Fish Stories

[Abbeys_Mom]

After reading about reptileguy2727's bichirs who jumped from there temporary tank, I figured other people out there would have stories about their fish.
I have a koi who killed himself after losing his female. He would swim back and forth really fast and then jump into the lid. He would knock himself out and have to be revived. This went on for a week until he hit really hard and couldn't be brought back. I was really sad to see.

[Cichlid_Man]

After reading about reptileguy2727's bichirs who jumped from there temporary tank, I figured other people out there would have stories about their fish.
I have a koi who killed himself after losing his female. He would swim back and forth really fast and then jump into the lid. He would knock himself out and have to be revived. This went on for a week until he hit really hard and couldn't be brought back. I was really sad to see.

That IS sad...

Mine is sad too, but not fish suicide.
I had 4 African Cichlids in my 30 gallon tank. All healthy and growing real nice.

I woke up one morning to find the tank empty. The filter cracked and the tank emptied out.

They were dead.

One fish survived and I still have him...My Pleco!
You cannot kill a healthy Pleco!

[kimmers318]

Wow....didn't know koi were that love struck when they found a mate! Poor guy.
Not surprising the pleco lived, as you said, a healthy plec is hard to kill. So is an unhealthy one....the one I rescued was in a 10 gal for "about" a year she said. Wasn't fed anything other than flake....all the fish kept dying in the tank so she brought the survivors to me. The pleco has added just over 2 inches in length and doubled to tripled in body mass/width since July 4th. Is just now getting comfortable enough to come running when food is dropped in, and stick around as long as there aren't any sudden movements near the tank.

[Cichlid_Man]

I have no clue what my pleco lives on.
If I throw in wafers at the same time I am feeding my cichlids, the cichlids eat the wafers first, then they go for the spirulina.

I have no algae. What is the poor guy living on?

[Lady Hobbs]

Two of my gourami's and one loach dead when getting trapped in a castle decoration I had gotten for smaller fish. BEWARE of decorations with small holes as bigger fish will try to squeeze into them, as well. I am thinking of getting the larger PVC pipe and gluing aquarium stones to them and just using them for hiding spots. At least the fish won't get stuck.

[Abbeys_Mom]

That reminded my of my bristlenose pleco. He is so attached to his ornament that when I need to move him to another tank, I couldn't get him out of it. I even removed it from the tank and he wouldn't let go. Eventually I just dipped the ornament till it was holding a little water and moved the whole thing with him inside. It was like a pleco security blanket. Part of the reason I was moving the ornament was that I had a parrot who fit in when she was little, but she was outgrowing it and getting stuck. I was constantly lifting it to let her out the bottom.

[Lady Hobbs]

Some of these ornaments, altho pretty, can be a death chamber for our fish. I paid a lot of money for that castle but now am afraid to use it altho I've blocked up the smaller holes.

[Slinky_Bass]

My very first fish tank was a little cold water number my grandparents bought me for my 16th birthday. They got it a week before my birthday, set it up and everything, conditioned the water and added the fish the day before my birthday (1 shubunkin, 2 commets, and 2 mini koi). At some point that night the shubunkin jumped out and my gran found him the next morning limp, but alive on the floor. She put him back and he started to swim around and by the time they gave me the tank he seemed fine to me.

That tank, being my first tank, went through a lot of ups and downs and through all of it (ammonia, N02 & N03 posioning, whitespot epedemics, finrot, external parasites, medcine overdoses) my shubunkin persevered. He ended up seeing his fifth birthday through making him my second oldest fish I've kept. I wonder how long he would have lived if he hadn't been subjected to my newbie ignorance and if hed lived in something bigger than a 5 gal tank.

[Abbeys_Mom]

When I was a kid we had a goldfish for about 10 years. It survived poor care, a light falling in the tank (more then once) and a 5 year old girl (my sister) taking him out of the tank and leaving him on the floor (we're not sure how long), because "He was tired of swimming". lol.

[kimmers318]

Tired of swimming....too funny! My niece had a goldfish, in a bowl (ugh) but I have to admit, she did as best she could....changing out almost all of the water regularly and not overfeeding. When the fish died she came to her mother crying that her fish had drowned! We still tease her about it.

[Abbeys_Mom]

My husband and I were talking about this thread and he reminded me of another one. We have cats and that can pose a problem when you have fish. He's never eaten any (that I know of), but his hair is always winding up in the tank. When I had guppies a fry actually ate a cat hair. It was in his mouth and out his ... You know what....the poor fish was only <--> this big. I used a pair of tweezers and pulled it out, surprisingly that guppy lived a long and happy life. I wish I had had a camera then.

[Incredulous_Ed]

My parents had a aquarium when I was 3. I recall putting toy cars in it.

[jeffs99dime]

here's one. happened recently (yesterday to be exact.) my cardinal tetra have disappeared. i suspect the keyhole cichlids i have went to town on them. in my years of fish keeping this has never happened. pretty weird!