Here's a picture I took last week on the edge of Lake Okeechobee, Florida:

While it's dried out in the sun, that plate-covered, prehistoric-looking fish ought to look familiar to many home aquarium keepers, as it's a Plecostomus, best known as the "algae eater."

I had not known that the Plecostomus had been introduced into Florida waters, but many other fish have. (Another lovely aquarium fish, the Oscar, has become quite a pest in the Everglades, and there's no season or limit on them.)

Another surprise (as I didn't realize they'd become so common) was to a number of alligators swimming in the canal right alongside Highway 75, which I later learned is called "Alligator Alley" because there are so many of the beasties there. (Unfortunately, this was a highway, and I was driving too fast to stop for pictures.)

The Florida trip must have triggered some hidden inner yearning to be a fish, because I was inexplicably led to this online personality test -- "What kind of aquarium fish are you?"

Hmmm.... I think I'd prefer to be a baby alligator, but who said life was fair?

The test did get one thing right, though. Bloodfin tetras "tend to nip at the fins of fish with long, wavy fins."

I'm definitely into that.