My mother's Pleco was once plucked out of his backyard pond by a bird who then attempted too carry him off; but he was too large and spiky so he wrestled himself free, fell 30 feet back to ground and sat there for several hours in the sun before I got back home from school. He had to be at least 20 years old at the time and he was still alive in his pond 5 years later when we sold the house.
As someone who works with aquariums and fish for a living I can 100% agree, plecostomus and even goldfish are some of the most voracious and destructive species that absolutely uproot and overtake native ecosystems.
I love plecos. Their blank stare has always been so hilarious to me. Back when I was around 9 years old my parents let me have an aquarium and the first fish we had was an albino pleco we called "Glonka" (literally shorter, cuter version of the polish word for "algae eater". 9yo me wasn't original). She grew absolutely huge and instantly became a meme in our household, I loved her as much as I did my cats. One time when our aquarium broke while we were away on vacation, she somehow managed to survive without water and with glass shards scattered in there for over an hour before help came. Truly a fish I will remember for years. She had 3 husbands (all of which lived for significantly less time than she did), 3 kids with the first one and at least 50 with the last one. She would even let me pet her when cleaning and she loved hanging upside down wherever she could (various tubes and passages). Absolutely insane fish. We had to put her down when she was around 4-5 years old though, she was bloated and suffering. It was really depressing and we even burried her in our garden where the cats are instead of the usual dead-fish-in-the-toilet burrial. When plecos eventually take over the world, I won't even complain much. I bet their leader will be one of Glonka's kids we gave away to a pet store.
Pleco was the only survivor of my childhood tank, bro survived so much bullshit and tank disasters, the snail plague meant he was never truely the last man standing but still.
I've learned, from personal experience, that Plecos (not just Common Plecos) won't just eat plant material, as they'll also eat meat if given the opportunity. I have a Bristlenose Pleco, and, when I put in small pieces of Tilapia to feed the other fish in my tank, my Bristlenose Pleco goes crazy for it.
Pleacos can actually survive in a dried up lake or riverbed by simply entering a state of hibernation and completely drying out. They legit mummify themselves basically and all it takes to bring them out of this dormant state is a small amount of water.
The weird one about peacock bass is they aren’t actually invasive if I remember rightly. The water in florida isn’t warm enough or soft enough for their eggs to stabilise and fry to survive, but the adults handle it just fine. They’re stocked on purpose both as fishing sport animals and population control for other fish. they’re notoriously strong fighters on the line, people used to go to the amazon just to fish them, and inportantly they eat the large fry of other cichlids like Oscars.
@l.t.c3847 most of the water isn't, that's why they're mainly found in south Florida where it's hotter. I could also be wrong aswell though, ive never even heard of that
It really does suck that these fish are marketed as magical vacuums that will clean your tank for you. This just leads to a bunch of uneducated lazy people who don’t want to clean the fish tank they’re responsible for to buy themselves a fish that will one day be a foot and a half in length because they’d rather die than spend an hour or two cleaning a fish tank every week. At my job I have to talk people out of getting one almost every day, it’s like they believe plecos clock into their tanks for their shift and go home to shit in another tank. Most of the time plecos poop more than they even clean, add on to that all the other fish also pooping everywhere and your tank is dirtier with a pleco than it is without one.
The Plecos never would have made it here with out HUMAN help. So in reality, I'd say humans are the bigger problem. But of course you won't hear most humans saying such things.
Very cool to see a non-fish channel talking about how much of a problem common (and common-ish, I wouldn't have noticed yours wasn't a true common if you hadn't pointed it out) plecos are. It's so asinine that they're still sold in stores when bristlenose and other dwarf species are available instead. I'm not sure if the bristlenose's 6" size would make it less invasive due to them being more edible or due to them being less likely to be released, but either way I do know that I've never seen an article about "the horrors of the bristlenose."
Hell yeah, another insane nature curiosity. An armored algae eater fish that is too stubborn to die in british waters and erodes river shores, a bramble that (totally) hunts sheep, I'm expecting to see a rock that stabs birds on the next one.
I'll be honest, they do make a tasty fish soup out of these in Amazonia. Eaten it several times, it was delicious, and the bones are rather large so easy to remove.
My grandparents had one of these and it was massive for the size of the tank it was so big they had to triple the size of the tank and it would eat algi all day long the tank was spotless lol
Nerds are useful for correcting people and providing additional insights. Well, that is if you're not allergic to information. Just in case that's not a sarcasm.
I love your pleco 💀 when you said he doesn’t do shit was funny , I own the smaller pleco species which are the clown pleco , I do own a common but I am aware they do get big , I own mostly huge aquariums rather then small
Hi there, I have a few gripes with this video that I'd like to bring up. Whilst I do agree with the basic message, I feel as though it does more damage than good to make blanket statements with very little nuance. Videos like this (though true in many ways) add to the stigma that this species has in the aquarium trade. This is the primary challenge that the "common" faces: the people who have the resources and knowledge to take care of them correctly are put off because of the reputation they've garnered. Oftentimes its unwarranted. You're right that the true "common" is Hypostomus Plecostomus and the fish commonly given this designation in the Aquarium trade are Pterygoplichthys spp. The two species that you'll see most frequently are P. disjunctivus (SL of 50-60cm) and P. pardalis (that generally reaches around 30cm). Hardly the stories of 3 foot long river monsters that you hear so often. And this is the biggest hurdle: people hear the overwhelmingly negative press Pterygoplichthys get and swear off keeping them. It's a vicous cycle of inexperienced owners being conned into buying a species they aren't equipped to handle, these fish becoming neglected and suffering greatly when they inevitably outgrow the 5 gallon tank they're housed in, to finally the owners being unable to rehome them because they're so undesirable. This is the sole reason the Pterygoplichthys genus became invasive to begin with- it's just easier to release them into your waterways once they turn into an inconvenience. My common is about 30cm long at 7 years old, he's kept in a 50gal 4 foot long aquarium and is thriving. In reality, for many members of his genus, you don't need horrifically big tanks. It's more achievable than people think and there's many other Loricariid species that get much bigger who don't have the same stigma about them. If you'd like a more in depth discussion about this from a qualified Ichthyologist, I recommend Rebecca Bentley's video "Why common plecos can be aquarium fish" over on her Freshwater Ichthyology channel. She's a specialist in plecos and I've discussed this topic with her many times in our conversations. All this is to say that I do not think making videos like this one is productive in any way. If anything, it's exacerbating the problem. The truth is that the common pleco is the victim in this scenario. We're the ones who have released them into waterways they're not adapted for and who continue to subject them to some of the most horrific neglect I think I've ever seen in the pet trade. Action needs to be taken by governments to clear them out of spaces they've already occupied, but it's our duty as fishkeepers to ensure no more are released into the wild. How we do this is by sharing objective facts about the Pterygoplichthys genus, empowering new and old fishkeepers to have the tools and knowhow to keep them properly. It's about sharing how our fish have impacted our lives positively and the benefits of owning them. Only by creating a space where these amazing animals can be celebrated do we end this for good. My pet is not a "problem"- he's everything to me. A final note on invasive plecos in the UK: I highly doubt the veracity of this claim. Are they in our rivers? Most likely, but they don't really have a chance to proliferate in any great capacity because they die off come winter. I've seen photos of frozen Pterygoplichthys spp taken in Scotland I believe. Our winters are just too brutal for them and that's all there is to it. These fish are not as indestructible as maybe you and others think.
There are people that go and hunt thses fish...like fill up their boats with hundreds of fish...and the state will pay you to fish for them and pay you by the pound
In Malaysia we call this fish ‘ikan bandaraya’ literally means ‘municipal worker fish’ since people here believe they keep the fish tank clean by eating other fish wastes and stuffs and keeping the tank clean and make you less frequently have to clean your fish tank You always gonna find at one or two of them in most fish tanks here
2:50 Not me laying in bed listening to this and I'm falling asleep thinking this was the end of the video I was like there's no way I've been laying here for 30 minutes and haven't fallen asleep yet
There r some very nice plecs out there with a price tag to match, but there still all bastards.and thats the favourite line in the aquatic center, "well u must have a plec as they keep the algae down ' and another sucker gets reeled in to take a plec home with him ,sucker's
Lake Ontario is getting destroyed by African Gobies. Last time I fished there I pulled one in with almost every cast. Nothing seems to eat them here. Even the seagulls that will eat anything you toss to them spit them out.
It's even more difficult with your pleco because it's not a pterygoplichthys pardalis as well, most of the plecos in petstores Come from actually thailand and those are mixtures bred with use of hormones :P but yeah at least your pleco really looks like pardalis, so maybe your is actually a natural specie :) But the most funny thing is that you use the nile tilapia as a reference to native Fish while nile tilapia is one of the most dangerous invasive specie around the world
Asian Carp, are far worse then pleco's , they basically do the same thing , they are far more aggressive, and get way bigger then plecos. Plecos also do have plenty of competition in America this includes the animals you've shown and then some , florida has fresh water bullsharks ,water moccasins, snake head fish, Airapaima, the various species of Gar ,sturgeon, etc.
@@Proctor1986 did watch to the end I also just deal with carp , and snakeheads, and wanted to voice my opinion. I still remember that when I was a kid the neighborhood would go out to the creek with crossbows to kill the massive carp.
I live in Florida and there's a pretty big pond in the neighborhood and it is full of plecos. If you're sneaky, you can grab them while they're at the edge and throw them on the bank and I'll catch 20 or 30 at a time. And the sad part is.I've had people getting mad at me.Because i'm quote unquote killing the fish
Yeah that's always an unfortunate thing with invasive animal, uniformed people will see it as "cruel" that you killing these creatures which in turn makes it even harder to remove them from the environment
I have a 20 gallon tank. Recently the 20 year old Kuhli Loach that was living there died. My friend A. knew that I was looking for some catfish ( I was thinking Corydoras)... Today A. shows up with 2 Plecos of some type. They are not brushymouth, which I could sort of live with. A. says that he will take them back when they get too big, they are only about 2" currently.
They might as well be the Coach roaches of the fish world. They are Indestructible is what i mean. Carp are also pretty close to this level of awful to ecosystems
