Funny: Your Most Invincible/Boss Fish

So what I want to ask you all is:

What is your most invincible/boss fish you have ever owned?

The most boss fish that I have EVER owned is by far a dwarf gourami. He always had a knack for eyeing out sick fish and ending them. He would never eat them. He would just... end their life. So after a few months of having him, a few of my old fish were starting to disappear. I was starting to wonder what was happening to them. To restock my tank, I bought 6 neons from PetSmart (LFS was selling them for $7 a piece! Couldn't pay that much for just 6).

Two died within the first day so I had 4 remaining. I was watching my tank very, very closely. I noticed one of the neons was swimming in an odd fashion like it was teetering. It looked spaced out, but it was still alert when disturbed. My tank was aquascaped so that it had a dense planting on each side of the tank, and a clear cut path right down the middle of the tank. It looked like a forest with a path through it. The neon was swimming down the clear path of the "forest." I saw my dwarf gourami hide in the plants on the left side of the aquarium, but its eyes were on the neon. As soon as the neon swam by, it lunged out and grabbed the neon's neck. It shook the neon around like a chewtoy and the neon swam free. The gourami chased it down within a second and this time it meant business. It grabbed the neon by the gills and slammed it into my glass. (You could hear the sound of the neon against the glass.) Then the neon stopped moving and the dwarf gourami just swam away like nothing happened. Needless to say my tank was kept disease free as long as that dwarf gourami was alive.

RIP buddy.

 

My most invincible fish ever was a gold three spot gourami when I was a teenager. She was with me from pretty much the beginning of my fishy journey, living through god knows how many cycles, horrid living conditions, diseases, inter-fish aggression, you name it. She was movin' on up like the Jeffersons from a ten gallon, to a 55, to a 90 and then she died, most likely because she just couldn't take the abuse anymore. Bless that thing's heart, she was a true champion. I named her Eddy and thought she was a dude but I know now that she was a sassy lady.

 

Dovah..this reminds me of 5 fish that I had. 2 Counterfeit Silver Dollars and 3 Zebras. They went through the exact same as yours and much more(you have no idea). But it seems like there was absolutely nothing that would kill them.

 

Jewel cichlid by far and not even the biggest, before them it was a three spot male

 

My Zebra danios, they lived in my 5 gallon tank for a while, when I knew NOTHING about properly keeping fish, then they survived the cycling of a 30 gallon (I still knew very little). then they survived around 2 months of no water changes (I was on vacation, then moved to a new house before I could go back and get them). Luckily for them I found fishlore, and now their tank is cycled, and gets water changes every week. Just because they were there from the beginning and didn't die on me, they are my favorite "schooling" fish

 

My dwarf gourami lived in a 30 gallon in the garage during winter with no filter or heater for like 2 weeks before I put a filter and heater on it...

 

I had a red belly pacu that was named Stalin and let me tell you, he was a mean s.o.b. He ripped up plants and only liked my oscar, big brother, and myself. Well one week I brought home 50 feeders (which lasted about 4 days between the two of them) but Stalin must have been bored out of his mind or just really wanted to bother my grandma because without warning he separated each feeders head from it's body in front of my 70 year old grandmother.

Let's just say she said he had to go and I spent the next 3 weeks cleaning up fish brains.

 

LOL @ Stalin!

 

My most invincible fish would have to be my clown pleco. Bought him over 4 years ago when I was just starting out with two goldfish in a 10 gallon . He's lived through all my learning experiences and even survived the first few months without driftwood!

My second fish wasn't completely invincible per se, but I feel like he deserves a mention because I still can't believe he survived. I went down to my tank one morning to find my guppy with his tail fins completely wrecked as shown below. He managed to survive at least a year and regrow some of his old tail. Named him "Black Knight" after this event.

 

My most invincible fish was named Ghost, and I'm not entirely sure what species he was. He was transparent and had a darker patch on the tip of his dorsal fin. All of the fish were really the responsibility of my mom back then, and she fed them once a week, kept them in a 2.5g filtered tank. No quarantines or acclamations ever occurred in that tank. No water changes except for every couple months when my mom would empty everything out of the tank and scrub it out. Every time she cleaned the tank, she completely replaced the filter cartridge too. When we got him, he came with a couple of others like him, but they died off eventually. Every time fish died, my mom would just get more and dump them in. God only knows how many different fish he saw come and go. He lasted several years in that way-too-small tank.

 

Oh man, this reminds me of my first two fish. Knowing what I know now I have no idea how they survived at all!! When I was in third grade, my class spent a week learning about the oceans. My teacher got a feeder goldfish for each student, and we kept them communally in plastic tubs on the classroom tables for Ocean Week. As an 8 year old, it was pretty much the coolest thing ever. At the end of the week, we were allowed to take home our fish if our parents gave us permission. My parents said yes, and I got to keep not only my fish but a friends fish as well. I named them Seaking (after the pokemon haha) and Cleopatra. To give my dad credit, he tried to help me keep the fish alive even though he didn't know a lot. They got a1 or 1.5 gallon filtered tank on my bookshelf, and monthly water changes where we emptied EVERYTHING out and scrubbed it all, and replaced all the water. They did get water conditioner and another chemical which might have been some sort of tetra safe start type product, don't really remember but hey at least he tried! Somehow the poor feeder goldfish lived for TWO YEARS in that tiny tank. Seaking eventually perished when a piece of decorative coral I had added to the tank fell on him and caused a big wound he died from overnight. It was very sad. Cleo followed a few months later, don't remember why but I suppose it was for the best because we were moving cross country anyways, she wouldn't have made it. RIP fishies! They sure were resilient, poor guys. I always wanted more after that, but didn't get any more until college (which is a different long and tragic tale).

 

Knew nothing much about fish keeping and that they sold fish that grew that big, I bought 7 3inch bala sharks dropped them in a 50 gallon tank soon after had some stress in my life and lots of problems, they soon were the last thing on my mind and I just forgot about them.
I don't know how many months they stayed in there but it was long, 6 months maybe more.
The water went down to 2 inches before I finally got back on my feet enough to spare some thought for another life form.
Survival of the fittest and natural selection left only one champion who put down any other contenders.
They had nothing to eat but themselves and the unlucky mosquito who would land on the water for over 6 months.
I cleaned up the tank which I could not see through and kept that shark for a few years more in good conditions.

This situation was not something I am proud or ashamed of, it was just due to circumstances of life, a sucky one

 

Had a swordtail as a kid that managed to jump out of the tank into...a patch of rug cleaner my mom had put down. He was there who knows how long before I found him still alive. I cleaned him up and he lived out his life normally after that. Not exactly the baddest of bad fish but he survived the impossible!

 

Used to be goldbarbs, now its Noel a 6 inch black bn plec female. Aftermy acara grew suddenly and went psycho, it was her who
attacked HI'm and chased him off. She also went after a male bn and tried to take him out with her stabbers.
Sometimes the silent ones are the ones to watch for.

shes currently not willing to back off from a firemouth that she lives with.