Vaillantella maassi Mystery
Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2021 2:09 pm
So about 10 years ago we got a Vaillantella maassi and added it to our 120 gallon tank. Nice sand substrate, good water flow, loads of hiding spaces. It was lovely, but after about 3 days we never saw it again. We kept thinking maybe it was still there, we know they need to hide, etc. Even as the years passed we thought there was some chance it was still there. The last 3 years we have had a series of serious unfortunate events leaving our tanks pretty neglected, fish getting fed but bare minimum water changes, pretty much no algae scraping, and not a lot of time to spend even thinking about our fish. Now that things have improved in terms of the serious health challenges at home (and the threat of COVID is keeping us at home except for absolute necessities like work, groceries and the dump), we have cleaned the glass, started paying more attention to our (remarkably healthy!) fish, and we improved the lighting in all the tanks and have a bunch of plants quarantining, and even got more fish to replace the shorter-lived species.
As I posted above, I am hoping to completely re-do our hillstream tank, which is currently a 55 gallon, when we paint our main room and redo the floors, which will mean taking the tank down and moving everything out to the back porch, in the shade. We have been thinking of adding to our hillstream stock as well. Meanwhile, a light that had previously been over the 45T became available to replace the light that had been destroyed by cats pushing it into the hillstream tank. And the other night when I had just gone upstairs to get ready for bed, Cloudhands called me back down, claiming he saw the Vaillantella in the hillstream tank! Of course I ran downstairs, and there was a VERY Vaillantella looking fish swimming in and out of the rocks! Now we spend a LOT of time looking at the hillstream tank, even during the worst of our challenges. Never seen it in there. Neither of us remember ever taking any wood over from the 120 to the hillstream at any point in which it might have been hiding.
What the heck?????? And of course we haven't seen it since! It seems to have realized that Vaillantellas have suddenly shown up on WetSpot again and we were discussing whether we should try again if they are still available when the weather warms up.
As I posted above, I am hoping to completely re-do our hillstream tank, which is currently a 55 gallon, when we paint our main room and redo the floors, which will mean taking the tank down and moving everything out to the back porch, in the shade. We have been thinking of adding to our hillstream stock as well. Meanwhile, a light that had previously been over the 45T became available to replace the light that had been destroyed by cats pushing it into the hillstream tank. And the other night when I had just gone upstairs to get ready for bed, Cloudhands called me back down, claiming he saw the Vaillantella in the hillstream tank! Of course I ran downstairs, and there was a VERY Vaillantella looking fish swimming in and out of the rocks! Now we spend a LOT of time looking at the hillstream tank, even during the worst of our challenges. Never seen it in there. Neither of us remember ever taking any wood over from the 120 to the hillstream at any point in which it might have been hiding.
What the heck?????? And of course we haven't seen it since! It seems to have realized that Vaillantellas have suddenly shown up on WetSpot again and we were discussing whether we should try again if they are still available when the weather warms up.