those critters we can’t find…

Magnum Man · Jul 31, 2026

seems we all go through phases that our critters disappear… some end up dead, with no body discovered, some we rip apart a tank, and don’t find the missing, only to miraculously turn up weeks or months later…
I’ve been playing with full sized crays, but unfortunately those tanks are in the part of the house with no air conditioning, and the tank has been at 85 degrees F. for the bulk of the several weeks, that the crays have been here… I have a few tough fish surviving through the hot spell, but it’s been a week since I’ve seen a cray ( the tank has 5 juvinal normal sized crays in it ) I went 6 months, without seeing one of my Kuhli
loaches, and one showed up a week ago, for a quick viewing… just when I though the crays succumbed to the heat, this morning I saw the smallest white one peeking out from one of the hidy holes that I can see into… the water has not gone bad, I haven’t seen any bodies, so I guess I have no reason to think they died, other than I’m not seeing them…

sometimes I wish these critters we collect weren’t such good hiders…

GaryE · Aug 1, 2026

I think it's in the nature of many things we can keep in tanks - they're small and have to be cautious. A lot of fish that lie low in a 2 foot deep tank are out and about in six inches of water. There's that.

A lot of creatures need a different substrate, wood, caves, currents, lighting - there are so many variables. And some just hide all day and scavenge all night. Sometimes it's just their way.

Those ones tend to fall out of the hobby quickly - a few years of interest and they're gone.

For us, I find it frustrating sometimes. I'm not really a collector and I don't do this to know I have fish A in tank B. I want to be able to watch all the creatures in my tanks, to enjoy their shapes and colours and learn from what they do. They don't all cooperate.

Back in the fold · Aug 1, 2026

You know what ? As much as I loathe most technology , especially drones , it would be cool to have a very small remote control submarine with a camera to get a fish eye view of life in an aquarium .

GaryE · Aug 1, 2026

I knew a woman who would sometimes drop a go pro underwater camera into her tank when she went to work, or when she went out in the evening. She'd scroll through later and stop at interesting spots instead of watching TV. She said she got to see a lot of fish behaviour and a few cameo appearances by shy fish.