Did I go crazy

[sapling]

It’s been a minute since I’ve been on but I have had the strangest thing happen idk if it was real. I was looking over my tank today and while I was looking I saw this little yellow thing, I didn’t think twice about it I thought maybe a stomatella snail on the back wall glass. 

 

I finally focused my eyes on it and realized it was a fish a little 1cm fish

 

it was little and light brown/yellow in color, i turned around to call someone to look, and it started to dart back into the rock work. I could not find it again after half an hour

 

This is a fishless tank, never had a fish. It’s had sexy shrimp. how is there a fish??? I don’t understand

[NuisanceAlgaeCultivator]

Videotape it! #bigfoot lol

[Tamberav]

Yellow clown goby hitchiker? or you are just losing your mind. 

[sapling]

It wasn’t a clown goby I’m sure, it looked sort of like the tiny fry guppies have, but a little bulkier at 1 cm. It doesn’t look like molly fry though. I don’t own any fish like that though, only a Betta in my freshwater

 

i really wished I took a picture but I was in shock. Could it come from sterilized seawater?

[Tamberav]

3 minutes ago, sapling said:

It wasn’t a clown goby I’m sure, it looked sort of like the tiny fry guppies have, but a little bulkier at 1 cm. It doesn’t look like molly fry though 

 

i really wished I took a picture but I was in shock. Could it come from sterilized seawater? 

uhh no. Did you use live rock? or add any sort of frag something could hide in?

 

Guppies can live in saltwater... maybe it was a guppy hitchhiker somehow?

 

But you did just ask if a fish could come from sterilized seawater so I think you might just be losing it. 

[sapling]

Nothing recently, the only thing I’ve done in 2 months is buy macro algae and a reef cleaner pack from reef cleaner 

 

besides that I bought a Hawaiian feather duster about a month ago. The only other thing I’ve done is add Live Phyto the past 3 weeks once a week

[Joevember]

Following allong to solve the mystery! 

Haven't heard of a hitchhiker fish before. 😧

[sapling]

My tank turned dark a bit earlier but I just don’t really understand, maybe it was a larvae in the phyto and survived? 

[sapling]

Update, I got a picture of it in literally the worst lighting possible. I knew I didn’t go crazy. It is incredibly cryptic for a fish. And took me hours to finally spot 

 

I know this isn’t a good picture but you clearly see it’s outline, the diagonal line in the middle. 

 

 

[patback]

Is this outline what you are talking about?

 

It's the only thing I can see that somewhat looks fish like. 

[NuisanceAlgaeCultivator]

3 minutes ago, patback said:

Is this outline what you are talking about?

 

It's the only thing I can see that somewhat looks fish like. 

I looked for a few minutes to find any type of outline with no success...I’m not exactly sure this picture rules you out of going crazy lol 🙂

[RayWhisperer]

14 hours ago, Tamberav said:

uhh no. Did you use live rock? or add any sort of frag something could hide in?

 

Guppies can live in saltwater... maybe it was a guppy hitchhiker somehow?

 

But you did just ask if a fish could come from sterilized seawater so I think you might just be losing it. 

You didnt really answer the first question. If you got livestock from a store, kept in a tank, this would explain where it came from. I've also seen fish hitchhike in on gulf live rock. It's pretty much 99% unlikely that a larvae settled out on a frag and survived. 

[sapling]

1 minute ago, RayWhisperer said:

You didnt really answer the first question. If you got livestock from a store, kept in a tank, this would explain where it came from. I've also seen fish hitchhike in on gulf live rock. It's pretty much 99% unlikely that a larvae settled out on a frag and survived. 

I did not use live rock, this aquarium is my sexy tank aquarium in the journal forum. I removed the shrimp once they turned on my euphyllia and ate 2 of them. 

[sapling]

14 minutes ago, patback said:

Is this outline what you are talking about?

 

It's the only thing I can see that somewhat looks fish like. 

Yes that is the fish, It came out for moments before darting away after I added crushed hikari pellets. I have searched the rockwork many times and can’t find where it is staying 

[sapling]

What is the chances this fish came from phyto bags? I buy for my feather duster live phyto once a week. Besides this fish I’ve have seen very small jellyfish that free float appear, and at least 3 kinds of sponges appear,

[RayWhisperer]

Well, it's pretty unlikely, but I suppose anything is possible. The problem is, most phyto is cultured, not collected from the ocean. That makes it very unlikely. 

 

Search the corals you've bought for small holes. There are tiny blennies that reside in holes, like barnacle blennies. The problem is, if it abandoned the hole long ago, the coral could have grown in. Besides that, I can't imagine it getting in any other way. It's not like frags are netted at the lfs.a fish sitting on a frag somewhere is most likely going to drop off once the frag is lifted out of the water. 

 

Let me ask you this. From what you've been able to see. Does it swim like a fish? Or does it have a erratic twirling, or darting?

[sapling]

It darts and hovers. When I first saw it, it was swimming back towards the rockwork. The second when I took the picture it came out from the rocks and hovered by the coral. When i got closer it turned around and darted. I’ve only seen it ever be inches from the bottom of the aquarium. It doesn’t act like the endler guppy fry I’ve had years ago, acting oblivious and swimming at the surface. 

[RayWhisperer]

Well, that sounds pretty fish like. I think we can rule out epitokes. 

[Newstead]

What about the macro algae? My clowns once laid eggs on g. Hayi. 

 

Just a thought.

[Frag Factory]

This is an awesome mystery, a true Christmas miracle 😄

 

 

[Clown79]

Sounds like a blenny.

[RayWhisperer]

The problem with the egg theory, is most marine fish go through a pelagic larval stage. Surviving that in captivity without actually trying is about as likely as a fish coming in the phyto. It's not impossible, but it's highly unlikely. There are some fish that actually hatch out as fry, like FW fish. Offhand, I can't list off many. However, I believe those would be the only ones likely to survive in a situation like this.

41 minutes ago, Newstead said:

What about the macro algae? My clowns once laid eggs on g. Hayi. 

 

Just a thought.

 

[Tamberav]

Sounds like a goby to me....trimma or evotia idk...Try to film it

[sapling]

My thing about this fish is why is it so incredibly cryptic, I don’t know how to lure it out

[xthunt]

What kind of rock and how long have you had it?