I think my fish took a walk

There's a bit of mystery here at chez Wandering Cat - the mystery of the disappeared pleco.

As you may have seen, in addition to three cats, I also have some fish that I am quite enamoured of. I've mentioned the angel fish, but I have a rather mixed school in my tank.

When I was growing up, my Dad had a really cool hexagon tank that I loved. It was filled with guppies and danios and tetras, and always - one Plecostamus (those big ugly sucky fish for you non-fish people.)

When we were teens, and my brother was working, he bought his own fish tank (and I was so jealous because I wanted a tank too but couldn't afford one - probably because most of my money went to shoes...) and of course, he had a pleco - whom he named Jimi Hendrix.

When Dave and I started dating, I discovered Dave too was a fish enthusiast. Eventually, Dave gave me my own fish tank and Jimi came to live there. (Jimi actually lived a few other places in between, but that's a story for another day). Sadly, Jimi died a few years later of a heart attack - I watched it happen - it certainly looked like a heart attack.

Since then, I had a couple of plecos that died pretty quickly (a common occurrence with fish unfortunately), so I tried some Siamese Algae eaters and then Clown Loaches, (I still have the loaches). But last year, I decided I wanted another pleco - ugly as they are - I love plecos. So off we went to the fish store - they didn't have any of the normal cheap ($3) brown plecos, but they did have a neat black and white spotted pleco. He was a little higher than our usual price range ($11) for a fish, but I liked him, so Dave bought him for me anyway.

As he grew, I discoved he was a type of bristlenose pleco. He looked something like this (I regret not taking pictures)He had a huge tail that he would fan out like a Flamenco dancer's skirt, and he was always hanging off the side of the tank, or the plants.

Now, admittedly, I've been so busy lately, I've been a bad fish-mommy. I feed them, but I really haven't paid too much attention to them otherwise (fish are good like that - they don't take it personal).

However, last night, I decide that the plants (I have live plants - no cheesy plastic for my fish-babies) had taken over the tank and needed to be seriously weed-whacked. So I set to it.

And, as I got the tank back to an acceptable level of vegetation, I discovered the glaring absence of my pleco. I pulled all the plants out (don't worry, they were easily replanted) just incase he was hiding from all the yard-work.

Nope still no pleco. And bad fish-mommy that I am, I honestly can't remember how long it's been since I last saw him. He could have been missing for months! (I guess it's a good thing I don't have children...)

I think he took a walk. Unfortunately, plecos are known to do that. For unknown reasons, they will jump out of the tank (Dave had one who liked to jump into the filter). I looked all around the tank, but there's no body - and I think I know the reason why....
Doubly unfortunately for my pretty pleco - I have three cats . Three cats that happen to just love seafood. One in particular who likes to sit and watch the fish (old pic before I put in live plants)
I hope he tasted good....