Rose was my Vale Albino Long-Fin Oscar. Rose grew into a truly beautiful fish. She was my second Oscar. My first, Baby, was a Tiger Oscar, and succumbed to Hole in the Head disease, yes it is really called that, and is quite an ugly thing to see a fish go through, at about 2 years of age. This disease, I learned, is quite prevalent in the Oscar family. I have a friend who has been raising Oscars for about 25 years, and has had more than a dozen of them. "Each," he said, "died from the disease." Well, this somewhat scared me, and I shied away from the purchase of another Oscar for a long time, until I saw this one, pictured below. It only took one glance, love at fish sight you might say. This fish has a long flowing tail, and real long gill fins that slope upwards when spread out, giving a truly angelic appearance. I used to be able to feed Baby from my hand, she would come up to the top of the tank, raise her head out of the water, and take her food right from my hand. Sometimes she got a little excited, and well...ouch. Rose eventually became trusting enough to accept food from my hand.

Well, this is not a very good picture, sorry, but it is the best I could manage. Pictured below is Dominator, my "studly" Convict. Dominator fathered about 200 baby criminals. The lump on his head is not from me, I promise. It is symbolic of his "ready to spawn" mentality, and gets even larger. When I first saw this, I thought he had a tumor. Never have I been so drawn to watch something, as I was to the Convicts during their spawning rituals. Talk about good parents; Wow!

While they were spawning, they picked a spot, secluded and well protected, and proceeded to "clean the house". When the eggs were laid, about 100 at a time, they began their protective instincts. No other fish in the tank was allowed within about a 10-inch area of the spot. Once the eggs hatched, and they had their school of fry, this area of protection broadened. As the fry got older, and more adventurous, some would wander off. Mom or pop, whoever had the watch, would go and suck these little guys up into their mouths (I thought they were eating them at first) then take them back "home" and spit them out. Eventually, the 2 convicts, each less than 4-inches in length, put up basically an invisible wall in the middle of the tank, and no other fish was allowed to cross the barrier. If there was an attempt, it was met with a swift and brutal strike. Little suckers even got my hand once (drew blood too).

Big Ugly, the Australian Arowana, and the source of much trouble in my tank. I introduced this fella and all "you know what" broke loose. Not only did he run JD into a tank of his own, but, he scared one of the Balas into jumping out of the tank, scared another one into "running like a rabbit syndrome", drove my Green Terror (not pictured, also deceased) to death from fear, ate Dominator's mate, continuously knocked the scales off of the Tin Foils and remaining Bala Shark so that he can eat the scales at least, and generally terrorized anyone (including human) he could.

My friend who visited me often, despised this fish, and always had to stick a net or something into the tank every time he came by, so he could pop the fish in the head. One day, he was doing this and Big Ugly became lodged in the net, and swished so violently, that my friend, Big A, dropped the net to the bottom. I said to him, "See, I told you to quit messin' with him, now he is gonna get your butt good, since you have to stick your hand to the bottom of the tank and get that net out." Big A did not like the idea so much of this, and as he gingerly tried to sneak his hand down to retrieve the net, I sneaked up behind him, popped him on the back and went "BOO". Ha ha ha, oh my goodness, you should have seen him jump (he dropped the net again too).