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Tuesday, October 4

Nemo is a bully!

On Saturday, Derek and I went out and bought two "Otto"s for our fish tanks. I'll have to look them up later to see the exact species that they are. In any case they are algae eaters, and now that both fish in aquariums are used to the air pumps, we could add them to the tanks to help keep them clean.

Nus was the first one to get a tank mate. After first warily checking out the tiny fish, Nus decided it was all cool and left the little guy to his dirty duty! It was funny watching Nus under his bridge, hiding, and keeping an eye on the otto.


Nemo got his tank mate shortly after. While the bag was in the tank acclimating to the temperature and all that, the two were checking each other out quite a bit. Once the otta was added to the tank, the "checking" out got kinda violent! Every time the otto would get himself stuck somewhere and be minding his own business, Nemo would come by and threaten him. It started with Nemo simply puffing up at him... showing his dominance. I was killing myself laughing at big Nemo trying to show this tiny little otto who's boss! The otto would swim kinda jerky while looking for something to eat, and Nemo would come swimming by, like a warden. As soon as it would see Nemo. the otto would keep perfectly still. It was pretty obvious that the otto was pretty scared! I figgered it would all be okay once Nemo realized he was the big fish, but I was wrong. As I was getting ready for work on Sunday night, Derek tells me that we had to get the otto out of there before Nemo kills it. He had watched Nemo "hunt" the otto. Nemo spotted it hanging on the glass, swam around his bell, and hid below some plants. Then he made a run for it, knocking the poor little otto off the glass and at least 6 inches across the tank. The poor little guy wasn't even moving or nothing when Nemo attacked it! Derek was able to get him out of there and popped him into Nus' tank. Nus checked him out briefly, "oh, another housekeeper... cool!" and swam off. Both of them are happily keeping Nus' tank all squeaky clean.

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