The Lesson of the Fish Tank

We have a 40 gallon fish tank. Victor gave it to me for our First Year Anniversary last Spring. I love it. There are about 36 fish in it and they are very cool to watch. We have 4 Tiger Barbs, 3 red tails, 3 striped Danioes, 3 neon Danios, a whole bunch of neon tetras, and 2 large (3") Gourami, one is orange the other blue. They are the bullies of their world, picking on each other and anyone else that gets in their way. We also have 3 guppies, one is female, the others are male. One of the males was beautiful, with a bright decorative, wavy yellow tail. But he has been missing and Brooke and I were sure he was eaten. We couldn't find him for weeks. Then one morning we finally found him quivering and shaking under a shell. He stayed under there for another week, just eating whatever food floated near his hideout. We noticed that his beautiful tail is almost gone. Someone chewed on it! But he has persevered! Now, he is fine and brave and tough. He is swimming with the rest, even though his tail is bedraggled, and he is being bold because he healed and survived. By-the-way, the female guppy looks pregnant.

This next picture is of two of the UGLIEST fish in our tank. In the green stone is a large dark, algae eater. We have two of them and they have plenty of algae to eat so they are getting huge! In the front left you will see another ugly fish... a white catfish. He lives on the bottom of the tank, eating old rotting food that the other fish in the tank let pass them by. As ugly as these two breeds are, they are so necessary in keeping our tank clean. Is there another lesson here?Yes, it looks like Nemo is sitting on a rock... but that is just a fake statue in the tank to inspire all the other fish that they, too, could someday be a movie star!