Don't you just hate it when that happens?

[dark horge]

Lampreys.... you mean they actually try to attach onto humans???

[Alice]

You know, Horge, I don't know if that is just an old wive's tale or not. When I was growing up some friends lived on a creek and the older brother was always showing off a circular scar and said one had attached to him. But you know kids I do know that they would switch directions and swim towards you but at that point, I was making a beeline for shore, LOL

[ruhspolostar]

Just to share,......

I had a friend with a zebra eel, he was gone from his house for about a day $ 1/2 (out of town), when we got to his house the eel was on the ground (obviously dead I thought), he picked it up and set it back in the tank, (there were no other fish), he went to go get a trash bag to put it in, and while he left it started swimming???, it rejected food and hid alot or about a week, but its fine and dandy now


....yes it was creepy (I've heard the same thing happen w/ octopis)

[StellaMN]

Oh man, Jenn...that would have literally scared the crap out of me. I would have had to go home and change my clothes...

Jodi

[tdwyatt]

Keep in mind that these fishes share common ancestry with lung fishes and the ancestors of the first terapods to walk on land (see Icthyostega spp. from the early Devonian period). many eels have an ability to form cocoons of mucus that allow them to survive extended periods of time out of water, and although this is speculation on my part, I suspect that all eels have this ability to some degree or another.

This ability is unfortunately not shared by my Achilles tang, which I found on the carpet this morning, unresponsve to efforts at rehydration...

[cdemeritt]

My thought is what causes these fish to jump? I once found my cleaner wrasse on the floor after a long weekend, and he was mummified by then. Still seams strange to me that they would want to jump out of the tank.... Kinda like peole jumping from perfectly good aircraft.

[JennM]

Oh bummer, Tom One day last week I found my redfinned fairy wrasse (C. rubripinnis) which I've had for going on 2 years, dried up on the floor behind the 120. He's landed in the overflow before - as has one of my false percs but this time he missed.

I think a scare will cause them to jump. Eels are nocturnal - the eel who is the subject of this thread was swimming around in his dark tank a few minutes ago - I'm staying late cleaning, was mopping the floor and watching him - very graceful. Went and got the camera and of course he's back in his hidey hole Three days post-mortem *lol* and he's just fine!

Jenn

[cdemeritt]

I've been wanting a eel, however, from what I know of them most of my cleanup crew and very much wanted cratures would be on it's menu and most also need very large tanks, so even a species tank would be difficult for me. are there any small eels that would be happy in a 10g or one that doesn't like shrimp (ok, silly question) ?

[icebear]

i had a grow-a-frog do that once... it was my little frawgie and one day he wasn't in his tank and we looked everywhere.... about 3 days later my mom found it covered in lint in the laundry room (this is down the hall and down 13 carpeted stairs and across the basement) We rinsed the little dude off and ploped him back in the tank. He lived on for about 5 more years after that. Rugged little things....!

[tdwyatt]

My mom likes to tell folks about the fw crayfish I had been keeping (I was about 8 years old) in a small shallow aquarium. I was filled with some rock that the crawfish would occasionally climb onto near the surface (where I would feed it small pieces of shrimp and fish). One day it escaped (dont ask me how, it had to have crawled out). We found it about 3 days later crawling down the hall (dust covered, I think that triggered the memory for me). We rinsed it off and put it back in the tank, I think it lived for another year before we released it where it was caught originally.

[Alice]

I kept fire-bellied newts in the same way, Tom. Fed them flies, crickets and worms. Came home one day and they were not in the tank. My little sister had them in the bathroom, giving them a bath in the sink with HOT water!

Sigh.