And the soap opera starts

So we have this lovely new tropical 20gal fish tank where everything is happy and there is no violence and killing like in the turtle/oscar tank..

dun dun dun-------so we thought.

I was home alone that night, and I heard a loud splashing and a banging noise. So i go over and investigate.. my giant pleco which is about 8" long is trying its hardest to get out through the filter. WHAT? yes.. out through the waterfall part of the filter. So i pushed in back down into the tank and went on my way to bed.

I wake up the next morning and there is no giant pleco in the tank. I was stunned. So i looked all around the tank, behind the tank, on the sides of the tank, everywhere within what i thought was the reach of a flopping fish. I gave up and continued on my way to get ready for work. I noticed that my cats (who arent much larger than this fish) are looking very intently at this one corner of the couch. The same couch that is on the other side of the living room. I got on my hands and knees and low and behold there is the giant pleco all sad and dried up all the way under the couch.

Let me put this simply - the pleco jumped out of the tank, walked across the living room, and crawled under the couch.

I have read online that these fish are known to crawl out of tanks and can live out of water for hours. So i put the fish in a bucked of warm water and hoped i would have the miraculous revival. But no luck. It just sat in there all sad looking and shriveled.

The only thing that went through my head was my cats. This giant flopping prehistoric looking creature making a scene flopping aross the livinging room and my little cats probably cusious as hell but also scared to death of this thing.



I mean, look at this thing. It would scare the crap out of any kitten. I just visioned thier cute little heads looking down at this thing not knowing what the heck to think of it. funny....

anyways- i know the cats didn't touch him cause there wasnt a scratch on him and again, he made it all the way across the room without the cats so much as swatting at him. Anyways.. we replaced him with another slightly smaller and less suicidal pleco who seems very happy.. (seems being the key word - you never know what lays under the surface in this tank)
so this was the first drama of the tropical tank.. there are many more to come i can promise you that.