How 'Devil Fish' Invaded North America. Could Pet Treats Be The Solution? | True Cost | Insider News
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- Опубліковано 7 сер 2023
- The invasive armored catfish made its way from Brazil about 20 years ago and has now overrun lakes and rivers across Mexico and the US.
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How 'Devil Fish' Invaded North America. Could Pet Treats Be The Solution? | True Cost | Insider News - Наука та технологія
As an aquarium hobbyist, I can tell you these things are often mislabeled as "algae eaters". Naturally, they eat bark and wood that has fallen in the river, but not algae per se. People probably threw them out because they do a lousy job as an algae eater 😅.
True that!
Mine was eating fresh vegetables and let me clean the glass
i thought so too.. in the Philippines they are called janitor fish… so they are not good at cleaning?
@@rldabomb33 Sometimes yes, i think they really clean alguaes in a fish tank when they are really hungry
They eat everything including algae
that's the problem with many people who have fish as pets.
If that fish of yours isn't native to your area, it is far better and safer for your environment to just kill them on the spot or give them to someone else who's more than willing to take care of them if you're tired of them.
As inhumane as it sounds, killing them is a better option than letting them go into your local river where they'll do more damage than good.
In Brazil, "cascudos" (plecos), are not only desirable for eating, they were fished to the point of being nearly eradicated in some rivers. I've eaten them both fried and in stew. It was absolutely delicious. If people can get past the turn off of how they look, they are a good eating fish.
Weren't they smelly as well?
Exactly. A tremendous resource of protein being given to dogs as treats, when there are starving protein deficient populations of people all over the globe.
@@kernalbert4939we live on a globe?
We need the next entrepreneur to start exporting from the USA and importing to Brazil. Seems like a natural fit.
@@bitesizeknowledge6574 not really. When fresh, the meat didn't have much of a smell after removing the armor and guts.
Here in Southeast Brazil, this fish is called "cascudo", which means thick and strong skin, like a shell. In fact, it is a different species but very similar. The most traditional culinary use is as a soup or stew, due to the firm meat and intense flavor. Here's the tip, for the Mexican brothers.
Caldo
I had a "pleco" in my fish tank for over 10 years. Kept it with my turtle who constantly chomped on it and harassed it. But the fish's "skin" or armor clad scales protected it for its entire life from that turtle. It wasn't a great fish either since it pooped more than the turtle and didn't do much to eat algae when it got older and it was quite hideous. I'm glad people found a way to use this invasive species for a positive meal/snack.
Mine doesn’t go to the bathroom much surprisingly. But I also feel like it depends how much algae it is eating and if it’s being fed other food if no algae is in the tank.
It seems like you and the turtle shared the same opinion about the poor ugly bastard
Maybe the assumption it’s an algae eater is part of the problem.
@@User-rka_zykx76buy the smaller kind its called a Bristlenose and they stay around 6 inches and cute
Sounds like animal torture.
Having worked at a Petco I absolutely loathe the fact that this is the most common fish people want next to goldfish. No matter how many times I warned customers that it’s gonna outgrow there small 10 gallon tank they are insistent. Then they try and bring it back to the store but like come on it’s a petco with tiny little tanks. Had one lady who said every time it got too big she’d just throw it in the trash. People have no respect for fish and are too lazy to actually maintain the tank so instead get a fish that actually makes the tank even dirtier just for a glorified window wiper. Of course there are smaller species like the bristle nose but there is never enough being sent and they always come in the size of a penny which deters impatient customers. Please people don’t buy fish that are incompatible with your tank. And if you must at least be considerate and don’t release these fish out in the wild. Fish like these and goldfish are extremely hardy and will absolutely destroy the ecosystem. Someone out there will want your fish just please be patient and do your research.
Should have slapped that lady that throws her fish in the trash
It should be against the law for people to own invasive species as pets. This is the exact sort of thing that happens when you let stupid pet owners own animals that have the potential to cause environmental chaos.
They eat algae very well when they’re young but as they grow they become more omnivorous. They also only eat specific types of softer algae.
Plecos in general poop a LOT! I had a long fin bristle nose, beautiful fish, however I had to keep siphoning out mounds of poo! People are better off with shrimps and snails as algae eaters.
Throw a living animal into the trash? That woman herself is trash. Wish you can ban people like that from ever buying living things
Well throwing in trash is actually more environmentally friendly than throwing it in a river, so there's a silver lining.
I place a huge blame on places like PetSmart and Petco who sell these fish like crazy as "algae eaters" and don't tell customers they get to a huge size and don't really eat algae.
My common pleco ate all my algae in my tank. I guess I was lucky in that sense.
I got it FROM MY GROCERY STORE. So I made the mistake of assuming it was a much smaller type of pleco such as a bristlenose, for my tank. Yeah no. I can’t believe it’s that nonchalant. There should at LEAST be a little sign saying how huge and gross and ABUNDANT these freakish fish are lol. I got rid of my pleco this week and it’s a big relief I can’t lie. I do miss it a little tho. I had it for a year.
they eat seomthing becasue they get quite big and it doesnt take long
Plecos have been around in the aquarium hobby long before those big boxes store. I had one back in the 80s. I do agree however that perhaps import of plecos should be banned and they should have a KoS order like Florida has for pythons and other invasive species.
Most mom and pop shops sell them as algae eaters, too.
Not many Petco or PetSmart in Mexico
I started drooling when she mentioned that they taste like freshwater bass but with a firmer texture. Imagining the crunchy fried outside with a meaty texture inside while having the flavor of fish mingle with the sauces and lime to give it an extra pop of bright freshness. I want to try this fish now! One of my main gripes with fried fish is when it's too soft and delicate to the point that it's like eating deep fried air.
They taste good, with almost no fishbones and tastes a bit like chicken when fried, I don't understand why people don't eat them in USA and Mexico
@@valterzc8187they probably will now
Weird
Americans have a weird relationship with seafood
Freshwater bass tastes like absolutely nothing lol literally tasteless
This is so unfortunate, but always makes me proud to see people think outside the box and try to make the best out of a bad situation!
Pet treats are a niche market that likely has far lower restrictions than pet food. Pet food would have to meet certain nutritional guidelines. I'd like to know if any of these invasive fish are used for fertilizer. I've seen "Fish emulsion" sold as organic fertilizer in the US.
Invasive carp are being used to make fertilizer
There's a bowfishing channel where they said they gave them to farmers to feed to hogs.
You can throw them right in the garden. They stink for a day or two, but they dissolve right into the earth. My cats leave mice and moles in the yard and I just grind them into the ground, too. It prevents the smell and it enriches the soil.
thats where the left overs go after they use the filets.
@@briankleinschmidt3664 sorry to be that guy but make sure your cat is actually killing mice! Wouldn't want them killing native rodents (which can look similar)
I had one for many years in my fish tank. Never thought of it as food but glad people are making the most of it and coming up with ways to consume it.
considering how many people were lied to about how big they got - I'm completely unsurprised they've made it into rivers, etc.
@@lesliejohnson2982 Well, it's not so much about lying, but being very uneducated both the buyers and the sellers. For example bristlenose pleco grows up to 5 inches, while regular pleco up to 20 inches. Fishes get sold in store way smaller, because they are still babies and then people get shocked that they end up being monster size.
@@alise4041 I worked in a pet store back in college - and there's a LOT more info out there than there was. Granted, I'm in my 40s so we were selling baby dinosaurs in pet stores.. but we were told to tell customers "The fish will grow to the size of the tank" which I *still* hear coming out of pet store employees' mouths from time to time. So I think you're right. Ignorance has caused a huge problem. :(
i had a roomates pleco commit suicide one time. Jumped the tank. We didnt find it until it was too late :'(((((
I've got 3 bristlenose in my current tank.
I saw a video of some aquarium store owners from the USA in Bolivia, trying to get some new species for their stores, stop at a barge full of big plecos, all headed to market for food.
We have BEEN eating them (bodó) here in Brazil.
You can marinate it with lemon, salt, pepper and olive oil and grill it
You can make Piracui out of it (fish "flour")
Caldo de Peixe Acari-Bodó
1 kg Acari-Bodó
1 large onion chopped/minced
2 minced garlic
1 chopped bell pepper
2 tomatoes diced
1 liter water
I T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Clean and cube fish
In a pan, sauté in olive oil, the onion, garlic and bell pepper
Add tomatoes and cook 5 more minutes
Add the fish and water and cook on low heat for 30 minutes
Add salt and pepper to taste and serve
Maionese de Bodó
cube fish and sauté with garlic and onion - cool
cube and cook potatoes - cool
cube and cook carrots - cool
cube apples
raisins
chopped pickles
cubed heart of palm
mayonnaise
mix and serve decorated with sliced hard boiled egg, sliced tomatoes and Greek (purple-black) olives
I live in Central Mexico so I never see this fish , but I think it's great that you included the 2 recipes! 🤗🇲🇽
@@MexicoDigDoctor Where in central Mexico do you live? I'm in Mexico City (so, smack-down in the center of the country, both geographically and politically, and they're super common). I have adopted two of these fish in the past two years, and they were the lucky ones. Thousands are sold every day, and most of them end up dying because of irresponsible owners/sellers.
@ChibiHoshiDragon You Sir, have earned my subscription.
@@NeighborhoodOfBlue
I don't post videos anymore since my kid is an adult now but Thanks for the Sub anyways
And Semper Fi from a 90's 4th Battalion Parris Island Grad.
What branch were you?
That is almost a national dish in my country of Trinidad 🇹🇹. We stuff them with green seasoning and pigeon peas, fry them, then add them to a curry. There's a saying here that if you're a visitor to our island and you eat a "Cascadou", (which is what we call them), then you're bound to return to eat it again before your time on earth is up.
They are Plecos or Plecostomus. They have been in every fish pet store for the last 30 years. I personally have one. He turned 22 this year. They can live a very long time with proper care.
Plecostomus have been sold in North American aquarium shops for well over 75 years.
i had one jump out of my tank and found him the next day alive on the floor. they are crazy good at surviving.
from fish pet stores to dog pet stores
I must be doing something right, I've had mine for 8 years 🤣
He's lazy.
Protect Pleco at all costs!
They can survive out of water for 2 days if in a dark wet area. My buddy got all drunk and threw his giant fish tank off his deck. We went to check the damage out couple days later all the fish were dead but the plecostomus was just chillin under a rhubarb leaf. Still alive to this day
Plecos are hardy little guys. We found one in a old deactivated aquarium placed in a shed years ago. Still happily eating algae that grew, even though most of the water evaporated by then.
Your friend shouldn't be allowed to have pets. What a shithead.
Was it emptied before he threw it off or not? Tanks weigh a lot so that’s impressive
Same with Beta fish. I didnt know they could jump, mine did one day and I couldn’t find it until almost 10 hours later just lying on a the ground breathing, put it on water with blue drops and the beta was fine, lived for another 2 years
I drained my old tank down to the gravel and just left it like that for weeks because I didn't have buckets yet to scoop out the gravel, but the gravel started to stink so I had to get rid of it sooner than later .....after about 2 weeks, I started to scoop up the gravel and 3 Pleco's jumped up from the stinking, black water and started fluttering all over the tank bottom .. Devil Fish.
Me watching this video and my pleco in my tank starring at me like, hey buddy I been with you for over 15 years do not even think about it! lol.
The Insider is so good at these types of reports. Really amazing to see someone find a sustainable business-friendly solution to invasive species! Great stuff!
They'd be better if they gave proper information about the fish. Plecos do not eat algae only. They eat eggs, fry, tiny fish, and injured fish. I feel like they often do not fully research topics and have even seen them push false information about topics before.
It's also a problem here in the Philippines. We call it janitor fish 'cause they used to put it in an aquarium to eat waste.
That is a good idea, as long as they can be isolated from other outside waters, other than the septic treatment ponds.
As a janitor I am offended by this statement because I good sir do not "eat waste"!😡
@@onepunchmantolkienfan5383daddy chill
@@onepunchmantolkienfan5383 It's just pertaining to a particular fish, sir. It has nothing to do on what the fish really do and what a human janitor do. I do apologize if I ever hurt your ego, but that's not what it means...
it's also called "ikan sapu" in indonesia, literally means "broom fish" or "janitor fish".
I was a little surprised when he threw the small pleco back in the water. His mindset changed from this fish ruined my living, to I need to preserve these fish to continue living. The troubles this man goes through to provide for his family. I should be more thankful.
I agree, he should have killed it. But I cant judge the man without being in a similar situation as him.
he actually should've killed it, people forget that fish diversity will always have a domino effect to the environment around it. and with these invasive species ive seen an entire river die because of them, every other native fish will sooner or later become extinct in that river
Yeah sounds pretty short sighted and purely self serving. But we applaud selfishness when it's for ourselves, right??
Oh gosh people really...
Its government fault letting invasive species live too long
The fisherman? Even plumpy one is hardly to sell. This is not charity action, they have monthly bill to pay too. Bet nobody pay them to exterminate thoses fishes
@@microwavedcheetosdid you not watch the video??? the whole point was that there is already an invasion of them, throwing one small fish back in to catch it later isn't going to change anything when there's 100k lbs of live fish already there
it's a common issue with business models built around invasive species
no more invasive species = no more business
The same thing has happened in the Philippines. Both the devil fish and knife fish were introduced to Laguna Lake (Laguna de bay).
These invasive species have made it difficult for fishermen.
Yes they are so invasive native fishes like ayungin and tilapia are dwindling.
@@BOSSKIDLAT0120 Tilapias are actually doing well and its pretty surprising they are now found in Pasig river
Call Chinese people and they eat all
Knife fish are pervasive in Florida also.
I caught one many years ago in a canal in Miami. I saw a tail going side by side under a rock so I slid my hook on the ground of the canal floor and hooked it by the tail. It was at least a foot long. I took it to my uncle who has a 7 foot fresh water fish tank. It lasted many years in his tank before passing away.
My mother was an ichthyologist. She worked with game fish populations in Montana and Idaho. These Plecos are a species which is ubiquitous across the globe. I remember catching them with gloved hands as a kid in the Kootenai river. The biggest problem is their defense of spiny fins (one spine on the dorsal fin very strong and sharp) makes it all but impossible for larger predatory fish to eat. They have very tough and durable skin. They in fact are omnivores. They can destroy the eggs of other fish species quickly.
these fish are Very predatory. i have had them in my fish tanks for years.... i've observed how they will latch onto fish and feed on the fish's slime layer, this opens the fish to infection and illness
@@AlpineHiker They do that because they're starving. Algea pellets can be had for them. Problem is they grow incredibly fast when fed properly.
So tell me, where can a person see plecos in the Kootenai?
thats a cool ass job I'm envious
They things eat the eggs n fry of native fish
Excellent product. I grew up fishing the canals of south Florida and would catch armored catfish by hand. They would burrow in the mud banks. It’s impressive how hardy they are. Thank you for marketing invasive species.
i live in south florida and see them all the time.
What do they taste like?
We eat it on the islands
But we have to be honest that fishing will never eradicate an invasive species. It's a good way to live with the new ecology but when there are fewer fish to catch the fishermen won't go out and track down the last remaining fish, there will always be a remnant and within a few years it will repopulate just like it did the first time. And now the fishermen even have a financial incentive to keep the fish alive, as you can see when he's throwing back the live fish because they're too small so they can grow bigger and reproduce before they're caught.
@@krnpowr all catfishes tastes like swamp as I know
In Brazil, fish like these, including corydoras, are called cascudos (hard shells in a bad translation), caborja and cari (a species specific to the São Francisco River, scientific name Rhinelepis aspera) and are also popular as a delicacy in food. This includes pouring boiling water over them after evicting them, then removing the hard scale plates and gaining access to the white, sweet meat that led to the cari being nicknamed the São Francisco river lobster in particular)
Corydora??
They're so tiny and so cute
@@GreenCanvasInteriorscape search for Hoplosternum littorale, this fish and corydoras are fish from Callichthyidae family
In the Philippines we called it "Janitor fish", mainly used in aquarium.
The most annoying thing about this fish is how difficult they look to process. I'm a fisherman myself and sometimes process skates, which are quite difficult to skin, but these plecos are next level.
having ate plecos the best route is tin snips to cut the skin free and peel them
fillet a skate? that's serious. i taught fish cleaning for wholefoods seafood departments from store to store. after being a commercial scallop fisherman. I've never tried to fillet a skate... but i'm imagining it and... well, it seems like far too much trouble
I did it once. Pulled two out of the local pond cause they were invasive. Tasted fine beer battered! Filleting wasn't that hard, once you stab through initially then you just make the cut from there.
I had a few plecos as pets. Some of their personality varied from neutral to spicy. I was able to teach them to spin and it would know to come up for treats. I feel like at 12"+ they could be sold as pets instead of just killing them and they are better than importing them from Thailand and other countries.
yeah it doesn't look like you can kill them through normal ethical culling techniques like bashing their heads. And since they wont just start suffocating immediately there isn't really a way to effectively and quickly dispatch them.
At least you know they are fresh when they are butchered but it must be hell on the knives and the fish but killing them is literally the only good option for such an invasive species and at least this way their deaths arent im vain?
I dunno man. I just cry for those damn knives.
Same here in the Philippines. We have those plecos as a pest. After taking out the meat you can save the carapace let it dry and crush it. Very good for the soil as fertilizers.
Jesus loves you, He died for your sins
Janitor fish
Very informative. The Mississippi River has been having problems with Asian carp, but have been finding ways to decrease the population. Electrifying them has helped, and because only so many can go to being served as food, a lot of them are used as fertilizer, and all that meat makes for some pretty effective fertilizer.
New problems will always arrive, but there are effective solutions to all of these.
I'm glad that FL is finally restricting the sale of aquarium fish from other countries. Maybe they can prevent future invasive problems. They already have plenty now.
I used to work for a company that took the scraps from chicken plants and turned them into both cat/dog food ingredients and organic fertilizer for golf courses. You can take chicken and mix it with an enzyme that liquefies the meat. Then you can easily separate that from the bones and tendons. The liquified meat is then dried and makes a very fine powder. This can then be sold to pet food companies as an ingredient in the pet food. I would assume you could do something similar with the fish. The bones and tendons are then dried, ground up, and mixed into other items to make organic fertilizer. Golf courses were our biggest customer because they didn't want to use chemical fertilizers on their courses.
Hi, do you know the name of that enzyme, or do you have any pointers or link you could share? Thanks in advance
@@sergek1800 I do not. I was an engineer at that company, not the guy in charge of the lab was the one that dealt with it. I just know about it because I was in charge of the design of the equipment used in the new system for this product. But I don't know the exact enzyme he used.
I bought the pezzy devil fish treats after watching this video and i have to say.... my 2 dogs LOVE THEM!!! While i am aware of the process you are referring to i like the fact that strips of dried fish have no other ingredients. We used to get dried chicken breast jerkey for our dogs but now everything is ultraprocessed and many times the protein is sourced from China, which we don't trust
@@blantant True, but the company I worked for is here in the US. They collected the "scrap" meat, bones, blood, feathers, etc from the slaughter houses like Tyson, then processed all of it into either animal feed or fertilizer. Everything that doesn't go to the store goes to this company for processing into other materials. Most of the material went into the organic fertilizer line for golf courses, but the plants near the huge slaughter houses did have lines to run the better quality stuff for cat/dog food ingredients.
@blantant I raise chickens and give them dried meal worms for extra protein. I was shocked at how many companies are China based. It took me forever to find some made in the USA. It is also difficult to find scratch grains and pellet food made in the US. Big box stores don't care.
Had heard that plecos were invasive, but I had no idea they got so big! Definitely wanna support a company making pet treats out of invasive fish though.
it's situational but I'd second that
When I was a kid I had a pleco and it got about 8 inches long in my tank before I (like a lot of dumb kids do) put it in the local river. Though I lived up north and apparently these things can't survive the winter so no damage done, thankfully.
I have one thats well over 2 foot long.
Yeah I used to work at an aquarium shop. One time a customer returned three of them since they were renovating their pond. The were all three feet long each.
I used to have a massive pleco when i was a kid in my pond but now i got a cute lil bristlenose
In Malaysia they were introduce as "Ikan Bandaraya", which the fish do the cleaning job on fish tank. Eventually when the fish were to big for the aquarium they throw it away in open water and now the fish are widely breed in our fresh water. we might use the same method to reduce the amount of this fish on our river
Thanks bud for keepin us financially Educated! Regardless of how bad it gets on the economy, I still make over $13,000 every single week...
The market has been unfavorable for months and i keep losing my money selling off during dips, i'm very scared of holding right now. how do you guys still make so much?..
Google his Name;:
Yuval Eric Brokman:
search his full name:;
you will find him on the internet:
We eat them in Vietnam; I remember they were the cheapest fish at the market, we bought them already filleted since they are very difficult to proccess at home. First found in the late 1980s in the Mekong delta, now they are everywhere.
Damn that’s fucked. People commenting all over the world about this fish severely harming their native populations.
@@gregkosinski2303I think it's wild how out of hand things get when humans are introduced into the environment.
@@gregkosinski2303they taste bad, people wont eat those😅😅😅
@@unwavering_sightseer7818
The humans were there long before the plekos. The problem was the unregulated aquarium trade and big chain pet stores.
This were very hardy fish, it outlive every fish in my pond and it once was out water for almost half a day, I pick it out and put it back in tge pond and still lived
In Indonesia we called it "Sapu-Sapu" fish.. we have so many of those in river in some areas, it's crazy the fish originated from the Amazon to now all over the world.
Wanna start a dog treat business together?
@@TroPy1n Instead of dog treats (indonesians don't buy dog treats) should make those salty little dehydrated fish fillets to sprinkle in your ramen.
@@TroPy1njust sell it as a fish, in Indonesia they sell it in local market, and sometimes the demand is high.
Buy treats for the dog then eat the dog@@gorkyd7912
This fish is usually to clean aquarium none eat them, lele catfish is better
I love how someone found a way to help remedy this invasive situation that helps control the population, but also helps the locals maintain their livelihood. 👍
Honestly - one man's trash-fish is another man's treasure. LOBSTER was once considered to be a "TRASH" animal ... something poor people ate. The King crab is another example. After a lifetime of watching people, I've determined that the animals aren't usually the problem - but the general trend NOT to see a good opportunity staring back at you.
Had them as pets for years.
People dump them because they get too big
Unfortunately pet stores do little to inform people on how huge the common plecostomus gets, if people want a pleco for their little 20 gallon tank they should be getting a rubberlip or some other small species. Pet stores need to do better at informing buyers
Seen some in an aquarium store that were 2-3 feet long.
@@somerandomperson6511 People need to stop buying from pet stores. Pet stores need to not exist. The whole industry is evil.
Pet stores should stock the bristle nose variant and other smaller species, not the ones that grow to a foot
yep u should only be getting bristlenose plecos they the best
That's a perfect example of imbalance. In Brazil you rarely catch one of those while in Mexico it turned into a plague due to the lack of predators 🫤
Like they said in Brazil their on the menu in the a brazil rivers.
Yes, invasive species create a large imbalance, hence the problem.
Maybe Brazil have different water type lol
They are caught in large numbers for the pet shop trade in Brazil.
@@Paul-vf2wl yep, they're used for cleaning fish tanks because they eat all the algae
I wish this guy luck with this fish project, it must be hard to fish day in and day out, I respect these people very much, these more country folk seem like such good people, so nice, happy
They can be used as great fertilizers for gardens
literally my one concern about this was confirmed at the end: now that they have a profit margin for them, they don't want them to disappear (which should be the goal for invasive species), so if , for instance, they catch small ones, they *toss them back in*. ugh... this is a problem.
You can't fight an invasive species by catching them with hand nets, that's just some click-bait in the headline. People learn to us them best as they can, that's good
is there even a possibility for them to disappear completely? isn't it good that at least, he's lowering the population that could've gone even more massive and uncontrollable if he didn't fish them?
@@peachbooks3199 : all I know is that his goal is no longer to rid their waters of the fish. it's now a form of profit that he's protecting. it's no longer about stopping an invasive species.
@@NirvanaFan5000 his goal was never getting rid of them. he's one of the fishermen who kept getting devil fish and they had to kill, throw them and suffer losses before. now he found a use instead of just killing it. if hoards of fishermen can't get rid of them, one fishermen was never going to make an entire species go away anyway, it'd need to be an operation on its own
@@peachbooks3199
my impression is that they have more than one fisherman working for them. and with an economic incentive to catch and kill them, they may well be able to fish them till they're gone from the area - but instead, they're now *raising* them. Or consider if they had wanted gov't intervention to get rid of the invasive species - now they're likely to oppose that environmental policy bc they have a profit motive to let the problem continue.
By making their harvest profitable, it helps the fishermen, but it ensures they'll never get rid of them, because they'll start farming sustainably.
Maybe someone should offer to buy the small fry for fertilizer. If there's a predator that will eat the rest of the smaller fish, reducing the population of adults might help it thrive. Then perhaps a more diverse system might return.
@@alkriman4182Yeah, the larger they get, the fewer things eat them, and the more offspring they have. So removing only those over a certain size will definitely help reduce their numbers by a lot! Not more than removing all of them, but it's definitely a start.
And once there's fewer plecos in the waterways, they'll probably see an increase in native fish and be able to increase their catch of those again.
Presumably the native fish that supported their economy before would just take the place of plecos and things would be back to normal
I have noticed people not buying them stating that they cause gas in stomach.
Elsewhere, I read that catfish were bred in agricultural ponds, where entrails of chicken and other poultry waste were dumped.
I used to fish the freshwater canals of South Florida. I'd catch grass shrimp with a five gallon bucket, many times catching juvenile non native fish in the hydrilla and would raise them. Once caught a tiny pleco fry, raised it to nearly a foot and donated it to a display in a pet shop. They were everywhere in the canals, along with many other species that didn't belong there.
Making pet treats out of invasive species ppl don't want to eat is genius
straight up
It's not genius..
@@oliveryt7168 - Or, "It's not, ''genius'."
It's actually really really stupid and insane by Einstein's definition.
What's the goal here? Irradicating the invasive species or making money? Because those two goals are mutually exclusive and it's been proven MANY times in the past.
The second something becomes profitable it will be exploited beyond belief. These fishermen will start spreading these fish everywhere just so they can catch more.
Like I said, it's happened many times before and the outcome is always the same.
@@oliveryt7168so what is it
In Mexico we just need to invite our friends from the Peruvian, Colombian and Brazilian Amazon and ask them to teach us how to properly cook them. They sell them in every market in Iquitos Peru. I think you are supposed to take an orange bladder out of their stomach and clean their guts very well, then it is cooked in some sort of soup or stew. The common name of the fish in Peru is Carachama
Mmhm, just google some pictures. Looks tasty
Here in Brazil, they are considered fish with excellent meat; in some regions, people have to place an order to be able to buy them.
In the Philippines we call them Janitor Fish because they eat the algae in the aquariums
Ill bet it's pretty tasty if it's anything like other catfish species. Cajun fried catfish is one of my favorite things in the world. This guy is smart. There are plenty of invasives that are downright tasty. That was honestly my motivation to get back into hunting/fishing.
There are certainly worse animals to eat. As I understand in the US, southerners eat possum, raccoon, crawfish, and other animals that many other don’t eat! I love this.
@@reddit-it3414 Creature: "I have developed the defense of being hard to eat"
Humans: "I'll find a way to eat you"
you like cajun fried catfish because its drowned in a hundred spices and then deep fried, not because it's good fish. they are by far one of the worst types of fish i've ever had.
It's insane that carps are considered trash fish in USA even though they are eaten worldwide.
@@jaserror some people eat literal mud, doesnt make it good.
It's found in south Brazil too, really far from the Amazon. My mom used to get them by hand in river banks when she was a child, in the 50's. Her family ate them. This fish is called "cascudo" over here.
Yeah, very delicious... a sweet flesh when it is cooked East Indian style ... curried.
Making a spicy devilfish jerky or taco would be good marketing
These have invested our rivers in Puerto Rico. There’s no commercial netting operation that I’m aware of but we do spear them as a pastime. Good fun.
I have three plecos that are at least 19 inches and above they’ve got an aquarium that’s perfectly sized for them. They’ve got so much personality and are cool I just wish everyone was educated properly on how to house them.
I caught a wild one with a net in Houston about 10 years ago. It's living in my garden pond to this day, and it's about a foot long.
Tell your fish I say Hi
I used to spend mad $ on these fish as a pet, L24 Scarlett was one of them, species used to cost around 💲 150 for a size 8-10 inches.
Those plastic nets are also a problem.
This fish has a very good taste. Firm meat. In Suriname located north of Brazil we know this fish for more than 70 years. We call them Wara Wara.
Wara Wara means "Smile Smile" or "Laugh Laugh" in Japanese haha, may be the fish flavour makes you smile there?
@alexyounghunlee That is so funny. Yes, words can have a different meaning in another language. Thanks, Alex, for mentioning.
isn't it familliair to,, kwi kwi'' the harnassed fish it's dilicious
@@Manjarow They are of the same group of fishes. These are bigger and have a different mouth. Are you familiar with Suriname? And yes, kwi kwi's are a delicacy for the people in Suriname.
Wara wara or woro woro wich mean announcements or to tell something 🤔
I bought one for my 20 gallon tank at my parents house years ago. I think they've since gotten rid of that tank, but I'm pretty sure 'Frisky' is still living in the 10 gallon I had in my bedroom, all by himself now. I didn't realize then how large they get, until I saw at a Vietnamese restaurant a tank that had Plecos 3 feet long! I've made them promise not to just toss him in the ditch, for exactly this reason, he'd be invasive.
3 feet?! 😮
Are you sure it's a pleco?
In my home country i was a fisherman. Used to catch these fishes all the time. We called it "rock hassa" which when cooked taste really nice, unless you cook it right.
over the last few decades, these fishes have spread into the waters of Buriganga River in Dhaka City of Bangladesh. In this region it's referred as "Sucker Fish". It's reducing the amount of native fish species in the river channels near the city. the use of the fish as pet food could be a possible solution to this problem.
They could scale up if its profitable, turn them into fish meal for animal feed or fertilizer. Also use electrofishing to push them into nets or baskets if they really wanted to get rid of them.
Yeah. Especially, they need to stop throwing the small ones back in the water. Maybe kill them first.
When an industry forms around a problem, it will never be solved
@saltedslug7954 finally, someone with common sense. This has happened many times in the past with invasive species.
Honestly there probably is so many they wont be able to revert the changes all it takes is 2 to make the problem all over again
Here in South America (Suriname) we don't like eating them that much.
Sometime they can be a pest too, especially in the raining season the water level of the river rises,
this gives them the chance to enter the canals and other waterways driving the other fishes away.
So if you go fishing you catch this fish and some of its cousins.🎣
In Indonesia we cooked it as fish dumpling (siumay). With proper seasonings, you can't tell what fish it is made of 😊
we call them janitor fish in the Philippines, we have plenty of it here, some folks eat it but they say it's hard to fillet
They don’t even eat algae, they eat the tiny little insects and crustaceans that live INSIDE the algae. People buy them for the wrong reason in their aquariums, and pet stores don’t often know themselves. These plecos require a diet of protein, which often times in a fish tank, smaller fish will disappear overtime because these guys are so desperate for it, they actually become quite amazing hunters! They hover ever so slightly off the surface they’re on near a sleeping fish, and will suck it up in a second.
These are called "bodo" in Portuguese, and the people of the Amazon LOVE IT grilled whole or in fish stews. Eat them! Type "peixe bodo" to find how to cook and all.
Bodo ? What does it mean in English?
@@yuliazni3389 Bodó . the last "o" is tonic. no translation for that.
Just the name of the same fish; not sure of its meaning. Goes by many names "cascudo", "bodo", etc. @@yuliazni3389
This is the comment I was looking for, people should know how to cook this from people living with them naturally...as human always find a way to cook them well ;-)
Those in the Amazon simply throw them straight onto the grill (guts and all in some cases). Some eat the whole thing. I had its cousin the "tamuatá". Absolutely delicious! Plenty of UA-cam shows on people enjoying the bodó :) @@Jorg05111980
I like that they found a way to use the fish.. I could see it selling well as a cat food or snack. And most cat owners always have more than one cat.. I have 5 and they go thru quite a bit of food and snacks
I ate it in the jungle near Pucallpa Peru, along with piranha. Never thought it could become a problem in Mexico or elsewhere
Honestly as fish and chips it looks delicious and I love the idea of it being treats for the cats and the dogs. I am gonna get my cat some. Is there a chicken feed version made? I'd love to be able to feed it to the chickens lol
Simply chop it up a bit and throw them near ur chickens they'll enjoy it
*That's a great idea "CHICKENS", you just hit on a niche that could be exploited more so than the dog or human trade, go national, get rich!* 🐓🐣🐤🍗🥚💲💲
@@tropocal2343 exactly for a better tasting egg with darker coloured yolk lol can be marketed this way
@@tropocal2343 Yes!! Exactly! There is plenty needs and uses cases for livestock feed this could help with that :D chicken eat everything
Good thing those ugly damned things taste good...
I heard in Australia there’s an ‘invasion’ of poisonous frogs. One thing I remember they would do is use them as fertilizer or compost. Wonder if it would work here.
Toads, they're cane toads. I've never heard of folks using something that toxic as fertilizer, but you might be right.
Absolutely. Almost any fish or by-product can be used as a fertilizer.
In a second though, fish flour have been a major protein source for animal nutrition (pet and cattle) since forever, there is another idea.
But they haven't solved their cane toad problem. Human use makes sense, but is never going to make an invasive species go away
@@eljanrimsa5843they are much reduced, one doesn't see thousands of toad roadkill any more. Ugly things!
In Florida the natural springs and the brackish water have a Plecostomus season annually . We do not eat them, but they make good bait. I had one in my fish tank he got huge and had to be rehomed to a pond.
My father used to catch catfish, dry them out, grind them down and mix them in the soil for his vegetable garden. They are high in nitrates. I'm going back 60 years. What did he know that we don't?
Omg hitting the pet treat market was SO smart. Thats like an absolutley guaranteed success
right, the little botiques you know they probably over charge so much for it lol.
Thank god, people, living in California. aren't stupid. Imagine being a third-world country and not eating fish because of a rumor.
It's a very limited market. They're better off making fertilizer or something mass produced.
@@homes892 are you saying the locals there are stupid? They'd never seen anything like that before and most of them grew up on those waters. I'd be pretty skeptical too
@@vintagethrifter2114 You're not going to eradicate them with targeted commercial fishing. If you successfully reduce the population with commercial fishing that makes it really hard to stay profitable so the fishers leave and the remnants will repopulate in a couple years. You would need probably a multi-step approach where you use commercial fishing to reduce the population, then bounties to get it down even further, and then an actual government agency coming in to destroy any that are left by catching basically every fish and killing any of the pecos that are caught.
In America we call them "Plecostomus".
Plecostomus means “folded mouth” in Latin. These fish are well-known algae eaters who originated in the rivers of the Amazon jungle.
Well in 'Merica we call them there sucker fish. And we find them in fish bowls
@johnsmith-ls6tq thanks for the info. They didn't repeat it several times in the video.
It’s nice to see solutions like this for invasive
Technically its called Janitor fish, the same ones you see in your aquarium. Its an edible fish, problem is their armor, its hard to prepare and doesnt have as much meat as other fish.
Those things are practically immortal
for those who know the species of fish, here in Brazil it is called cascudo... it has no scales and is rough like sandpaper...a culinary delicacy
Brazil banned violent video games. That says it all
I'm a bit surprised it's so hard to convince the people to eat them. There are plenty of videos on YT where these can be seen on fishmarkets or grilling on simple fires.
in the amazon, Brazil this fish is called BODÓ.
These are plecostomus if I'm not mistaken. Yeah sure they're all cute, kinda, when they are small, but they can get HUGE with the right care, they end up looking like something from the prehistoric age.. I had 2 of these in my koi pond, one died from the cold before I could bring it in for the winter. That thing scared the crap out of me when it floated up to the surface. The other one I rehomed to a land locked pond, probably dead now too from the cold.
So, we have find its Kriptonite 🤣. It makes a lot of sense being a tropical fish.
To be honest a faster and less labor intensive method might be to skip the "gucci" treatment, paste it, and use it as an ingredient in higher end dry cat/ dog food as a protein source.
Agree. You make my day with "the gucci treatment" 🤣🤣🤣
@@asadabdulqaabir4006 "Will it blend?!?!" 😂
Thqt ariel view of the river in mexico looks beautiful
They are in lake casa blanka in laredo tx. I caught a few in 2004, and i know they are still there.
Its called "cascudo" in Brazil, and the big ones taste really good.
We also have those here in the Philippines. We call them janitor fish. When I was a kid, I thought these are native species .
You should catch them and do a “Bodozada”. Very tasty. Here in Manaus(Brazil) we call this fish “Bodó”
We call it janitor fish here in the Philippines, first it was an aquarium pets, now a pests.🙃
It’s hard to control once they are in your waters,in Philippines river they are everywhere (Marikina River ) it just started a few from pet owners that outgrown their aquarium,
Plecostamus. Tiny armored suckerfish, till they aren't. My old science teacher kept one nearly a foot long, and she told me about all the times she tried to keep it with other fish before it grew to that size. It grew to take up all the space in that 20 gal tank, and it apparently ate its tank mates.
Not sure about that. They are not predators, but scatophagus. And they certainly will outlive other aquarium species with a few exceptions like goldfish and oscar.
I have one once slapped me on the face with. It just flew and slapped me, of course I'm bleeding but not that much. I'm more filled with rage than pain in that moment.
I've been saying for awhile that they should do this with he invasive carp as well.
We call them "Janitor Fish" here in the Philippines. I never thought they can be consumed coz' they have this funky odor.
Come on man. Stop lying. We know Filipinos will eat ANYTHING. If you can eat balut, this fish is even tastier.
@@ahndeux hahahaha.,lol 😂
Wow yes, I had many of these monsters in my UK Discus tanks back in the 90's, they really grow big at the higher temperatures required for Discus, no idea they were so problematic
The wormy pattern on the belly of the devil fish looks similar to the back of a brook trout.
in Philippines we called that janitor fish , they clean all dirty canal and River all over the Philippines and the results are amazing, crystal clear water results,
They also eat garbage, plastics under water to help rivers clean,
They also edible, but we don't eat them because they are very useful and helpful to ecosystem
During a real cold winter in South, Texas 2 years ago, I found hundreds dead in a canal.
Invasives are such a depressing issue.
While it’s good they found a use, the use will guarantee they’ll never truly tackle the problem. One of the last comments was they throw the small ones back. No, they should kill everyone they catch, but now that they have some use, they’re going to allow, or even encourage the species.
Yes, big mistake.
It's incredibly difficult to get rid of invasive species that out compete natives. So many examples of this in every region. Kill every one that's caught and catch everyone you can. They will still be there and still be a problem for the rest of the habitat.
I do support using what you can to be able to at least meet cost while trying to get rid of them. But the primary focus needs to be on eliminating them.
I bet placos would make a great leather too. Even though they're small.
Capitalism is better at making more rather than less, that’s why when I hear people complain about animals on the endangered species list I say “put it on a McDonald’s menu and then people will farm them”.
@@mahnamahna3252 Actually that's not really a big problem. The more they stay at one place the more natural predators will come as long as their population isn't growing uncontrollably.
@@The6thShadowThat's the problem, they said in the video that in the areas they've been found (outside of their native environment) they don't have natural predators, so unless another invasive species is added the only real predators they have are humans...who are not doing what they need to do to eliminate the problem.
@straightjacket3.519 I get you're trying to make a profound statement, but no.
Me and my friend caught one in the Bayou in Houston back in 1996
bow fishing in local streams has been the easiest way to get em for me.. they are great cut bait for both fresh and salt water.. they also dont taste toooo bad. ( THEY BURROW OVER 10 FEET INTO BANK WALLS)