In August 2005, I came home to the sound of running water and discovered a tank chock full with eight large fish, two pacu, 4 large oscars and 2 12"+ plecos). This was my husband's biggest yard sale find ever. He took our largest pots and put each fish in a pot. The pacu had to be 15". One pacu jumped out of his pot which was sitting on the tailgate of hubby's '63 chevy pickup truck. He groveled in the gravel for a while, was picked up, dusted off and placed back in his pot. Once home, hubby scoured the grossly dirty tank, gravel and filter (one HOB). He then filled the tank with chlorinated water and put the eight fish back into their now "clean" home. We got online that night to figure out which were the pacu and which were the oscars. We were totally ignorant newbies and made many mistakes until we learned the basics of fishkeeping. Sadly, one of the oscars, Sam, died from HITH. It's a wonder we didn't have more fatalities, because it took a awhile before I understood the nitrogen cycle. The water is kept in pristine condition with excellent parameters. We keep a log of every test performed. I joined five different fish forums to learn about our fish and to get help setting up our big tank. The only answers we got about filtration was that we needed a lot and that we could never have too much. We have come a very long way since August 2005.
Even though we didn't get to raise them from babies, our rescued adopted fish have become a beloved and integral part of our family. We take our commitment to them seriously. Here's a couple more pics. (I'm disgusted that I can't figure out my new camera--it even has an aquarium mode, but I can't find it--too many bells and whistles--and the 168 page book doesn't even have an explanation for the the abreviations).so the pics aren't great
Big Daddy
Me First
Fish Convention
Move Over
but i remenber when they were like this...about 8 years ago 
