Plecos in Jakarta

[HarleyK]

Crazy story.

Troubled waters: Jakarta battles deadly, invasive suckerfish

Mounds of slimey carcasses pile up on a riverbank in Jakarta where authorities are fighting an uphill battle against a fast-breeding invasive fish flourishing in Java island's heavily polluted waterways.

www.purdueexponent.org

 

[tiger15]

Not just in Jakarta, pleco is invasive in India, Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico, South Florida and other tropics. Pleco breed fast, can breath air and survive in low oxygen water. Pleco is food fish in the Amazon, but no taste is acquired outside their place of origin.

 

[tiger15]

PLeco sold in fish market in Iquitos, Peru and valued for the roe.

 

[HarleyK]

tiger15 yum! Eaten raw like sushi?

 

[phreeflow]

What a nightmare. We had them in our local lake and they were digging a bunch of holes and breeding. Not sure what they did but it seems their numbers are way down

 

[Snoke FIsh]

PLeco sold in fish market in Iquitos, Peru and valued for the roe.

View attachment 1575774

i thought they were bad eating, that's why people bury them instead of taking them home to cook.

 

[tiger15]

i thought they were bad eating, that's why people bury them instead of taking them home to cook.

Not in the Amazon where natives consume pleco on regular basis. There is no acquired taste outside their native habitat though. Asian would eat any fish, but stay out of pleco for complaint that they task muddy, not meaty or potentially polluted

 

[Snoke FIsh]

Not in the Amazon where natives consume pleco on regular basis. There is no acquired taste outside their native habitat though. Asian would eat any fish, but stay out of pleco for complaint that they task muddy, not meaty or potentially polluted

You make a good point. But thinking about it they ought to be hard to prepare and eat cause of their hard scute armor.

 

[tiger15]

You make a good point. But thinking about it they ought to be hard to prepare and eat cause of their hard scute armor.

Not really. The Plecos are cut open on the soft belly, and consumed from inside out with a fork. They are sold as street food, not appetizing to me the way they are eaten. Catfish are generally good eating fish as they are boneless, and farmed in great quantity in America (channel catfish) and in Asia (Mekong giant catfish sold as Basa or Swai)