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Those African Glass Cats are noted for that Cory_Addict. Braz Walker mentions it in his pocket book, written back in the 70s.

Asian Glass Cats will do it too. So it wouldn't surprise me to discover that Pangasius have mastered that trick too.

The African Rift Lake fish I know that plays dead to get a meal used to be known as Haplochromis livingstonii, but it's probably been renamed. It performs an excellent impersonation of a dead fish, right down to the colour scheme. A small fish comes along to take a nibble, and WHAM, suckered into being lunch. The locals in Africa call it 'Komongo'.

I would bet that there are several Rift Cichlids that pull this trick off, after all, there are instances of different Genera convergently evolving to the same niches. Aulonocara and Trematocranus in Malawi, Aulonocranus and Trematocara in Tanganyika. And yes, the scientists DID deliberately give them anagrammatic generic names. Presumably to reflect this. So livingstonii probably isn't the only corpse faker in those lakes.

Nice trick isn't it?


Last edited by Calilasseia at 18-Feb-2005 23:42

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

the worst is when you're catching african cichlids for someone (never easy!) and one "dies," so they make you put it back and get another, then it "dies" and so on.

you try to tell them they'll come out of it, but they always look at you a little skeptically!

Hmmm upon thinking even more about this, the small common plecos where I used to work would put up quite a fight before being caught, but once caught they would stiffen and look very sickly, and sometimes I would just put them back because customers don't want fish that look like they're about to die...

Then again they might have been about to die anyway. Plecos didn't do well for us at all - consistently poor shipments.

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My ID shark displays this behavior too... but then again, his tank is getting small for him. He'll be in a nice 200 gallon pond soon, along with two enormous common plecos

Wild cardinal tetras are especially e to this behavior. At work when I have to catch them, they are perfectly fine in the tank, but as soon as I scoop them out and put them in the catch cup, they immediately "die".

They stop moving and either lay lifelessly on on the bottom of the catch cup on their backs or sides, or they float up at the top of the cup. They really do look dead, but if I put them back into the tank, after a couple seconds they start swimming around perfectly normal again.

A lot of the time when they do this, the customers buying them tell me to put them back and get different ones. I just explain to them that they are easily stressed out by travel, and that all of them will do it. For the really doubtful customers, I even leave the catch cup out on the counter with the fish still in it for a little bit, and after about a minute the tetras will start swimmining normally again.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

In the wild, the Platies would probably dive into a mud substrate.

One fish whose fry are DEFINITELY known to spend much of their juvenile lives hiding buried in mud is Barbus gelius, the Golden Dwarf Barb. Which probably accounts for its rarity in the aquarium, because not only is it difficult to persuade the adults to spawn, but according to J.M. Lodewijks, who wrote a piece on them in an old 1960s aquarium textbook, the fry seem to need to spend time doing this as part of their natural development. Which will probably contribute to this lovely fish remaining as rare on the scene as the proverbial rocking horse dollop.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I experienced this type of thing in some of my Tetras too, especially when you are down to one or two remaining in the tank and they are really freaked out? I cannot remember which kind it was for sure, but it was either Serpeas or Red Eyes that did it every time, and I'm sure I remember a Zebra Danio or two that tried it as well.... First time it happened I thought the fish had died from stress, but once it recovered totally I remember thinking what a tricky behaviour to escape a predator!!

Another behaviour that has struck me odd/interesting is the tendency of Platy fry to drive themselves into the substrate when they are being chased by a fish net. I have seen them stuck and not being able to free themselves after 5 minutes (in which case I took pity and "unstuck" them by moving the gravel piece by piece with tweezers) I assume in the wild, the bottom of whatever body of water they live in would be more accomodating than gravel so they would be able to get free- poor things!!

l.

However, there *is* a Haplochromis venustus in existence. But I've temporarily forgotten the details of its behaviour.

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Actually Calilasseia you are correct, it is the Haplochromis livingstonii, and not the venustus. I get these look alike fish confused all the time. They have not changed the name, as these are two different species of fish.

I will not correct my prior post, as to cause less confusion.

Correction of prior post; It is the Haplochromis livingstonii and not the venustus that does as I descibed in my prior post.

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There is always a bigger fish...

i have observed this behaviour in a number of fish, mostly african cichlids, but also certain catfish, danios, and loaches. it seems to be a response to stress or shock (ie: from trying to net them). the fish dashes wildly, then lays on the bottom, appearing dead. if left alone, they normally recover within a short while.

i was just wondering if there is a technical term for this behaviour?

um. when u are trying to catch it i think it is trying to run for it's life, so i would be tried. but then i am always tired.

so something like this? I opened up the tank this morning and thought Bad Boy was dead...I hate it when fish do this...Heidi



heidi attached this image:


"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

Yeah... I was just reading about that today; how some Malawi cichlids are even colored like dead, rotting fish to attract prey.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Some fish use this for eating food also, such as the Venustus I believe. They will lay on the bottom of the lake, as if dead. And they can breath out of just one gill, the one on the bottom side. This gives them the appearance of a dead fish. Then, when smaller fish come to eat on the "corpse", they come alive and feast on these smaller fish. I have seen some really great video from Ad Konings on this. It is really something to see.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Some fish also play dead, such as the irridescent shark for example. Like the possum, some fish have the mindset that if it's not moving, it's not food... it's a perfectly normal natrual defense

I've noticed that behavior in many kinds of fish. It's very strange.

The worst were my African glass cats. All I had to do was stick the net into the tank, and then after freaking out for about 10 seconds, they'd just stop swimming and float down to the gravel and lay on their backs, or they'd get caught in a plant. They'd stay "dead" for a few minutes, and after that they'd come back to life and start swimming again.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Actually, since fish are ectothermic they can't keep a high level of activity sustained for very long because they just don't have ideal temperatures for the chemical reactions for that kind of anaerobic activity. So no matter how healthy the fish, if they get worn out by being chased or responding to stress, they will eventually have to stop and commit all of their energy to respiration and basic bodily functions. Pretty much like your fish passing out. It's not good for them, so make sure not to force them into this condition on purpose.

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up its called out of breath n outta shape