Years ago, I had a tropical fishtank. I brought a small black and white catfish, that had lots of spines on it. It would sleep all day, and only come out for 10 minutes each night to eat, usually at 1:00 am. After 1 week, I noticed it was missing from the tank. I searched everywhere, and it was gone! 2 years pass, and all my fish died, so I decide to clean out the tank. Well low and behold, there is the catfish under all that gravel! All those years, and it's been here all this time. I found it impossible how it could live in the gravel for almost 3 years! Anyway, once I freed it, it only lived a couple of weeks, and then died. Have you ever had this happen?
Do you know what species this fish was? It would help to know, and plus, we're all curious! There are some species of fish that live in gravel but not that many. It probably died from being disturbed and perhaps toxins released from the previously little disturbed substrate. Was the fish living in the middle of the gravel, under an undergravel filter (did you have one?), under the entire gravel mass, or just under the surface? Did it seem to want to be there or to be stuck (since you say you freed it)? What size gravel did you have? It sounds very interesting!
The catfish has two known names:
Striped Raphael Catfish
OR
Chocolate Catfish.
More well known as Striped Raphael Catfish
Here is a site I found on it.
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/img/coastatus1.jpgTo anwser your questions:
It was laying towards the middle layer of the gravel, close to the surface, but it's body was completly covered. Lots of uneaten food was there, since I only cleaned the tank once a year, my mistake. I had no underground filter, just a filter that circulated the top of the water. The gravel was very smooth and round, and was a little bigger than a pea. I hope that helps!
Yes, I've seen Raphael catfish. They are neat looking. I don't know much about them but they do seem like they would be capable of partially hiding in gravel. He probably did come out but you never saw it.
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