Tank Update #2: Disappearance And Death...Hercules Joins The School...King Is Queen?

As Spring nears Summer, I remember one of the reasons for setting up the tank.  The previous summer had been difficult, for many reasons, but Salmon River was the one thing that redeemed it.  It's a wonderful, beautiful place to go, a minute from home, and free.  I had always wanted to have an aquarium with some type of local fish, and the idea was to have something in the house to remind me of that wonderful place through the winter, when I could not go there for recreation.  I imagined sitting there in the easy chair, watching the fish and remembering back to the warm days of fishing, swimming, and snorkeling with my family.  It wasn't so bad a winter as I expected, not like last year, but it was still nice to have the tank.

Down to ten Dace, the fish in the tank appear to be doing well now.  There have been a few interesting occurrences.  As reported earlier, Giorgio, the very camouflaged bottom feeder has died, though his body has never been found.  Could the Dace have eaten him?  Soon after Giorgio's demise, I noticed that I could only find ten Dace when there had been eleven.

The smallest of the Dace had been named Hercules by my sons.  He generally kept to himself, probably due to his size, while the rest actively schooled around, scarfing up the goldfish flakes when they were dropped in, but though he was solitary, I could always find him.  He would spend a lot of time alone near the bottom, not getting as much food as the others, but he has definitely grown since October.

One of the smaller fish had developed a problem--an apparent ruptured swim bladder.  He had a cavity where the rest of the Dace have a prominent bulge.  He would try to swim up, but couldn't stay off the bottom for long.  This fish would be a goner in the river.  He had a bent look near his head, and I wondered if he had gotten crushed when I was cleaning the tank.  He would try to rise, but quickly lose it and sink again, resting on rocks or on the gravel bottom.  After a while he seemed to be doing better.  He was still disabled, but could move, and was able to get some food.  Now he has made nearly a full recovery.  His spine is crooked, which is very evidently shown by the black stripe down his side.  The line is kinked just past the pectoral fins.  He'd still have no chance in the river, but in my tank, he's able to keep up with the school and doesn't seem to be struggling at all.

This still doesn't address the missing eleventh fish.  I thought maybe he'd leaped out of the tank and was eaten by my cat, but it was just a theory.  Hercules had been spending a lot of time in the far right corner of the tank swimming around a big rock with another flat rock laying on it, creating a hiding spot.  One day recently I spotted a strange looking white object at the bottom near this little cave.  It was curved and was moving.  It was the missing Dace.  He was paralyzed, laying upside down, unable to straighten out.  A mercy flush later and the tank had ten confirmed residents.  Almost immediately Hercules started swimming with the school again.  Had he been caring for this disabled fish, his work now done?

Another thing that I have seen, three times now, was a real surprise the first time I saw it.  One night I went into the room to look at the fish, and at first couldn't tell what was different-looking about King Dace.  The black stripe that runs the length of the body was much thinner, and the yellow stripe that lines the top of the black one was much thicker than normal, giving the fish an unusual look.  The fish actually seemed smaller than normal due to this colorization.  What was going on?  Some as-yet-unseen behavior was about to unfold.  King Dace started swishing around in a small gravel area near the front of the tank.  Soon, one of the larger other Dace started doing the same in the same area.  They were spawning.  Now the sexist misunderstanding came to light.   "King Dace" first, then the smaller male doing his business.  Just because she's the biggest fish doesn't mean she's the King.  I suppose the color variation was a hormonal thing, meant to attract the male.  The two of them did this several times, then when they were done, left the scene, swam around the tank, then returned promptly and began eating the eggs!

I've been feeding them goldfish flakes, and they seem to be doing well on them.  Certainly all of them have grown except for Queen Dace, who according to what I could find on the internet,  is full-grown at about three inches.  When I set up the tank there were two fish almost exactly the same size and were just over half as long as Queen Dace.  Now they are almost as big as Queen Dace, and it is sometimes hard to tell them apart.  These two fish I called "The Henchman" because they seemed to be the flanks to the King in my little aquarium society.  The way to tell them apart from Queen Dace is that they are more meaty, especially in the tail than she is, and I wonder if that is due to the goldfish flake diet that she didn't grow up on.  I wonder if The Henchmen will end up being much larger than her?