Plecky the Plecostomus

It started as a project to entertain the cats, this aquarium.  15 gallons, which in the fish world is small potatoes; in the world of landlords, it means renter's insurance which you should have anyways.  There was an angelfish and a variety of platies, a colorful, prolific breeder fish that soon filled the small tank with bodies of all hues.  Lovely, really; soothing to watch, but there were too many fish and so, my son upgraded me to a twenty gallon tank with a piece of warped tree branch and black sand, populated it with some kind of shrimp besides the fish, and stuck in some plants.  It was beautiful, hypnotic.  The fish were enchanted as well by the surroundings and soon populated the extra five gallons with more platies.

I couldn't give them away, no one else had tropical fish and if I took them to the fish store, they would be used as feeders.  So began this minor cat diversion; it turned into a National Geographic special and guess what happened next.  Yup, I upsized again, but this was sort of a gift of the universe thing, or so I told my gullible self.  The school I work at was getting rid of an aquarium stand, a stand that had once held a 52 gallon hex-front tank that had developed a leak.  The stand was there, free, so of course I grabbed it.

The fish store had started to be happy to see me, and gave me a  deal on exactly the tank that fit the stand; of course, that meant it had to be outfitted with filters, powerheads, gravel, and a couple of rocks for ambience.   But it looked terrific, and the floor held up under the pressure of weight, for one gallon weighs 8.34 pounds; multiplied by 52 equals 433.68 pounds.  Almost a quarter of a ton.  Thank goodness this building is made of cement slabs.   Gunk then began to grow on the side of the glass, so I bought snails.  El Mistake.

They made baby snails, lots and lots of baby snails.  Snail eggs are tough to scrape off the sides, and what kills them would cause a mass extinction of everything, which was not what I wanted.  But there is a species of fish called a clown loach which eats snails, at $10 a pop.  They like to swim in schools, to purchase one would cause it psychological confusion so I came home with three.  The fish store gave me a coupon for goldfish.  These pretty little loaches ate every snail in the park within a week, then looked for more.  I came home with frozen brine shrimp; you know them as sea monkeys.  The loaches grew and the gunk on the plate glass returned; what you need next lady, is a plecostomus.  $3.50.  It'll clean your glass.

I looked at this fish, barely two inches, and figured there would be lots of room for him in the tank, his little sucker mouth hung onto the side, his crescent-shaped omega eyes blinked when he would pull them into his head.  Very primitive looking, as if he knew the time before the dinosaurs.  No fish scales, he was armored with plates and appeared to belong in a Devonian museum exhibit.   Okay, fish, let's see what you can do.  The loaches had begun dining on the platies till the population became manageable, the snails were gone, and all I needed was the glass to have less algae.

He was friendly, and would come up to the top of the water to have his nose rubbed, all I had to do was call him.  And look, he's growing.  Fish sites said they eat fruits, this species originated in South America in mangrove swamps, and they jump.  I bought zucchini (yes), honeydews (yes), cucumbers (no), and watermelon (yes, most of the time).  I anchored the food with a small stainless steel spoon after discovering that silver is an antibacterial and killed all the good bacteria which kept the tank clean and the fish happy.

All the nutrition made this fish grow and grow.  Now I worried about him jumping out of the tank as I would hear the cover bang in the night; there are now rocks on top.  As he reached ten inches, more rocks were recruited; some mornings his nose would be sore.

Today I brought home a few of the guppies from my class to live in the big tank over Thanksgiving vacation, figuring they would have a better chance here if they all weren't squooshed into the small tank in my class.  This is just lovely to the pleco, who thinks dinner arrived a day early.   Like a shark, he's positioned himself under the small group and bam!  Jumps.  The cover rattles when he hits it, and since he has now grown to fifteen inches, I just piled more rocks atop.  Have to go rescue guppies, they can sit inside a plastic container for the night, poor things.  I'll find some fake plastic seaweed, there's some in the cabinet under the aquarium stand, so they can hide.  It will work.

One of my little boys who is in the after school program was waiting in the class for it to start; he was looking out the window and called to the girl who was waiting for them, both six years old.  "Look, look," he called to her, "Come here and look!"  I thought he was watching the buses load and saw a friend.  She went over to the window, and he made room for her to see.

"Look," he said, "isn't it beautiful?  The snow is covering the branches of the trees, it's beautiful."

A six year old boy not only commenting on the glory of a scene, but also having a desire to share it with his classmate.  Of course I was turned to mush.  This kid is not in a good place at the moment because of family crises, but he was able to be enchanted by the lacy branches heavy with winter.  I was so happy for him.

The season has settled in, and the children were wild to see the snow.  It's the best to play tackle football in, they tell me, because when you fall the soft snow cushions the impact.  They will be able to run and jump themselves, and carelessly let themselves flop into the blanket of white.  It will be years before someone tries to put rocks on top of their exuberance, to contain them under the weight of decorum.

What do you hear in the night?  What dreams and visions appear?  Stories, they are all stories brought forward from the depths of memory and of hope, of beauty and of pure winter snow.  You do so much good for this world.  I can just tell.