Thursday, January 22, 2015

Baby Albino Pleco

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.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Albino Corydoras

This morning when I fed my fish, I found this albino corydoras watching me from a hole in a tree trunk.

Corydoras get along with all fish. They are like little Merry Maids swimming around the bottom of the tank, sweeping up the food that others missed. I have about 20 corydoras in each of my community tanks. The more you have in a tank, the better they like it. They come in a variety of colors. I currently have four albino corys like the one shown here.

Barely visible in the picture is another corydoras in the lower left corner. He is a green cory.