My Big Black Pleco

In the year that I was born my father bought a 55 gallon fish tank.  He decided to raise guppies.  Along with the guppies he bought a very small Plecostomus, AKA a pleco.  It's also known as one of them "Sucker Fish" that gets rid of the algae on the side of your tank.  I ended up naming him, "Big Joe" as he was six inches long and much bigger than any of the guppies in the tank.

Big Joe lived to twelve years old.  That's not bad considering how much care was put into the tank.  Dad kind of gave up on it.  When I was old enough to really start taking care of the tank I cleaned it up, and changed the kind of fish we had in it.  That's when we bought, "Joe the 2nd."  We bought him at about two inches long.  He ended up growing to about six inches and then passed away.

Well, I'm a bit over forty years old now.  The last fourteen years (or more) we've had "Joe the 6th."  Honestly, I didn't expect that Joe would even make it in the tank.  The store employee didn't treat Joe all that gently.  First she didn't put in the a bag that was big enough.  You see, Joe was about six inches long when I bought him, and the bag she put him in wouldn't let him turn around.

So I said something to her about the bag not being big enough.  So she grabbed another bag, and went to put him in it.  Unfortunately, Joe fell out of the bag and into a small dish where they kept the brine shrimp.  The employee then grabbed Joe by the head, and chucked him into the much larger bag.  I thought to myself, "There's no way he's going to survive the night.  She had to of hurt him too much."

But the next morning I found him alive and well.  Joe the 6th actually grew to be my biggest pleco (of all the Joes.)  He was about seven inches.  That's when I read up on feeding him supplementary foods.  Even I figured there wasn't enough algae in the tank to feed him.  So I started adding shrimp pellets and algae wafers.  Everything in the tank loves the shrimp pellets so that worked out well.  Joe would end up snacking on the pellets and wafers.

 Little by little he started to grow.  But lately his growth has just taken off.  It seems he went from nine inches long to much larger.  One day he was hanging on the side of the tank.  I happened to have my tools with me for a project inside the house.  So I took my measuring tape out just to find how big he had gotten.

He had grown to exactly twelve inches.  That makes him the biggest pleco I've ever had by a whopping five inches.  Here is a photo of my giant angelfish Blackie Lawless (yes he's named after the lead singer of W.A.S.P.)

Here is a photo of Joe next to Blackie.

You can see just how big he has gotten.  The only real problem I've had is when Joe gets excited, swims too fast, and jumps out of the water.  He ends up hitting his head on the glass canopy.  I'll admit, it's scared the bejesus out of me a few times.

I've heard aquarium owners say they've had plecos live up to twenty years.  Now, Joe was already pretty big when I bought him.  I know he has to be around sixteen years of age at least.  I'll keep taking care of him as I want to him keep hanging around the tank.  I mean, look into those eyes.  He's kind of adorable, right?

Spring Cleaning For The Fish Tank

As all my friends know, I constantly remind them to clean their fish tanks on the 1st and the 15th of every month.  Which is strange because I don't think any of my friends have fish tanks?  But as sure as the sun come up in the morning, and goes down in the evening, I make sure my fish tank is clean.

I had noticed a problem the last time I was cleaning my fish tank.  It seems there was a lot of debris from my fake plants.  My pleco, Joe the 7th, had been chewing on them so long they were coming apart.  So it was time to buy some new fake plants.

Here's a tip a friend of mine shared.  Since aquarium plants sold in pet stores have a ridiculous markup, buy your plants at Michael's Arts and Crafts.  They have a wider selection, and are much cheaper.  Now, they aren't copies of underwater plants like you would find in pet shops, but some of them can pass very closely.

So not only did I throw out all the old plants, I gave my aquarium a heck of a cleaning.  I mean, I changed 40% of the water vs. the 20% I usually do.  I also gave the tank a good shaving.  As in, I took a straight razor blade, and shaved the algae off most of the tank's sides.

I've learned that since I have a bubble sprayer I have to shave my glass lid when I clean the tank.  Otherwise, there is too much algae buildup, and it cuts back on the amount of light that can come through.

So onto the photos.  Here are photos of the aquarium during the daytime.

These are the photos of the tank at the "Dusk" setting.  My light has about 20 settings, and this one is pretty trippy.  I put it on this setting at the end of the day/night, from 9PM to 10PM.

And this is the "Ocean Blue" Nighttime setting.

I have to say an aquarium can be an awesome thing.  But it depends how much time and money a person puts into it.  I want a clean environment for my fish so I put a fair amount of time into my aquarium.  And as you see it pays off.  Like Professor Moody said, "Constant vigilance!"

Restocking the Fish Tank: Angelfish Sunday

Today was the day I finally put some angelfish in the fish tank.  There is an independent pet store called Pet City that had the smaller marble angelfish in stock.  So a few were purchased, namely five of them.  Also purchased was some specialty food, aquarium salt, and a new Marineland jet sprayer.  Let's take a look at the pictures.

For clarity, the funny looking white things are the air bubbles shooting from the sprayer.  The angelfish are still schooling together.  Since they are in a new environment, they don't like separating that far from one another. 

Here's a short video clip that I took of the tank.

I'm glad I was able to get the angelfish while they were small.  That will give them plenty of time to grow.  Since they are young and small, they are getting along well with the danios.  Everyone is getting along nicely. 

The old Marineland jet sprayer finally bit the dust last week.  But honestly, it hadn't worked well in years.  I should have replaced it back then.  But the good news is I assembled it correctly, and it's working just fine in the fish tank.  It looks pretty, and I'm sure the fish are yelling, "BUBBLES!!!!"

I could put more fish in the tank, but I'm not sure what kind.  I think some glo-light tetras would get along well with everyone.  I could add some clown loaches since my last one passed away.  I'll get on the internet, and see what fish get along with angelfish.  I'll try to pick something that I haven't had before.