The Things we Don't See

So, today, I am thinking about something I saw. I didn't know it was there and then it showed itself. It kind of creeps me out but I don't know what to do with it. Should I leave it alone or remove it. I think it applies to other things in life too where you have the same condrum. Please let me know what you think.

I have had an aquarium for several years. I have swordtails in there and there is a fat algae eater. Sometimes babies grow up too - only a few at a time and they are usually clear/white. I haven't had any of the orange babies make it. Their color probably makes them stand out too much. I have not had to buy any replacement fish for at least a year-maybe two - and the water is usually clear. We do drain water out and add fresh on occasion. In summer my husband will get plants out of the creek and put them in the tank for the fish to enjoy. So, I have not added anything new except plants for maybe a year or two.

When I turned the light on and fed my fish I noticed something different. In the back of the tank at the bottom here was a movement. At gravel level there was a tubular, sriped, worm-like thing moving back and forth a few inches. It is the size - width wise of an earthworm/night crawler but I never saw the length. It just slid back and forth for awhile with the rest of the body stayed hidden in the gravel. Then it disappeared. When my son and daughter in law came over in the evening she spotted the pattern on the thing in the gravel with only about 1/2 inchh showing. She used the net to try to get it moved to look at it but never got to see the full length or the head.  It was longer than what I had seen. I had tried to look it up but came up with something like a worm or snake fish. This is a freshwater tank. I don't know where this thing came from. Was it a little tiny thing that came with a past batch of fish and grew up in there? We didn't deliberately buy it so it was definately a surprise.

I know that the picture is not very clear since it was taken through the side of the aquarium and with the distortion of water ( and fingerprinted tank from the kids), but hopefully you can see what I am talking about.

So, this is where we are at. This thing creeps us out. It is the unknown, the snake-like look, the not chosen. When researched some sites say similar things are meat-eaters. What are they eating? baby fish, poop? How did it get to  this size. How big is it really? How big will it get to? Will it take out my big fish? The other part of this is that if we choose to remove it (and I know a science teacher that will take it), will it be damaged during the removal, do we have to handle it, will it make a mess of the whole tank and stress out the fish? We have not seen it again, but knowing that it is there makes you not want to put your hand in the tank for any reason.

I think in life there are a  lot of things that we don't see and don't know that they are there.  One time when I was pulling weeds in the front garden I grabbed a hunk of grass to pull and hanging  with the grass (and in my hands) was a snake that was at least 18".  I dropped it, surprised. Now I wear gloves and know what I am grabbing. When I wore the boots with plein air painting at the river, it was more to protect against the ticks but found out there were rattlesnakes in the area so it was a good thing (even though they were not right  there but a ways over). How do we handle the unseen when we suspect there might be something there? Do we let it be until we need to deal with it? Do we overprepare or just be careful, watching? Do we not let it bother us at all?

In trying to get my art "out there", I have joined different facebook groups and one of them deals with copyright infringement and how to combat it. They have referred to designs being stolen off of the pod sites, some of the big retailers etc. They are then relisted with people claiming they are their design and making money off of your design. I know it is there. I have had paintings on Etsy at full dpi and postcards on Ebay and Etsy for awhile. I haven't looked yet for mine because I am not ready to see if it has been hacked. I have read that some can remove a watermark, signatures, and even if you disable the right-click they can still do a screen shot. I know that the possiblity is  there that people are doing this to me too, I just haven't looked yet for the monster in my art tank. I could do everything and still be plagarized. I have decided to not let that stop me from getting my art "out there". I will do the best I can - lower dpi, not be on some of the worst offender sites and eventually get brave and look and deal with it. I guess part of being empowered is knowing what is there even if I can't see it and be careful.