I was cleaning up yesterday and saw something in the corner next to my aquarium. When I went over, to my extreme dismay I found it was one of my bigger yoyo loaches, dried up on the floor! Those guys are my favorites. I want 6 to 8, but now I only have 2, and they're hard to find here.

Poor little guy. I thought I had the holes in the lid pretty well-covered. I'm going to stuff them tightly with filter floss. Has this ever happened to anyone else?

Yeah. I've discovered four fish on the floor this year.

I don't know how they pick that gap just right. But I've been considering rigging a fine netting.

What I found was happening, is the Cory's are flicking the Guppies out of the water.

BAHAHAHA! That's sad, but I'm sorry I can't help laughing! They think it's a game, huh? Guppy-flipping.

When I first started aquarium-ing years ago I found my pleco on the floor all dried up - or so it seemed. When I picked him up, he started "gasping." Aak, I almost dropped him. I plonked him back into the tank and he was fine. Tough little guy.

Catfish are amazing like that. I guess because some of them have a Labryinth Gill (I don't know all of which species), they're able to process the gas exchange without drying out.

Don't some species hibernate in the mud, betwen rainy seasons?

I think I've read somewhere that some do.

some species of catfish are also capable of traveling overland

Well, there's a project for someone...

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Oh man. Funny stuff. I'm just picturing a P'd off cory slapping a guppy out of the water with its tail like a tennis ball. Get that on video, would you?

I have a miracle pleco myself - an LDA20 that spent close to 2 hrs in a dry plastic bag (by accident) and is fine.

Oh yeah - I did just see on Discovery (or some similar network) the walking catfish. They can walk up to and over 3 miles out of water on their fins - and in some pretty nasty weather conditions sometimes. It sounds odd, but when you think that these guys are darn-near prehistoric (like alligators etc.) it's no wonder they're tough.

I still want to see that guppy-slapping thing.

I've only witnessed it once. Back when I was puzzling out how the blighters (Guppies), were getting into my fry enclosures, and gobbling up my little Cory's. And then it happened right in front of me.

You always have the interesting things happen when there's no camera about. I had a large female Cory scooting about, with a young Bristlenose attached to her side. My Keyholes are 'cuddling', but this occurs often enough, that I may get it on video. Perhaps it's part of the spawning ritual that I've failed to observe in the past.

But one thing that happens, almost without fail, everytime I sit down to feed the small tank, I get a face full of water from those same Cory's !

My turn to dig up an old topic.

My Wife found one of the young Bristlenose on the floor, a couple of mornings back. He certainly didn't fare as well as that 'mud skipper' in the post way above. Damn near mummified.

I'm going to have to do something about that tank. If they're not landing in the Fry enclosure, they're going over the side !

Visitors come in to see trays and buckets on the floor, partly filled with water. "Leaky roof ?", they say. I can just look them straight in the eye, "Yeah, but you're never gunna believe this..."