you have to read this ridicouls story I heard today

[tropicfishman]

I went and visited my buddy today to see his new home him and his wife just bought, when I got there his mother was up there and we got to talking about fish tanks out of nowhere, she told me that they had an old 30 gallon tank, when they got tired of it they gave away the fish and tore it down and left it in the basement with a few gallons of water and the gravel still in it, well a few months later they decide they wanna set it back up and they begin to fill it back up, leaving the odl water in there, as they were filling it up, supposdly now, there was two guppy type fish still alive in the tank, buried in the gravel ( yeah my suspicion rose to ) have you ever heard of anything so crazy? I don't believe its all true though, I can see a guppy or something living off whatever bugs landed in the tank or left over food at the bottom for a few days but not a few months, but they all swear up and down it happened, what do you think? lol

[hulkamaniac]

It sounds fishy (pardon the pun) to me. It's certainly possible as guppies are very hardy fish, but I still think it's unlikely.

[Laser]

I suppose that it is possible. Do these people enjoy making up stories for the sake of conversation? I guess only you would have an idea if they're telling the truth or not.

[Qays]

Easily possible.

[MACATUA]

Actually, I broke down my 55 gallon fresh water when I moved to my new house. I left it in my garage for about 6 months with about 3 inches of water in the bottom of it with all the gravel and silk plants still in. After 6 months I was going to clean it out and set up my current cichlid tank. Low and behold I had left my old Pleco in there, and he was still alive. I took him out, cleaned the tank and he is still alive today, in my cichlid tank.

So yes, it is possible.

[Ky'smommy]

i dont think the people you mention have the lying problem i think its something else

It is possible for some fish to survive in all sorts of conditions. Isn't it ironic that mo matter how good you take care of your tanks, fish can still die, get parasites and all kinds of diseases. Then you hear stories like this, go figure.

[pkillur]

Originally Posted by tropicfishman

I went and visited my buddy today to see his new home him and his wife just bought, when I got there his mother was up there and we got to talking about fish tanks out of nowhere, she told me that they had an old 30 gallon tank, when they got tired of it they gave away the fish and tore it down and left it in the basement with a few gallons of water and the gravel still in it, well a few months later they decide they wanna set it back up and they begin to fill it back up, leaving the odl water in there, as they were filling it up, supposdly now, there was two guppy type fish still alive in the tank, buried in the gravel ( yeah my suspicion rose to ) have you ever heard of anything so crazy? I don't believe its all true though, I can see a guppy or something living off whatever bugs landed in the tank or left over food at the bottom for a few days but not a few months, but they all swear up and down it happened, what do you think? lol

As crazy as it sounds, I bought a 75 gallon show tank with 75 (ish) pounds of rock in it. When I finally got to setting the tank up a few days later the rock had almost completely dried out (I was kind mad about this because I was trying to keep bacteria alive, but my wife forgot to "feed" it with fish food while I was gone for a week or so.)

I filled up the water and as I went to put our goldfish "Googly" in it a few days later, I noticed a TON of little baby fishes in there. Like 30.

How they survived I have no idea. The sad part is that Googly and our Danios slowly but surely picked off the babies.

And yes, I know you shouldn't mix goldfish with other tank cyclers. I was a noob running off of information I had from Petco at the time

[Elmware2000]

Sounds like you had eggs.

[tropicfishman]

thats insane, I never would have thought a fish could survive like that