Stumpy's 2-1/2 Aquarium Photos
He's an Electric Yellow Labidochromis Caerelus Cichlid. He's well over a year old and tiny as compared to his siblings who have all long since gone to the LFS for sale.
Stumpy was born grossly deformed and we really didn't think he would last out that same week. He looks sort of like a fish head who is missing most of his body.
You might think his gnarled little body is grotesque or disgusting, but to us he's absolutely precious and we just love him to death.
We're a couple of major saps and always root for the underdog. Most aquarists immediately destroy deformed or undesirable fry, but we believe they have just as much a right to live as any other creature and we'll give them that chance. Stumpy's a trooper and he's beaten all the odds.
He not only didn't expire that first week, but he learned to swim using only his pecs and while he might do a couple of somersaults along the way, he manages to get where he's going just fine thank you. He did well enough to fight for his share of food with 21 perfect siblings zipping all around him.
His 2-1/2 gallon tank sits on one of the living room tables and usually also houses a few fry of various species as company for Stumpy. We tried putting him in a 5-1/2, but he seems to prefer his 2-1/2 so he's back there to stay.
Click on a thumbnail image to display the full sized photo with text in a separate window.
Photos 1 through 4 of 4 total
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Overview of Stumpy's tank. Because it is a 15 second time exposure you can see three Stumpy ghosts at lower middle. For another view from before it was Stumpy's, Check Here Canon EOS D30 28-300mm at 181mm, 15 secs f32, ISO 100 12/15/2002 15:28:12 - 950x621 JPEG (Original 2160x1440 1944KB) img_4025.jpg   109110 bytes |
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Stumpy1_12-06-02.jpg (30266 bytes) Stumpy1_12-06-02.jpg   30266 bytes |
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Stumpy2_12-06-02.jpg (29374 bytes) Stumpy2_12-06-02.jpg   29374 bytes |
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Stumpy3_12-15-02.jpg (60049 bytes) Stumpy3_12-15-02.jpg   60049 bytes |
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