Open wide

This attractive looking chap (or chapess) is Smushhead i- one of our fish.

He's a Plec (Plecostomus) or algae eater, and his job is to keep the tank clean of the green algae which can build up. When we first got him (along with another 2 plecs) he was about 2-3cm long. Now he's more 16 inches long and exceedingly grumpy (a bit like his owners). He is one of the reasons that we now have a very large fish tank. You see some plecs stay small and some don't - guess which one we got. We think (hope) he has now stopped growing. If not then we may have an issue as Cat Fish (which are in the same family) can be enormous

Plecs spend the majority of their time at the bottom of the tank and tend to object if the other fish encroach on their territory - unfortunately our other 15 or so fish like the bottom of the tank too. He has become accustomed to sharing his space with the weather loaches but the others...... not so much.

As he has increased in size it has been easier to see just how the plecs keep the glass clean with their unusual anatomy - some of which you can see in photo. The whiskers can be used to detect food and obstacles and you can see the small brush like protrusions on his mouth that remove the algae. As with all fish he has bone plates that can be used to grind food, some of which you can see too.

While undoubtably Smushy is not one of the most attractive of fish - he is perhaps one of the most interesting