Hello I can see that your video is based on the common pleco I own 1 my self but there are other types of places that are small I know this as I own Bristilnose plecos
You are discussing the Common Pleco. It is a shame that LFSs don't tell customers how big they get. A much better choice is a Bristle-nose Pleco or a Clown Pleco.
I didn't mean to spark a controversy. As a biologist, I also have a passion for ecosystems. I wish there was a solution for this problem. Invasive species are a continuous, if not ever emerging threat.
@lauradoop4153 how? If anything they don't make a ton on the animal and the animal ends up going to someone who might need them. The same thing goes for reptiles given to reptile specialty shops they turn around and sell them. At least the person doesn't have to worry about it anymore who cares who profits off of it as long as they stay in captivity.
Because of how large they get, I just love the idea of getting a huge pleco tank with a single pleco and a whole host of small tetras, like some kind of underwater dragon's lair.
@@hanifanzak Too much pleco and too much focus on bottom tank species. Having a species that mostly sticks to the middle/ top and a species that mostly sticks to the bottom helps create a balance that wouldn't be there with more plecos, plus a small species or tetra wouldn't even be in the radar for a large pleco.
That's almost what I'm doing, I have a pleco in a 75 gal with some tetras and guppies. I love the small schooling fish then my pleco swimming out past them
I've had people come in to the store I used to work at confused why their water parameters were off and fish were dying. They never did water changes, or test until then just topped off. They were like, I have a cleaner fish, why should I gravel vac or change water? XD...People, plecos and any other algae eaters/cleaner fish are not magical sponges that absorb everything bad nor do they consume fish waste and ALL types of algae.
I work at a pet store and I always tell ppl how big they get. I’ve also had to refuse sales before because ppl have straight out told me that they don’t want a bigger tank so they buy a pleco and when it’s too big they release it into a body of water and go buy a new smaller one. They ask me why I won’t sell it and I tell them exactly what you stated here. Thankfully never got screamed at for it just got an “oh. I guess that’s fair then” or “well I’ll just get it at pet supply’s then” and they leave.
also fun fact: plecos can survive out of water for up to a day. They have similar adaptations to lungfish where they can bury themselves in the dirt and temporarily mummify themselves to wait out dry periods, but revive when exposed to water. However, they can only survive like this for up to 20 hours.
In my personal pond I used to have this sweet playful pleco that during feeding time learned if he put his mouth to the surface of the water he could slurp up the fish flakes. He was goofy and let me touch him, rest in peace my silly man ❤
I would also say do not think that a pleco will just clean your tank on its own. They produced almost as much ammonia as a goldfish. So me personally, I wouldn't add them to my tanks. I've learned the hard way on that. Lost a few good fish.
@@Bumblesnitch depends on which one. Some breeds only get to 6 or 8 inches, some to 2 feet. Do some research on the breed of fish you want before you buy it. Those cute little sharks at petsmart get up to 14 inches as well. Don't blame the store because you didn't do your research
@@Bumblesnitch there's different kinds of plec just like there's different kinds of dogs. If it want a fish to eat algae in your freshwater community tank, there's many options. Do some research. Don't want algae in your tank? Clean regularly, gravel vacuum more often, and cut back on the amount of food you feed. Snails also make great algae eaters.
@@SailHatinSoap Brother I've been in the hobby for 20 years and sell plecos for a living working at a fish store. The video is about common plecos, which max out at around two feet. I'm well aware of the other species of plecos and their individual sizes.
Lemme tell you, this guy had a 40 gallon tank and wanted 3 red eye albino plecos that get 24+ inches long. I told them how big they got and he still wanted them. My hands are pretty much tied.
We had one that we named Pleeko (I was like 10) and he outgrew our tank within like 6 months. Thankfully my grandmother had a pond that her and my papa built so he went to live with her. He was such a cool fish.
Where "The Pets gone to live with Grandma" actually isn't a euphemism. Had that too, although with a rabbit. We had Bristlenose plecos, two of them, and they definitely had the most personality in the tank. Definitely the fish I mourned the most. Though I don't remember their names anymore...
Not to mention some species don't die when there's a drought. They just shrivel up till water is present again, and they're on their merry way. Lots of people get them to clean the tank. But if your tank has algae, it means it's a healthy aquarium. Algae is completely harmless to your fish, and even serves as a snack to most of them. Just scrape the algae off and do regular, frequent, high volume water changes (depending on the species of fish you have). People think getting a plecko will solve this, but it doesn't. They don't clean it very well or evenly, and end up increasing your bioload. Which only means you need to do more water changes. Snails aren't the best option either, they mass reproduce as well, and are a pain to get rid of, if you ever need to. Don't be lazy (not you, guy, just fish keepers in general). Clean your tank regularly.
Common plecos will prey on the other fish at night and rasp holes in the fishes' sides. Common plecos are omnivores and will require a meat based pellet or wafer. Mine went after my dojos one night. Luckily, the fishstore took back the plecos
They usually don't eat other fish unless they're scavenging. They'll suck the slime off of other fish though, shit's spooky looking if you've never seen it before.
If people really want something like a Pleco, may I recommend getting the bristlenose catfish or otherwise known as the Ancistrus Cirrhosus. They only get to about 3 to 5 inches so they are the smallest family of Pleco you can get.
Yeah, that's what we had when I was a kid. Two in a 240 liter tank. They also just had a lot of personality. Their bristles are unique per fish, little bit like they had different haircuts. Very cool animals. And a lot easier to keep.
I work for a chain pet store and have had multiple fish customers become furious when I refuse to sell them a fish based on their set up or their lack if understanding of their set up. Im not even fully trained in aquatics and I know not to put a goldfish in less than a gallon of water with nothing in it. Had a lady scream at a coworker on christmas eve less than 30 minutes before we closed, because she wanted to mix 4+ ciclids of different species in a 10gal that she hadn't set up yet, she also said she used to breed ciclids, but she wanted to go cheap on the fish and got the tank for Christmas. Coworker rightly called her on it and she stormed off and karma bit her in the ass right away as she ran her cart into a stacker almost knocking her over. Also Ive learned people will come in acting like they know what theyre doing when it comes to fush but the second you mention how big they typically get they balk at it. Had someone tell me the pleco they just had me bag wasn't going to get to big if they kept it in a smaller tank. They did not buy a pleco that day but they did learn about nerite snails.
I’m in your exact same position at a pet chain store. Over the past few months I’ve been screamed at many times for refusing to sell people fish based on the information they give me. It’s actually insane how entitled people are when it comes to fish. They think just because they have money they deserve to have as many fish as they want. Truth is, I don’t give a damn. I treat the fish as I would selling any other animal, they deserve someone to advocate for them since they are subconsciously seen as lesser pets by most people. You are doing the right thing here, keep doing your thing, I’m right there with you.
as a former chain pet store employee, this was a daily occurrence!!! i can't even count how many customers i refused, & had several separate occasions where i was yelled at cause they didn't wanna admit they were wrong. it surprised me how many people thought fish don't feel pain, they really are seen as objects. i'm a big animal lover, so it eventually became too much so i had to leave 🙁
@@Jocha21 You’re clearly doing something wrong because they don’t even have the same PH Or temperature requirements, not to mention how large most species of goldfish and plecos get, you would have to have a multi-houndred gallon tank.🤦🏻
@@Jocha21 Just because they aren't dead doesn't mean you're doing a good job. Survival is not equivalent to thrival. Research living animals you have decided to take care of properly. Even Google can tell you it's not okay.
I have 2 bristlenose plecos and 3 goldfish in my tank for 2+ years. I hope you're strictly talking about common pleco and not all plecos because my tank has been thriving.
no animal, snail or algea eater, is going to clean the tank better than yourself. that's what i always tell people when theyre tryna buy "cleaner fish"
I love Plecs!!! I had one that was 15” long in a 7’x 2’x2’ tank. They’re tank busters if you’re not aware of just how epic they get! When he died, he was 18” and I buried him in my garden, with full fishy honours. I called him Brisket, he had beef with anything of a similar size. Which was a rock hide and any Java fern. I don’t know why he hated Java ferns. He loved belly rubs and plec wafers, cucumber, broccoli and anything but algae really. 🤣🤷♀️🤦♀️
I had a 150 gallon tank and I was like I'm gonna go guppy crazy. Everything was going great then I added some petco plants and started seeing tiny snails I had hundreds of dope guppy's but the snails went crazy I was scooping out net fulls a day it sucked
The dumbest things ppl could say just wanting to start something when they know crap😂😂😂 it’s great honesty our society needs better leadership and education my gosh
There was literally not a single coherent thought anywhere to be found in that string of word vomit. I'd assume this is a bot but even they have a tighter grasp on basic sentence structure lmao.
I work at Petsmart. I assure you, even if the Pet Care associate did not get trained correctly and so did not ask what size tank you had (to ensure you didn't set up a deathtrap for the poor animal) and tell you how large the fish could get, the information is printed clearly on the tag on the tanks. Please, everyone, make sure you read those tags; they have valuable information. And if you do go to a Petsmart to get a fish, or any animal, please understand why we always ask those annoying questions about tank sizes, experience level, and the like. We take care of these animals for a living; we want to make sure they go to a good home, where they will be well taken care of. And we will refuse to sell any animal if we feel that it would negatively affect the health and safety of our charges.
I had a pleco as a kid, he never got all that big and lived forever, his eyes had clouded over and just slowly shifted across the tank. He was my favorite.
As a child we had one of these. It was the second fish for our 10 gallon tank we ever bought. 10 years later when we removed the tank we we went back to the fish shop and gave them the sucker fish for their indoor “pond”. It grew to about 6-7 inches, but stopped growing after that. I didn’t know they could get bigeger
As someone who has accidentally bred albino bristlenose Plecos, they really do multiply in no time. 2 become 20, 20 becomes 80, 80 becomes 100s. It got ridiculous.
You should really stop saying that they help clean your tank too because they only eat algae or other fish's waste if you're not feeding them properly, so it gives the wrong idea. There are actually algae eating fish and invertebrates available for beginners but the plecostomus is NOT one of them, especially not common plecos.
@@GrantChasesFish they eat the biofilm off stuff. great fish. and love the video. i just rehomed my sailfin for these reasons. plus i have other rarer plecos that are growing. just need to pull the chain on the zebra striped ones.
Here in Florida they get so bad that they’ll flood up into creeks during heavy rain. There will be so many that you’d think you could walk across them an never get your feet wet.
Unfortunately, they're invasive and harass the manatee. Bought 3 several years ago, knowing nothing about them. Was told they wouldn't get bigger than six inches... lol. They are now 11, 12.5 and 14 inches long. Well taken care of and run two filters for double the volume of the tank just to keep up with them... beautiful fish.
Wooow! That’s amazing. I feel like it’s like when I bought my snails I didn’t know they are prolific breeders😮. I’m thinking about buying shrimp but also saw that they breed a lot too. 😮💨
We were shocked to see how big they grow too! We had one in our indoor aquarium, then we moved it to the outdoor pond. Holy moly it got so big we thought a monitor lizard was in our pond
I work at petsmart and I tell people all the time how big they get. Customers wanna fight because they look small and think I’m lying. So I’m pretty much forced to give them a red eye albino which gets over 24 inches long for their 20 gallon tank… that’s on them, not me.
Facts. Someone got that idea way back 25-30yrs ago, they release that fish in one of the polluted river in the metro. True they multiply and grow fast and saw hundredssss big as house cat. idk if it level up the river but I notice their unique pungie stinky smell.
Yeah, my mom had me help her build a small pond in the back yard when she was tired of her aquarium. Moved her goldfish and 'algae eater' into it. Fast forward 3 years, all the goldfish were long gone ... and draining the 'pond' found the very alive and healthy 'algae eater' about 12" long and about a pound in weight. Would love to say it got rescued to another environment, sadly only salt water bays here.
There was a boom of aquarium industry in my community when i was young and a similar fish to that that we aptly called janitor fish was one of the aay popular ones. But as it waned, fish tank owners as well as fish sellers apparently dumped and abandoned the fishes in the nearby fishing lake. And as those fishes are not native, they became invasive, and grew massively and eventually, they kinda dominated the fishing lake. Fishermen learned how to cook the janitor fishes and it took them years to get the lake back to what it was.
Snails are a must. Snails will take care of a fish that's died and you can't see it. This prevents an ammonia Spike due to the dead fish. For those who have multiple fish, too many to keep track of, snails are the way to go. The babies can get in tight places other algae eaters cannot. If you get too many and would like to remove some, drop canned green beans or Hikari algae wafers, any solid food they will eat will do. They will gather up on it in 12 hours and you can scoop them out.
My mom used to have a hugeeeee pleco in one of her fish tanks (tank was large enough). About a month ago though the thermostat seemed to break and the tank heated up to like 90°F before we noticed :(
hell nah the pleckos are so indestructible and invasive like the invasive Rabbids (fact: the Rabbids are always appearing characters in the Rabbids Invasion series)
When I worked at Petsmart, I told everyone who wanted a pleco that it was a bad idea and they should get a couple of corys or snails. The only ones I felt comfortable selling a pleco to were people with large, established tanks.
I've had plecos over the years, and they do get huge. The old mom and pop fish stores would usually take them off my hands, but those stores are gone these days.
We had a sucker fish that got to be around 24 inches long . This was in a 100-gallon chiclid tank. Even in the 100-gallon tank, it was just too big. We ended up selling him to the fish store we bought it at. They were actually thrilled to have it. The biggest issue for selling him was because he was a big bully. He would chase all the other fish, and they were too stressed. Definitely choose wisely and do your research on which sucker fish is going to suit your tank.
My grandfather used to have a little dingy tank on his desk that had no life but a giant pleco and some algae in it, that thing probably had a longer life than I’ve had thus far when it was alive.
I throw a Pleko in a local river one time. But i live in Brazil, and Plekos are native from here, so i think that's not to dangerous for the enviroment. Correct me if im wrong.
My mom knew an old lady during the 80's called Crazy Mary. All day she'd sit by her bathtub and turn her fish around, cause he was too big to do it himself. Started out a little guy from a pet store and turned into a monster 😅
Snails in an aquarium can turn into a nightmare. Thousands of them everywhere, and the gravel will churn with them. Then you need a large fish that eats snails. The only thing that cured my snail problem was storing all my tanks and filters in dry storage over a PA winter.
I had one from a tiddler for about 5 or 6 years. It grew very quickly. In the end it was too big for the tank. It was well over a foot long. I didn't throw it in the river. I gave it to a specialist aquarium keeper that had some huge tanks. I had to smile when his wife said she'd never seen one that big. Fnar fnar.
I know not all stores do it, but there are stores that will go over care needs for the fish as well as ask questions to make sure you have the right size and type of kf aquarium vefore selling you the fish. But unfortunately not everyone actually cares for the care needs and some people will lie
We had a few of those. One time when I was about 3 years old and we were moving houses, my mother was emptying out the aquarium. Things were going well, she threw the decorations in the trash and put the aquarium in the semitruck we used to move, and didn't count the fish. UNTIL. Suddenly, a few minutes later, a loud kind of shriek or scream could be heard in the house. My parents tried to pinpoint it but couldn't find it for over 20 minutes; until one of them got the idea to check the trash. And there he was, screaming his gills off, sitting in his favourite decoration house. After the water had flowed out, he began screaming until found and put back into water. That f*cker lived for another 13 years after that event.
My grandma's pleco got to 2 and a half feet. She didn't know they got so big, but was happy to keep accommodating him. He was her baby and lived 9 years. She didn't name him though idk 💀
They don't tell you because you are a Google search away from finding the max growth size of any breed of fish these days. It use to be on the tag with the tank. They double in size because you buy them for the reason you said, to clean the tank. Eventually the tank will be so clean that you'll have to buy algea wafers to supplement the plecos food source. At this point it will slow down on growth tremendously. I have a 90 gal. tank. I'm not an avid keeper anymore, but I once was. I now have a Mango Pleco for this reason. They have certain breeds now that have extra large mouths that won't grow past 6 inches. But as for your common pleco, I once raised a Peter Plecostomus to be 16.5 inches long. They can and will get HUGE. There are free swimmers and bottom feeders. The common is a free swimmer. Very good cleaner ❤ I'm also a fan of crayfish.
Cory Catfish are an option for smaller catfish that are very small and stay around 1-2 inches even at max length. Theyre one of the easier and cuter to see, theres also glow species of them, Petco sells them. Im a fish person for the company
I knew how big they got when I purchased mine. I’m making this video to inform people who may purchase this fish and not knowing how big they get.
Can you just put them in your pond
Hello I can see that your video is based on the common pleco I own 1 my self but there are other types of places that are small I know this as I own Bristilnose plecos
You are discussing the Common Pleco. It is a shame that LFSs don't tell customers how big they get. A much better choice is a Bristle-nose Pleco or a Clown Pleco.
I didn't mean to spark a controversy. As a biologist, I also have a passion for ecosystems. I wish there was a solution for this problem. Invasive species are a continuous, if not ever emerging threat.
People seem to forget how many different types of pleks there are, only a hand full get to massive sizes the rest don't really grow past like 6 inches
Many aquarium stores (not pet chain stores) will buy them back
I didn’t know that
Common plecos are absolutely worthless. I work at a fish store and we don't offer money and we'll sell an 18" one for $30 lmao.
@@cockatoode705 ok criminal
@@lauradoop4153didn't know mentioning reality is a crime
@lauradoop4153 how? If anything they don't make a ton on the animal and the animal ends up going to someone who might need them. The same thing goes for reptiles given to reptile specialty shops they turn around and sell them. At least the person doesn't have to worry about it anymore who cares who profits off of it as long as they stay in captivity.
Because of how large they get, I just love the idea of getting a huge pleco tank with a single pleco and a whole host of small tetras, like some kind of underwater dragon's lair.
Or you can put a single large pleco and a swarm of small species of plecos like bristlemouths and zebras.
cool man
@@hanifanzak Too much pleco and too much focus on bottom tank species. Having a species that mostly sticks to the middle/ top and a species that mostly sticks to the bottom helps create a balance that wouldn't be there with more plecos, plus a small species or tetra wouldn't even be in the radar for a large pleco.
That's almost what I'm doing, I have a pleco in a 75 gal with some tetras and guppies. I love the small schooling fish then my pleco swimming out past them
I wouldn't advise it. Plecos become very carnivorous the bigger they get. So little tetras will be on the menu.
This is a very common misconception. Plecos will not in fact clean your tank. They produce significantly more biowaste than they clean.
I've had people come in to the store I used to work at confused why their water parameters were off and fish were dying. They never did water changes, or test until then just topped off. They were like, I have a cleaner fish, why should I gravel vac or change water? XD...People, plecos and any other algae eaters/cleaner fish are not magical sponges that absorb everything bad nor do they consume fish waste and ALL types of algae.
yep. snails are way better for algae control, and even then algae often isn't something you need to control
I work at a pet store and I always tell ppl how big they get. I’ve also had to refuse sales before because ppl have straight out told me that they don’t want a bigger tank so they buy a pleco and when it’s too big they release it into a body of water and go buy a new smaller one. They ask me why I won’t sell it and I tell them exactly what you stated here. Thankfully never got screamed at for it just got an “oh. I guess that’s fair then” or “well I’ll just get it at pet supply’s then” and they leave.
also fun fact: plecos can survive out of water for up to a day. They have similar adaptations to lungfish where they can bury themselves in the dirt and temporarily mummify themselves to wait out dry periods, but revive when exposed to water. However, they can only survive like this for up to 20 hours.
That is a crazy fact, thank you for your contribution 🤩
That's awesome I have had my pleco for 2 years never knew that!!
well thats just not true your lucky if they survive a full day. they will be dead with in 2 for sure
@@tylermolnar I looked it up and you were right, I edited the comment accordingly. Thanks for letting me know :)
> can survive for many months out of water
> can only survive up to 20 hrs
Pick one
In my personal pond I used to have this sweet playful pleco that during feeding time learned if he put his mouth to the surface of the water he could slurp up the fish flakes. He was goofy and let me touch him, rest in peace my silly man ❤
I would also say do not think that a pleco will just clean your tank on its own. They produced almost as much ammonia as a goldfish. So me personally, I wouldn't add them to my tanks. I've learned the hard way on that. Lost a few good fish.
Impostor!
Sounds like you don’t know what you’re doing
Bristlenose plecos are recommended for smaller aquariums. They stay small and will eat algae all the time.
As well as the clown pleco but they are quite lazy fellows
its because they prefer wood and meaty foods over algae.@@wadeboven6782
@wadeboven6782 I've had a clown for a few months and I almost never see him. Constantly hiding within the hard piece of the tank😂
I got some! Mine finally got sociable after getting used to me. Very cute and love to clean the undersides of whatever decorations I got in 😂
“Small” is relative tho. My bristly boy is about 5-6 inches
They DO tell you. It's on the tag on the tank with the price and information. Most people just don't care when they purchase. They get to 14+ inches.
Try 20+ inches.
@@Bumblesnitch depends on which one. Some breeds only get to 6 or 8 inches, some to 2 feet. Do some research on the breed of fish you want before you buy it. Those cute little sharks at petsmart get up to 14 inches as well. Don't blame the store because you didn't do your research
@@Bumblesnitch there's different kinds of plec just like there's different kinds of dogs. If it want a fish to eat algae in your freshwater community tank, there's many options. Do some research. Don't want algae in your tank? Clean regularly, gravel vacuum more often, and cut back on the amount of food you feed. Snails also make great algae eaters.
@@SailHatinSoap Brother I've been in the hobby for 20 years and sell plecos for a living working at a fish store. The video is about common plecos, which max out at around two feet. I'm well aware of the other species of plecos and their individual sizes.
Lemme tell you, this guy had a 40 gallon tank and wanted 3 red eye albino plecos that get 24+ inches long. I told them how big they got and he still wanted them. My hands are pretty much tied.
They’re so pretty
Note that's only the common plecos the brislenose only grows to a max of 8 inches if your lucky.
We had one that we named Pleeko (I was like 10) and he outgrew our tank within like 6 months. Thankfully my grandmother had a pond that her and my papa built so he went to live with her. He was such a cool fish.
Where "The Pets gone to live with Grandma" actually isn't a euphemism.
Had that too, although with a rabbit.
We had Bristlenose plecos, two of them, and they definitely had the most personality in the tank. Definitely the fish I mourned the most. Though I don't remember their names anymore...
Not to mention some species don't die when there's a drought. They just shrivel up till water is present again, and they're on their merry way.
Lots of people get them to clean the tank. But if your tank has algae, it means it's a healthy aquarium. Algae is completely harmless to your fish, and even serves as a snack to most of them. Just scrape the algae off and do regular, frequent, high volume water changes (depending on the species of fish you have). People think getting a plecko will solve this, but it doesn't. They don't clean it very well or evenly, and end up increasing your bioload. Which only means you need to do more water changes.
Snails aren't the best option either, they mass reproduce as well, and are a pain to get rid of, if you ever need to.
Don't be lazy (not you, guy, just fish keepers in general). Clean your tank regularly.
Sounds like I'm going on holiday to America and visiting every river with hundreds of those guys 😂😂
Common plecos will prey on the other fish at night and rasp holes in the fishes' sides. Common plecos are omnivores and will require a meat based pellet or wafer. Mine went after my dojos one night. Luckily, the fishstore took back the plecos
They usually don't eat other fish unless they're scavenging. They'll suck the slime off of other fish though, shit's spooky looking if you've never seen it before.
If people really want something like a Pleco, may I recommend getting the bristlenose catfish or otherwise known as the Ancistrus Cirrhosus. They only get to about 3 to 5 inches so they are the smallest family of Pleco you can get.
For the big ones what's the best size fish tank for them?
@@beastynado I'd say a 240. The commons get between 18 and 24 inches, they're huge.
@@c4onmylip how much gallon does that hold?
@@beastynado 240 gallons
Yeah, that's what we had when I was a kid.
Two in a 240 liter tank.
They also just had a lot of personality.
Their bristles are unique per fish, little bit like they had different haircuts. Very cool animals. And a lot easier to keep.
I work for a chain pet store and have had multiple fish customers become furious when I refuse to sell them a fish based on their set up or their lack if understanding of their set up. Im not even fully trained in aquatics and I know not to put a goldfish in less than a gallon of water with nothing in it. Had a lady scream at a coworker on christmas eve less than 30 minutes before we closed, because she wanted to mix 4+ ciclids of different species in a 10gal that she hadn't set up yet, she also said she used to breed ciclids, but she wanted to go cheap on the fish and got the tank for Christmas. Coworker rightly called her on it and she stormed off and karma bit her in the ass right away as she ran her cart into a stacker almost knocking her over.
Also Ive learned people will come in acting like they know what theyre doing when it comes to fush but the second you mention how big they typically get they balk at it. Had someone tell me the pleco they just had me bag wasn't going to get to big if they kept it in a smaller tank. They did not buy a pleco that day but they did learn about nerite snails.
I’m in your exact same position at a pet chain store. Over the past few months I’ve been screamed at many times for refusing to sell people fish based on the information they give me. It’s actually insane how entitled people are when it comes to fish. They think just because they have money they deserve to have as many fish as they want. Truth is, I don’t give a damn. I treat the fish as I would selling any other animal, they deserve someone to advocate for them since they are subconsciously seen as lesser pets by most people. You are doing the right thing here, keep doing your thing, I’m right there with you.
THANKYOU FOR REFUSING
@jasonsummerfield4505TYSM youre saving them
as a former chain pet store employee, this was a daily occurrence!!! i can't even count how many customers i refused, & had several separate occasions where i was yelled at cause they didn't wanna admit they were wrong. it surprised me how many people thought fish don't feel pain, they really are seen as objects. i'm a big animal lover, so it eventually became too much so i had to leave 🙁
They are the kind of people who kept teacup pig on their house because they thought it was a cute little idea...
plus they can dig up banks of ponds and lakes which increases risk of soil erosion too
I literally clicked on the link for this all set to rage at you for doing it. Such a pleasant surprise. Thank you for this PSA!!
Spread the message!
What that Aquariums are pure Animal abuse ?
Yep best thing to do is flush it down the shitter I guess
Spread the bunghole!
>hears the word "pleco"
>instantly likes and subscribes
I can get you tons of them. Up to about 20"
@@zachg5356 omg more plecos 🤑🤑🤑🤑
Good info :3 this is actually my favorite fish to see in aquariums XD
They are awesome fish. Full of personality.
DISCLAIMER! Plecos have a HUGE bio load, and also cannot be housed with goldfish! Please do your research before getting a pet! :)
I have a pleco and goldfish that have lived together for over a year
@@Jocha21 You’re clearly doing something wrong because they don’t even have the same PH Or temperature requirements, not to mention how large most species of goldfish and plecos get, you would have to have a multi-houndred gallon tank.🤦🏻
exactly surviving doesn't always equal thriving
@@Jocha21 Just because they aren't dead doesn't mean you're doing a good job. Survival is not equivalent to thrival. Research living animals you have decided to take care of properly. Even Google can tell you it's not okay.
I have 2 bristlenose plecos and 3 goldfish in my tank for 2+ years. I hope you're strictly talking about common pleco and not all plecos because my tank has been thriving.
no animal, snail or algea eater, is going to clean the tank better than yourself. that's what i always tell people when theyre tryna buy "cleaner fish"
They are good tankmates for monsterfish but for goldfish I use apple snail(Just a big one cause they multiply alot) or I use a hillstream loach.
Thats why i like sticking with mystery snails, and cory catfish. Theyre both very peaceful and perfect for community tanks!!
I used to refuse sale to anyone who didn't have a big enough tank. People literally lie to get them. PetSmart has a refusal policy.
🦒
I love Plecs!!! I had one that was 15” long in a 7’x 2’x2’ tank. They’re tank busters if you’re not aware of just how epic they get! When he died, he was 18” and I buried him in my garden, with full fishy honours. I called him Brisket, he had beef with anything of a similar size. Which was a rock hide and any Java fern. I don’t know why he hated Java ferns. He loved belly rubs and plec wafers, cucumber, broccoli and anything but algae really. 🤣🤷♀️🤦♀️
I work at petsmart. We warn people all the time but no one listens and sometimes we refuse to sell because of the information a buyer gives us
Hate to break the chain but just remember onxe you get snails in a tank whitout some effort you will probably never not have snails in the tank 🦒🦒🦒🦒
Ya facts
I had a 150 gallon tank and I was like I'm gonna go guppy crazy. Everything was going great then I added some petco plants and started seeing tiny snails I had hundreds of dope guppy's but the snails went crazy I was scooping out net fulls a day it sucked
The dumbest things ppl could say just wanting to start something when they know crap😂😂😂 it’s great honesty our society needs better leadership and education my gosh
Who are you talking about?
@@GrantChasesFish either me or that commenter is having a stroke
There was literally not a single coherent thought anywhere to be found in that string of word vomit. I'd assume this is a bot but even they have a tighter grasp on basic sentence structure lmao.
@@FauxRegard dude it’s a joke and knowledge
Don’t have to worry because we live in Minnesota, water gets to cold!
I had no idea how big plecos get when I got mine. It wouldn’t stop growing. Got over 14” in length in my 30 gallon tank. Miss my big boy.
I work at Petsmart. I assure you, even if the Pet Care associate did not get trained correctly and so did not ask what size tank you had (to ensure you didn't set up a deathtrap for the poor animal) and tell you how large the fish could get, the information is printed clearly on the tag on the tanks. Please, everyone, make sure you read those tags; they have valuable information.
And if you do go to a Petsmart to get a fish, or any animal, please understand why we always ask those annoying questions about tank sizes, experience level, and the like. We take care of these animals for a living; we want to make sure they go to a good home, where they will be well taken care of. And we will refuse to sell any animal if we feel that it would negatively affect the health and safety of our charges.
PEOPLE. PLEASE DO NOT DUMP ANY. ANY! I mean ANY fish or bought animal into a river or wild. This is a very big problem that will hurt our ecosystem
Is it just me, but are they actually super cute!😊
I had a pleco as a kid, he never got all that big and lived forever, his eyes had clouded over and just slowly shifted across the tank. He was my favorite.
Plecos are also not necessarily good for tanks, it’s better if you just manually scrape the inside of the tank
Thank you for properly educating on plecos
As a child we had one of these. It was the second fish for our 10 gallon tank we ever bought. 10 years later when we removed the tank we we went back to the fish shop and gave them the sucker fish for their indoor “pond”. It grew to about 6-7 inches, but stopped growing after that. I didn’t know they could get bigeger
As someone who has accidentally bred albino bristlenose Plecos, they really do multiply in no time. 2 become 20, 20 becomes 80, 80 becomes 100s. It got ridiculous.
Thats not how multiplying works but i get it :P
You should really stop saying that they help clean your tank too because they only eat algae or other fish's waste if you're not feeding them properly, so it gives the wrong idea. There are actually algae eating fish and invertebrates available for beginners but the plecostomus is NOT one of them, especially not common plecos.
They do eat some of the algae though
They'll pick on availability algae when they're younger but start needing more protein as they get a little bigger. Terrible cleaning fish in general.
@@GrantChasesFish they eat the biofilm off stuff. great fish. and love the video. i just rehomed my sailfin for these reasons. plus i have other rarer plecos that are growing. just need to pull the chain on the zebra striped ones.
they are honestly one of my favorite fish lol main reason I used to keep a tank.
Here in Florida they get so bad that they’ll flood up into creeks during heavy rain. There will be so many that you’d think you could walk across them an never get your feet wet.
Unfortunately, they're invasive and harass the manatee. Bought 3 several years ago, knowing nothing about them. Was told they wouldn't get bigger than six inches... lol. They are now 11, 12.5 and 14 inches long. Well taken care of and run two filters for double the volume of the tank just to keep up with them... beautiful fish.
Wooow! That’s amazing. I feel like it’s like when I bought my snails I didn’t know they are prolific breeders😮. I’m thinking about buying shrimp but also saw that they breed a lot too. 😮💨
We were shocked to see how big they grow too! We had one in our indoor aquarium, then we moved it to the outdoor pond. Holy moly it got so big we thought a monitor lizard was in our pond
Pleko's are still worth keeping because they're adorable!
Him : nothing can can eat them
Meanwhile my soft shell turtle : nice snack
I gave mine to my pet store . They were so happy to take him
I work at petsmart and I tell people all the time how big they get. Customers wanna fight because they look small and think I’m lying. So I’m pretty much forced to give them a red eye albino which gets over 24 inches long for their 20 gallon tank… that’s on them, not me.
I'm not a fish person but he looks like a little black shark.Theyre beautiful in a different way.
Facts. Someone got that idea way back 25-30yrs ago, they release that fish in one of the polluted river in the metro. True they multiply and grow fast and saw hundredssss big as house cat. idk if it level up the river but I notice their unique pungie stinky smell.
I had a pleco I loved him he was so cool had him for 11ish years
I had one of these and an Oscar at the same time. They were HUGE and we kept them in a gigantic tank... it was awesome
I want one just to have one and always have THEY LOOK AWESOME
Yeah, my mom had me help her build a small pond in the back yard when she was tired of her aquarium. Moved her goldfish and 'algae eater' into it.
Fast forward 3 years, all the goldfish were long gone ... and draining the 'pond' found the very alive and healthy 'algae eater' about 12" long and about a pound in weight. Would love to say it got rescued to another environment, sadly only salt water bays here.
I really like otocinclus catfish for smaller tanks. They stay under 2 inches and are honestly just cute
feel like saying "pick snails" as a "kick rocks" alternative😂
My uncle use to gig those from the creeks around my area. Hard to clean but evidently good tasting according to him.
Gold fish are also really really bad to throw in the river or pond. They'll kill off the natural fish in that body of water.
my school can relate lol
“Nothing can kill them” me out here with a harpoon and hello kitty goggles
We’ll see about that
I used to fish the bayous in downtown Houston, and I’ve seen some reach 16-18 inches. In very small channels too.
There was a boom of aquarium industry in my community when i was young and a similar fish to that that we aptly called janitor fish was one of the aay popular ones. But as it waned, fish tank owners as well as fish sellers apparently dumped and abandoned the fishes in the nearby fishing lake. And as those fishes are not native, they became invasive, and grew massively and eventually, they kinda dominated the fishing lake. Fishermen learned how to cook the janitor fishes and it took them years to get the lake back to what it was.
For those get confused, not all pleco grow to a very big size. Some are tiny and stay tiny also became collectible and at a very high price
I saw one about a foot long while walking on the riverwalk in San Antonio last month. It was chilling on a rock in the shallows near the Grotto.
I had one for nearly ten years. He grew a good amount.
Snails are a must. Snails will take care of a fish that's died and you can't see it. This prevents an ammonia Spike due to the dead fish. For those who have multiple fish, too many to keep track of, snails are the way to go. The babies can get in tight places other algae eaters cannot.
If you get too many and would like to remove some, drop canned green beans or Hikari algae wafers, any solid food they will eat will do. They will gather up on it in 12 hours and you can scoop them out.
Whoa, that pleko drank the river...
I remember my whole childhood having a massive one of these..
"nothing can eat them" hold my drink
My mom used to have a hugeeeee pleco in one of her fish tanks (tank was large enough). About a month ago though the thermostat seemed to break and the tank heated up to like 90°F before we noticed :(
It was quite upsetting, especially to my mom. Still have no idea how it happened.
hell nah the pleckos are so indestructible and invasive like the invasive Rabbids (fact: the Rabbids are always appearing characters in the Rabbids Invasion series)
I had two of them in a very small aquarium. They were huge, like insanely huge
They lasted 10 years and they were very comfy.
When I worked at Petsmart, I told everyone who wanted a pleco that it was a bad idea and they should get a couple of corys or snails. The only ones I felt comfortable selling a pleco to were people with large, established tanks.
I've had plecos over the years, and they do get huge. The old mom and pop fish stores would usually take them off my hands, but those stores are gone these days.
We had a sucker fish that got to be around 24 inches long . This was in a 100-gallon chiclid tank. Even in the 100-gallon tank, it was just too big. We ended up selling him to the fish store we bought it at. They were actually thrilled to have it. The biggest issue for selling him was because he was a big bully. He would chase all the other fish, and they were too stressed.
Definitely choose wisely and do your research on which sucker fish is going to suit your tank.
AWWW I LOVE PLECOS!! BTW peppermint plecos stay small, sailfin plecos grow
Down here in Texas, I find them more than any other fish when cast net fishing. Some Ive caught are even longer than 1ft.
I have a 75 gallon fish tank so I think I’m good 😂🐟
I just got one of those guys! I got him for my tank because he looked cool and my turtle was lonely lol
My grandfather used to have a little dingy tank on his desk that had no life but a giant pleco and some algae in it, that thing probably had a longer life than I’ve had thus far when it was alive.
I throw a Pleko in a local river one time.
But i live in Brazil, and Plekos are native from here, so i think that's not to dangerous for the enviroment.
Correct me if im wrong.
Same thing happened with goldfish around where I’m from! Ever see a goldfish in a natural pond, gotta get out a rock!
My mom knew an old lady during the 80's called Crazy Mary.
All day she'd sit by her bathtub and turn her fish around, cause he was too big to do it himself.
Started out a little guy from a pet store and turned into a monster 😅
Snails in an aquarium can turn into a nightmare. Thousands of them everywhere, and the gravel will churn with them. Then you need a large fish that eats snails. The only thing that cured my snail problem was storing all my tanks and filters in dry storage over a PA winter.
I had one that was 4-5 inches long maybe slightly bigger; favorite fish species
I had one from a tiddler for about 5 or 6 years.
It grew very quickly.
In the end it was too big for the tank.
It was well over a foot long.
I didn't throw it in the river.
I gave it to a specialist aquarium keeper that had some huge tanks.
I had to smile when his wife said she'd never seen one that big.
Fnar fnar.
I know not all stores do it, but there are stores that will go over care needs for the fish as well as ask questions to make sure you have the right size and type of kf aquarium vefore selling you the fish.
But unfortunately not everyone actually cares for the care needs and some people will lie
They get really big - proceeds to show a tiny Pleco haha 😂
We had a few of those. One time when I was about 3 years old and we were moving houses, my mother was emptying out the aquarium. Things were going well, she threw the decorations in the trash and put the aquarium in the semitruck we used to move, and didn't count the fish. UNTIL. Suddenly, a few minutes later, a loud kind of shriek or scream could be heard in the house. My parents tried to pinpoint it but couldn't find it for over 20 minutes; until one of them got the idea to check the trash. And there he was, screaming his gills off, sitting in his favourite decoration house. After the water had flowed out, he began screaming until found and put back into water. That f*cker lived for another 13 years after that event.
My grandma's pleco got to 2 and a half feet. She didn't know they got so big, but was happy to keep accommodating him. He was her baby and lived 9 years. She didn't name him though idk 💀
They don't tell you because you are a Google search away from finding the max growth size of any breed of fish these days. It use to be on the tag with the tank. They double in size because you buy them for the reason you said, to clean the tank. Eventually the tank will be so clean that you'll have to buy algea wafers to supplement the plecos food source. At this point it will slow down on growth tremendously. I have a 90 gal. tank. I'm not an avid keeper anymore, but I once was. I now have a Mango Pleco for this reason. They have certain breeds now that have extra large mouths that won't grow past 6 inches. But as for your common pleco, I once raised a Peter Plecostomus to be 16.5 inches long. They can and will get HUGE. There are free swimmers and bottom feeders. The common is a free swimmer. Very good cleaner ❤ I'm also a fan of crayfish.
The River Walk in San Antonio is full of them.
Spot on. The majority of fishkeepers do not have space for a 18-24" long shitting machine.
I got one of these. He grows fast.
Cory Catfish are an option for smaller catfish that are very small and stay around 1-2 inches even at max length. Theyre one of the easier and cuter to see, theres also glow species of them, Petco sells them. Im a fish person for the company