Pleco Plecostomus Sucker Fish Lives out of Water for 4 Hours

[sbthomas69]

this is a prehistoric creature , they are also oxygen breathers.so it easy for them to live in oxygen btw keep your bowl away from the garbage disposal next time, because if you turn it on on accedent well ... bye bye fishie

[MyAndres31]

I'm not a Pleco expert, but i do know that they are really strong fish that could be out of water and also they could b in almost any temperature.

[NoahLiemz]

coz the sucker fish hav lungs also.

[NoahLiemz]

coz the sucker fish hav lungs also.

[happyninslave]

When I was about 14 years old I had one. Our family went on vacation, and when I came back my Pleco had jumped out of the fish tank and was as dry as leather. For what ever reason I put him back in the tank and he started swimming, so he lived.

I can only assume these creatures are very hardy and are probably from the dinosaur era, like crocks, they live forever and are very hard to kill. Good for them. 20 years later, I'm astonished that little fish lived.

[SpringyChloe]

@megacharmeleon THATS TERRIBLE!!!! ITS THEIR NATURAL INSTINCT TO EAT! FOR ALL THEY KNEW THE FISH WERE MEANT FOR THE SUCKER FISH TO EAT!!! AND HOW IN HELL WOULD YOU KNOW THE SUCKER FISH ATE THE EYES? YOUR THE FREAKIN BASTERD! YOU BITCH! YOU ARE NOT A DESERVING FISH OWNER IF WHEN YOU GET MAD YOU SLOWLY KILL A FISH. WOW TALKING ABOUT A STUPID IMMATURE LITLLE BRAT.

[pointmieser]

I THINK YOUR WIFE PUT IT IN THERE BECAUSE SHE IS EVIL!!!!????

[Sarahmajig]

They're evil. That's how. 

[BbOYR0C]

All the species of plecostomus can breath atmospheric oxygen?and what is the limit of their life out of water?

[proto35]

i have head success stories with other fish. usually if they are still wet, there is hope. though a tough recovery for sure.. just happened to me now actually. it was almost dry, picked it up, saw some movement in the mouth, so i tossed it back. its jerking every now and then.. hope it survives.

[dragondude171]

My grandma had two of them, about 15 inches long and hella heavy, their skin was rough when you grabbed them and they somehow made my hand bleed by using spikes or something, hurt like hell

[MriBackup]

cool

[yamamaslover]

plecos control their bouyancy by gulping oxygen atmospherically.

[Joethepizzaman57]

soo what is that fish body, if ur dog ate it?

[nadiigirl]

Wow! amazing story...i just put my 10 year old sucky fish in a pond for the first time in arizona...it's gonna get to 50 degrees tonight so I hope he survives this winter. my sucky fish jumped out of his aquarium once and was totally breathing our oxygen!! lol..i love my amazon creature

[nadiigirl]

Wow! amazing story...i just put my 10 year old sucky fish in a pond for the first time in arizona...it's gonna get to 50 degrees tonight so I hope he survives this winter. my sucky fish jumped out of his aquarium once and was totally breathing our oxygen!! lol

[Superthecod]

hey is its tail jack up mine is

[619stevedyco]

well you really shouldnt be taking it out of the tank in the first place!!!!

there is no need to take any fish out of a tank to clean it...

[louisamorris]

evolution baby

[TheDogh8ter]

lol same thing with mine..but hes a baby albino...he was out of the tank for quite sometime wen i realized he jumped out

[yneshAshanti]

i had a similar experience. i have an outdoor pond, and one day the 0xygen filter failed. all my other fishes died, but my 3 plecos live till now to tell the tale. amazing ;)

[BIGGESTxxEMINEMxxFAN]

yeah there are fish that can breath air , but most will dry up out of the water quick , i wouldm have thought that in 4 hours the fish would have been dried and dead ..but anyways look on good for "walking catfish" they actually crawl out of the water to go to other other water spots which is pretty cool

[iloveeggs123wer]

the same thing happend to mine... it was like for i think the whole night....

[Keoki1987]

Right Wtf I found out mine did the same thing, Found out they survive longer than other fish outside of water due to an evolutionary adaptation.

[JamieT96]

Your plecostomus looks like a Gibbiceps Catfish.

[kakulard]

Re apostole einai alitheia ayto pou les?Exo apo to nero kai ezise?

[Nights85]

Yeah as you are well aware by now they can breath out of water but also the fins being up doesn't mean he is " mad " a healthy fish shouldn't have clamped fins but pleco's by all means aren't your usual fish so they are a bit more random with their fins mostly have them up when eating and the such..

[edarion01]

how did it end up in the garbage disposal

[devastat10n]

Hypostomus Plecostomus are able to breath atmospheric oxygen, as are several other catfish from the Loricariidae family. If the air pump on your tank ever fails, your pleco will survive some time being able to shoot to the surface and take a gulp of air.

By the way, I don't think your fish is a true Hypostomus Plecostomus, but rather a fish from the 'Pterygoptlicthys' genus. They are very similar however, and both able to breath atmospheric oxygen.

HTH explain what happened.

[KletosApostolos]

Thx for the explanation. I had never heard of that before. In fact, I don't have an air hose in my tank. Only the waterfall filter system (prolly just as good for him).

BTW, it has been 4 months now & this fish is still alive and still growing. thx.

[devastat10n]

A waterfall style filter would be sufficient to add oxygen to the tank, depending on the water volume and how populated with fish the tank is with fish. If the filter creates bubbles as it overflows, then its adding oxygen to the water :)

At least now you know why he was able to survive for so long out of water. There is a fantastic photo of a pleco resting on the head of an alligator, out of water. I'll see if I can find it and post a link here.

[fallentoturtle]

how long is he? mine is 12 inches long

[yneshAshanti]

@fallentoturtle so is mine.

[JDrockerDUDE]

@devastat10n yes plecostomus can breathe atmospheric oxygen. cool that there is somone else who knows that

[Nasser90santour]

they have like hard "shell" ... they are not like regular fish .. if you grabb them then you will notice they are sticky :) and regular fish are not :) that's why .. they defend themselves with the hard "shell" :)

[tinkerbellshines]

It can last out water for 48 hours as long as it is suckin on to somthing

[tinkerbellshines]

It lasts that long coz the don't need water as long as the r suchin on to somthing they can live off that far 48 hours

[robbor1469]

Ya they are a type of catfish. Its said by catfishermen than in cool weather they can throw them into the bottom of the boat and then a wet burlap sack over them and can go in excess of 6 hours out of the water and swim right away fine. I want to say can be dont with sharks also.

[notwhoyouthink101]

Hi i own a fish store and i have alot of sucker fish now if you watch your sucker it well come up for air so sucker fish breath air and if you dont belive me google it

[Juticar]

Hmm, Is it possible the fish had only been out of the water for about 30 Minutes? i mean he might have gotten out of the bowl at any time in that time period, not just immediately when you left

[KletosApostolos]

No, my wife got home @ 12pm and it was gone. I got home @ 4pm.

4-hours

[tttavy]

czxcv sdfs sdf

[DallasCourierService]

that is messed up!

[lakshmak]

so's ur face

[thetrainman407]

hey to prevent this from ever happening again, just do 20% water changes 2-3 times a month.

[foehammermetal]

since then i had caught a bunch of bullhead (another kind of small catfish relative) and they survived in my creel, out of the water, on an eighty degree day, for about six hours.

catfish are tough! i miss having an aquarium, plecos are adorable! i hope your little guy is ok

[foehammermetal]

I threw it in the back of the truck and drove home, getting stuck in a traffic jam for an hour (that dougechebag "daugtrey" was putting on a concert and it had just gout out) on the way. I cut it's gills to finally make it bleed to death, and that took 30 minutes, after being out of water for about three and a half hours and enduring a rodney king style beating over the head.

[Billabonga101]

dautrey sucks ass

[foehammermetal]

Trying to be as humane as you can about killing something, I decided to club it over the head, rather than let the fish suffocate. Clubbing works great for salmon, bass and other fish, but i could not kill this fish! I clubbed it until my arms were tired (if i would have clubbed a man in this fasion, he'd be dead) and it remained conscious! I fished for a couple more hours before packing up and leaving. when i picked the cat up, HE WAS STILL ALIVE!

[foehammermetal]

sorry, this comment is too long to fit in one space, so im breaking it up

the plecostomus belongs to the armored catfish family (Loricariidae). Catfish are among the toughest animals i can think of! i was fishing for bass one time and i caught a big channel cat. i had never caught one bigger than about ten inches before; this one was about thirty inches and weighed eight pounds! I love to eat catfish, so i kept this fish, i had never kept one before.

[the4x4yamaha]

dude thats crazy

[chuckfaststrat]

wierd...