New Fish

In my household, other than people, we have a dog, a cat, and fish. Many, many fish. Numerous large tanks. You get the idea.

Among the fish that usually inhabit our tanks are plecostomus. These are algae eaters and otherwise cleaner-uppers, and can grow relatively large – easily a foot long or more in a good sized tank. They also can live a long time – our oldest, John, left our worldly waters a few years ago at the ripe old age of 22 years. John, incidentally, was named late in his life, and was bestowed his name in honor of my son-in-law. I’m not sure that John, the son-in-law, realized what an honor it really was to have this fish named after him.

A few years ago, we had a bristlenose plecostomus. These fish don’t get as large as the “regular” pleco, maybe 4 or 5 inches at most. They also get these bristly protrusions on their noses, hence their name (stating the obvious). She (I think – because her bristles were not large) is also no longer with us, and I had not adopted any new ones, until now.

I bought a DOZEN babies of these fish on AquaBid last week. They arrived, quite vigorous and healthy, and have been happily scraping the glass in my tank for the last few days. They are so sweet – the smallest is a little less than an inch long. I am looking forward to them growing up in our tanks.

In addition to raising fish, I make artisan lampwork beads in my home studio. See my website www.SpawnOfFlame.com.