Well, we went and got all the stuff for the new tanks including the Texas. As I was trying to catch the 3 little africans in the 30 we are keeping the Texas in until the 55 is cycled, the Texas swam up into the inside part of this huge rock formation thing in there. I was trying to get him out of there with my fingers and he bit me. So I took the tank cover off and lifted this thing totally out of the water to get him out. When I looked down I thought I was seeing double and then in TOTAL SHOCK!!!!!! I realized the 2nd fish was the Jack Dempsey we thought had jumped out and we couldn't find.
Now its been what, nearly 3 to 4 weeks since that happened? And I've picked that darned thing up several times cleaning and trying to get fish out of that tank.
And how the heck did he manage to survive in there for all this time especially since I've graveled vac'ed the food out from under there at least twice?
Needless to say, we're both thrilled to have found him and still have him with us. We're just so disbelieving this tho! If it hadn't happened to us, I probably wouldn't believe it!
What about some alien conspiracy theories?! This happened to me at the start of the summer, I bought a female Apisto Cacatuoides to add to the pair I had already. She then disappeared after two days and for 1 1/2 months we presumed dead and eaten. Then one day I was cleaning out the filter (its a Juwel tank, built in large volume filter) when I saw a sliver of something slide between my fingers. After grabbing a torch and a small net and a bit of rummaging aroun, THERE SHE WAS!! after nearly 7 weeks of living in the filter with no light and only what was sucked into the filter as food!
Obviously she was very nervous back in the tank and her whole eyes were a jet black, but after two weeks she spawned under the filter in her new cave home!
She now of course has the nickname, 'The Recluse'
Actually, I think he has grown. More than anything, it has made him impossible to get along with any tankmates and I had to move him into a 25 I had just gotten cycled that I was going to put a couple of angels in. Even by himself he will do everything in his power to hide. I actually watched him wrap his body around the bottom part of a PVC pipe I had put in there for him to hide in. He finally figured out he could get in it and now has it rearranged to his liking.
The main time I see him come out now is when the tank light is off. His tank is in my 2 youngest girls room and they have a black light that they keep on all night as a kind of night light so thats the only reason I can see him moving around at all. If he's not hiding in one of the 2 caves in the tank then he's floating nearly sideways in the top back corner of the tank kinda wrapped around the tube that comes up from the UGF system.
Once I get Cuervo straightened out and I move the Oscar back in with him, I'm thinking I will move the JD in there and see how it goes.
I just don't know...............
