The Tint

Ever notice how some fishes are sort of…well…Man, I really hate to use the phrase, but kinda…expendable? Or maybe a better term is  “predictably temporary”- in our aquariums?

Yikes, that sounds so harsh, and I kinda feel bad for even couching it in these terms- but I think  you may understand what I’m getting at here. I mean, there are some fishes that you can add to your tank that are seemingly “programmed” to…vanish…like, without a trace. And I’m not talking just about that rare snail or the odd “African Frog” (remember those?). Oh, no- we’re talking about fishes that are rather common in the trade…for whatever reason, they seem to follow an almost predetermined path to their own end…weird, right?

My friend Dave calls them “doinkers”- fishes that tend to just be there one day and mysteriously gone the next. Perfect name for them, actually. I think the late, great author Bob Fenner used to call ‘em “Aqua Popcorn”- same thing, different expression…Animals that are seemingly there and alive one minute, then vanishing like this month’s favorite TikTok celebrity the next..Generally without a trace- or clue- as to what happened.

Here, in no particular order, are some of the most common “predictably temporary” fishes I’ve personally encountered during my hobby “career”- no doubt you have many more..it’s your job to continue this list as you see fit:

Neon Tetras: These are pretty much the “poster child” for vanishing fish. You start out with like 8-10 in your tank, and they form an impressive little shoal…for like, oh..3 days. Then, without any reason…they start to…vanish. They just freakin’ disappear, right? I mean, you wake up one morning, and there are 5 of ‘em…and then 4, and then…Eventually, you’ll just end up with one or two…interestingly, in a strange twist on teen “slasher movie-style” plots, often the weakest-looking, most meek ones always seem to survive. Really, who maintains a school of like 20 of them for two or three years, never having to bring in replacements?

Oh, sure there are probably a few of you out there, but for most of us, they’re a true enigma. (EXTRA CREDIT: Substitute the Cardinal Tetra as needed…)

Otocinculus Catfish: C’mon, everyone loves them, but they are another one of those fishes that just sort of “fade to black” over time…And I don’t know how long you manage to keep them. Don’t matter which species, either:  They just…fade. Sure, they seem to establish themselves just fine, finding an “algae groove” in your tank to feast on  They seem to hang on for a time, looking and acting great, and then one day, they just sort of disappear,  one by one…failing to emerge from the plants. Until there are…none.

Bizarre. But predictable.

White Cloud: Ohh, another one guaranteed to just sort of “bail” on you…You add a few of the little cuties with the best of intentions to your tank. They provide the predictable aesthetic you want for a few weeks…then it happens. They check out immediately, like a vendor on the last day of the ACA conference who sold out all of her Apistos…gone.  See ya! And they don’t ever turn up.  Yet we keep them- year after year- and they’re so…inexpensive, right- so we replace them when they vanish…wondering what they’re up to…

“Assorted” Hatchetfishes: Okay, like the “generic” varieties- these are virtually the ultimate “programmed destruction” fishes, in my book. “I have no competition for them in my tank..They should be okay…” I used to hear fishkeepers say. Doesn’t mean anything, IMHO.  And they shouldn’t be viewed as “moderately easy to keep” characins, either. They have smaller mouths, are skittish…and they jump! Need we say more? They can be tricky to feed, too…They appear to pick at..something on the surface…as they begin their near-instant decline into oblivion. Sure, you’ll catch the occasional one apparently picking at…something.

And this goes on for weeks..And they always look emaciated- on the verge of death…Sure, you’ll get the occasional fat, super hardy one that lives for a long time but most of them check in, and check out soon after. These fishes have the annoying and sad “habit” of practically being hit in the head with a piece of the right-sized food( often painstakingly placed there via hand by a desperate hobbyist in a last-ditch effort to get ‘em to eat), only to literally hobble right past the food, as if it has somewhere else to be..and it usually does: That “big aquarium in the sky.”

Okay, so that’s my top 4…

Okay, I look at it with a bit of “gallows humor”, but it is kind of sad to see this kind of stuff.

I hate to think about it in these terms, but it’s almost like these fish are “activated carbon” or a “filter sock” for a lot of hobbyists: Many are cheap, have a very finite “service lifetime”, and are always available. Easy to replace. Sad to speak of living creatures like this, but it’s true. There is a reason why most of these are relatively “inexpensive”, as fishes go…although I wonder how they fell into this category in the first place? Perhaps they are so abundant and easy to catch in their wild environments, or breed so easily, that they are…taken for granted. Nah. Nope. Scratch that. That NEVER happens in the aquarium world, right?

Why do they vanish?

Well, the reason or theories behind the reasons are many. IMHO, the most common reasons are the usual ones: Many of these are fishes that are recklessly caught poorly handled and fed along the chain of custody from river (or hatchery) to store, and in such weekend condition upon arrival at the LFS or vendor that they’re barely viable by the time the hapless (?) hobbyist gets ‘em.

And of course, no one seems to quarantine anything these days, right- so they never have the chance to “fatten up” or recover from the rigors of their journey before being placed into a “community tank” with all sorts of competitors, dangers, and challenges…Many are not strong swimmers or aggressive feeders. It’s literally “sink or swim” for many of these poor animals. Sure, some make seemingly good recoveries and settle in…for a bit.

Problem is, most of these fishes are so weak- perhaps (as in the case of wild or newly imported Corys, characins, and some Apistos) dealing with intestinal parasites, or even the after-effects of the collection and shipping processes- that there is little more they can do than “rally” for a while before taking their cue and exiting.

Sad.

Now, some ARE handled well. And they eat at the LFS…and perhaps even in your tank. But they still take “the Stairway to Heaven”, as one of my fish-geek friends calls it- and bail quickly…or sooner, rather than later, at least. Why?

Who knows? Yet, each year, countless thousands of these types of fishes are sold…And the ones mentioned here are just some of the more common ones..There are thousands and thousands of fishes of different species that could easily fall into this “class”, so it’s not that unusual.

What can you do to help avoid this? Well, you could simply not buy any. 

Yeah, not a popular answer, I’m sure!

Or you could quarantine them for a few weeks before adding them to your tank (even less popular). Or, you could just “dump and pray”, and hope that you have the one in a million Zebra Danio group that makes it through the long term like a contestant in a TV reality show.

Or, you could simply support retailers who offer consistently healthy, well-acclimated fishes from great sources. It pays to investigate. You have choices for quality fishes, particularly specialized ones. Soon, you’ll have more. The hobby demands it.

So, the fact that some fishes mysteriously vanish is reason enough for a guy like me to replace them over and over again, regardless  of the moral or ethical implications of doing so. It’s a challenge. So, if you’re gonna play the “doinker” game, consider doing all that you can to ensure success…specifically, selecting carefully, and employing some form of longer-term acclimation/quarantine…end maybe, in the case of wild fish, some sort of anti-parasitic purging of their digestive system…much has been written on these topics.

In the mean time, it IS sort of funny, in a dark sort of way, to “laugh through our tears” about the absurdly predictable path many of the fishes mentioned in this piece take! Sort of therapeautic, and I know many of you have some funny stories and anecdotes to share on the topic.

So, let’s lighten the mood, (after giving due consideration to how to get better outcomes, of course) and let’s talk a little about the subject of adding fishes to your aquarium in general.

So, I’ll confess a bit.

I over-analyze every fish addition I make. Like, I analyze the living shit out of them!

Maybe it’s just me? Or do we all agonize over fish stocking decisions?

Am I the ONLY hobbyist who makes the fish selection process so onerous, that getting confirmed to work as a Special Agent for the CIA might be easier?

Like, I go though all sorts of “mental gymnastics” over many of the fishes that I’ll add-or want to add- to my community aquariums. And the points that I take into consideration when making these decisions are not just, “Will this fish get too large?” or “Can the tank environment support this fish?” or “Will there be aggression issues?” Or even, “Do I have the skills to keep this fish?”

Those are all excellent points to consider when contemplating new fish additions, of course…But I think about more esoteric stuff within those broader categories. Here are some recent examples:

* “Do I really want another benthic characin in this tank? Or any characin, for that matter? Will it compete for resources and territory with the other species? Will I even see it?”

* “That fish is attractive, but only when its in a spawning mode. Otherwise, it’s a great fish with brown markings. Do I want another grey fish with brown markings?”

* “Is this fish going to be timid, taking more time to settle in before it begins to feed on prepared foods? Do I have enough supplemental food sources in the tank to carry it through this adjustment phase?”

And those are just the “sub issues” related to the actual physical addition of the fish into the aquarium ecosystem. Being the weird, overly-obsessed- about-esoteric-and-obscure-stuff  kind of aquarist I am, will think of even more ridiculous things to factor into the mix:

* “Will this fish make the tank look too “busy” with it’s foraging habits? 

* “Is it one of those annoying fishes that is overly enamored with its own reflection and constantly follows itself up and down the glass of the aquarium?” (you know exactly what I mean…)

* “Will I need to keep larger numbers of this fish to bring out the more natural behaviors in the fish? Do I want to add 8 more grey- brown fish in this tank, just so they can be comfy? 

* “What’s the point in keeping this fish?” (Which of course, literally “reboots” the process yet again…an endless data analysis loop…)

I mean, I get even weirder still, thinking through every possibility, concept, and even considering the paradoxes related to keeping a certain fish.

It’s kind of one of those annoying habits some of us develop over the years…I think it’s a result of growing up with fish tanks in my bedroom as a kid, and having a few small tanks, knowing that I couldn’t keep even a fraction of what I wanted to keep..so I had to consider almost every possibility when contemplating any new addition to my collection. Every Neon Tetra. Every Zebra Danio…each fish was given the same consideration as if it were a rare, expensive African Rift Lake Cichlid or Asian Arowanna!

I think it was easier to secure a U.S. Supreme Court nomination or win an Oscar than it was to get a spot in my aquariums. The slightest issue could disqualify a fish from consideration…

This decision-making process did serve me pretty well- and continues to do so. I think it arose out of my tutelage under the hobby’s “greatest generation”- aquarists who pioneered much of the “best practices” that we still use today…And one of those “best practices” was to employ radical amounts of patience…

However, I think it also can result in my lack of a quick decision, which has cost me some opportunities to keep cool fishes of late…on multiple occasions, I might add. It got so bad, that for a while, my buddies hated going fish shopping with me (what a joke calling it “fish shopping”– they always came back with fish, I bought frozen food and carbon like 85% of the time…)

And it’s cost me- this crazy “cautiousness”, or whatever you want to call it…Cost me big-time.

A few years back, I was considering a Pleco. Not just any Pleco for one of my botanical method aquairums. It of course had to meet some of the stringent “admission requirements” for my tank! Like, it couldn’t create too much disturbance on the bottom, as I use a lot of sedimented substrates and leaves, etc. Couldn’t get too large, aggressive, etc.

I also had a number of specialized feeders in the tank, such as my Spotted Headstanders (Chilodus punctatus) that tended to graze among these botanical materials and substrates, and I didn’t want there to be any conflict  for ‘utilization’ of this territory. I wanted to make sure that the species I chose wasn’t completely algae-dependent, or required massive amounts of driftwood to chew on.

And of course, more than almost anything, it had to be a smaller one…blah, blah, blah.

(Chilodus punctuates. Image by Jorn. Used under CC BY-SA 2.0)

I decided on the L134 “Leopard Frog” (Peckoltia compta) which seemed to tick all of the boxes. I read everything I could find on this species, surveyed my friends in the Pleco community (thanks, guys), and looked at it from every angle I could think of. And of course, at the time, this particular species was really f-ing hard to get!

Thanks to one of my friends, I was able to source a nice specimen from a breeder with a great reputation right here in Southern California, no less! All I needed to do was pull the trigger and I’d have my “cat.” 

So what did I do? 

I made the classic “Fellman mistake” of going on one more website…checking “just a few more facts” about the natural environment of the fish..did another mental “feasibility study” related to the aquascape I had for the fish to inhabit…

You know what happened, right?

Yeah, the fish sold in the couple of days I spent performing my absurd “mental gymnastics.” Oh, sure, I eventually got one…after being burned by my own “cautiousness” on two other occasions! 

Arrghhh!

I wish I was one of those guys who could just look at a fish and be ready to strike when the opportunity arises…In order to check my “analysis paralysis” and miss not miss out on great opportunities to obtain cool fishes, I have since actually adopted a sort of “pre-approval” strategy, whereby I go through all of this nonsense ahead of time, and just keep a mental “go list” that I can draw upon when one of my favored fishes becomes available.

And of course, even this idea sometimes still brings out my bizarre tendencies.

Once, I was literally seconds away from pulling the trigger on the acquisition of a few Crenuchus spilurus, the Sailfin Tetra- a fish that has literally been haunting my mind since childhood, when I recall seeing a pic and a charming description of it in my well-worn copy (handed down to me by my dad) William T. Innes’ classic “Exotic Aquarium Fishes.” 

So, here I was, ready to acquire the fish of my childhood!

Closing the chapter on a lifetime obsession. A fish on my “go list” for like 30 years! And what did I do yet again? In the 11th hour, I went on Google and did…more research. I took another good hard look at this fish. And read somewhere that it’s “Apistogramma-like” in its existence, environmental preferences, and behaviors.

This immediately set off the “red flags” in the back of my mind, as I had a pair of Apistos about to spawn in my tank…and did I really need to introduce 8 grey-brown “Apisto–like” fish into the mix at this juncture? 

You know what happened next.

A mental “hold” was placed on this acquisition until I was able to compete yet another  absurd “feasibility study” of the pros and cons related to getting the fish. And yet, deep down inside (or maybe not even THAT deep) I knew the real risk here: These fishes would be long gone by the time I came to a conclusion…and I was convinced at that point that it might be another 30 years before I had the chance to grab some again…

And I don’t even really like cichlids. Apistos or otherwise!

Fortunately, the stars aligned- and by “divine providence”, excellent timing, or just plain old good luck, I was able to source them again, and I pulled the trigger…after decades, acquiring a group of these cool fishes. And of course, after having them for a while, I was like, “Why did I even hesitate?”

It’s created a positive change in my personal thinking that is perhaps finally breaking through… I actually purchase fishes with minimal reflection these days.

Case in point: I had a similar epiphany with my fave characin, the Tucano Tetra… These little guys aren’t cheap, warranting consideration before you buy ’em- but man, are they worth it! It’s one fish that I simply ran with. Bizarre, because when you spend $200USD on a dozen tiny-ass fishes, you are most definitely committed!

Perhaps I’ve changed my approach and thinking just a bit.

But my “analysis thing…?” Still there.

It’s a blessing and a curse, I tell ‘ya. It has kept me from some bad choices over the years.; checked my worst instincts. Yet, it’s also prevented me from making some good ones! Or at least, delayed them a loooong time!

It’s nice to consider every aspect of the fish…but it’s also a bit excessive in some cases. I know that there is a “happy medium” between impulsiveness and hyper analysis…I’ve just been spending the last several decades trying to hone in on it!

Until next time, don’t be like me. Indulge your geekiness, but not at the expense of your long-term happiness. Be analytical, be strategic. Maybe even act a bit “impulsive” now and again. But don’t be foolish.

Stay focused on what you really like. Stay excited, engaged, and…geeky.

And of course…

Stay Wet.

Scott Fellman