so funny to realize that the pleco fish you guys always mention is called janitor fish over here.

anyway, i got 1 when i was still in gradeschool, placed it in a backyard pond with a community of other fishes, abandoned it for almost 2 years thinking that all the fishes were gone, only to find out it's still alive and is almost 2 feet long after deciding to use the pond again

One very good reason not to put them in your fish tanks. Get a photo of it you can

I used to have a two foot pleco. Gave him away because of the amount of crap he produced. I still have three plecos though, one 17'' one and two 12-13'' ones. Very cool fish, though once they reach 15'' they stop eating algae and eat anything but- I've seen them eat small fish like tetras and stuff:ohmy:

I have just bought a second hand tank for my red oscars and it came with fish, one of which was a large 18" plec, i gave him to my lfs just in the hope that they coukld rehome him.

You never know if lfs' can correctly rehome fish...especially if they're a chain shop.

chanceenfate wrote:


Where exactly are you from mate?

Ahhh ... common names

plecostomus turned into pleco, sucker fish, janitor fish ...

just how in some fashion Astronotus Ocellatus became Oscar, Velvet Cichlid, Marble Ciclid ...

Not to be picky, but janitor fish gives a bad impression, or to me sells a misconception that they eat poo and shouldn't be cared for properly, at least I have found that to be the common attitude towards them by the uninformed public.


You must have good temperatures around there for that thing to grow so big and healthy I would assume an unattended pond would grow its fair share of algae, and keep that big guy well fed