What's The Weirdest Thing That's Ever Happened With Your Tank?

[Raticataticus]

Hey guys, so I thought it would be fun to ask about the strangest things that have happened to people's tanks.
 
For example finding weird things in the filter, fish that you thought were dead/gone miraculously re-appearing, etc. I love hearing about this kind of stuff!

 

[DiddleBug]

I got some!  
 
One day I noticed there was water coming from my tank-all over our new wood floor!!!  So I turned the filters and heaters off and lowered the water a bit.  Sure enough, the water stopped leaking.  I thought it had to be a crack.  After doing lots of water changing and lowering I finally realized it was my silly filter!
 
Another one; I had been watching my corys and noticed my only albino wasn't in the group of green (corys).  I figured he was just sitting somewhere else.  A week later I was cleaning the towel around and under my tank and guess what?  Yep, I found a crunchy fishy. I don't know how Mr. Houdini jumped out but he found a way!  

 

[jakroebuck6]

once when doing a water change i heard a slight ticking noise, i got down low to try and find the source and on a cd next to my tank was my bamboo shrimp! god knows how he got out of there lol

 

[BelldandyShanny]

I keep a towel on top of my tank to stop splash back from my filter.... well my cat decided to walk up on it and pushed it into my tank.  Apparently there was some soap on it (not sure how) but turned my whole tank to a bubble bath and EVERYTHING died... I was devastated.  Only took a couple minutes. 

 

[Ryan10]

I did a water change once and couldn't find my zebra calvus afterward.  I pulled out all the décor and checked my buckets and gravel vac and couldn't find him anywhere.  I started taking out gravel...nothing.  2 days later I turn on the light and there he was, swimming around like nothing happened.   He was pretty hungry though. 

 

[star4]

I have many weird and crazy fish. Bob my rescue flier is a real character and can do some weird things
 
This is when he was in a tank on his own after a disagreement with another fish, he learnt to get my attention in a rather unusual way...
 
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy_01IBEtHY
 
Settled in another tank, he will get  so comfortable he would fall into a deep sleep...
 
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTAU4iOMGGI
 
Breeding and raising a severum x convict 

 
Best one ever, after watching my weather loach spawning and being told they dont breed in the home aquarium and the chances of the eggs hatching were really low I abandoned the tank to find a few weeks later 9 baby weather loach swimming around.

 

[Electric Warrior]

Was missing a hatchetfish for over 1 month (had seven, then six all of a sudden).  Thought maybe my discus ate it since I have had a few tetras go missing over some time, as well as actually witnessing the male eat one once.  One day, it appeared out of nowhere.  Granted I am moderately/heavily planted on one side of the tank, but I feed twice daily and do at least 2x wc's a week

 

[looking-glass]

i love threads like this I have no home stories but I used to work in an aquatics shop and we had loads of unexpected fish turning up in deliveries etc - also we sold reptiles and I had a bearded dragon jump out of my grasp and escape as I was catching it for a customer. Around two weeks later we noticed him on the top of a door frame where he preceded to come out every day for ages, we never did catch him

 

[*pete*]

When moving house I had a tank set up and ready in my new home for my SA Cichlids and two Pictus catfish.
I put them all in a couple of large plastic, covered buckets half filled with original tank water for the short 15min journey by car.
 
They all went in to the new tank fine but the Pictus were stiff as boards like rigor mortice, and just lay on the substrate on their sides with no signs of life, bent in a semi circle.
I just sat down despondently and stared at them for a few minutes with disbelief, how could this happen, after all, they survived a longer journey in a plastic bag when I bought them.
 
Then I remembered seeing a show about sharks suffocating when in transit, and a keeper moving them through the water to revive them.
I tried this with them for what seemed like an age but my arms were really aching. So I gently pushed them each into the top of the two under gravel filter air lift tubes !
 
It did the trick, their locked pectorals held them in place perfectly and after a good few minutes they straightened out and their tail fins began moving then they popped out and swam around as if nothing had happened.
 
It seemed like a small miracle at the time  lol.

 

[bluesword23516]

I had a bunch of guppy fry in a tank and I was doing a full water change so I got all of them out. After the tank was clean I put them all back. I always check my nets after for any lost fish I didn't see any. So about twenty minutes later I came back to put the supplies away and a baby was still in the net! I did all I thought I could and put it back it the tank. It was still alive crazy!

 

[yoruyongbpei]

The two weirdest things happen with disappearing fish, I have a 24 gallon nanocube tank that i use for a spanish ribbed newt tank that i had a bamboo shrimp in, for almost a week straight we could not find him at all, checked all the hiding places and the filter, the thing is that tank is not that well planted its got alot of short starting plants that are meant to grow out and fill the tank later on, so we concluded he somehow got out ofhis tank and was eaten by the dogs, but suddenly one morning i see him chilling next to the filter. the other disappearing fish we had was our striped Kuhli loach, we were cleaning out the tank and moving fish to our new corner 70 gallon tank when after me and my fiancee had added in all but one fish to the tank the loach, we could not find him anywhere in the holding tank we were using to move them..... we frantically searched the aquarium for hours nothing, 4 days later we see him chilling at the front of the tank munching on one of the bottom feeder pellets, i had to send a picture to my fiancee cause she was so worried that she somehow killed him

 

[AMHoult]

I have a 40 gallon freshwater tank that I've been wanting to take down for several years, except the last lone occupant--one TEN YEAR-OLD silver hatchetfish (who, by the way, killed all other community fish in the tank--including other hatchets) will not give up the ghost.  This fish appears to be immortal so we've nicknamed the fish ZEUS.  What's even harder to believe is that the tank has not had a working heater or filter for about 5 years, and has never had a water change (we just top it off every month or so).
 
I googled the lifespan of a hatchetfish and every site says 2-5 years.  Where are people getting their information?  The sites also say that hatchets are community fish (our guy is proof they are not).  Granted, the sites probably are copying information from Wikipedia--which is not reliable information because anyone can contribute information to it.
 
So, I guess having an immortal hatchetfish is the weirdest thing that's ever happened with our tank.

 

[Gruntle]

My latest one is having spent a not inconsiderable amount of time and money to set up a breeding tank because I have a few Cherry Barbs and have heard they're relatively easy to breed.  Spent a couple of weeks trying to set the right environment in the breeder tank, frequent bloodworm feeds, water changes, separate the males and females, remove the divider and allegedly they'll do the deed.
 
Nothing. No magic. Nada.
 
Last Friday I find two babies in the main tank with all the other species! Surprised they didn't get eaten, and now they seem big enough to fend for themselves.

 

[Gizaroo2]

I had a mystery snail try 3 times to commit suicide before finally succeeding.
 
1st time, he got out of the tank and was MIA for 4 days. Plopped him in some tank water, and he was surprisingly alive.
 
2nd time, he apparently went looking for food in the filter...Despite being injured, he recovered and was fine after a few days.
 
3rd time, he did the same as #2...but I didn't see him in time. He passed from injuries that time. Got his whole body sucked into the filter casing that time.
 
This all happened over a period of several months. Strangest snail I ever had. Sadly, due to his strange habit, I no longer have him anymore
___
 
Another time, years ago, I had a betta punt a mystery snail out of his tank (still have no idea how exactly...but watched the betta bop him around multiple times). Couldn't find that one for 4 days either..finally turned up, and he was still alive too. A friend of mine had him and the betta for a couple of years.

 

[james_dinneen]

I went to feed the fish last night and found 9 snails that i never bought crawling round my tank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Must've come in on the plant i bought 2 weeks ago but it was a surprise