This was my tank, home to JD (until he was run out of town like in a bad western) and many others. The tank dimensions were 6 x 1.5 x 1.5 feet and 100 gallons. I was able to obtain this tank the best way possible, for free. All I had to do was transport it, but we were talking about some serious weight here. The five sides were each made of one-half inch thick glass. I would estimate the empty weight of the tank at about 200-250 pounds. At least that's what it felt like moving it. Unfortunately, my fish photography abilities are not as refined as I would like, so the clarity of these pictures is somewhat below my expectations of quality. They are however, all I currently have.

This is Mr Murphy. When I purchased this Bala Shark, he had a companion, Murdock. These guys were beautiful to watch move up and down their 6 foot home, so fast and sleek, they were like darts. When they take off, their fins sweep back like a jet, and zoooom, they're gone. They were both about 2-inches long when I got them, and Mr Murphy grew to about 7-inches long. Unfortunately, Big Ugly scared the silver off Murdock's back one day, and he jumped out of the tank (with the lid closed, don't ask me how), and was unable to recuperate from his time outside of the tank after my son found him.

Blood Red Parrot fish. This is Big Head 1, there is also a Big Head 2, appropriately named (the bighead's) by a close friend of mine. One might wonder, why these fish? Well, I found them to be unique. I had seen them often in pet stores, and always refused to buy one, well, because I thought they were so damn ugly. Finally, one day, I saw a tank full of these fish, babies no more than a half-inch in length. But they were chocolate brown in color. Like many fish, these "bighead's" take on a transformation as they get older. This one you see pictured here is in the middle of the transformation from the chocolate brown color, to his current very bright orange color. The parrot fish has some very unique qualities, for one, it is a genetically man made fish, a cross between a red devil, which explains the color transformation, and a Severum. Additionally, they cannot close their mouths, ever! Sounds like a couple of kids I know.

Cosmo the Clown Loach, seen above with Big Head 1. I named this guy Cosmo, after Cosmo Kramer of the show Seinfeld, simply because I felt the fish was a nut case! What a peculiar species this is. One morning after I woke up, I came to feed my finny clan, and saw Cosmo laying upside down, belly-up on the bottom of the tank. "Well shoot," I thought, "Cosmo died over night." As I took a closer look, he startled me by jumping up and swimming off. It turns out that this type of body position is a quite natural occurrence for the clown loach. I eventually saw them (I started off with just one of these fellas, and quickly learned that they get very lonely if not grouped with at least another of their kind, so I got two more. I guess they would be named George and Elaine?) laying on their sides, backs, and occasionally a headstand. They were a gas to watch.

Abbot, or is it Costello? Well, it's one of them. After awhile, I could no longer tell them apart. This was one of my two Tin Foil Barbs. The Tin Foils are the largest of the Barb species. The two Barbs were the original inhabitants of my tank, and when I got them they were about an inch in length each. Prior to the disaster, they grew to about 4-inches high and 8-inches long. The Tin Foils are a schooling fish, and I rarely saw the two of them apart from each other, they seemed to swim (after the addition of the Aussie Arowana, dodge was the more appropriate word) in unison.

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