This week I was in the right place at the right time. I visited my friendly neighborhood pet shop, Carroll's Pets, and they told me they had received a shipment of large plecostomus just a few days earlier. While scooping them out of the bag to add them to their tanks, Shelli discovered a tiny baby albino pleco. It is not much larger than my fingernail.
Most of my tanks contain angelfish, which would make a quick meal out of the little fella. So I brought him home to my neon tetra tank, where the largest residents are corydoras, who get along with everybody. There are plenty of places for the little guy to hide out - in a castle, in a grassy "pod", and amongst plants.
This morning, I found him bright and early eating the algae off the side of the tank.
I think I'll name him Steven Tylerfish. Mick Jaggerfish is my largest pleco.
We don't know what variety of pleco Steven is. He might remain small or he could be 15 inches or larger. If he outgrows the neon tank, I can always introduce him to one of my larger angelfish tanks, which would accommodate a pleco of almost any size.
