PLECO HUNT

ScubaChick0121

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 29, 2009
417
1
0
Florida
Hey MFk :) I was going to post this in the pleco section, but I think everyone needs to see this just to show how serious the consequences are for releasing aquarium fish in a tropical place like Florida.. Like plecos that breed and become huge "monsters" in lakes!:nilly:
Anyways, this past week I went to my dads work (with my castnet) to help deal with a serious pleco problem in 2 of the residence lakes. I thought the "problem" would be one or two plecos digging into the shore for breeding caves, untill 8 hours later I removed 21 HUGE 1.5+ plecos from 2 lakes.:WHOA:
(the first time i caught a group of three i thought i caught a snapping turtle... because these guys are strong and never die!!!!!!!! :irked:)

Now the pics of what my first 3 casts pulled up ;) none of the big boys I caught are in that pic though:cry:
and sadly i dont have the pics of the 21 plecos lined up in front of me on my labtop yet, sorry:)

pleco.jpg

pleco 2.jpg
 

ScubaChick0121

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 29, 2009
417
1
0
Florida
sadly no, i dont have my pond set up anymore :( there was one with an amazing pattern and was one of the bigger ones. but all 21 were killed, people just dont realize how big they can get
 

ScubaChick0121

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 29, 2009
417
1
0
Florida
my dad "euthanized" them.:( Theres a few still in the lakes that i need to catch so if anyones intrested in a 1.5+ pleco and lives in fl let me know lol
 

Lambrakopoulos

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Apr 29, 2009
1,594
3
68
USA
Pointless killing of fish... There are many different ways that should've been done other than killing them.
I can easily come up with 3 reasons off the top of my head.
1) Donated to a zoo (which i've done over 20 times with common plecos)
2) Sell/Free here on MFK
3) Find people with ponds that would probably need a pleco or two

And in doing this you've only made the problem worse, you've gotten rid of 21 larger plecos. That only means less competition for more than 21 smaller pleco to be able thrive a lot easier now that the larger ones are gone... you can't control an ecosystem with out either making it worse or eradicating. Those are the only 2 options there are to a problem.

Trust me you're not the first to go Pleco Hunting in Florida. I and 3 friends spent a weekend catch over 150 plecos in one canal system a week later they came back. They were small pleco but they were the same infestation.
 

pshtex

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 8, 2010
742
0
31
united states
well Lambrakopoulos, if u want to try to find all of the above that u mentioned for the plecos to oppose the pointless killing of fish then i suppose u can ask for the next batch and house the large fish and take care of them until all the plecos are gone, and i guess u can pay the expense to get the fish into your possession.
 

ScubaChick0121

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 29, 2009
417
1
0
Florida
i understand where your coming from Lambrakopoulos, but my job was to help catch them. My dad took responsibility of what happened to them after they left the bucket, and I dont have a huge pond to house them all in.
And not all of them could have found homes, remember one of the reasons PEOPLE RELEASE plecos is because
1) zoo's are full of them,
2) not everyone has the room to house a pleco with who nows what parasites,
and 3) people with ponds probaly dont want to be over run by them.
In my opinion, it was not completely "useless" killing of fish because I had no option AND why do you think people got rid of them in the first place? Where could they have gone? It is best that they were euthanized instead of going to an unresponsible owner on craigslist that want to shove a pleco the size of a tank into one.

And Lambrakopoulos, its best that I was "hired" to at least try to help eliminate the population in the lake to prevent them from killing EVERYTHING in the lake just to get rid of them. NOW THATS USELESS KILLING OF FISH..
But im not going to argue with you. Like pshtex said, the next batch should be given to you to let you try to find homes for them
 

ScubaChick0121

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 29, 2009
417
1
0
Florida
@pshtex- Thxs :) i do feel bad that they had to be euthanized, but its better than other options.

@shelferich- It shocked everyone how many there were! :D do you wanna monster pleco? haha!
 
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