An aquarium fish has survived seven months in a fish tank without being fed or cared for, since its owner is in police custody after being accused of killing two Chilean students and wounding three others.

When employees from Contractor’s Choice and members of the Summer Lake Homeowners Association walked into the vacant town house at Miramar Beach, Florida, they discovered what appears to be a plecostomus.

The fish was apparently overlooked when lawmen removed the other pets – fish and birds – from the home after the arrest of the pet owner Dannie Baker. The fish went unnoticed for so long because Baker’s home was closed to the homeowners association after the arrest.

“I was very upset because I thought the police had taken everything after Dannie’s arrest,” said Dianne Richmond, vice president of the homeowners association. “This poor fish has been in that boiling house with no air conditioning and nothing to eat for about seven months.”

The pleco was discovered by the fiancée of Contractor’s Choice owner, who noticed something moving in the tank and sprinkled some fish food in the water. This caused the pleco to swim out into the open to feed.

When the pleco was discovered, much of the water in its tank had evaporated and the remaining water had turned dark.

Josh Olis, an account manager at Contractor’s Choice, said he didn’t believe it when his boss told him a fish was still alive in the tank. After seeing it for himself, he and the owner refilled the tank with about 50 gallons of water. He said he will make sure the fish is fed for as long as the company is working in the home. The contractors have even given the fish a name – Theo.

“I think we’re going to accept him into the cleaning family for now,” Olis said. “He’s been living in that tank for so long, surviving off algae. I have so much respect for him, I had to name him.”

The employees at Contractor’s Choice are now looking for a permanent home for Theo.

“This poor fish has really worked for a new home,” Richmond said. “It’s a wonder he’s survived this.”

AC Comment

Although I certainly don’t recommend neglecting your plecos for seven months, I’m not very surprised that Theo was alive and kicking when they found him. Many of the catfish species commonly referred to as plecos are algae-eaters (especially when young), so if there was any light coming into the room, Theo probably had some food to eat since nobody was there scrubbing away the algae. It all comes down to how large the tank is; a big tank may generate enough algae to keep a pleco alive (albeit hungry and malnourished) for several months.

Also, the natural habitat of plecos is Central and South America, so living without air conditioning in Florida is probably not something that bothered Theo much, especially if the aquarium was placed in a location where it was sheltered from sunlight during the harshest hours of the day.

Evaporation on the other hand, that is a real threat. The build up of waste in the water was probably tolerated by Theo since the progress was slow and gradual, but eventually ending up with hardly any water due to evaporation would naturally have killed him.

Last but not least, a word of caution. Although the employees of Contractor’s Choice acted admirably and should be applauded for taking such an interested in an abandoned fish, giving Theo 50 gallons of new water was actually quite risky since such a rapid change of water quality (and probably also temperature) can be lethal to fish – especially if the tap water is also heavily chlorinated. (But this is naturally impossible to know unless you’re an aquarist so I don’t mean to sound condescending here.) If you find a neglected fish, the safest method is to gradually change water quality and temperature until conditions are ideal for that particular species.

Many of us may think about clown fish as commonly found reef fish but the fact is that many clownfish species might becoming endangered in some areas such as of the coast of Australia at least if we should believe Dr Billy Sinclair, University of Cumbria.. A big culprit is the aquarium trade. Just five years ago there were still plenty of clownfish out there but than come the very popular movie finding Nemo from pixar. The movie which was a success in theatres and have sold over 40 million DVDs created an instant demand for clown fish species looking like Nemo. (like the Percula clownfish) Even though a lot of clownfish is being bred in captivity each year the captive bred stock couldn’t satisfy the demand and therefore over-harvesting of wild specimens became a reality. Many (most) marine biologists agree with the effect the movie has created.

A problem is that people who buy them don’t know how to manage a marine aquarium and just set one up like they would a goldfish bowl. This often leads to death of the fish as the owners don’t know how to care for them or a saltwater tank.

Clownfish sales have gone up eight-fold since the movie was released and not only biologist like Dr Billy Sinclair see a decline in the wild populations. Divers also reports how much rarer it has become to see clownfish. It has also become much rarer for clownfish to be caught accidentally by commercial fishermen

The study done by Dr Billy Sinclair shows that shoals that used to number dozens of clownfish now only contain a few specimens. This makes it harder for the species to breed. In some area they are more or less gone completely. Hopefully however populations can recover quickly if the pressure from the collection of clownfish from the pet trade can be reduced. The pet trade is however not the only culprit in the population declines. Coral bleaching and die off (caused by rising temperatures) is also believed to play a role.