#plecos

Bunny pleco?

So, I was cleaning out peafowl eggs for art/painting and I accidentally cracked the bottom of one irreparably. I sometimes will clean and dry some shell to put into the shrimp/snail tank (the snails need calcium to make their shells strong), so I figured heck. I cracked the bottom a little wider so I could clean the whole inside, and put it in there for them. Enrichment!

Well, Wolfe, my longfin bristlenose pleco, has decided it's For Her*, which comes with the hilarious side effect of making this eggshell look like it's hatching into some small eldritch horror, an effect not lessened by the fact that when she moves, her tail twitches and the shell wobbles, OR by the fact that she lives in my Eldritch Horrors tank.

She is such a delight.

Oh, wow, that's so hard to answer

Let's start with the fish I have, I'm not sure I have a favorite, so much as there are fish that I would absolutely recommend and/or buy myself again

Goldfish - super intelligent, unpredictable murder machines 7/10, what am I even supposed to do with this creature

Gold Dust Mollies - stressed like me, hide a lot, we didn't run their bubbler for two weeks because we were waiting for a hookup to run the starter baby tank and the bubbler at the same time, it came, I turned on the bubbler, and traumatized them for over a month, not sure how my partner puts up with me. Also, live births. 3/10, master level fish, harder than they seem at first glance, worth it if you put in the time

Zebra Danios (short fin) - so speedy fast, racing all the time, so many wiggles, Java moss is a must, watch them wiggle wiggle wiggle so fast, interactive, not as pretty as some other fish, but their little front fins make me happy, lays eggs, 9/10, highly recommend

Cardinal Tetras - calm little puppies, very colorful, low maintenance, their little mouths, and when they look at you from the front, such silly little eyes, kind of boring though, lays eggs, 8/10, highly recommend

Corydora - give me a tank with just 100 of these, love them, adorable, so fast, they breathe air so they go racing to the top, and they're so fast they make a bloop, and then go racing back down. They flirt by vibrating at each other. Lays eggs. 10/10 for constant amusement, 6/10 for difficulty, they poison themselves when stressed, good luck getting them home in one piece, my recommendation: buy at least 3 at once (MUST have at least 6 for a healthy group, when I say 3, I mean your replacements after you fuck up the first time, buy only 1 or 2 and you're almost guaranteed to lose them as well, just hold off and wait until you need 3, even if your group size is 4 or 5), either have the fish store wrap their bag in dark paper towel, or bring one yourself.

Also, they blink, and it's creepy, this knocks another two points off, 4/10, advanced fish

Fun story, they sit very cutely on anything, and i pulled out my phone to take a video, and after several minutes, it stopped being cute and started being worrying, and then...

PLECO! We have 2, a female albino bushy nose, named Happy Andy, and a miserable male clown named Angry Gary. Don't look online to see what they're going to be like. No pleco is like another, and you literally have no idea what you're going to get until it's in your tank and settled. There's a 90% chance you'll never see your pleco. You will always worry about whether it's alive. If it's a tank of just small fish, he is, I promise, leave it alone. When you do see them, it'll make your heart very happy. They poop. A lot. I can't state that enough. 7/10, would still recommend.

Betta - hardy, a classic, gorgeous, save them from the cups. You can only have 1 in a tank. No, don't get the little 3 tanks together separated by glass, they can smell and see each other and it's stressful for them. Please don't give them less than a 10 gallon ): you most likely can't keep anything with them, but you can increase your chances of a peaceful community tank by putting in your peaceful fish first, and then adding the betta. Remember to only keep very FAST fish with your betta, like tetras. Super easy to care for, but will give you a lot of stress for no reason. 8/10, they lose a point for such limited tank mates. Highly recommend.

Mystery guppy - magically appeared in my male betta tank, will update when I figure out what it is. 7/10 mystery baby experience. I'm enjoying myself.

Now, the fish I WANT

I can really only go by other lists, so I think, right now, the fish I'm obsessed with is the boeseman's rainbowfish.

They get about 10cm, and you need at least 6 of them, so you need a big boy tank for sure. They're apparently quite hardy, peaceful, and longlived (8 years, if you're lucky!!). Their mouth is small, so they can be kept with a variety of tank mates. They're apparently really interesting to watch swim, because they school.

I think that'll be my next goal.

I finally got a pic of them together! Baby mama and baby daddy plecos. Right now the male just finished guarding their third batch of eggs.