# Dumping your Pleco...



## trixella (Jan 24, 2011)

I know some people dump their Pleco's in their local waterways once they outgrow their aquariums...

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sidesho...-south-florida-lakes-182812663.html#more-4190

:eek5:


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## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

yup! the same people that will dump puppies and kittens,,,
and would steal candy from babies,,, 
and steal our hobby from the rest of us causing bans to be created on imports.

been happening for years :angryfire


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## trixella (Jan 24, 2011)

I know someone who would never knowingly abuse an animal and really thought they were doing a humane thing by releasing theirs to bigger waters.


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## yellowsno (May 15, 2011)

thats the problem... pet stores sell mega animals to the uninformed... who when the pet outgrows the person they just release and think its safe....


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## thechibi (Jan 20, 2012)

It's a problem on both ends. Clueless store workers selling animals that won't work out for a pet owner, clueless and/or cruel pet owners dumping animals into the wild or down a toilet.

Hint: Don't flush snakes.


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## 5BodyBlade (Feb 8, 2011)

Happens to all uninformed people who just gotta have something now now now with no regard to the consequences. I remember hearing another story on Coast to Coast about Lionfish being released off the coast of Florida and reeking havoc on local species and also exotic snakes being released in the Everglades. What's up with you Floridians?


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## yellowsno (May 15, 2011)

this isnt the first time... big head carp in the mississippi, snake heads in the waters of florida...


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## yellowsno (May 15, 2011)

btw on the same token... back when i first started i was able to get a marble cray... it grew exponentially... i fed them to a oscar i had... after a while when i decided to switch to planted tank i fed them all to my oscar... the way the marble cray multiply if they were ever released to the wild can really wreak havoc to a system...


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## Chrome (Feb 26, 2012)

Lake Trafford here in Florida, if you walk the shoreline, you can see thousands of plecos in just 100 yards. Size range from 1" to 14". It blew my mind the first time I saw it. Through a line out with a small worm. The first fish I catch, Red Tiger Oscar. The whole lake is infested with various aquarium species. We have wild populations of piranha here near Miami. I have caught severums, dempseys, oscar, texas cichlids, and several others over the years. Granted, some the species here in FL are escapees from fish farms. Most are probably from hobbyist's releasing them. I have also seen burmese pythons out in the Everglades.

It wouldn't surprise me if FL put a state wide ban on all exotic fish, animal, and plant species in the near future.


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## Zefrik (Oct 23, 2011)

I gave away a pleco I had to a neighbor because at the time they had a stock tank with a couple fish in it. I kind of thought that they would have known better but they released it into a lake because it got to big for the 90 gallon tank. The guy was a always fishes so I would think he would know better. I wish I kept the pleco now.


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## Lurch98 (Oct 7, 2011)

They should plant kudzu on the shorline to help prevent the erosion. :hihi:

Amazing how fragile the natural balance is in some cases.


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## CatB (Jan 29, 2012)

i bet the reason people dump so many animals in florida is because they figure since the climate is tropical (ish ), it's a suitable environment for their tropical species. ...it might be suitable for them, but they sure aren't for the native species!


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## yellowsno (May 15, 2011)

its not just florida... its all over... the difference is everything survives better in florida cuz it never freezes over


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## Cambrian Creature (Oct 28, 2011)

yellowsno said:


> btw on the same token... back when i first started i was able to get a marble cray... it grew exponentially... i fed them to a oscar i had... after a while when i decided to switch to planted tank i fed them all to my oscar... the way the marble cray multiply if they were ever released to the wild can really wreak havoc to a system...


Funny you should be mentioning the "cloning crayfish" because it is banned in Missouri for this very reason. It is also giving the residents of Madagascar a scare. 

My source: http://www.aquabotanic.com/?p=1357


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## wendyjo (Feb 20, 2009)

yellowsno said:


> its not just florida... its all over... the difference is everything survives better in florida cuz it never freezes over


^ This.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Perhaps more troubling are those who when told that the fish will grow too large for their tank then reply .."oh I'm gettin a bigger tank soon" or "they won't grow any bigger than the tank" or "I know a guy who kept his in blah,blah,blah, and his fish is fine"
And so it goes.


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## Ryi (Mar 29, 2009)

yellowsno said:


> its not just florida... its all over... the difference is everything survives better in florida cuz it never freezes over


^^exactly^^

Back when I still believed in plastic plants and oe lighting, I couldn't find anyone to take a pleco I'd had for years. We're talking the days before Craigslist and forums where word-of-mouth and classified ads were your only options. I released my monster into a small landlocked lake behind a local community college. I didn't do it out of malice. He would have died where he was and I was desperate to do anything to keep him alive and happy. 
I am the same person who stops traffic to let sand hill cranes cross the road and will be late for a meeting while I'm relocating a turtle who was jaywalking. I host a colony of ferals(all fixed so they don't make more) people have dumped in my rural area. 
People dump animals everywhere and for every reason. It's just more evident in Florida where the weather isn't a limiting factor for survival.


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## trixella (Jan 24, 2011)

I'm kind of surprised that they're still legal to sell, especially since there are Pleco's that don't get too big for aquariums.


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## thechibi (Jan 20, 2012)

Probably because most people are kind of clueless about fish. You see an itty, bitty cute lil pleco and it's hard to envision the pending monster fish.


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## Psionic (Dec 22, 2011)

thechibi said:


> Probably because most people are kind of clueless about fish. You see an itty, bitty cute lil pleco and it's hard to envision the pending monster fish.


I hear employees at all different pet stores who sell fish to anyone. I've heard Petsmart employees sell baby oscars and telling a lady that 5 can fit in a 20 gallon with some cichlids. Telling her the old 1 inch per gallon rule. 

Last week I heard a LFS employee telling a customer that red nesaea crassicaulis can live in a fish bowl... with her goldfish. I twitched. When he walked away, I told her the fish would get huge and the plant needs light. Her response was, "I can always put it outside for a few hours a day" and then walked off.


-Val


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## TedP (Mar 25, 2011)

I find it funny that this is news. It's been like this for years. And it's definitely not just South Florida.

Like its already been stated, there are many lakes that you can see tons of these. Huge breeders.


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## zergling (May 16, 2007)

Snakehead fish, anyone?


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## whickerda (Sep 22, 2009)

TedP said:


> I find it funny that this is news. It's been like this for years. And it's definitely not just South Florida.
> 
> Like its already been stated, there are many lakes that you can see tons of these. Huge breeders.


^^ lol I know I saw my first Pleco in a lake in FL at least 15 years ago. The most stunning blue tilapia I've ever seen was in a spring fed stream in central FL about 10 years ago.


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## jreich (Feb 11, 2009)

There used to be a giant orange koy in a storm drain runoff pond behind my old work, also had rought 500-700 of what looked like channel cats in a pond roughly 50sq yards. There were also wild turkeys back there and a huge aligator snapper. i allways wondered to my self how the h. did that koy get in there...


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## blackandyellow (Jul 1, 2009)

Plecos are a huge problem also here in Mexico. its funny how they don´t breed in aquariums but are so successful when dumped in local waters. 

Both in Chiapas and Michoacan they have become the worst plague. Plecos feed off the eggs of local species eliminating the locals. The ones in Michoacan have even evolved to tolerate cooler water during the winters.

I agree they should be banned from export and local breeding


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## Kayakindude90 (Feb 6, 2010)

Oh don't forget the dojo loach problem (near Chicago), the Western Mosquito fish (Guppy), Koi(common carp), tilapia, swamp eels, goldfish, rudds... the list goes on for miles. But the Western Mosquito fish is the one most people for get about. Bighead, and Silver carp were released from aquaculturing facilities during a flood.


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## Shipmonkey (Sep 7, 2009)

Kayakindude90 said:


> Oh don't forget the dojo loach problem (near Chicago), the Western Mosquito fish (Guppy), Koi(common carp), tilapia, swamp eels, goldfish, rudds... the list goes on for miles. But the Western Mosquito fish is the one most people for get about. Bighead, and Silver carp were released from aquaculturing facilities during a flood.


There a massive difference between a guppy and mosquito fish. Unlike koi being just the domestic form of your average common carp, mosquito fish are not even closely related to guppies. Their temperaments are even worlds apart. Gambusia have a reputation as one of the meanest fish for their size in the hobby, a fin ripper worse then tiger barbs.

Of course, if we are going to rant about introduced invasive species, let me say the ones I hate the most are the bass and sunfish that most fish and game department feel compeled to dump on every water way in the West. Apparently, invasive species are not bad if the government was the one to release them.


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## LB79 (Nov 18, 2011)

^^ No joke. Governments just can't leave anything be. Mankind, for that matter, can't.


Oh, and convict cichlids who are making a major effort to take over Australia's waterways.


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## Ryi (Mar 29, 2009)

If you're from Florida you'll understand:
Kudzu
Australian Pine
Pepper trees
*sigh*

It's not as though there is a no-kill humane society for aquatic pets. If there were...
We've all believed what the lfs told us. I mean, it's right there on the holding tank on the little tag, right? The same one that tells you Dempseys are great community fish and sharks are peaceful schooling fish that will reach 4"
Fish people are a little different than other pet owners. The guy that goes out looking for a Rott or a Pit knows what he is getting, the kid's mom who buys him a pleco doesn't.


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