aquariums
 

Hi guys.. if anyone here has an aquarium or takes an interest in them, please send me a PM - I have an aquarium forum I would like to invite you to!
:0519:

Re: aquariums
 

And a fantastic forum it is, with a few of the nana members there too!

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Thanks Howard! That means a lot to me!

PS, the link is Aquarium Forum for anyone passing by... may as well post it here in the thread!

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I was born Feb 3, so I am an Aquarium!

Re: aquariums
 

Yo Scot, great, I will make it a point to wish you next Feb. So, how many gallons do you hold??

Sorry, Jarred for going off track here. Can't help it, just gotta egg this funny guy...:ha::ha::ha:
Send me a warning later, ok....:ha:

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Have fun no worries Tog... lol

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What about those of us who don't have an aquarium but do have a passion for Amazon catfish and other Amazon predatory fish?

We eat Plecos here, you know.... They're very tasty.

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Whats a pleco taste like?


:raftingnaner::chefnaner:

Re: aquariums
 

Well, it's fish. The texture is creamy rather than chewy like most catfish, with a light, delicate flavour. It doesn't scream FISH when you eat it. The ones I've eaten were about 4-5 inches long, and they get cooked whole. The armour comes off fairly easily - just grab a fin and pull, and then there are triangular chunks of white flesh veined with purple (looks kind of like Monkfish).

I've only ever had Pleco done the traditional Amazon Shuar way - wrapped in a banana leaf with taro and palm hearts and steamed over open flame. This is called a Maito, and it's fan-fugu-tastic.

At Christmas, some of my friends are taking me out giant-pleco hunting. This involves baiting a shark-hook on about 2km of stout rope with a small chicken, rowing into the middle of the Napo river (the Amazon's headwaters), tossing it in, and rowing like crap for shore. Then, when the fish bites, you've got good purchase for hauling it in. I've seen Pleco the size of dinner tables (ie 6-8 feet long) taken this way. If we manage to catch one, I'll take a picture. Then we'll wrap it in mud and build a fire around it. A Pleco that size will feed about 30 people.

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You should check out the unique southern practice of noodling, or catfish hunting by hand.
Noodling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The fish wouldn't be safe around me. After drinking a little too much alcohol in college many years ago I swallowed a live guppy that belong to one of my roommates! :o

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Hey..Lorax and Jarred,
We also have a giant catfish here, the Wallago wallago locally known as Tapah, which grows to 8ft+. It is very robust and aggressive. It is an 'ambusher' type found in river bends. Due to over fishing we now get them about 4-5ft long. It is extremely great tasting like the common butter fish (pangasius) but sweeter. They will take a monkey off a low lying branch and aborigine kids are known to be missing while bathing in the rivers.:drum:

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Salty - I've noodled for small plecos and other small catfish in the shallower rivers, much to the amazement of my friends who use scoop nets. When I was Canadian, I used to tickle trout and salmon. It's dangerous, though, in any river that's got silt in it, since there's a very real chance of noodling an electric eel. This is less than pleasant, let me tell you.

Tog - if I'm unlucky in December, I'll hook a Bagre Gigante which is an agressive Napo river catfish up to 10ft+ and is not very good eating - the taste is described as very garlicky with undertones of sludge. These have been known to capsize canoes in order to eat the inhabitants. Some people here (mostly those who have hooked one) call them Sludge Sharks. It will be easy to tell without landing it, though, since a Bagre fights a very different fight than a pleco. If I do get one, we'll cut the line and try again in another part of the river.

Jarred - I like Pleco, but the real scoop is an Arowana. They're a good size, a great fight, and one of the sweetest-tasting fish I've eaten this side of giant red-bellied Piranhas. The catch is I have to go almost to the Peruvian border on the Pastaza river to get into their range, which is a week's trip in and of itself.

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Biggest pleco I ever caught was with a snag hook and was about the size of the one in this pic. This pic is my friend Matt who caught this pleco recently here in Florida:

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Be Careful down there lorax.....we need you here!I used to have a Red Tailed Catfish (Phractocephalus Hemiolioperis ....(sp?)) That I raised from 1" to about 15 pounds way back when. He was so big and smart that I could toss a small dog ball in his tank and he would"throw" it back to me" splashing a LOT of water with it , he would also let me pet him and gently take my hand and let me "walk him back and forth in his six foot long tank...........till finally he changed the game and started not letting go! You wouldn't want that with a 150 pound specimin I'm sure. Not to mention the Giant"Paulicia" .........Do you have pirarucu down there? I used to noodle up here too but, the worst thing I had to worry about was a snapping turtle.
Arrowana on surface lures.......Now that would be fun!

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Arrowana on flies. From a moving canoe. It's harder to do, but you get the bigger ones that way. I've never seen Arapaima here.

My tank Plecos used to love getting petted, which I thought at the time was severely wierd for a fish...