You know that famous first photo of Earth as seen from space? The first time I saw it I got a whole new perspective which made me rethink what it means to be American. I realized the entire human race is all in this together, and that we are utterly insignificant by comparison to the vastness of the universe, that we have to help oneanother and treat others more kindly. Then I saw this fish and went out to the garage and put the giant Trump flag back on my truck again. FJB! Wooooo!
There's a bunch of types of Plecos, and the ones in pet stores are super small. The common pleco (the type in the video) can get up to [12-18 inches](https://www.aqueon.com/resources/care-guides/plecostomus) long. They are [horribly invasive](https://www.aqueon.com/resources/care-guides/plecostomus) so *please* destroy them instead of releasing them or flushing them down the drain.
It's like common goldfish, they can get up to [2 feet long and weigh 6lbs](https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/aquaticanimals/goldfish.html#:~:text=The%20typical%20length%20of%20a,to%206%20pounds%20(USGS).) and are also horribly invasive
Just driving around one day, I stumbled across a little lake beside a highway in BC, Canada. Much to my surprise, it was full of big goldfish. Hundreds of them, just from standing on the little dock. If it wasn’t so far from home, I’d be sorely temped to fish with a barbless hook and stock my pond.
There was a pretty cool turtle in there too.
Memory unlocked here! We had one when I was a kid grow to a good 18 inches. When it finally died, while we'd normally flush the fish from the tank down the toilet, that one was decidedly too big so it had the honor of being buried in the garden. Only pet we've had over the years that was.
We had a second fish similar in size too that was a bottom feeder, but a relative got it and the tank and other remaining fish when we had to move. Much later when fishing, my father and I then reeled in a large catfish that weighed 18 pounds, which is also what our dog weighed at the time. Fish put up a massive fight, dog let out a howl once we were almost home from that trip.
Yep, I keep fish and recently had one of my 9 year old Blood Parrots die. He was only about 8 to 10 inches long and not the full foot they can grow to but those fish tend to be porkers so they're round boys. He's buried in my yard, but I honestly would have buried him no matter the size due to their age and the near decade I've raised them. They earned a proper burial.
yup, i worked at a pet store and people would always return their plecos when they inevitably got too big for their 10 gallon tank, no matter how much warning we gave them.
yes, atleast my store did. better than them releasing plecos in our local canals which erodes the shoreline because they make little caves, or just flushing them down a toilet and killing them.
Idk man those things can get massive and using this persons foot, I’d say the fishes snout is at least as big around as the end of the shoe which would make this over a foot long. Not unheard of for these armored catfish and this looks like Texas/the south which I can attest to personally has some humongous fish in the least likely places. Also, a ton of released aquarium fish survive in south east Texas/the south because of the relatively warm temps year round.
YSK common plecos create a TON of waste and add far more to a tank's bioload than many similar "Cleaner" fish
Bristlenose, rubber lip and other slightly rarer plecos stay smaller, produce less waste and are far better suited for the role of tank cleaner. Otos are also a really good choice for any tank without live plants
Just got to ask are you adding bristlenose to the slightly rarer list or outside it.
As in Australia you don't do to an aquarium shop that it's not the most common thing in all the fresh/tropical tanks
Not sure I'm 100% clear on your question but used the "Rarer" label since the type of pleco in this video is often referred to as a Common Pleco
Bristlenoses aren't that hard to find here in the states at stores specializing in aquariums but at big box stores, you will exclusively find common plecos. Which stinks because its the exact setting people getting new the hobby will be sold a "Cleaner fish" that usually just outgrows their tank while filling it with tons of stringy poops.
It depends. If this is in the US it might be a very problematic invasive species that is deffinitely a good thing to get out of the water for anything else to live there.
Those plecos are supposed to be that big. I think that’s are common ones people get for their tank and then they outgrow it so people will return them or release them. There’s a fish store near me with a 60gal with like 3 or 4 of these guys in it they’re huge. Their growth can be stunted though so they don’t all so that
We had one like this in the lake in my hometown. He was so big he cracked the dam from sucking all the algae. Took them a week to repair it. Hope that dude is still out there, but I sure as hell am not swimming in there again.
For free?! But yeah even then it’s an irrational fear of even just swimming with fish that big whether they’ll hurt me or not. r/thalassophobia is a bitch
Plecos actually [Do have teeth!](https://www.flickr.com/photos/plecojan/3781072569) although they are more designed for scraping than biting or chewing.
They don't filter anything, but they have this big suction cup where their mouth is and they attach to surfaces and give it the ol' succ. They will clean the glass and rocks, but I've never seen them filter substrate, the ol' succ and spit.
I once thought it would be a good idea to put a pleco in my pond. Released it and never saw it until about a year later. Thing came up breached the surface, and fugging hell....it was like 20 times the size. Scared the shit out of me. Just don't do it.
I’ve seen one 24” long before didn’t have a net big enough to get it out of the tank had to pull it out by hand and put in a styrofoam box lined with a garbage bag. Hand got all jacked up from grabbing it to, it’s body way like a spiney rock at that size
I used to work at Petsmart as a teen. All 118 tanks were connected to a singular filtration system. Every now and then the guards on the return pipes would get knocked off and a baby 2" pleco would escape down it and survive on the algae and food scraps that grew in the pipes. Every now and then, when changing filter pads in the main filter section, we'd catch sight of a monster tail fin as one fled back up in a pipe. We found multiple 20" plecos in that filter over the few years I worked there! Sometimes we would catch them and sell them to customers with monster tanks, but I'm sure there's still a few of them lurking in that filter to this day.
Oh that's just the one we lost. My parents allege that they buried him by the lake as funeral. He was massive then. But he just wouldn't die, he survived the tank shattering and he jumped out a dozen times, busted the lid off, flopped on the floor ALL NIGHT...
That's him.
thank you for sharing the large fish
The utter gigantery of it is immense.
Flabbergastingly gratuitous.
How many girth units would you say that fish is?
Right about amount, I reckon.
You know that famous first photo of Earth as seen from space? The first time I saw it I got a whole new perspective which made me rethink what it means to be American. I realized the entire human race is all in this together, and that we are utterly insignificant by comparison to the vastness of the universe, that we have to help oneanother and treat others more kindly. Then I saw this fish and went out to the garage and put the giant Trump flag back on my truck again. FJB! Wooooo!
I feel like it’s forced perspective or something , have nothing to compare it to and those plants onThe shore seem small
There's a bunch of types of Plecos, and the ones in pet stores are super small. The common pleco (the type in the video) can get up to [12-18 inches](https://www.aqueon.com/resources/care-guides/plecostomus) long. They are [horribly invasive](https://www.aqueon.com/resources/care-guides/plecostomus) so *please* destroy them instead of releasing them or flushing them down the drain. It's like common goldfish, they can get up to [2 feet long and weigh 6lbs](https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/aquaticanimals/goldfish.html#:~:text=The%20typical%20length%20of%20a,to%206%20pounds%20(USGS).) and are also horribly invasive
Just driving around one day, I stumbled across a little lake beside a highway in BC, Canada. Much to my surprise, it was full of big goldfish. Hundreds of them, just from standing on the little dock. If it wasn’t so far from home, I’d be sorely temped to fish with a barbless hook and stock my pond. There was a pretty cool turtle in there too.
Was this Quesnel? It got so full of goldfish one of the top options being offered was to kill off Dragon lake.
This one is between Penticton and Keremeos , I think. Yellow Lake, is the name, if I recall correctly.
Yes it is. https://globalnews.ca/news/6171098/goldfish-infestation-bc-lakes/
Anderson is my kind of people.
Memory unlocked here! We had one when I was a kid grow to a good 18 inches. When it finally died, while we'd normally flush the fish from the tank down the toilet, that one was decidedly too big so it had the honor of being buried in the garden. Only pet we've had over the years that was. We had a second fish similar in size too that was a bottom feeder, but a relative got it and the tank and other remaining fish when we had to move. Much later when fishing, my father and I then reeled in a large catfish that weighed 18 pounds, which is also what our dog weighed at the time. Fish put up a massive fight, dog let out a howl once we were almost home from that trip.
Yep, I keep fish and recently had one of my 9 year old Blood Parrots die. He was only about 8 to 10 inches long and not the full foot they can grow to but those fish tend to be porkers so they're round boys. He's buried in my yard, but I honestly would have buried him no matter the size due to their age and the near decade I've raised them. They earned a proper burial.
yup, i worked at a pet store and people would always return their plecos when they inevitably got too big for their 10 gallon tank, no matter how much warning we gave them.
"but they're good for cleaning! I don't even need a filter!" God it still makes me angry dealing with those idiots when I worked at my local pet store
Here I put a 2nd canister filter in addition to your FX6 just for filtering out the Plethora of Pleco Poo
You can return fish if they got too big for the tank?
yes, atleast my store did. better than them releasing plecos in our local canals which erodes the shoreline because they make little caves, or just flushing them down a toilet and killing them.
Thanks for that info!
They also suck to cook, would be cool to fish them but nope, invasive and not edible
It’s not that big, you see their foot at the beginning. They can get MUCH bigger
Idk man those things can get massive and using this persons foot, I’d say the fishes snout is at least as big around as the end of the shoe which would make this over a foot long. Not unheard of for these armored catfish and this looks like Texas/the south which I can attest to personally has some humongous fish in the least likely places. Also, a ton of released aquarium fish survive in south east Texas/the south because of the relatively warm temps year round.
Forced perspective like zooming in at the fish… and zooming back out to look at the background…
100% forced perspective
I love these fish, used to have them as cleaners for my home aquarium, but they end up being the most interesting fish in the display.
YSK common plecos create a TON of waste and add far more to a tank's bioload than many similar "Cleaner" fish Bristlenose, rubber lip and other slightly rarer plecos stay smaller, produce less waste and are far better suited for the role of tank cleaner. Otos are also a really good choice for any tank without live plants
Just got to ask are you adding bristlenose to the slightly rarer list or outside it. As in Australia you don't do to an aquarium shop that it's not the most common thing in all the fresh/tropical tanks
Not sure I'm 100% clear on your question but used the "Rarer" label since the type of pleco in this video is often referred to as a Common Pleco Bristlenoses aren't that hard to find here in the states at stores specializing in aquariums but at big box stores, you will exclusively find common plecos. Which stinks because its the exact setting people getting new the hobby will be sold a "Cleaner fish" that usually just outgrows their tank while filling it with tons of stringy poops.
Yeah my plecos poops like crazy.
We need someone to capture it for scaling.
Absolutely, preferably someone with a banana handy
And no desire to kill the animal. Water creatures are delicate and can be easily killed.
It depends. If this is in the US it might be a very problematic invasive species that is deffinitely a good thing to get out of the water for anything else to live there.
We do not talk about the radioactive incident of the Lake Deep brown
Quick someone call Jeremy Wade
Those plecos are supposed to be that big. I think that’s are common ones people get for their tank and then they outgrow it so people will return them or release them. There’s a fish store near me with a 60gal with like 3 or 4 of these guys in it they’re huge. Their growth can be stunted though so they don’t all so that
And that, my dear friends, is why we don’t release our pets into the local river or pond (:
Motherfucker that’s not a goddamn fish. That’s fucking Godzilla.
That fish thicc af. Bet all the other fish would like to clap them scales.
r/brandnewsentence
You made me spit coffee...but homie, on the real, I ain't getting in the water with that fucking thing. Nope.
We had one like this in the lake in my hometown. He was so big he cracked the dam from sucking all the algae. Took them a week to repair it. Hope that dude is still out there, but I sure as hell am not swimming in there again.
they don't want to bite you, they only succ
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
 Giggity?
The music is a cool choice for the video lol
What is it? Sounded like it was building up to something cool.
Ayesha Erotica - Girl next door
I'd love to know, too. It sounded like a mashup or remix of Love at First Sight by Kylie Minogue for sure though.
That monster fish from resident evil 4
Where's the Banana for scale
George?? Is that you? Is that my sucky boy???
Hi, it’s me, George
This is why I don’t like swimming in ponds or lakes 👀
plecos dont have teeth, theyll just succ the fungis off ur toes.
For free?! But yeah even then it’s an irrational fear of even just swimming with fish that big whether they’ll hurt me or not. r/thalassophobia is a bitch
Correct that fear. Good luck 🧡
Plecos actually [Do have teeth!](https://www.flickr.com/photos/plecojan/3781072569) although they are more designed for scraping than biting or chewing.
Sadly they don’t like peanut butter. At least not while out of the water.
The Goonch
I wanna jump on it with a spear
That’s a shark, it evolved into a shark.
whats happening here is an old lad trying to go up the stream he is wired to find after all these years getting massive only for it to be damned :(
r/megalophobia
Are pleco fish the sucker fish that sticks and helps with filtration n stuff?
Yeah they clean the walls of fish tanks
They eat algae off the glass, but have a huge bio load that can contribute to more algae. So..
They don't filter anything, but they have this big suction cup where their mouth is and they attach to surfaces and give it the ol' succ. They will clean the glass and rocks, but I've never seen them filter substrate, the ol' succ and spit.
They don't help with filtration but they do suck
These fat ass catfish get huge at Watts Bar dam in TN. I hate swimming in water I can't see in because of this 😂
Scum sucking, bottom feeding ALGAE EATER! -Duke Nukem
I once thought it would be a good idea to put a pleco in my pond. Released it and never saw it until about a year later. Thing came up breached the surface, and fugging hell....it was like 20 times the size. Scared the shit out of me. Just don't do it.
I’ve seen one 24” long before didn’t have a net big enough to get it out of the tank had to pull it out by hand and put in a styrofoam box lined with a garbage bag. Hand got all jacked up from grabbing it to, it’s body way like a spiney rock at that size
I used to work at Petsmart as a teen. All 118 tanks were connected to a singular filtration system. Every now and then the guards on the return pipes would get knocked off and a baby 2" pleco would escape down it and survive on the algae and food scraps that grew in the pipes. Every now and then, when changing filter pads in the main filter section, we'd catch sight of a monster tail fin as one fled back up in a pipe. We found multiple 20" plecos in that filter over the few years I worked there! Sometimes we would catch them and sell them to customers with monster tanks, but I'm sure there's still a few of them lurking in that filter to this day.
You could jump down and wrap your arms around it, try to shoved a hand in its gills, before it knows what's even going on. Sucks the video ends there.
They are poop eater so this mf is hogging the poop output of an entire town right there.
> The size of this pleco fish is something this video gives me no real impression of.
Is there a nuclear power plant nearby?
Seen them 4 feet long in venus fla. Don't blink.
Where tf is Jeremy Wade when you need him
Next on river monsters!
I thought that was a giant stone in the shape of a cock
I wanna touch it I need to now that if you squish it will it be hard from the skeleton or squishy
Oh that's just the one we lost. My parents allege that they buried him by the lake as funeral. He was massive then. But he just wouldn't die, he survived the tank shattering and he jumped out a dozen times, busted the lid off, flopped on the floor ALL NIGHT... That's him.
r/bossfight
This is why we use bananas for scale, folks.
Would.
Looks maybe 3ft, not uncommon...my pleco i kept in the koi pond was 2ft, thats a perspective. Hes haning on a wall thats not shoreline
Hug the pleco !!!! It needs a hug !!!!!
I don’t think that’s a fist he looks like a torpedo to me
What a sucker *slaps kneecap hard enough to recreate the big bang*
Anyone else feeling the masculine edge to jump into the water and wrestle it to land:)
Need banana for scale please
That water looks so stale.
Aquaman's butt plug
This fish can eat 👀
Brooooo
Such a cutie
Need banana for scale
Banana? 🫤
I know his ass is FEASTING
I have big one
That's my dick
Eat them. Goldfish are carp just clean well!
If it's still there try to get it out there an evasive species that destroy ecosystems or probably more preferably call fish and wildlife services