Kettles of Fish

We have a large aquarium in our living room. Its inhabitants include a smattering of smaller tropical fish, and three large goldfish, and two whopping albino catfish. It also included a huge (12") plecostomus (algae eater) until a few months ago; I think it died of old age.


Years ago I went to the aquarium store and bought two small (read: pinkie-sized) little white fish. There was no description on their aquarium, but by the looks of them, I assumed they were some small albino shark-or-other. Several years passed. These two little albino fish kept to themselves in the big aquarium, and not much notice was made of them. A couple of years ago, I bought some "pond pellets" on clearance, and began adding a bit of that to the daily aquarium food. Soon, the little albino fish grew. And grew. And grew. They are still growing. What came to our home aquarium as two-inch little unknowns have grown into 14+" channel catfish! (I asked a different aquarium store what I had...) All, I assume, because of a change in their diet!

The three large goldfish are products of a bait shop down by our lake. In addition to bait (which, by my definition means "minnows"), they also sell big goldfish. I bought them a few years ago for our outdoor grotto pond. I bring them into the living room aquarium each fall for winter. They seem to be growing, too, but not at the rate of the catfish.

Late this fall I had the brilliant idea to bring some water hyacinth from our outdoor goldfish pond in to winter-over in the living room aquarium, along with the three large goldfish. Big mistake. I have never had a problem with algae in this aquarium - until I brought these outdoor plants in and introduced them to the happy habitat in our living room. Within four weeks, I had quite an algae bloom going on.

Last night I decided that today was the day: empty the aquarium (120 gallons? I'm not sure), bleach, scrub, and make it a clean and clear conversation piece once again.

So. What does one do with giant catfish and goldfish for prolonged periods in a day?

I filled our bathtub and put them in it. That sure did look funny. I had planned to take a photograph of it, but through the day of siphoning, draining, scrubbing, re-filling, re-heating, and replacing fish, it did not happen.

But here are the happy campers this evening: