What the??

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A

Artax

Candiru
MFK Member
Mar 28, 2008
176
0
46
Massachusetts
Ok so about 2 months ago I had my brother bring me down a piece of driftwood from Maine (i live in Massachusetts) cause i got a new tank and wanted a nice big piece of dw. So he brought me down a very nice big peice... trouble is that it has been out of the water for god knows how long and is bouyant as hell. so i put it in a large tub in my backyard to soak knowing that it will take forever to sink it but whatever... I go outside today and take a look at the dw and in the tub there are lots of mosquito larvae swimming around then i notice something that doesnt look at all like a larvae??? It was a fish! (actually there are 2 of them that i can see) what i want to know is how the heck did it get in there as i dont live anywhere near a pond river lake stream anything?? would also like to know what it is? could an egg have layed dormant on the driftwood then hatched when contacted by water? I mean this piece of dw is sun bleached it was out of water so long? anyways here are some pics of the bigger little guy

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the fin arrangement would suggest a cyprinid minnow of some sort. It's definitely not a killifish because it has a forked tail.

It's too long to be a koi or goldfish fry.

Are they still alive? If they are, then it's probably not a notropis species. Larval Notropis and the fry are really sensitive. Simply netting them can kill them because of the fast water movement. If they survived after being taken out of the water and being placed in your hands, then it's probably not a Notropis species.

Which part of massachustts do you live in? It might also help with an id if you took a picture of the fish in a clear container full of water. Fish colors can sometimes look different when they are out of the water.
 
Im just outside of boston the driftwood came from Fort Kent Maine and the fish lived through the netting and holding it in my hands ill try and get a pic of it in a clear plastic thing. It cant be to sensetive cause its living in a plastic tub full of water with no filtration thats been sitting in my back yard for 2 months in the sunlight
 
Maybe you have a neighbor playing a joke on you :D

Just grab a sandwich bag and take a picture of it in there. No clue what it is but if it survived a journey in a dried out piece of driftwood I'm sure a tub of water with no filtration isn't going to hurt it.
 
Def not neighbors playing tricks but that would be funny:nilly:anyways here are some pics that are terrible but the best i can do with my POS camera.....

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I'm not sure how to comment on this, if the wood had dried out it seems unlikely a fish or fish eggs would have survived. having said that it's important to not that using drift/bog wood from a body of water is for all practical purposes the same as using live rock from a reef in a marine tank. You get lots of small organisms you would other wise never get. I almost always set up my native freshwater tanks using at least a few pieces of wood and mud from a stream or lake to get the small organisms that make my tanks more natural. I sometimes get freshwater sponges, Hydra, Bryozoans, worms, crustaceans like amphipods, isopods, copepods, and lots of protozoans. I use a sump which also acts as a refugium for these animals. so using drift wood from a body of water can add lots of organisms to your tank but fish I have never seen come from any of the bog wood I have used over the years. Not impossible but........
 
any idea as to what i should do with these guys?? like should i put them in a small tank or just leave them be in the tub???at the very bottom of the tub they are in the water is cooler than it is on the surface thats where i saw these fish maybe put them in a 10gallon tank i have with no heater and try to mimick whats goin on in the tub???
 
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