I was just remembering a time in the early nineties when my wife and I responded to a classified ad for two 26 gallon aquariums. They were complete, $20.00 each, but the buyer had to take them fish and all.
We called ahead and they told us they were guppy tanks and that they were pretty dirty, so we went and took a look. Two tanks, stands, everything there but they were filthy! If we looked at them real close we could just make out parts of the fancy guppies as they brushed against the glass.
We bought them and took them home. The next day, in the front yard, we started to clean the first tank by siphoning abou 3/4 of the water out. There were some plastic plants and other decorations in there, so my wife was going to reach in and take them out before netting as many guppies as she could; working in the dark, as it were, because the water was completely dark. Meanwhile I was in the bedroom in the back of the house setting up the stands...
The scream might as well have been right in my ear. No mere walls could block that scream. I ran like a desperate man through the house and out the door to find my wife staring down into the aquarium, puzzlement and alarm on her face.
"There's something in there!"
Carefully I felt around until I felt something rough. I placed my hand over it and it felt like I had grabbed a hot wire. It thrashed and I could make out a dorsal fin. The next time I grabbed it and held on, lifting it out.
It was a fourteen inch Plecostomus!
And in the second tank there was a twelve incher!
We called ahead and they told us they were guppy tanks and that they were pretty dirty, so we went and took a look. Two tanks, stands, everything there but they were filthy! If we looked at them real close we could just make out parts of the fancy guppies as they brushed against the glass.
We bought them and took them home. The next day, in the front yard, we started to clean the first tank by siphoning abou 3/4 of the water out. There were some plastic plants and other decorations in there, so my wife was going to reach in and take them out before netting as many guppies as she could; working in the dark, as it were, because the water was completely dark. Meanwhile I was in the bedroom in the back of the house setting up the stands...
The scream might as well have been right in my ear. No mere walls could block that scream. I ran like a desperate man through the house and out the door to find my wife staring down into the aquarium, puzzlement and alarm on her face.
"There's something in there!"
Carefully I felt around until I felt something rough. I placed my hand over it and it felt like I had grabbed a hot wire. It thrashed and I could make out a dorsal fin. The next time I grabbed it and held on, lifting it out.
It was a fourteen inch Plecostomus!
And in the second tank there was a twelve incher!
