Pleco Has A New Home

The Plecostomus catfish has a new home now. 

After the first round of emails on the Craiglist offer, I was pretty discouraged.  The first person to respond said he would be over that night after work, then the 2nd night because he needed his big net and a plastic container for transport, then... nothing.  The 2nd person also failed to reply a 2nd time after expressing great interest.  The 3rd and 4th never replied when I asked if they were still interested.

 And then there were the 4 pathetically obvious spam emails.  The grammar was so stilted that it was obvious they weren't local.  Forgive me for saying "typical bad chinese spammer translations".  But seriously, they mentioned how much their children wanted a sweet cuddly pet, asked if it had its shots, etc, as if it was a mammal pet. 

So I posted a new offer on craigslist and received two emails.  The first wrote like pet owners do, describing the large 210 gallon heated aquarium, the few large fish, the outside ponds and that there were only goldfish in the aquarium because they hate to leave them outside for the winter, the 2 dogs and 6 cats.  She asked if she could steal enough water that the pleco was used to so that she could slowly add her aquarium water to a cooler to adjust it to any pH differences, etc.  Hallmarks of a knowledgeable aquariast...

The 2nd person sent a picture of what was obviously an "for sale" empty pet store aquarium (in Dallas, based on the displays around it).  I didn't even reply to THAT one, LOL!  And there were more of the spammer hoax offers.

So the 1st person came by Saturday afternoon.  I was comfortable with her the moment I saw her.  She was wearing boots, twill workpants and an old parka, and asked if she was going to scare the kitties before she came in the house.  She apologized to the pleco for scaring it before she went in with her large net, moved the net slowly, joked when I sucked a bit of water in my mouth starting the siphon, and talked to it as she put it in the cooler of my aquarium water.  All good signs.

I think my pleco will have a much better time in her larger aquarium...

Today, I filled a smaller aquarium with some of the existing water and moved all the plants to a bucket and the small fish to the smaller aquarium so that I can clean the large one thoroughly.  I'll add an extra 1" of aquarium gravel to set the plants in better, add new (aged) water, and set the smaller fish bak in after a couple days.

And then I'll go buy a young 1.5" pleco!