Two things happened in my tank, one is new and has me worried, the other old and has me puzzled.

The first thing is my rock bass (a 5 inch fish) vanished. I looked everywhere except inside the hollow stump and cannot see him. Which is odd as he is a BIG fish. He's been a bit shy since I added the giant bluegill. But today his favorite spot was teken over by my yellow perch and the rock bass is nowhere to be found.

The other issue puzzles me. I have 3 bullheads in my tank, one always hides and I almost never see it. The other two puzzle me, they are always together. I even caught them together in a minnow trap. If one moves the other always follows. This puzzles me, are bullhead solitary (like my hiding loner) or social (like my two who always hang together).

Two things happened in my tank, one is new and has me worried, the other old and has me puzzled.

The first thing is my rock bass (a 5 inch fish) vanished. I looked everywhere except inside the hollow stump and cannot see him. Which is odd as he is a BIG fish. He's been a bit shy since I added the giant bluegill. But today his favorite spot was teken over by my yellow perch and the rock bass is nowhere to be found.

The other issue puzzles me. I have 3 bullheads in my tank, one always hides and I almost never see it. The other two puzzle me, they are always together. I even caught them together in a minnow trap. If one moves the other always follows. This puzzles me, are bullhead solitary (like my hiding loner) or social (like my two who always hang together).

While diving I have found rock bass hiding inside hollowed out areas of sunken logs and root wads. Sometimes it appeared they would have had to really squeeze themselves through the openings to get inside, so I would bet your rock bass is in the hollow stump if that is at all possible. Otherwise, do you have a cat?
What size are the bullheads, and are they all the same species? When young they often form large dense schools. Maybe you've got 2 of one species still wanting to school, but the third is a different species or is older and won't school with them.

Otherwise, do you have a cat?
What size are the bullheads, and are they all the same species? When young they often form large dense schools. Maybe you've got 2 of one species still wanting to school, but the third is a different species or is older and won't school with them.

I have a cat but i keep the door to my room closed since i had a longnose dace vanish and a tesselate get mauled in the same day.

As for the bullhead, all are browns and about 4-5 inches long.

I have 3 bullheads in my tank, one always hides and I almost never see it. The other two puzzle me, they are always together. I even caught them together in a minnow trap. If one moves the other always follows. This puzzles me, are bullhead solitary (like my hiding loner) or social (like my two who always hang together).

I had 3 brown bullheads a few years ago that often stuck very close to each other, even resting on top of each other lots of the time. I collected them at a bit over 1", and they were still doing it at maybe 3" or so.

Two things happened in my tank, one is new and has me worried, the other old and has me puzzled.

The first thing is my rock bass (a 5 inch fish) vanished. I looked everywhere except inside the hollow stump and cannot see him. Which is odd as he is a BIG fish. He's been a bit shy since I added the giant bluegill. But today his favorite spot was teken over by my yellow perch and the rock bass is nowhere to be found.

The other issue puzzles me. I have 3 bullheads in my tank, one always hides and I almost never see it. The other two puzzle me, they are always together. I even caught them together in a minnow trap. If one moves the other always follows. This puzzles me, are bullhead solitary (like my hiding loner) or social (like my two who always hang together).

I dont have much advice to offer you as far as the rock bass goes. Can you easily remove the hollow stump and simply check if he is hiding inside it without injuring the rock bass?

I have kept all three species of Bullhead that are native to my area, Black, Brown, and Yellow. When small, especially in the confines of an aquaruim, most of the specimens I have had stayed very close together. They would hide under logs together, jam into caves, and stack themselves up in plants. Of course, you will always have some of them that will be "loners" even when small, but in groups they are normally very gregarious. In my experience as they get larger they gradually reduce this tendacy and become more and more solitary. When they get to approximately 8'' they become rather aggressive to one another and require separate hiding places or so has been the tendacy of the ones I have kept. No hard and fast rules but as they age I think they become more territorial and when small the schooling instinct is strong.

it's annoying, i did a big water change and moved the fake stump around and i still cannot see my rock bass, it's like it vanished.

Umm... did you check the floor behind the tank?

Umm... did you check the floor behind the tank?

I found him.

dead, under the fake log in a shaded spot, right next to where i focused most of my searching the other day. This annoys me, he is the fish I was most attached to as I got him as a tiny 3 inch runt barely big enough to bite a hook and raised him to double that size.

I almost want to blame my bluegill since all my sunfish changed their behavior some once the giant competitor appeared. (my rock bass stopped surface feeding and hid in his corner alot more).

This upsets me, he was my favorite. I grew him to twice his starting size. I got him when i was inexperienced with fish keeping and all my fish were small, and as my experiences grew so did my fish. I actually grew attached to him, most of the pets in my life (dogs and cats, etc.) were my family's pets that i had no say in getting, he was mine. Also unlike my other fish as I said he grew with me, as i went from novice to experienced fish keeper he went from novice to experienced fish.

Edited by FirstChAoS, 31 March 2010 - 02:00 AM.

I found him.

dead, under the fake log in a shaded spot, right next to where i focused most of my searching the other day. This annoys me, he is the fish I was most attached to as I got him as a tiny 3 inch runt barely big enough to bite a hook and raised him to double that size.

I almost want to blame my bluegill since all my sunfish changed their behavior some once the giant competitor appeared. (my rock bass stopped surface feeding and hid in his corner alot more).

This upsets me, he was my favorite. I grew him to twice his starting size. I got him when i was inexperienced with fish keeping and all my fish were small, and as my experiences grew so did my fish. I actually grew attached to him, most of the pets in my life (dogs and cats, etc.) were my family's pets that i had no say in getting, he was mine. Also unlike my other fish as I said he grew with me, as i went from novice to experienced fish keeper he went from novice to experienced fish.

Too bad you're not closer....I have more Rock Bass than one can count. Every evening, they back themselves up to the rocks along the river bank in front of my home and it is a simple matter of scooping them up. There are fish from 3/4" on up pretty much anywhere you point your flashlight.