Pleco Plecostomus Sucker Fish Lives out of Water for 4 Hours

I have this Pleco Plecostomus Sucker Fish. I took it out of the tank so I could clean the tank. I put in in a bowl on our kitchen counter. At 12pm we couldn't find the fish. Found it 4 hours later at 4pm in the garbage disposal still alive.

Can anyone explain how this fish can live out of the water for 4 hours and survive? Here is time schedule.

11:30am - remove fish from tank. Put fish in bowl on kitchen counter.
11:40am - leave house
12:00pm - wife comes home & fish is not in bowl.
4:00pm - I come home to look for fish.
4:05pm - I find fish (alive) in garbage disposal

Next day - Fish still alive and seems to be doing well. WTF?

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Pleco
• Plecostomus
• Fish
• Lives
• out
• of
• Water
• for
• Hours
• survives

[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.

[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

[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

[JDrockerDUDE]

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

[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?