for all you newbies out there who think common plecos are OK in your tank

fballguy

fballguy

yum
Feb 27, 2006
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Everett, WA
www.freshwaterfanatics.com
I was at the LFS today and glanced at their tank where they put plecos that get dumped off on them and noticed a HUGE pleco. I carry a small tape measure on my keychain and the pleco was suctioned onto the front of the tank so I had to whip out the measuring tape and see. It was a whopping 30 inches! No joke! I would bet it weighed close to 10 pounds.
 
are you sure it was a common? there are other plecos that look sort of like commons that can get that big. can't remember the names, though.
 
fballguy said:
Looked exactly like every other common I've seen, just a whole lot bigger.
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hmmmm.... you never know.... it could have eaten radioactive waste when it was young, and it made it grow into a super pleco! :sim:
 
I was at a fish store recently and they have an absolutely massive tank (at least 15ft long and 9ft high). In the tank they keep specimens just to demonstrate how big some breeds can get. They had a common plec that was 35inches and a red tailed catfish that was nearly 5ft long. There were a couple of other big fish but not sure what breed they were.
 
Wow the biggest Ive ever seen is 18 inches.
We have a store that has some large ones as well. They had rainbows that were 6 inches, tinfoil barbs at least 12 inches maybe more and a ormanda gold that was 8 inches long 4 inches high and 4 inches wide
 
biggest fish at my LFS last time I checked was a 2' long sleeper.
 
Commons can easily reach 3ft or a bit more. We have a river here infested with them, most of the ones retrieved were more than 3ft. long, they look like logs if you ask me.

As to the question of how they got there, the local government had this "bright" (sarcastic) idea that they would help clean up the river so they just dumped some hundreds of them in the river. Now they are everywhere. They did spread from that particular river up to its tributary rivers. The big ones destroy fishpens and I guess attack some fish by sucking on their mucus coating.
 
khombre said:
the local government had this "bright" (sarcastic) idea that they would help clean up the river so they just dumped some hundreds of them in the river.
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:duh: it sounds like how the California Department of Transportation planted ice plant all over the coast to help "defeat" erosion on the cliffs and slopes. Turns out ice plant spreads like wildfire AND lacks sufficient root structure to hold the soil in place :duh:

Govuhments are smart.
 
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