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So I used to work at a small pet store that was mainly fresh and saltwater fish.  We would get a big shipment in during the week, and fish would be mysteriously dissappearing without anyones knowledge of them being sold!  We would leave for the night, and come back in the morning-fish would be gone.  We couldn't for the life of us figure it out, it was "The Big Mystery" around the store.
Until.........

One morning one of the other clerks came in a bit early and saw our resident octopus climbing back into it's tank!  Mystery Solved!  And we all had a good laugh about it : )

I have a beautiful Crowntail Beta in a 1 gal. tank.  One morning I came into my home office and found him laying on the bottom of the tank.  I was so bummed that he had died but went about the business of preparing a proper fish funeral.  To my surprise, as I was dumping out the water, he began darting around in a panic!  Apparently he felt exposed after I moved his tank from the file cabinet, which was protected on one side by a wall, to the corner of my desk which left all sides of the tank exposed.  After that he took refuge behind a clam shell.  My theory - if he plays dead, no predators will eat him.  I added an artificial plant, so he feels much safer now and has quit "sleeping" on the floor of his tank.

I bought some feeder ghost shrimp to keep as pets.  For a while, everything was great.  The shrimp had their own little glass tank with rocks and live plants.  At feeding time, I’d drop in some fish food and the shrimp would swim up to the surface and flip upside-down, feet skimming the surface before grabbing a flake.  The shrimp would then promptly drop down to the gravel with the flake clutched in their tiny claws.  Upon landing, they’d greedily stuff the flake down their throat – I’d watch their gut enlarge through their transparent shell as they downed the food.  Their gut would be whatever color the flake was.  Pretty neat!  Unfortunately it came to the point when they refused to come to the surface (no matter how hungry they were) and I’d have to sink the food and push it in front of them with a skewer stick, after which they’d hungrily grab the flake.  Well, long story short, they eventually all died.  Who knew that ghost shrimp look like cooked shrimp when they die!

Last edited by waterpets (08/21/2008 10:18:56pm)

I grew up with fish as a young girl. My grandfather had many Goldfish and Koi tanks. I now have a 55 gallon fish tank with many tropical fish including Platties, Guppies, Swordtails, Neon Tetras, Cory cat fish, Mollies, Hatchetfish, and many more community fish. I love watching them on a daily basis swimming around under the bubbles from the barrel I have set up. I even have an aquatic frog. It is fun watching the small fry grow up and the amazing colors on the Guppies tails. My tank is very therapeutic and calms me. I live in Davis so there are not very many pet stores to get fish (just ACE and PETCO) I love the fish people at the local Davis ACE. They are friendly and helpful and have a great selection of fish since they get most of their fish from local breeders. Owning fish is a lot of work and can be challenging at times ,but the benefits far outweigh the challenges. Good luck setting up your own tank.