when i was little i had a goldfish, when i moved out he stayed at my mums, she looked after him, he finally died at the long old age of 18, a few years ago i broke up with my ex and for the first time in my life i had my own place! I thought id get another fish tank, something a bit bigger, and with fish a little more interesting to watch, i already somehow knew a marine tank was way out of my league no matter how much i really really wanted an Octopus. so i went for tropical, as with most things i do which i find new and exciting i jumped right in feet first, i probably should have done some research first but having my own house and putting what i wanted into it was just to darn exciting! went out, bought a 4ft tank, cost being the only thing stopping me from getting a 6ft one, and i imediatly started buying fish, my entire stock of fish were added within hours of filling the tank, oops, fortunately a combination of tap safe/filter start/weekly cleaner/ and my over enthusiastic daily 10-20% water changes lead to only a couple of platys being lost to my quite frankly appalling start to owning a tropical tank, however after the mysterious death of my Betta i actually got around to reading up and discovering what i was doing wrong. now the fish shop is patially to blame aswell for this but it has lead to some startling behavioural patterns in some of my fish. turns out the reason for my Betta's untimely death was in fact, you really REALLY shouldnt put one in with Tiger Barbs. but enough of the sad, on to the success stories
i have a RTBS, and i also have a Ruby shark. i bought them at the same time, and the shop didn't notify me this was a very very bad idea, but as luck would have it, nobody told Dick and Harry this either, they are both now fully grown and as for being territorial, they are and they aren't. they dont fight, though they do occasionally tussle over food, but they actually share a cave, and while they chase away the other fish they practically refuse to acknowledge each others existence unless one has food and the other doesn't.
My Tiger Barbs too have developed strange habits, a couple actually, i bought 8 and i have 8 but if they could talk and you asked them how many of them there were they would tell you 10. and even then they wouldnt be sure of what fish they were, very early on they began to shoal and play with the two Clown Loach, and it didnt take them long for both species to start mimicing the others behaviour, the Tiger barbs to this day still try laying on their side, though they aren't very good at it, and the loach ignore the fact they are supposed to prefer low light and hide for most of the day, choosing instead to spend their time darting up and down the tank bold as brass as part of the Barb shoal. this mixed behaviour has lead to the Tiger barbs being more peaceful than usual, they do still tend to be a little rough, but ignore the frogs completly when i have it on good authority that the frogs actually constitute a lovely snack for them.
i also have the worlds only surface dwelling panda corydora. i suspect that there is something wrong with the little fella since he is much much smaller than his brother and sisters, he must be coming up on his third birthday but he remains at about just one inch long, he comes down to the bottom during feeding time, and occasionally to browse the gravel during other times, but during Cory play time while all his relatives are busy doing the cory dance up and down the glass, he is swimming around at the surface as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
i assume every tank his its quirky behaviour, and i have read a lot of storys of weird and wonderful things that go against the book, but i haven't come across so many slightly confused fish in one tank, i guess it must have a lot to do with the traumatic beginnings. however, the story goes from horrifying to happy middle to horrifying end. turns out everyone is so happy i have serious breeding problems going on (and have asked for help in the help section regarding that)
so does anyone else have tales of fish that act just plain odd? are certain species more prone to having some form of identity crisis? id love to hear any stories you have about strange little fish that clearly havent been told who they are or what they are supposed to do.
i have a RTBS, and i also have a Ruby shark. i bought them at the same time, and the shop didn't notify me this was a very very bad idea, but as luck would have it, nobody told Dick and Harry this either, they are both now fully grown and as for being territorial, they are and they aren't. they dont fight, though they do occasionally tussle over food, but they actually share a cave, and while they chase away the other fish they practically refuse to acknowledge each others existence unless one has food and the other doesn't.
My Tiger Barbs too have developed strange habits, a couple actually, i bought 8 and i have 8 but if they could talk and you asked them how many of them there were they would tell you 10. and even then they wouldnt be sure of what fish they were, very early on they began to shoal and play with the two Clown Loach, and it didnt take them long for both species to start mimicing the others behaviour, the Tiger barbs to this day still try laying on their side, though they aren't very good at it, and the loach ignore the fact they are supposed to prefer low light and hide for most of the day, choosing instead to spend their time darting up and down the tank bold as brass as part of the Barb shoal. this mixed behaviour has lead to the Tiger barbs being more peaceful than usual, they do still tend to be a little rough, but ignore the frogs completly when i have it on good authority that the frogs actually constitute a lovely snack for them.
i also have the worlds only surface dwelling panda corydora. i suspect that there is something wrong with the little fella since he is much much smaller than his brother and sisters, he must be coming up on his third birthday but he remains at about just one inch long, he comes down to the bottom during feeding time, and occasionally to browse the gravel during other times, but during Cory play time while all his relatives are busy doing the cory dance up and down the glass, he is swimming around at the surface as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
i assume every tank his its quirky behaviour, and i have read a lot of storys of weird and wonderful things that go against the book, but i haven't come across so many slightly confused fish in one tank, i guess it must have a lot to do with the traumatic beginnings. however, the story goes from horrifying to happy middle to horrifying end. turns out everyone is so happy i have serious breeding problems going on (and have asked for help in the help section regarding that)
so does anyone else have tales of fish that act just plain odd? are certain species more prone to having some form of identity crisis? id love to hear any stories you have about strange little fish that clearly havent been told who they are or what they are supposed to do.
