# You ever find a fish that you thought was long gone?



## RayMontana (Oct 5, 2016)

To set this up properly, I bought 24 juvenile mixed mbuna online. Last October...I thought I ended up with 22 after losing two, a couple just vanished. I have a ton of plants and lots of rockwork. So plenty of hiding spots. 
Due to aggression issues, I have decided to move at least 5 or 6 of the fish to a 30 gallon tank I got, instead of filling it with other fish.As I started moving things to make catching easier, a black mbuna of some sort, which I cant recall ever seeing bolted out of his rock hole.
EVERY fish is hammering on him like he just got dropped into the tank. He has been there the whole time and is probably on the larger side of his mates.The heater in the new tank isnt working so cant transport him today..Ill have one Monday.

OK my question is...do you think I can put him in my tetra and gourami tank for a couple days without wholesale slaughter?

I am not sure what he is because he is all black, and quite timid from what I can see. I put all the rocks back where they were and it appears he went back into his hole.

If that wont work with the tetra tank let me know because I need to leave early to go 60 miles to go buy a heater before the snow starts again.
Thanks ray

Edit 55 gallon tank he is in presently, about 20 mbuna 3 inches or less plus those dang tinfoil barbs...which I believe helps defuse some aggression because they are so big they distract from the fight..


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I'd either get the heater (I like to keep a spare on hand) or put him in a breeder net in one of the tanks, as long as it is only a few days.


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## RayMontana (Oct 5, 2016)

Im waiting on a local to get back to me on borrowing a heater. I dont have a breeding net so I am in the process of making one. I took a mesh bag I got some garlic in and stapled two rings cut out of a 2 liter bottle inside it to hold its shape .It clips to the edge of the tank with a big bulldog clip. It should work..Now to catch him.....


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## Heatherbee (Oct 19, 2016)

Good luck! I'm curious to see this black mbuna...


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## RayMontana (Oct 5, 2016)

He is obviously not happy so thats why he looks that way. Hes in the homemade breeder net but now really unhappy because he cant hide.I hope he makes it for another day. he isnt injured just stressed out. Which I know will kill a fish too.  
I am thinking I should have left him in his hole. Seemed to be doing ok until I disrupted things.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Stress takes many days to kill a fish. If this is day one he should be OK until you get a heater.


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## RayMontana (Oct 5, 2016)

Got the heater finally, now would you move the passive fish to this tank, or try to split up the aggressive ones? I can probably only do up to eight. The red zebras are just going to town on each other. Im guessing I have 5 males. The unidentified blue fish with yellow and orange fins are having a go at each other too. Two of them that are the same.My L . caeruleus are mostly female, so four to six of them...i think I have a female fuelleborni spotted fish....And I think the one black fish is one too. they both have the beak..
22 in the tank now want to put up to 8 in the 30 gallon until i rehome or get a bigger tank


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

So options are 55G with 14 and 30G with 8?

My first thought would be to put all females in the smaller tank...how many are female? And for how long?

But we would need a stock list to ID all the fish you have. Did the online vendor provide species or can he? Sometimes mixed mbuna are hybrids.

Depending on your answer it may be better to put extra males in the 30 so you have no duplicates.


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## RayMontana (Oct 5, 2016)

I have some smaller fish that I think are mostly female, I was thinking of putting them in the 30 for now. Thats gonna be temporary. Looking for the biggest 5 foot tank I can get, probably 125 gallon. Reason it has to be 5 foot is my house is really old and there arent many places that have more than 5 feet open wall space. Dang radiators are along half the walls.
My thought was to split up the males but I figure they will fight in the smaller tank too.
Vendor just sent me fish...they dont know what they are so could be hybrids..I am sure some are.I didnt get much action on my fish ID post so from what you told me, I have 
6) Metriaclima Estherae mostly males from what I can see with the fighting
6) Labidochromis Caeruleus I think mostly females, fairly calm and some are hanging around some of the other males
1) albino, Im guessing a zebra, non aggressive for the most part, probably female
1) Hap or Peacock that got tossed into the mix, hard to say what it is, most of the time silver with red dorsal fringe, does get black bars on its face at times. no other color
3) Blue fish all 3 male they all fight with everyone two are the same, one is just all blue with black bars
1) Fuelleborni ? spotted fish I think female
1) The lost fish..hard to say what he is because he always hides
4) Brownish bluish fish they are non aggressive and all pretty small. I think all females.

hope this is what you need..Thanks


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## Chicken of the Sea (Jan 11, 2017)

I had a khuli loach get caught in an ornament that I took out of the tank for like a half hour once. It survived with apparently no harm done. Now I triple check everything I remove


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## RayMontana (Oct 5, 2016)

the red zebra males and those three blue males are the largest fish , close to 3 inches..

I think they need the bigger tank.


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## RayMontana (Oct 5, 2016)

Chicken of the Sea said:


> I had a khuli loach get caught in an ornament that I took out of the tank for like a half hour once. It survived with apparently no harm done. Now I triple check everything I remove


I had a reed fish or rope fish or whatever they are called now jump out of the tank and I found him under my bed all crusted in lint and whatever. He must have made a protective shell on himself. I put him back in the water and in about 30 minutes he was swimming around again..and shed his crust..I think he was out of the water for at least a day if not two..


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Did you post clear pics in the Unidentified forum? Even with a bigger tank if you don't know what you have, how can you stock?


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## RayMontana (Oct 5, 2016)

I did the best I could with pics. I see they dont move around so much after I feed them so I can try that.

And no I cant stock if I dont know what I have.


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## RayMontana (Oct 5, 2016)

I looked at my fish ID post and I think I have some good pics of some of the blue ones and others, maybe have another look if you dont mind, Im pretty sure the blue ones are hybrids so they will just be around, not really wanting to breed right now I dont have the stuff for that. So maybe pulling what I think are females might be best.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Is this the post that has the pics?
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=399938&p=2816322#p2816322

I think if you want to try again (because maybe the subject confused Members) it would work better if you had posted them in the topic individually and numbered the pictures and stated for each pic which fish (or fishes) you wanted an ID on.

There are 13 pictures?
1-Two fish, one orange, one w/blue bars and red dorsal
2-Three fish, one orange (also in pic #1), one yellow, one drab with blue bars
3-Three fish, one albino, one blue bars and red dorsal (same as pic#1), one that is a blue-green blur
4-One fish, drab with blue bars (also in pic #2)
5-Two fish, one blue bars with blue dorsal, one yellow (also in pic #2)
6-One fish, albino (also in pic #3)
7-Two fish, one solid blue, one blue bars with blue dorsal (also in pic #5)
8-Three fish, one orange (also in pic #1), one pale yellow, one drab with blue bars (also in pic #2 and pic #4)
9-Two fish, same fish as pic #5
10-One fish, orange (also in pic #1)
11-One fish, orange (also in pic #1)
12-One fish, blue bars with blue dorsal (also in pic #5)
13-One fish, solid blue (also in pic #7)

We can help with posting the pics, but you should review my summary above. It is important for you to confirm if the same fish is in multiple pictures.

From your list above. Note that females fight and females don't hang around the males they want to spawn with so that behavior does not help with gender ID.
6) Metriaclima Estherae (orange fish?)
6) Labidochromis Caeruleus (yellow fish? I did not see any yellow labs. maybe lab/zebra hybrid?)
1) albino, (white fish. maybe greshakei hybrid?)
1) Hap or Peacock (is this fish in any pics? pic #3 maybe the blue/green blur? I can't think of a hap or peacock female silver with red dorsal and bars)
3) Blue fish all 3 male they all fight with everyone two are the same, one is just all blue with black bars (solid blue maybe socolofi, blue bars with blue dorsal IDK but separate species. Is it elongated? Let's call it a Cynotilapia type hybrid.)
1) Fuelleborni ? (which pic shows this fish?)
1) The lost fish..hard to say what he is because he always hides (which pic shows this fish?)
4) Brownish bluish fish they are non aggressive and all pretty small. I think all females. (drab blue-barred fish?)

CONCLUSION (if you want to keep these fish)

If they are all or mostly hybrids, you really cannot get more females of the same species. But you need more females. I would choose 4 "types" and rehome the one-of-a-kind fish like the suspected hap, the albino, the fuelleborni.

1-estherae types (you have 6)
2-lab types (you have 6)
3-socolofi (you have 2)
4-choose between the blue barred fish with red dorsal (like pic #1) and the blue barred fish with blue dorsal (like pic #5).

For the estherae, remove the most aggressive one and see how the rest do. Keep doing this until they get along. Buy more estherae if you have to down the road.
The lab-types you said are OK.
Buy 8 socolofi. This should give the 2 you have a harem and you can remove extra males if they become a problem so you end up with 1m:4f of these. OR rehome the 2 socolofi types and buy 8 acei instead.
For the blue barred species, if you choose the red dorsal, buy 8 red top zebras to provide a harem. If you choose the blue dorsal, see if you can get a better ID so you can decide what to buy (cynotilapia? elongatus? pulpican?)


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## RayMontana (Oct 5, 2016)

alot of fish have colored up more. the hap or peacock is in the 4th pic to the far left ..theres a blue one and yellow in the pic too. Its not sporting the red trimmed dorsal there, it has it now.
Ill try new pictures.


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## RayMontana (Oct 5, 2016)

5th pic..
1) orange and blue with red dorsal 6 orange and two blue/red
2) unknown brown fish (maybe crabro) w orange fish.. one of those
3) albino..theres only one of them
4)same fish as 2
5) hap? blue and red dorsal and yellow.. 6 of those
6) albino same as 3 and the one Hap or whatever it is
7) two of the misc fish dont know what they are
8 ) this guy turned all blue with black edging on dorsal pectorals and anal fin
9) same as 1 and 5 
10) nothing special
11) cant really see
12) same as 1,5,9
13) same as 1, 5, 9 and 12

trying to load current pictures. dont have my helper here so its not gonna happen unless I have an epiphany of sorts....

thanks for all your help..


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## RayMontana (Oct 5, 2016)

Sorry if this is frustrating for you....


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

The key to posting pictures is to copy the "img" link from your picture hosting software. Then it is just a matter of copying the img link into the CF post.

IDK how to do it on flickr...I use photobucket. Not saying it is easier on photobucket...I think a lot of Members use flickr.

I'd still remove the one-of-a-kind fish like the haps and peacocks, regardless of ID.


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## RayMontana (Oct 5, 2016)

I got five of them out, mostly trouble makers..so they are "adjusting" to their new temporary environment. Nobody is king anymore so they are all trying to be.


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