Wild Florida Plecos

powellmacaque

AC Members
Feb 16, 2005
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St. Petersburg, FL
Ok, maybe not wild, but I thought this was interesting.

So my friend lives in an apartment complex in a suburb outside of Tampa/Clearwater Florida. One day we were bored, and we decided to go out to one of the man made ponds in the complex and hang out. While walking around, we found a gig just lying on the shoreline, so my friend decided to pick it up.

Merely seconds after exclaiming "I don't see how anybody could catch anything with this!" he throws the thing into the water and brings in a Pleco, first shot.

This surprised us both, not only the shear fact that he had snagged a fish without even trying, but that it was a pleco. Apparently some residents got tired of their plecos and released them into the pond, but upon further inspection we discovered hundreds of them!

How are these living in the waters? It gets relatively cold in this part of Florida (sometimes as low as 25 degrees!) in November, Decemeber, and January. Can all plecos adapt to these conditions?
 
yea there are tons of them in the Hillsborough river and from what i have heard(havent actually seen) there are some that rival the size of small gators
 
They are all over Texas. You'd be surprised how many pictures on Planetcatfish are of "alien/exotic" fish caught in some Texas lake. There's HERDS of them in Lake Texana.
 
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