# This might be hard to believe, but it's true



## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

We moved in April. I didn't have enough room in our new system for all the rock, so I put a few pieces in a small tank with a tiny pump and a heater. I kept my chaeto in this tank, too, so there was a crappy desk lamp on it.
And there the rock has sat for the last six months. No water changes, no feeding, nothing. Well maybe I topped the water up a bit, but that's it.

Here is what it looked like.










Today, I decided to move some of this rock into a new tank that I wanted to use as an acclimation tank. So I took one of the large rocks out of this crappy 15 gallon tank where it has been for six months (with nothing but a tiny power head and a small heater) and went to put it into the new tank and this black thing shot out.

"Crap" I thought. "It must be another f***ing mantis that had plagued our system for 4+ years....."

Except it wasn't a mantis. It was a fish.

A fish we had never seen before. Not ever in the 4+ years we had had the old system, not in the 6 months I had kept this rock wet in the 15 gallon tank. We never bought this fish, had never been gifted this fish, I have no idea where this fish came from.

Except here he was, sitting in our tank, after having jumped out of the rock.



















You can imagine how shocked I was. Panic more like. John happened to wander in when I was moving the rock so I got him to help me as I wanted to catch what I thought was a mantis while I could find it. When we realized it was a fish, not a mantis, I was kind of freaking out.

We put the fish back into his original tank as I am sure he was as freaked out as we were.

Here is what I could photograph while in the bucket.










As soon as we put him back in the tank, he was gone.

Might be 5 more years before I see him again......

Biggest question of the day, (which I need some help with). What kind of fish is this????

He is 2" long
Pointed mouth like a cleaner wrasse
Long dorsal fin like a dottyback
White skunk strip down his nose and back
White flecking on the sides

Am thinking a basslet?
Maybe Belonepterygion fasciolatum????

Any help with an ID would be appreciated.


----------



## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*wowser*

that's a wild surprise .... do u think hes dark cause hes been banished to a tank with not much lighting ...has the face of a six line wrasse of some type ...


----------



## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

tom g said:


> that's a wild surprise .... do u think hes dark cause hes been banished to a tank with not much lighting ...has the face of a six line wrasse of some type ...


He might be darkish right now, but if he does lighten up, I suspect he might go more towards red than wrasse like.
Like this:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1693


----------



## mmatt (Feb 12, 2012)

Lol!! No idea what he is but that is one crazy surprise. Especially since you guys never bought him. Lol..

Sorry I can't be of much of any help.


----------



## aks72ca (Apr 19, 2014)

*Could it be some kind of Angler*

Could it be a Colored Angler of some kind ?


----------



## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

aks72ca said:


> Could it be a Colored Angler of some kind ?


Definitely not an angler fish! If I had to say what shape his body is most similar to, it would be a dottyback. But as this fish is super cryptic (obviously has been hiding a lot) its more likely going to be in the basslet family.

I'm thinking 2" is full grown and that it's been in my old tank since day 1 and probably came in with the live rock as a tiny baby 4.5 years ago Either that or it came in on a coral colony sometime during the past years. Which would mean it survived Coral dip and all sorts of bigger fish.

Best guess right now is Indo, based on a conversation I had this afternoon with someone but no confirmed ID yet.


----------



## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*surprise fish*

well the good thing about him being in the live rock is that he would of eaten anything that was not good and cleaned up the entire rock , being without food for 6 months .........hes a keeper


----------



## littletnklvr (Nov 1, 2010)

*Don't believe you!*

Tell you what, you give me the fish and I won't feed it for 4 and a half years (I promise, hehe) and if it's still alive I'll believe you! lol!


----------



## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

littletnklvr said:


> Tell you what, you give me the fish and I won't feed it for 4 and a half years (I promise, hehe) and if it's still alive I'll believe you! lol!


Not a chance! I'm loving this story and hopefully will be able to relocate the fish, cause I put it back in the 15 gallon tank.
I'm hoping to move him into my nps tank with low light, lots to eat and maybe see it more than once in the next 5 years.


----------



## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*lone soldier*

he so deserves to be in one of your tanks Cheryl as long as he is not aggressive .he may be a mate for my fire red shrimp whos been in hiding for around 4 years as well , and is still alive and well....


----------



## corpusse (Jan 3, 2011)

Wow, you don't see too many fish hitchhikers these days. I agree it's most likely Belonepterygion fasciolatum. I'm not an ID expert but I did flip through basslets, dottybacks & hawkfish by Scott W. Micheal before replying.

While the picture doesn't exactly match it does mention their secretive nature and that "some specimens" the dorsal and anal fin are bright red or orange. Which is the one pictured. The size 2" and secretive nature also make it likely this is a match. 

Do you remember where the live rock came from? That might help narrow it down, it's also possible that this is a new species. The information I'm giving for instance is from a book published in 2004. 

Have you posted this on reef2reef or reefcentral? someone with more expertise may be able to positively ID. If you don't have the book I can type out the small section on the Belonepterygion genus if you'd like.


----------



## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Thanks Corpusse! I did post on Reef Central and comments have confirmed the long finned basslet ID.
I have no idea when this fish could have come into my system. The only rock I had put into the tank was purchased when we set the tank up 4.5 years ago. At the time, it was very alive (we had many mantis shrimp hitchhikers) and I do think the rock was Indo. So it may be possible that the fish was in the tank right from day 1, which is crazy, cause the rock was brought in before we cycled the tank and would have been freezing cold.
I'm thinking it is more likely that the fish was a hitchhiker with a coral colony, but that is equally bizarre, because it would have survived Coral dip. And even if it came in on a colony, I can't recall when the last time I brought a colony into the system.

So either way, I think this guy is pretty fortunate to be alive.


----------



## nfa1987 (Jul 5, 2016)

Really interesting ..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Here's the end of the story. For now. I have confirmed this is a female long finned basslet. Today I moved her to my nps tank, where I hope she will be very happy. It only took me an hour to find her even though I knew she was in the tank. She wasn't very happy.




































This is the back of the tank with the glass covered in copepods, and those are sun corals that have spawned, not aptasia! The black basslet found a very small hole and doesn't look like she's in a hurry to move.
Hardy fish, considering what she's been through. Hopefully her new digs are a step up.


----------



## characinfan (Dec 24, 2008)

Very interesting story. Thanks for sharing. (I also like how pissed off she looks in the photo where she's flaring her dorsal fin. Beautiful fish!)


----------



## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

characinfan said:


> Very interesting story. Thanks for sharing. (I also like how pissed off she looks in the photo where she's flaring her dorsal fin. Beautiful fish!)


I was trying to catch a photo of her in the net (try doing that yourself with an iPad in one hand and the net in the other hand). She went pale and all killer convict stripey. Just like all the photos of the male long finned basslets. It was really cool.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering. I've never seen these fish for sale in a Toronto LFS, and I can't find any for sale on line right now, but Live Aquaria has them listed as out of stock and their price is under 50.00 USD.

So unusual fish, not common in the trade, but not really expensive.


----------



## corpusse (Jan 3, 2011)

Probably the most interesting hitchhiker story since that Octopus hitchhiker 10 years ago on AP. 

Hope you get to see her again sometime.


----------



## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Update on my hitchhiker fish.
She’s happily thriving in my nps tank. I haven’t seen her since last October until this weekend when she slithered out around a rock to grab a piece of food and then quickly disappeared into another hole in the back.
Her colour is a lot lighter, almost white with black now, but she’s fat and healthy. I keep watching for her at night, but this was the first sighting.
Positive ID is Long Finned Basslet, or Barred Fin Basslet. Belonepterygion fasciolatum

Nice to know she’s doing well, easy to forget she’s in the tank.


----------

