PlanetCatfish.com

Hello,

Today our marine science lab at my high school houses two giant common plecos. The oldest one is about 18" long and looks like a big fish monster. His story of survival is more amazing.
Before I went to the school, our disciplinary officer gave the lab a little pleco that had gotten too big for his little tank. For many months the little pleco lived in a school tank with beautiful big cichlids. One day something went terribly wrong with the external filtration system and nearly all of the water leaked out. A week later, my teacher found, to her shock, that all of the cichlids had died and floated up to the top of the pitch black dirty water. When she drained the rest of the tank she expected to find nothing. When all of the water was drained, little mr pleco was there still hanging on. Our teacher loves to tell the story to anybody who likes to look at the fish tank.

It has been many years since then and the majestic pleco has been moved to dozens of different tanks. When our tilapia had a critical heating problem in an outdoor greenhouse, they were brought inside to keep warm. I put mr. pleco in with them to clean some of the algae on the sides of the tub. What a job he did. I think that a fish with so much tolerance of change and heroic characteristics like that should be given a congressional medal of honor. Who knows.

Respect your pleco and develop a good friendship. He just might save your life one day!

Intersting story. Tough little guys arent they.

More ... tell me more!! So what size tank had Mr. Pl*co been tried two? Do you have a pic of him?? About How long has he been alive that you know off? Oh I hope you have a pic. ... see if one of the students have a digi cam? What do you feed him?

I too have a common pl*co named shark ... I hope he too gets big ... I have plans to get him a bigger tank within the next year or so. Anyway, I have a fancier pl*co as well but the common one is my fav. and he has saved my goldfish tank which became a green mess before I got him as a gift.

My ex-flatmate told me a story about a rather hardy pleco living in South Africa. It spent the first few years of its life in a tank in Johannesburg. When it was about 12" long it was moved to Durban, some six hours drive away. It started out the journey in a large plastic bag full of tank water. About three hours into the journey they stopped to check on the pleco and discovered that the bag had split and most of the water had gone. They searched high and low for a container to put the poor fish in, but could only find an empty paraffin bottle. So they rinsed it out, put the pleco in head first, with its tail stuck out of the end of the bottle and carrid on driving to Durban. Although it had its head in water that smelled of parafin and its tail in the air, it survived not only the next three hours to Durban, but it is still alive to this day.

Thanks for all of your replies.

Today the pleco lives in a custom-built researchtank that I'm guessing holds about 80 gallons of water. In the tank there are also some very big feeder gold fish, a great big white carp that has a disformed spinal column, some tilapia, a couple of bronze colored corys and a channel cat. What's very interesting about this particular tank is that it uses a specially made biological filter. Water siphons to a big green container that has holes on top to let water in, soda straws inside that hold bacteria and biological components, and a small pump that brings water back into the tank. The tank seems to have a special environment that allows fish to grow big, almost like it's magical!

I appreciate your interest. I will update my post with some pictures and further information.

Happy catfishing!

Tim

Magic! Thats exactly what I want for my common pleco ... I also have common feeder goldfish (they were .10) ... they are about 3"-4" with tail ... couldn't hurt if they got bigger. So tell me more of this magical tank, dimentions? I'm craving those pics!! How big are the feeder goldfish now?

I look forward to your update post.