Is this normal reed fish behaviour?

[PrehistoricMonsterFish]

Have been keeping reed fish for a couple of years but this guy has just recently started hanging out like this. Sometimes head up like this, sometimes head towards the bottom.

Just curious if anyone else has reed fish that display this behaviour?
Maybe this is a natural behaviour that they use to resemble reeds? Just odd that it has never done it before and want to make sure it's not a sign of a swim bladder issue or something like that.

Any help appreciated.

 

[Pshmock]

I've had ropefish in the past, but I've never seen them display this type of behavior. Most of the time they hang out on the bottom. Is it eating? Does it seem unhealthy at all? It seems to look healthy from the picture.

 

[kno4te]

Never seen that. Maybe and likely swimmbladder issue. If so then Qt and get some Epsom salt, 1tbsp per 5 g, and maracyn2 (broad spectrum with gram neg coversge) and cross ur fingers.

 

[PrehistoricMonsterFish]

Unfortunately I lost him a day or so after I made this post.
Not sure what happened, it had been eating right in until he started acting oddly and then a day or two after he started this, he died.
I have 3 other reed fish in the tank plus some other species and they are all doing fine.
Perhaps he swamped something that impacted him in some way. Had him a few years so it was disappointing to lose him.

 

[Mighty Wizard]

Very sad to hear that your fish died. This behaviour however is fairly common with Ropefish in the wild, and is where they get their other common name, Reedfish from. They'll stand like that among the reeds, ready to ambush any cricket or other insect that wanders too close. Smaller Bichir species do it some times as well.

Rest assured, don't freak out if you see any of your other ropes doing this in the future. It's normal Ropefish behaviour and likely not connected to your fish's untimely death.

 

[thefredpit]

I've never seen my ropefish do this but my 1st sengalus did this when I first got him to hunt patys