Goodbye little buddy

I never named him. I never named her.. I couldn't tell if it was a he or a her. I would have no idea how to tell. Back in 96 or 97 I decided to put a small fishpond in and stock it with koi and goldfish. Problems. Fish kept vanishing and there were pond issues, oxygenation, etc. Long and short I also picked up an aquarium and learned about keeping fish. Algae in the tank. The book suggested Pleco fish. So I bought 3 of them.

In the beginning they were so small, only an inch or so in length, I had to put a cage guard over the half inch diameter intake pipe for the water filter least they be sucked up inside. They grew, oh my they grew. One by one the goldfish began to die. Then a Pleco died. Snails placed in the tank were also soon dead. Eaten so that just the shell remained.I didn't get it at first. It wasn't until the day I noticed tiny holes oozing blood in the dead gold fish and the bigger Koi I realized the Pleco fish were homicidal. Maybe a dozen fish had to die before I realized that.

For about 3 months there were just the two Plecos in the tank. Around the same time frame I caught herons plucking gold fish from my pond and I gave up on feeding the herons and raccoons (also photographed fishing for their meals at night).

When the Plecos were about 6 inches long and too big for the filter intake pipe, one morning I heard a commotion in the tank and before I could intercede one Pleco was dying on the tank bottom bleeding from a half dozen wounds. The survivor unconcerned was nibbling on a plant. In all the Pleco had killed 9 tank mates of several species including a 10 inch Koi. I stopped buying fish for the obviously homicidal Pleco to stab to death with it's side fins.

Back when I was still buying goldfish in my woods I had found a little blue eyed black, kitten, Dust Bunny, which I adopted. Within a few weeks DB had discovered the fish tank and was fascinated by it. She would lay or sit for hours watching it and nothing less than the sound of a can of cat food opening could lure her away. With hindsight I realized she had detected what was happening weeks before I did and the fascination was the fascination a lion feels watching a wolf hunt or vis versa. One efficient killer recognizing another. Sometimes I would put a small piece of hamburger in the tank with the herbivorous Pleco and always within minutes the hamburger would be gone. Dust Bunny used to watch those feeding and purr when the Pleco would descend upon the meat. For more than a decade DB could be seen just laying quietly watching the Pleco. Never did she try to catch or harm it. She was just fascinated by it.

When I changed the water in the fish tank DB would ask to be picked up and she would put her nose against the water and the Pleco would surface his nose and touch her nose. Always DB would look amazed and pleased. Purring at the touch was not unusual. I changed the water every two weeks and for the next 15 years each time DB would come to be picked up and the fish and DB would touch noses. It was a ritual. For about 14 years DB's nose was the only physical contact with another living thing the Plelco had. On the day DB was put down (cancer) there was one last nose touch and just like every time before total amazement and pleasure filled her eyes at the touch of the noses. That sad day in 2013 was the last time my Pleco had contact with another living creature.