AMAZING!! 8 Months????

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FINWIN

FINWIN

Alligator Gar
MFK Member
Dec 21, 2018
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Washington DC
I was setting up the growout tank this morning for the fry in the 125. This tank was unoccupied since LAST JUNE with about an inch of water at the bottom with some sand, stones and one tatty plant.

I'm putting in clean water and SOMETHING MOVED. It was one of the hrps from the group I donated to the pet store last summer! The fish is ridiculously undersized (it's no bigger than it's baby cousins) but appears healthy and is swimming normally!! What it survived on I have no idea. 😮

This fish is officially named Lazarus. I might put him in with one of the parrots once I order a small hide. Kong is more aggressive but Tango's mouth is a lot bigger, so...

I'll take a pic of this survivor!!

1674750369306.png
 
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These are the reasons I think Lazarus survived and why I didn't see him:

A: The sand layer was thick. Areas of the bottom were piled into mounds where he could hide behind which would raise the water some. The lighting was stored away and the tank is in a corner of my office so with no lighting its fairly dim.
B: In the acrylic tank the evaporation was extremely slow, so he couldn't dry out. In fact I thought the water level would never go down. The lid partially covered the openings.
C: I just drained the tank down but never cleaned it. So he could eat leftover pellets, mulm, algae, and the detrius worms that collected at times.
D: His body slowed down and went into survival mode which accounts for the small size. I'm curious to see how he'll grow under normal conditions now.

I've added more plant cover and a corner filter on the right side. Lazarus is out and about exploring everywhere. I've heard of people finding missing fish in sumps but this is a first for me!
 
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This is amazing - quite a testament to convict hardiness!
If you still have the water, I’d be curious to see what level nitrate got to (or if such a small fish wound up with no noticeable effect on the water) even after all that time.
 
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Deadeye said:
This is amazing - quite a testament to convict hardiness!
If you still have the water, I’d be curious to see what level nitrate got to (or if such a small fish wound up with no noticeable effect on the water) even after all that time.
Click to expand...

Eh, we'll never know...wish I had tested that. I just added clean water so it's like 90% fresh in there. It's probable that in addition to his body slowing down he ate bare minimum so didn't put out much nitrate. Might have even gone into some weird rest mode for all I know.

Why should I be surprised...an offspring of Pip and Mongo, it figures!
 
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I had a similar experience with a spotted raphael catfish. It lived in less than a quarter filled 55 gallon for months. Eventually i dumped most of the tank out into an old construction bucket that was partly filled with dry concrete in order to catch the gravel. That bucket sat outside for a few nights with lows probably in the low 40s (this was a long time ago). Eventually i came back to empty the bucket and i saw that fish swimming in there, still alive and seemingly healthy. Definitely a crazy hardy fish to have survived all of that.
 
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Lazarus continues to do well and has a healthy appetite. He gets 3-4 small meals a day. He's filled out some and appears to have put on a bit of size. I can see him a lot easier now, lol. Tried to get a pic today but he scooted into the plants when he saw the camera.

Meanwhile, more 125 pics. You can see the fry really growing! Slade is out front on guard as usual. Look closely and you'll see babies in the cave at the lower left. Mom is in there most of the time.

A.jpg
 
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