CRAZY fish story

[new2natives]

so i know everyone has one, here is my best fish story so far!

i bought a tank a while back off the internet, and the guy gave me all the fish inside. a 14" pleco, a bunch of basic LFS fish, and they told me that "there is something else in there, but it nevers comes out"
they had a decorative driftwood piece, and it was hollow throughout, and the fish apparently came out very rarely.
when i got the tank home, i moved everything except the pleco out, and added other fish to the tank, in the process i basically had to pry the mystery fish out of the tree
as it turns out he was a 6" Yoyo Loach, and he went into my roommates tank, until she decided to neglect it , and everything started to die, so i took him out and put him in my girlfriends tank, along with some gouramis, and glass cats, and other basic fish.
in this tank the light is on a lot (which the loach dont like) and there is a decoration that is hollowed out, but he had to work pretty hard to get under it, digging in the gravel, and i cant imagine there is much room in there for him....
so after a week or so of seeing him swim in and out of the decoration, we knew he was doing well.
then all of a sudden neither of us saw him for a week. then two. then three. this tank is in the living room where we both spend a lot of time, so we would see him if he ever came out (except the 7 hours a night we both sleep). along the way we had both mentioned to each other that he must have gotten stuck in there and died... and we both thought that the other had proabbly taken him out...
last week i was driving home, and i hear a scream on the other end of the phone. she was home and happened to look at the tank, and saw him darting around the tank (as was typical for him)!!!! she had thought he was dead, and had no idea he was still in the tank, as was i.

IT HAD BEEN OVER 2 MONTHS since either of us saw the fish, and apparently he is alive and doing well, spending much of his time in the decoration!!!!!

 

[Stormfire]

Same thing happened with an algae eater when I was seven and didn't know much about fish.
The only decorations in the 5 gal was a tiny plastic rock a little bigger than a soda can and some plastic plants. For a few weeks or so, he happily swam around the tank "cleaning", out in the open.
Then, suddenly he just disappeared. We all presumed he was dead and one of the only fish ate him.
A few months later, when we did a 50% water change and took out the rock to be cleaned, a little wriggling fish jumped out of one of the tiny 1/2 in. holes. It was the algae eater, alive and healthy.

 

[Arizonagrace]

I have 2 rubber lip plecos. The first one I got was put in a 20 gallon tank. He promptly hid. Saw him once or twice and then not again for a month. One day, I was changing gravel and took everything...and I mean everything out of the tank. Thought he died 'cause he wasn't in there. The only thing in there was the other fish and water. I put in new gravel, put in the decorations and never thought about it again. A week later, I picked up one of the decorations to gravel clean under it, and lo and behold..he darted out. Didn't see him forever after that. Now, if I want to check on him, I have to move all the decorations.

I bought a 2nd one for another tank, and he does the exact same thing. They are adorable...and harder then heck to catch. I last saw Nugget (the 1st one I bought) when I switched everyone from a 20 to a 29 gallon tank about 2 weeks ago. The 2nd one hides under a fake coral where you wouldn't think he could get under.

 

[piggy67]

yesterday i thought i would tell my story about my gg,looks like a good thread to tell it again.I never tire of telling it sooooo hear it goes.I went to my lfs to buy a blue gourami.They had about 10 in a 10gal.My wife picked 1 out,i still don't know if they got the 1 she picked out,anyway,we took it home and put him in our 29gal(end of story)not by a long shot.It out grew my 29 so i bought a 55.In a few months he out grew that.I just thought he was a freak of nature.lol.well i decided to investigate(here on MFK)It turned out that what the lfs sold me was not a blue but a giant.never even heard of a giant gourmi.I now have him in a 100gal,and he is now about 22 23 inches.He is a real monster.You can see him in the gallery here on MFK,or videos on youtube(piggypigfish)only paid 4$ for him.so that's my story in short....giant gourami's rule

 

[piggy67]

Anybody else.I LOVE TO READ STORIES LIKE THIS.

 

[Hawkfish3.0]

Yeah, I had a breeding pair of Cons in a 29g. I decided to get rid of the Cons and tear down the 29g, so I pulled the pair out and took them to the LFS and caught all the fry I could find and put them in my larger tanks to feed the larger cichlids that I had at the time. Well after a couple months I was coming up on the end of my lease and needed to start getting stuff ready to move. I went to empty the gravel from the 29g, and when I pulled up the undergravel filter, there they were, 4 Convict fry, all alive! There had only been enough water to cover the gravel left in the tank and obviously no source of heat. I was astounded that these little suckers survived for so long.

 

[pwmin]

mom my lost a spotted raphael for 7 months in a 55 gal.

 

[rallow]

Yeah, I had a breeding pair of Cons in a 29g. I decided to get rid of the Cons and tear down the 29g, so I pulled the pair out and took them to the LFS and caught all the fry I could find and put them in my larger tanks to feed the larger cichlids that I had at the time. Well after a couple months I was coming up on the end of my lease and needed to start getting stuff ready to move. I went to empty the gravel from the 29g, and when I pulled up the undergravel filter, there they were, 4 Convict fry, all alive! There had only been enough water to cover the gravel left in the tank and obviously no source of heat. I was astounded that these little suckers survived for so long.

how big were those cons

 

[Westie]

I was moving from Lake Tahoe down to the Bay Area and had taken down my tank to move. All my fish were given to my boss and his 135g except for a Kuhli Loach who disappeared. With time running out I felt he was dead and started my move. Got down to the bay in a couple hours and waited till the next day to get my tank situated and set up. When I started filling the tank I was completely blown away to see my little Kuhli darting arround! He stayed with me a couple more years after that too. I now have like 5 of them.