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View Full Version : You won't believe this, a tale of death and birth



josh
02-26-2003, 2:30 PM
I saw a small cherry barb swimming in the clear tube that goes to the undergravel filter plate. I could not believe my eyes! It was a small cherry barb, it had obviously ben born in the last month or two. I uncapped the undergravel tube (the UGF hasn't been in use for a year at least) and the little guy came out. I caught him up and transplanted him to a vibrant planted tank with other small cherry barbs.

There's several things about that that make it incredible!

1. the tube is capped off so that it's not open to the water. The only way to get in is to go through the gravel. It's been that way for a year

2. there hasn't been a fish in there for almost two months, except for a week ago about 15 guppies were put in!

3. the last fish that were in there were cherry barbs. They inhabited the tank for a matter of weeks and then were taken to another tank in another city. There were two females and one male. The male died a few weeks after he was introduced, becuase of gill flukes.

4. there hasn't been any food in there at all, and even if there was it couldn't have made it to the undergravel filter.

Here's my theory. In his dying hours or days, the lone male cherry barb courted a female cherry barb or two. Most of the eggs were probably eaten swiftly. Soon after He died, and the rest of the fish were treated, and taken to another tank. One lone egg remaned deep in the gravel where it had tumbeled days before. Several days afterwards it hateched, swam deeper and deeper untill it reached the undergravel plate, and found it's freedom to swim. It remained there for two months subsisting on the small organisms who inhabit the darker regions of the fish tank. with little food, or oxygen, the small cherry barb grew slowly and painfully. From time to time it would swim up the tube and see the light of the outside world, but never reach it. The water smelled so much sweeter out there, and you could breathe so much easier up in the lighter regions. But the small fish would only take short trips up to the light areas becuase it would hurt its sensative eyes, used to peering in the dark undergravel world that was its home. One day I saw it, hiding in there, and let it swim to its liberty and eventually to a tank that would suit its hunger for food and water!

that's my story. I hope you liked it. It's all true

-Josh

Heady
02-26-2003, 2:46 PM
I feel like I should be eating popcorn here... ;-)

Slappy*McFish
02-26-2003, 2:52 PM
Nice story...and well told.:cool:

OCSupertones
02-26-2003, 6:01 PM
Originally posted by Heady
I feel like I should be eating popcorn here... ;-)

i hate when people talk during the movie:rolleyes:

:)

Dangerdoll
02-26-2003, 6:09 PM
Originally posted by OCSupertones


i hate when people talk during the movie:rolleyes:

:)
too funny! :D



nonetheless, nice story........had a few cories come into the tank via the UGF tube.....only difference is the filter was on, different moments I would see them pop up, then swim back down....was a trial to catch the instant so I could free them.....

Heady
02-26-2003, 6:23 PM
I am curious to know what happens to fish in my tanks. One day they will all be there and the next one will be gone without a trace. No skeleton and no little bodies on the floor or in the filters. My fish are generally all the same size in any given tank so they can't be just swallowed whole. Where on earth do they go?!

This reminds me of putting socks in the clothes dryer. :)

NJ Devils Fan
02-26-2003, 6:28 PM
cool story

Fisher Price
03-03-2003, 9:47 AM
what a happy ending, thanks for sharing! You need to be a book writer, you have talent.

Alex
03-03-2003, 1:34 PM
[Quote]One day they will all be there and the next one will be gone without a trace. [Quote]

Do you have snails or shrimp, they can comsume a dead fish pretty quick. The shrimp will eaven carry them off and hide them.

I've found 10 fry and 1 baby shrimp in my canister filters so now I always pour the water from them into a white bucket when I am working on them and then examine it very closely before I pour it out.


Alex

Haggisman
03-03-2003, 6:40 PM
I had the same sort of thing happen, cockatoo dwarfs spawned and the fry vanished after a few days.About a month later I was cleaning out my external canister filter and out popped eight little (1cm)long babies.I out them into a grow out tank where they grew into adults.