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HOw could this possibly happen???


Guppysnail

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I had a few longfin lemon blue eyed pleco babies in my 10g Magical Mystery Tank current inhabitants 3 mystery snail and some neocaridina that hitched a ride on some plants with an old Aqua clear 50 filter.  I had rehomed them all the beginning of April. The day I rehomed them I came home and found one that hid and moved it to another tank. I took EVERYTHING not substrate out of the tank to catch them including the filter intake,heater and pothos roots.  About 2 weeks ago I added an under gravel filter.  Yesterday I took removed the basket holding media and cut the sponge to put a plant pot in. I returned the media to the filter with the plant but left the basket out. I just went to turn my lights on and…THERE WAS A PLECO BABY 😲🤯
 

I think this little one somehow got into the filter and has lived there!  This is the first I’ve touched the media since rehoming them. I have a coarse sponge intake so maybe he wiggled in? The ones I put in here were an inch or more when I put them in this tank.  Surely if he was in the tank itself I would have seen him putting the UGF in???

Any ideas how this happened? Could he have lived this long in the filter?  He is small. Not bigger than when I put them in the tank so I know he has not been eating properly. 😢 He has a full belly this morning but looks a touch thin but not alarmingly thin. Poor thing I hope his growth is not stunted to bad. 
 

Sorry for the blurry pic but he scampered away when he seen me.  
 

 

 

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Edited by Guppysnail
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On 4/29/2022 at 7:37 AM, Widgets said:

Remember, in the wild, the survival of fry depends upon their ability to hide from predators. It is possible that it hid from the net that was "eating" all it's brothers and sisters. 

I’m just shocked because the tank was emptied completely out void of anything bu 3 inches of water my hands and some shrimp that clung to the walls when I put in the UGF. 

He is back out. Here is a bit better picture.

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Edited by Guppysnail
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I've had similar instances, but always with livebearers. Can't tell you how many times I've found subadult live bearers in canister filters. That or with tanks that were drilled with sumps finding a whole other ecosystem growing up in the sump. 

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