino oscar anymore. My pacu is eating something in the back on the floor of the tank, however, where I can't see... so I get up to take a look.
Half of the albino oscar stares back at me. He was completely torn in half&eaten. The bichir, blood parrot, and pacu would each take turns taking a nibble from the corpse as I watched.
At this point, all information is so inconclusive... if a tiny texas cichlid can hold his own in this tank, what happened to this gigantic oscar? My thoughts went from everything to a piranha-like feeding frenzy [maybe there was an initial fight] to a sudden-death scavenge, but he was perfectly fine for several hours before I took that nap. The entire day, in fact.
I feel like I can't necessarily fix something I did wrong here, but I will DEFINITELY keep my eye on the monsters all day after a new addition. Poor baby!
I've had many lessons learned with jumping fish, too. There probably isn't any experienced hobbyist out there who hasn't lost at least one fish to jumping, but when it all turns out in your favor it couldn't be better. The bichir mentioned previously jumped out of his tank when he was only 2" long, about 3 years ago. 6 hours later I came home and found him on the ground. He was like a brown, stiff noodle, but actually managed to recover completely over a week, though he was really effed up for a few days.
While most of my other fish who've jumped died, I got lucky while I was out one night; my brother was looking for me and walked into my room to find my favorite clown loach, Marlon, on the floor. [yes, all my feesh have names<3] He must've JUST jumped out within 2-3 minutes or so. Assuming he was dead because of his terrible-looking condition, my brother ended up throwing him in another of my community tanks, in a panic. Seeing Marlon was still alive, he quickly took it back to the tank he came from&a couple months later, Marlon the clown loach is still kickin'.
He lost most of all his fins, and a good portion of the skin on his body. He was really screwed up&I didn't think he was going to make it, but over time has begun to grow his fins back, his stripes are wiped away, but his orange-red color is returning&is back to his old self. He looks like he's been through a fire with the intense scarring on his head. Can't wait to see him fully-healed.<3
Tomorrow I will be drying out the rest of the oscar's head&body for my beetles; should have a beautiful, large, clean oscar skull within a day, if they're not too full from a 7' boa. It'll be a nice to have a gruesome contrast picture. Will be making jewelry out of his body like usual.
So remembah, brothas&sistas, to keep your eye on your children, even if you think it might be okay...& keep your tank COVERED!
