Ah! YWG stuck in overflow!

Sorry about the little fella, I love my YWG to pieces. Thankfully he stays in his rock work playing around with his tunnels. Unfortunately, that is how I lost my Pistol Shrimp Hope you get a new one who will stay in his/hers rock work too.

 

Ok, so I just HAVE to bring this thread back from the dead. I replaced this YWG with a bigger one not long after this one decided to live/die in the overflow. Within a week the new YWG was stuck in the overflow... BOOO! I tried for days to get the new one out and finally gave up and decided it was not meant to be. So.. MONTHS later, 10 months or so, I was doing some maintenance and saw that the YWG was still alive in the overflow. So, I figured if he could live that long, I could do him a favor and put him back in the tank. Finally, I netted him! It was really hard and I kept seeing his reflection and thinking... OMG there are 2 of them in there. After I got him out, I didn't see another one in there, figured the reflection was playing tricks on me... This YWG has been doing great for years now and got big, fat, gray and striped.

Ok, so fast-forward to 2 nights ago. I was up in the middle of the night checking out the "night life" of my tank, when I saw what I thought was my YWG on the sand bed out of her burrow. She was tiny and practically WHITE. I thought uh-oh, YWG is sick. I have a busy two year old and my tank has been a bit neglected, so I didn't think much of it. Yesterday, with the lights on, I went looking for my YWG... and there were TWO OF THEM!!! The big fat, gray one was there, fat as usual. Sharing her burrow was a much smaller, more yellow YWG. I thought I was hallucinating! That little fish must have been living in my overflow for the last 4 years. He must have finally jumped back into the tank successfully. What I thought was his "tail" in the overflow must not have been correct. I now have 2 YWG living in the same burrow. I have noticed the female is much more "picky" about snails invading the burrow now. She picks them up in her mouth and promptly relocates them. I guess life, and love, finds a way Heres a crappy iPhone pic, you can really only see them if I keep it in B&W. Large female in the bottom right of screen.

 

Thats awesome!!
Is there any possible way they can be getting into the overflow besides jumping??

 

Wow! What a crazy story!! Devious little buggers, those YWGs.

 

When they were smaller, they could fit between the teeth of my overflow. Now they would really have to try. I witnessed both do it, it was when they were still new to the tank and hadn't established their burrows.
My mind is blown every time I watch them now. They r definitely a pair, they have been inseparable since the smaller (male I presume since he's also more yellow) jumped back into the tank from the overflow. I'm impressed that he made it into the tank instead of on the floor. Screen covers the back of most of my canopy, except where the overflow is, there I just have eggcrate. So, now I have Mr & Mrs GrumpyGills

 

+1^ The first night I had my diamond back he jumped into my overflow. I pulled the standpipe and let him take a ride into the sock. I didnt' have any trouble at all placing my standpipe back in and the little feller has never jumped in there again.

 

love that they are sharing

 

That's an awesome story! Glad there doing well