Fish Out Of Water Experience

[Alistriwen]

Today my roomie and I sold 19 of our adult fish and as a result we decided to move around some fish. We were adding some rosy barbs to our swordtail tank and to do so we had the barbs floating in the tank in a ziploc while I re-planted/decorated the tank (to erase the male swords territory from his memory) and the swords were kept in a milk container filled with tank water. I finished and let the barbs into the tank to swim around then put the milk container in the tank to allow the temp to adjust. I came back 10 minutes later after my roomie had finished h20 changes in that area of the room and noticed a missing sword!

I looked in the tank hoping shed jumped in there but to no avail. Panicked, I called my roomie who spotted the fish lying on the floor behind the tank. She was covered in dog hair and not moving at all. Fearing the worst, I grabbed some tongs and gently tried to pick her up for disposal. To my surprise she flopped around when i touched her. I acted quickly and got her back in the tank. Once shed freed herself from the dog hair she hung near the bottom clearly in shock. I still figured shed be a goner, but not 5 minutes later she was again busily swimming around the tank checking out the new setup. She doesn't seem hurt at all except for some minor fin damage probably from the rosy barbs pecking at her while she was in shock. I think she is going to make it . Scariest experience of my fish keeping career thus far. Just goes to show what resiliant little buggers they are.

Anyone have a similar story to share?

 

[charlie4486]

that's an awesome story. I'm glad to hear the fish is ok. i have some gold dojo's and they are known for jumping out of tanks and surviving for hours. i hope i never have to experience that first hand though

 

[dthoffsett]

Glad to hear she's ok!

I used to have a golden apple snail that figured out how to pop open the lid on one of my old tanks. It would then drop to the carpet, and make journey's across the floor, usually while I was at work. I'd come home to find it halfway across the living room. The poor cats were terrified of it, it was hilarious to see them all jumpy and trying to hide from the snail of death.

 

[linda1503]

Glad to hear she's ok!

I used to have a golden apple snail that figured out how to pop open the lid on one of my old tanks. It would then drop to the carpet, and make journey's across the floor, usually while I was at work. I'd come home to find it halfway across the living room. The poor cats were terrified of it, it was hilarious to see them all jumpy and trying to hide from the snail of death.

This made me laugh!! Had a mental pic of the cats hiding from the 'snail of death' and saying to each other 'what the hell is it? you go and get it!....not me, you go !!'
I had a shrimp once that jumped out of the tank and walked quite a way across the carpet before we noticed it, goodness knows where he thought he was off too!!

 

[Straydum]

Glad to hear she's ok!

I used to have a golden apple snail that figured out how to pop open the lid on one of my old tanks. It would then drop to the carpet, and make journey's across the floor, usually while I was at work. I'd come home to find it halfway across the living room. The poor cats were terrified of it, it was hilarious to see them all jumpy and trying to hide from the snail of death.

HAHA!

 

[TylerFerretLord]

One of my platies jumped up into the food container. He was covered in flakes when I put him back in the tank.

I guess he was hungry.

 

[dthoffsett]

One of my platies jumped up into the food container. He was covered in flakes when I put him back in the tank.

I guess he was hungry.

I bet all the other fish in the tank really liked him.

I also wanted to say I LOVE your signature.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

One of my platies jumped up into the food container. He was covered in flakes when I put him back in the tank.

I guess he was hungry.

I bet all the other fish in the tank really liked him.

I also wanted to say I LOVE your signature.

They chased him for a bit while they were stuck on him.

You're the second person to say they like my signature so far, and I just changed it the other day.

Thanks.

 

[invader]

Glad to hear she's ok!

I used to have a golden apple snail that figured out how to pop open the lid on one of my old tanks. It would then drop to the carpet, and make journey's across the floor, usually while I was at work. I'd come home to find it halfway across the living room. The poor cats were terrified of it, it was hilarious to see them all jumpy and trying to hide from the snail of death.

 

[TNW]

A not-so happy ending...

I bought five hatchet fish some months ago, unfortunately they didn't seem to be in such a good shape as two of them died soon after I bought them. One day I was scooping out some plant leaves floating about and noticed there were only two left. I looked all around the tank, in case it had jumped out, and searched the tank for a sunken body, but nothing.
About a week later I had to use my net again... and stuck in the net was the dried corpse of a dead little hatchetfish. I've never forgotten to check the fish-count again after using my net...

 

[SouthernCross]

My male pearl gourami gave me a heart attack a couple of weeks ago. My pearls are really skittish fish, if someone walks past the tank quickly they go berko and dart around the tank and splash. Luckily I have glass lids.

But when I was taking them off to clean one day I startled my big male and he jumped clean out! Of course, it had to be the side against the wall, so he was jammed between the tank and the wall. Everytime I tried top pick him up he would flip and spike me. I got him back in eventually, but what an ordeal!

 

[Alistriwen]

Good stories! Here's another one, sort of. Most of my dreams of late have been about fish lately. Last night was no exception. I had a dream that my roomate and I were keeping a fully grown oscar in a 100 gallon tank and were doing maintenance and she left its lid open. We came back just after it had jumped out of the tank and I was yelling that it was her turn to put the fish back in the water lol. She eventualy got hold of a fly fishing net that we don't have in reality (like the oscar) and swooped it up. The next ordeal was getting the fish back in which my dream roomie failed at multiple times. Poor dream fish.

 

[TigerLotus]

Here's mine

Well when I was going to overhaul my 20 gallon tank I had to move my shark into the 10 gallon. I remember watching the people at the fish store removing fish from the tank by holding them in the net with there hand so I figured I'd try that instead of having my shark flopping around in the net. Well after I got him out the tank he was a lit stronger than I thought and he started ripping around in my hand and I freaked out. I then moved my hand to simply cover the top of my net like I usually do and there he went. He jumped out that net about 1 to 2 feet. And of course in the most impossible spot to get to. I tried pushing him out one end and grabbing on the other and he kept sliming out my hands. I finally got a hold of him and he was covered in hair and junk, I stumbled to the tank and plopped him in because I was so scared he would die. He is my savage rainbow shark who has been through a lot and is still swimming.

 

[Meds081603]

We had a toad get out one time. We found him 2 days later completely covered in dog hair and carpet fuzz. He was cold and looked 1/2 dead. 5 minutes after putting him back in his tank he was eating crickets and good as new.

 

[Flagfin]

Hya - I recently had a similar fish out of water experience with a Cory - Its a bit long winded so I'm not going to re-write it but bottom line is it survived 10 mins stuck in the plughole with no water before I found it - baring in mind it was only approx 5 weeks old as well (It was one of my home bred fry!). The full story's in the Cory section under "Your going to think I'm nuts" thread, if anyone's interested.