Valentine's day... singles night out, in the fish world... lonely fish???

[Magnum Man]

so I was noticing a lot of singles in my tetra tank... over the years, they were all purchased as mid size groups, and over a couple years, they one by one, I assume ( as there wasn't a noticeable die off ), end up as one left... this happened to the rummy noses, and cardinal tetras , and pristella tetras... not exactly sure why that happens, but my single fish have all been here for between 2 and 3 yeas by themselves, and hang with a larger mixed group...

got any singles like that???

 

[Innesfan]

so I was noticing a lot of singles in my tetra tank... over the years, they were all purchased as mid size groups, and over a couple years, they one by one, I assume ( as there wasn't a noticeable die off ), end up as one left... this happened to the rummy noses, and cardinal tetras , and pristella tetras... not exactly sure why that happens, but my single fish have all been here for between 2 and 3 yeas by themselves, and hang with a larger mixed group...

got any singles like that???

I have a geriatric Garnet Tetra, Holopristis pulcher (alias Hemigrammus pulcher) that initially lorded over a school of 10, then 9, then 8... that I bought in 2015. He's been solo for a very long time. So long I've lost track. We talked about the last-fish-standing syndrome in an older thread. It does make me wonder what we should intuit from all of this and why the last-fish-standing so often lives on and on and on.

 

[GaryE]

The last fish standing is usually a tough and hardy one. I have a couple of Cory group species with either one or two individuals, after losing the others and being unable to find replacements. I guess in nature their informal groups lose as they go along, and gain as well. In tanks with uncommon fish, gaining is hard.

I have a Gastrodermus cw 123, and a Sturisoma acus. The latter is the only fry that grew out from what I thought would be a first spawn - there was never a second.

I've recently been able to rebuild some some cory groups into sevens, after I found lots of six at an online seller here and had lost 5 of the 6 originals, mostly as a result of shipping. So I have little shoals with one big awkward one surrounded by younger ones, all of whom got through shipping very easily and are prospering.

I find this happens a lot with dwarf Cichlids, since we buy few of them and they are aggressive among themselves. It's a problem because a lone male will still own the entire bottom of the tank, and won't share space.

 

[emeraldking]

Well, I've got a single blue acara swimming now in my community tank in our livingroom. But that's because he was probably hiding too well when I got rid of my blue acara population. They were combined with two goodeid species. Long after I got rid of those acaras, I suddenly saw a blue acara swimming among these other fish. Since last year, this specimen is swimming in my community tank with Ameca splendens and other bigger fish. For he had outgrown my other goodeids.

 

[Magnum Man]

this is a lonely fish dating site ... this guy here is a very large, well colored cardinal, who has been single for the last year+

this rummy nose is his wing man, and has been single for almost 2 years...