Any crazy fish behavior or stories about your Natives?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I used to have a madtom that would spend about 90% of it's time swimming belly up, only time it would turn rightside up was at feeding time.
 
I have a story about my 11" yellow perch...this happened when he was only about 5"-6" long. At that time I had him in a 75 gallon in the room that is now my sons room...at that time it was an office. One night while my wife and I were on the sofa watching a movie we heard a splash and thought nothing of it as he often made big splashing sounds as he was easily spooked. About 5 minutes later our cat walks out of the room and starts licking something on the floor in the hallway. (visible from the sofa) My wife asks what the cat has and I jumped up like a bat out of h***! I got there just in time to see what I thought was my yellow perch dead on the floor caudal chewed up and slime coat licked off by the cat and almost completely dry. I went to pick it up and as I did it kicked. Amazed, I ran him to a 20 gallon hospital I had set up with nothing in it (had just set it up that week). He could not hold himself upright. I literally sat there for 30 minutes holding him upright head pointed directly toward the filter output so the water would go over his gills. (BTW...i used a filter from an already cycled tank so i didn't have to cycle) Finally he gave the tell-tale kick like he was ready to swim (the same as when you go fishing catch-and-release and you're letting the fish go) so I let him swim down to the bottom. He sat there motionless for another hour (checked on him frequently) without moving more than breathing and pectoral fin movement occasionally. When I went to check on him he had moved and was sitting just off the bottom about an inch or 2. It was at this point that I thought he might actually survive. I then went to the meds and increased temp from 78f to 81f and left the lights out. I still can't believe he survived and he is still here about 4 years later.

My wife calls him my miracle fish. He has permanent scars and fin damage but is otherwise healthy and eats night crawlers from my hands.
(check my youtube vids through the link in my signature)

Here's a link to pics of "The Miracle Fish": http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/album.php?albumid=4703
 
Earlier this year I cleared out a 75 and started a native tank. I collected 6 Blacknose dace and put them in there. Couple nights later I'm doing a water change, and as I start putting the hose down in the water, I feel something "nipping" at the back of my hand. I look over and there's one of the dace darting around my hand. Then he starts racing around the hose (Lee Gravel Vac). He swims away and I'm going about my business. I'm just pulling water out, wasn't vacuuming gravel so the hose end is only about 6-8 inches below the surface. All of a sudden he comes racing over and swims right up the tube!!! Happened so fast I couldn't believe it. I turn the valve to the OFF position and try to shake him loose, he's in the fitting halfway. I walk over to the sink and reverse the flow, he comes down and is just kind of floating around, bobbing and stuff. I figure "ah, crap, he's dead", then after about 30 seconds he starts to swim, rather unsteadily. I keep an eye on him for the rest of the water change and about 30 minutes after that. Checked Sunday AM, he was still alive. Got some pretty nasty abrasions on the head and back and one eye was a little popped out. He died 2 days later.
 
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