Say hello to Mr. Vicious! I have a new fishy living in a little bitty tank on my desk. Now is the time to look at Picture #1. Why name him Mr. Vicious? Because he's an evil CANNIBAL! Ok, full story: a month or two ago, my dad came home from Chinatown with three new goldfish to add to the aquarium in the family room. They're much better looking than the old fish, if you ask me, but that's not the point. So Mr. Vicious here, who was simply called "the bigger one" then, was a little aggressive, fighting the other fish when it was time for feeding time and occasionally nibbling at their fins--not that big of a deal, it's pretty commonplace. I suppose fins taste good. But then last Saturday, Chinese New Year's Eve, no less, we all woke up to find that one of the old fish, who I shall dub "Mr. Headless," was floating around the tank slowly, half of his head-growth and back eaten away. Here's a picture of what a goldfish with a head-growth looks like, if you're freaking out and wondering why the heck a goldfish has a "head-growth". They're called orandas. Anyway, at first we weren't sure who the culprit was, until we caught Mr. Vicious swimming alongside Mr. Headless all the time, trying to get some lunch before taking his afternoon lunch. Obviously, we were horrified. We took some quick action and cleaned up my old (and now deceased) fish's old tank and then dumped Mr. Vicious in there. He's now sitting on my desk, looking quite depressed. Serves him right, the little maggot. (Picture #2) Yes, I know the tank is very, no, extremely small. He'll have to live in that wee little 2 gallon tank until I can convince my dad to let me buy a bigger, at least 5 gallon tank for him. It's not really an issue of cost for my dad--more, rather or not the tank is "useful". I'm pretty sure a new tank for a goldfish(which can grow to 6" long) is pretty darn useful, but my dad's a stubborn skinflint. I also want to buy a small filter. Goldfish are THE messiest fish ever. Well, there's my rant. Just want to clarify that even seemingly calm and harmless goldfish can turn into vicious, backmunching, ahem, I mean backstabbing louts in a second! Aw. Gotta wait for the pictures to be approved. And I thought it'd happen quickly, seeing as they're JPG and all. Also, when they are approved, just a warning: I SUCK at taking pictures. The close-up of Mr. Vicious looks like it's covered with mud...well, clear mud. Or maybe it's just the camera. Yeah, we'll go with that.
LOL, 123. All fish are cannibals. They eat anything that swims by and is smaller than them, including, with very few exceptions, their own young. Mr. Headless. LMAO. We have goldfish that summer in our pond and I agree they're messy. And cannibalistic. The only way the babies survive each year is by hiding under the crate at the bottom of the pond. Very funny story, BTW.
In nature size is many times the least important factor in determining an animal's ferocity and lethality. The Tazmanian Devil, Malaysian red-back scorpions, and the green tree snake are good examples. Small creatures, but each either very ferocious or very deadly.
I used to have Betas, which are also known as Fighting Fish. I had one tank that was separated into 4 parts. When one died, I'd take out one partition. Eventually, I had 2 left, so only one partition remained. I was bringing my fish home with me for the weekend like always (this was in college). By the time I finished the 3 hour drive, I looked and realized the partition had fallen down. I then had 1 fish. I mean, there was NOTHING left of the other fish. The water was really murky (probably dead fish parts or something) and my one fish was swimming around like nothing had happened. I was horrified that I didn't have anything to bury, like the other fishys.
I once brought a very expensive fish snack home from the store. Six little neon tetras that I named for the Marx brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Gummo, Zeppo and Karl), eaten in 3.5 seconds by my larger fishies. Oops.
Haha, "Mr. Headless." I know what you're talking about. When I had goldfish (while setting up my tank) a couple of the larger fish would eventually eat the tiny little goldfish. It was too bad for the little guys as I wasn't aware of the cannibalism at that time. It didn't get much better when I switched over to my tropical fish - I thought it would. A couple of my trops decided they weren't quite full one day and decided to invite my tetras for lunch. It was too bad as a couple of species didn't get along and, unfortunately, I found out the hard way... Now I have no fish due to cannibalism and old age.
Now I have no fish due to cannibalism and old age. [/quote] I'm sorry, this wasn't quite clear... Are you an aged cannibal?
I have a broken fish named Swishy. His real name is Seviche but my daughter dubbed him Swishy and that name stuck. We bring our fish in from the pond every winter and this time something happened to Swishy's swim bladder. He sleeps on his side, which makes him look dead. But when we go to remove him he wiggles away like, "Hey, not dead yet! Leggo!" My husband says we should buy him some water wings. The biggest problem with having pond-raised fish is, they're too big to flush. And if I bury them my dog digs them back up and eats them. Yummmm ... So if Swishy finally does kick the bucket he'll have to go in the garbage. He seems to be improving though. I couldn't even get a good picture to show you because he seems to be only tilting now. Reminds me of two Monty Python jokes at once: "I'm not dead yet!" and "He's not dead, he's pining for the fjords."
My dad's fish have swim bladder problems too. Two of them always swim upside down, and at the top of the tank, so our guests always think they're dead. But then as soon as someone walks close to the tank and puts their face near it, the fish flutters about and goes back to normal. I guess they're sleeping...
