strange happenings with your tanks

[chefjamesscott]

I had the strangest thing happen with one of my tanks.

edit:I am absolutely sure that there were no eggs or fry in this tank when I shut it down because that is one thing I look for in detail when I decommission a tank. so the appearance of these little wrigglers makes me scratch my head

It is a 55g that I had set up by my front doorway, was using it generally as a holding/flitter tank. As well as a place where my daughter could keep all her snails.

About 2 1/2 weeks ago, I moved my lungfish to one of the tanks at the restaurant and then moved all the fish from the 55g to the 100g figuring that they would appreciate the greater amount of room. I took half of the water from the 55g and left it semi set up for the snails to have a place to live. This weekend I was having a nap and my wife comes in to wake me up to tell me that my kids are freaking out because I have drained down the baby fish tank. When I had fully awakened I asked my wife what baby fish tank, and she tells me that the semi shut down 55 has hundreds of baby fish in it.

So I got up to take a look and sure enough masses of very little specs are hugging the glass. I have no idea what kind of fish they are as this is a flitter tank with a whole bunch of different fish in it. So I powered the tank back up put in a good sponge filter will have to wait and see what they look like when they grow a bit bigger. I will take some pics when I get home. Basically I let the the tank grow some food for the snails on the side and bottom, and now I see that these little fish are also snacking on the side algae. Now the trick is to do the weekly waterchange without sucking the little critters up the hose.

Feel free to post any of your strange happening hereopcorn:

 

[montanafish gal]

I have had my tank set up for almost 6 months now and am still waiting for my "strange happenings" to happen!! I like reading about others, tho.

 

[chefjamesscott]

what really wiggs me about this is that the tank was void of fish for over 2 weeks at the shortest, up to 2 1/2 weeks and for absolutely sure there were no eggs that I could see and no fry spit out either. Yet, here we are picture proof that someone was busy in the tank. There were all kinds of calico goldfish that I rescued from being feeders, tetra's, barb's and some peacocks. I did not see any of the female peacocks holding and I really hope they are not african fry, since african cichlids breed constantly in my tanks, so much so that I leave them as a food source. I really hope that they are a type of tetra or barb or even goldfish.

sorry for the bad shot but these little dudes are on steroids

 

[countrychick]

Neat.

 

[jm1212]

maybe from the tetras? i havent heard of fish taking that long to go from egg to free-swimming though.

 

[abcdefghi]

How exactly do they swim? are they zipping about almost in spiral/circle type motion? looking at the pictures and you saying they swim like they are on steroids makes me wonder if they are in fact mosquito larvae.

 

[bushwhacker]

abc. those are fish. what type i havent a clue but not skeeter larvae

 

[ayra321]

abc. those are fish. what type i havent a clue but not skeeter larvae

:iagree:

 

[chefjamesscott]

IF THEY ARE LARVAE I HAVE A LITRE OF BLEACH AT THE READY LOLOOL

the length of time to go free swimming would be because this tank had been relegated to a snail tank therefore not really getting any attention, at present they are about 1/8 of an inch in length.

they will take a moment to relax then zip in jerky forward motions

I am going to sit there for half an hour until I get some good shots tonight.

The only place where the eggs could have been that I would not have seen then is on the bottom of the piece of drift wood that I left in there.

Ever since I broke down one of my very first tanks and found that I had actually sucked a whole bunch of babies out of the tank and down the drain, I have made it my policy to try to make sure the tank is clear and devoid of life before I break it down completely.

I even remember one time when I shut down a tank, was taking out the gravel and found that there was a undergravel plate in the tank and under the tank is where the last remaining little electric yellow must have been hiding cause he just showed up in the tank.

 

[chefjamesscott]

ok so when I got home last night I spent about half an hour trying to get some shots of these little fish, tried several different modes and here are the best shots I could get.

I added some gratuitous snail shots since this tank is actually a breeding tank for my ramshorns now.

Here are the pics, definitely not mosquito so I put the bleach away !!!!!

snail shots for lupin

since the little ones are so small I am a loss for id myself