# the most resilient  fish in the world



## Mark Evans (25 Dec 2008)

resilient isn't the word!
here's the story, i will embarrass myself here too.  

about 2 months ago in my 60cm optiwhite, you'll all remember the red eye tetras?....well you see they kinda disappeared one by one, i thought they were jumping out the tank and lost forever. in fact i lost most of the contents of the tank. :?  then i discovered the filter inlet had lost the little protector thingy. it dawned on me the might of gone to fishy heaven. never thought nothing of it put a new protecter thing on and away we go.

i put the "mature" filter on the new current set up along with the cleaned rean xp2

 on discovering problems with ammonia and slight algae (staghorn on filter out let and old leaves of microsorum) problems which were developing i decided i better clean the filter(which had not been done for quite some time let me tell ya) i opened it up, took the trays out cleaned the sponges (which were absolutely  disgusting!!!! ) i thought ahhhh, here's my dead fish and shrimps and the last few months crap! washed it all out in tank water. when i went to pour the main compartment on the lawn i was amazed to see....fish!....ALIVE!   now believe me when i say i was stunned! 2 months for god sake in my filter.

here's what was in it alive (now back in my tank swimming happy, yes happy as Larry! BTW there were others that didn't make it. i think this is where my problems were stemming from (i hope)

3 red eye tetras
2 x SAE's
4 x shrimp
1 x otto

now don't shoot me for this, because i already feel bad enough as it is, but im just amazed at how resilient life can be!


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## altaaffe (25 Dec 2008)

The thing is - there is plenty of food in a filter to keep them going, I know plenty of people that chamge out filter sponges to feed fry on.  I've recently opened up a filter and found WCMM fry that are almost fully grown & cherry shrimp that have grown in there too.


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## Thomas McMillan (25 Dec 2008)

That's well amazing - two months?! Wow, maybe we should just keep our fish in our filters from now on!


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## scottturnbull (25 Dec 2008)

I'm lost for words.


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## jay (25 Dec 2008)

How the hell does a full grown fish get past the impellers?!?!?!

Can understand fry or eggs... but a red eye??


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## Mark Evans (25 Dec 2008)

jay said:
			
		

> How the hell does a full grown fish get past the impellers?!?!?!



just what i was thinking. ive looked at the route it would take and it dont pass them. it goes through the pipping and they must get stuck at the bottom and around the sides. a gap of about an inch. 

what's amazing is there in darkness for 2 months in my case. the sae look better than they ever did before going in!!! and the shrimp are massive. so yes there's food in there. 

there were r eminence  of fish that didn't survive though. these fish are now happily going about there business. if it were you or i randomly took off the street and put in a dark room 1x 1 feet and let out after 2 months i wouldn't be bested pleased i can tell you.but these guys?.....amazing!


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## Mark Evans (25 Dec 2008)

if you look closey in the middle you'll see the SAE! looks pretty happy to me


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## aaronnorth (26 Dec 2008)

I had a full grown shrimp in my filter for 2months two, but i am surprised it survived. I took a sponge out of my planted tank filter to help cycle my larger tank (obviously taking the shrimp with it!) and it was still surviving two months after, i am surprised it didnt die from shock of the different water parameters (there is a big difference aswell!)


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## GreenNeedle (26 Dec 2008)

Saintly.  Wait till you find the fishing trawl of cherrys each time!!!

AC


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## TDI-line (26 Dec 2008)

That is pretty amazing.


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## Stu Worrall (26 Dec 2008)

ive had shrimp in mine too, when I swapped to the tetra ex1200 the other week it took me ages to fish them out. even found one when I emptied it out when I was convinced there were no more. They are great at hide & sekk


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## louis_last (26 Dec 2008)

This reminds me of toad stones and although most accounts of these are pretty questionable, some are hard to dismiss.  I also know of a coke can that with no holes other than that which you drink from was found during a voluntary rubbish clean up to contain a fully grown, extremely fat and healthy Bufo bufo that almost filled the entire can. Animals are bad ass.


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## amy4342 (26 Dec 2008)

My Kuhli loaches breed in my filter. I got the shock of my life the first time I cleaned my filter in the bucket, then chucked the bucket in the sink, and a Kuhli loach nearly went down the plug   . I frequently see baby Kuhli loaches coming out of the spray bar and dissapearing into the filter intake   . It's really funny.


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## Themuleous (26 Dec 2008)

Quality.  I always find loads and loads of cherry shrimp in my external! They must get sucked in soon after hatching.  I only clean that filter out every few months!

Sam


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## Behold (26 Dec 2008)

I get how they can survive on the food ETC. but surely there is not enough room in there.......


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## Egmel (31 Dec 2008)

Behold said:
			
		

> I get how they can survive on the food ETC. but surely there is not enough room in there.......


I think it depends on your filter.  Some externals have a good inch round the media, others barely have room to fit a baby shrimp.  I have found a couple of shrimp in my eheim 2213 and a dragonfly lavae too.   Though I don't think I get as many as some of the others on here as my filter isn't anywhere near as powerful.


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## Ed Seeley (1 Jan 2009)

I found a small Male krib in mine yesterday!  The surface skimmer had sunk and he obviously swam down!  I've had killifish go in there too in the past!  Seems there's plenty of space at the bottom of a 2128!


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## beanie (14 Jan 2009)

I am so glad it isnt just me then.. we bought some dwarf gourami's about 2 months ago and on the first night one disappeared. We assumed he died due to the move an dthat the other fish had cleaned up since we couldnt find a body.

Then this week i glimpsed a glimmer a blue near the filter and when i looke dinside i found a gourami swimming about inside the filter box (jewel vision 180 with original filter). What surprised me most was we obviously have done water changes in this time, just neglected to check the filter since the flow has been fine, but that he would have been out of water several times during water changes.. Im just glad at this point that he has survived.. even though i still dont understand how he got in there in the first place.


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## mr. luke (21 Jan 2009)

Nice find 
ive very frequently find filamentosus fry in my filter, and cherries in another   
worst ive ever had is a ropefish that thought it could fit, but couldnt quite. got into a right mess


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