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Callichthyidae is a family of fishes called armored catfishes due to the two rows of bony armor plates (or scutes) along the lengths of their bodies. These are prehistoric looking, ugly and are hard as a steel can. I swear they look just like the Nautilus in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. This family contains popular freshwater aquarium fish including over 170 species, accounting for about 7% of all catfish. The earliest known fossil of this species is from the late Paleocene, just after the asteroid ended dinosaurs. These suckermouth catfish are native to South and Central America and introduced to Florida in the 1950’s. Called Plecos, they are sold in pet stores to clean the aquarium of algae and detritus. Here are a few armored catfish facts. (1) They have strong pectoral fins, making it harder for predators to eat them. In many, these dorsal spines are venomous to deterrent predators. (2) While they have gills like normal fish, they can also gulp air and hold it in their stomachs allowing them to breathe for up to 30 hours on land. (3) During drought conditions, they have been known to “walk” across land. (4) Parental care is by the male. (5) They feed on algae, small bivalves, water fleas, worms, insect larvae, etc.
If you fish freshwater in Florida, you probably have caught this prehistoric looking fish. Are they any good to eat? If you’re up for the challenge of cutting through the thick layer of belly skin and preparing it like a lobster within its shell, then you’ll find the meat to be white and flakey. Taste? If taken from clean water the best you can hope for is fair to good flavor.
Here in Tangerine Woods, they thrive in the Lateral and we frequently find them left on the path, abandoned there by a bird that was unable to swallow it. They live in nearly any type of slow-moving fresh water and are most frequently found along the shoreline. The males dig burrows in the bank to attract a female which then deposits eggs during the spawn. As with all non-native fish, there are no Florida regulations limiting the harvest. You are asked not to return these fish back into the water alive. However, don’t leave them on the bank to rot in the sun. Return the carcass back into the water and Mother Nature will return it to the food chain.
It is usually good intentions that lead to releasing our pets into the wild when the only other option is to flush them. I must deviate for a minute and tell you of a well-intentioned woman I used to paddle with (canoeing). She lived near New York City and was fond of PITA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and told me that one day she was in a market and saw the tank filled with live lobsters waiting to be boiled alive by hungry city folks. She saved one and set it free, into a local lake. Her bubble burst when I sadly told her that the lobster had no chance in fresh water.
Armored catfish are just another name on the growing list of non-native fish residing in our local waters and are surely here to stay. It’s sad, but inevitable, that humans impact the balances within our environment. This is just another example of change. We introduce invasive species, and they eventually create a niche in their new home and they become accepted, or at least tolerated. Looking at the bigger picture, there is no part of the environment we have not changed, and we continue with little forethought of the interactions between those species we introduce and the ones that were already living here. But what’s done is done. Be careful when asking for change, we may not be able to undo it.
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