The purple wolfish I had had similar behaviors as the red wolf and was a character 
Red Wolf!
- Thread starter jjohnwm
- Start date
Agreed, with one caveat. I also add level of intelligence to the mix. Some fish are apparently smart enough to train their owners. Others, not so much.
Good luck with your wolf!
I'm sure I've already used a favourite quote from my Dad at least once here before...but I do love it, and it seems very apropos, so I gotta go back to it again:...Some fish are apparently smart enough to train their owners. Others, not so much.
In order to train a dog, you've gotta be just a little bit smarter than the dog.
It's the same with fish.
Yep...my dog, like most of his species, has an innate sense of how to handle his people. We are not so much "trained" as "artfully manipulated"...
Or at least I know he manipulates me. I do think he has my wife trained...and I know she thinks she has me trained...so I'm not sure where I land on that ladder of control.
Behind every great man there stands a woman...but his dog stands right beside him...
Near disaster averted today. I checked into the Red Wolf tank to see him parked inside his favourite chunk of pipe, facing out towards the front. Nowadays he is either stationed out in the open near the top/front, or he is under cover but still visible in this exact spot. I glanced down, saw him there, and moved on...but then did a doubletake. The Wolf had something wrong with his mouth; some sort of growth? Couldn't be sure, but I was concerned enough that after watching him closely for awhile I carefully netted him out to get a better look inside his mouth.
The "growth" was a thoroughly-chewed-up, utterly dead and almost unrecognizable red bristlenose (Hypancistrus?) about an inch long. I carefully removed it with a pair of fine forceps, trying not to cause damage to the interior of the Wolf's mouth or to its teeth. The fish was remarkably easy to handle, only the occasional wiggle, and the job took perhaps 10-15 seconds. The bristlenose was curled into a C-shape, with the curve of the C towards the opening of the mouth and the head and tail both pointing towards the gullet. No idea how long it was there or how it got into that weird orientation, but it probably wasn't going to go further in either direction without my intervention. It didn't come out in one piece.
The truly puzzling part of this is that I had no idea that I had bristlenose fry...ever. I have a few adults in a stocktank pond that is currently growing out a bunch of Gymnogeophagus fry. I took a couple pieces of driftwood from that stock tank for the Wolf's tank when I moved him into it a couple months back. That's the only possible source for this unfortunate little guy. I had never seen any fry before...rarely even see an adult, truth be told...and have never seen this one in the Wolf's tank since it was set up.
So, there's my afternoon, all lined up for me: tearing down the the Wolf's tank, in case there are other spiny, crusty little hitchhikers in there. That will be followed by the much more tedious duty of going through the stock tank with a fine toothed comb...but that can be postponed till a later date.
The "growth" was a thoroughly-chewed-up, utterly dead and almost unrecognizable red bristlenose (Hypancistrus?) about an inch long. I carefully removed it with a pair of fine forceps, trying not to cause damage to the interior of the Wolf's mouth or to its teeth. The fish was remarkably easy to handle, only the occasional wiggle, and the job took perhaps 10-15 seconds. The bristlenose was curled into a C-shape, with the curve of the C towards the opening of the mouth and the head and tail both pointing towards the gullet. No idea how long it was there or how it got into that weird orientation, but it probably wasn't going to go further in either direction without my intervention. It didn't come out in one piece.
The truly puzzling part of this is that I had no idea that I had bristlenose fry...ever. I have a few adults in a stocktank pond that is currently growing out a bunch of Gymnogeophagus fry. I took a couple pieces of driftwood from that stock tank for the Wolf's tank when I moved him into it a couple months back. That's the only possible source for this unfortunate little guy. I had never seen any fry before...rarely even see an adult, truth be told...and have never seen this one in the Wolf's tank since it was set up.
So, there's my afternoon, all lined up for me: tearing down the the Wolf's tank, in case there are other spiny, crusty little hitchhikers in there. That will be followed by the much more tedious duty of going through the stock tank with a fine toothed comb...but that can be postponed till a later date.
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Further to the previous post: I went carefully through the Wolf's tank that afternoon, discovered one more pleco fry and removed it. The following afternoon I did a similar inspection in the basement stocktank from which the driftwood had come and discovered that it contains about 20 similar young Bristlenose, all between .75 and 1 inch in length. Cool! I love surprises like this!
But...the Wolffish once again is at the centre of an issue. The 70 where he has been doing so well and been so outgoing for over a month now is actually the sump for a larger tank. Water overflows from the upper tank into the lower, filters through a Matten-type sponge filter at the far end and is pumped back up to the larger tank; this system is about 280 gallons total and is currently the only thing in the fishroom that requires heating. It flows at around 600gph, maybe a touch more, and the water entering the 70 is directed into a vertical ABS pipe that is Swiss-cheesed with holes much like a heater guard; the idea is to calm the flow a bit.
Last night I was hearing an odd, intermittent thumping that seemed to come from the basement; went down several times to check it out but couldn't find the source. Well...the source was my Red Wolf apparently launching himself from the water over and over again, smashing headlong into the corrugated plastic lid of the tank. I had done a water change earlier that evening, and was forced to turn off the fresh water inflow near the end a bit before the fill was complete; his tank was down a couple of inches, which left the outflow pipe from the tank above an inch or so above the water level in his tank. Does anyone recall seeing a video that somebody posted here earlier, showing a tankful of Red Wolves going crazy every time the hose filling their tank created a loud splashing noise? I think that was happening all last night in my basement.
The Wolf's nose is significantly bashed up and looking pretty raw. His activity was all at that end of the tank next to the inflowing water; the cover was slightly askew, and a pot of plants there was almost completely uprooted; the rest of the tank looks undisturbed.
Maybe I should contact the Fish Father and explain what happened; that'll give him a chance to expound about how bad water changes are...
But...the Wolffish once again is at the centre of an issue. The 70 where he has been doing so well and been so outgoing for over a month now is actually the sump for a larger tank. Water overflows from the upper tank into the lower, filters through a Matten-type sponge filter at the far end and is pumped back up to the larger tank; this system is about 280 gallons total and is currently the only thing in the fishroom that requires heating. It flows at around 600gph, maybe a touch more, and the water entering the 70 is directed into a vertical ABS pipe that is Swiss-cheesed with holes much like a heater guard; the idea is to calm the flow a bit.
Last night I was hearing an odd, intermittent thumping that seemed to come from the basement; went down several times to check it out but couldn't find the source. Well...the source was my Red Wolf apparently launching himself from the water over and over again, smashing headlong into the corrugated plastic lid of the tank. I had done a water change earlier that evening, and was forced to turn off the fresh water inflow near the end a bit before the fill was complete; his tank was down a couple of inches, which left the outflow pipe from the tank above an inch or so above the water level in his tank. Does anyone recall seeing a video that somebody posted here earlier, showing a tankful of Red Wolves going crazy every time the hose filling their tank created a loud splashing noise? I think that was happening all last night in my basement.
The Wolf's nose is significantly bashed up and looking pretty raw. His activity was all at that end of the tank next to the inflowing water; the cover was slightly askew, and a pot of plants there was almost completely uprooted; the rest of the tank looks undisturbed.
Maybe I should contact the Fish Father and explain what happened; that'll give him a chance to expound about how bad water changes are...
I remember that video - mine seems to do that occasionally as well (or it may just be him seeing duckweed on the lid and thinking that that one price must taste different than the rest). The scars heal up pretty fast. Sometimes I’ll hear a bang and the lid will have popped up a bit.
Good thing it’s just acrylic - he’d probably get a concussion from glass.
Good thing it’s just acrylic - he’d probably get a concussion from glass.
Following up on my Wolf's suicidal tendencies...once the tank was filled up all the way (only took about 2 inches) the leaping ceased. For good measure, I extended the inlet pipe (i.e. the water draining down from the above tank) all the way to the bottom of the Wolf's tank, and Swiss-cheesed the lower half of it, so that the water entering is not reduced in volume but is much more diffused and less violent than having the entire amount just dumping straight down. No more jumping.
His snout is pretty banged up but already looks better than it did yesterday. His appetite is unaffected; he just gulped down the first crunchy Junebug of the season, along with a large white grub (Junebug larva) that I found while gardening. He's back to his old self; I am hoping his front grill will heal without permanent scarring.
His snout is pretty banged up but already looks better than it did yesterday. His appetite is unaffected; he just gulped down the first crunchy Junebug of the season, along with a large white grub (Junebug larva) that I found while gardening. He's back to his old self; I am hoping his front grill will heal without permanent scarring.
