“pleco” vs “catfish” EU vs US

[Mhscotty]

I’ve heard that “pleco” is more of a US term and that other countries simply say “catfish” when referring to L-types. Please share what word you use when referring to L-type catfish and let me know where you live! Thanks

I live in the US, specifically on the west coast in California, and I call them “plecos”

[bekateen]

Pleco... but I'm in California too, so maybe it's meaningless.

Cheers, Eric

But do you say "plee-ko" or "pleh-ko?"

[Jools]

Not heard that one before and I can't really say it's true. I've never heard a Dane, Dutch or German (to name a few) say the phrase sunshine catfish, medusa catfish or para catfish. They've always said/written and traded as pleco.

And, I certainly don't own zebracatfish.com, I own zebrapleco.com.

In the UK they used to be called Plecs, without the O, pre 2000ish. The global usage is now firmly pleco. Interesting side note, first time I heard the word Pleco, it was spoken by a German.

Aside from common pleco, I don't think I personally use the term much.

The only possible route for this that I can think of is that Germans say l-welse which literally translated means l-catfish, which is hyper-technically correct if pleco=hypostominae, then not all l-numbers are plecos. There are one or two other subfamilies in there if you look closely.

Jools

[Bas Pels]

As Jools pointed out, Pleco is a word not that often used in recent time.

But to me, and I think my fellow countrymen, meerval, the Dutch word for catfish would refer to 1 species, Silurus glanis.

Those who know meervallen is a group of fish, the people keeping fishes, might use this word, but none of them would use pleco for a catfish without a sucking cup.

[Jools]

@Bas Pels, agree, and I think the Dutch term for pleco is harnasmeervallen albeit, like the German harnischwelse this applies to all Loricaridae? For some reason, my brain also remembers that antennenmeerval is Dutch for Bristlenose (Pleco). I may be a bit out of date as my sources for that are the old dutch books that were translated into English for the US market that ended up being sold in the UK. Those sources being, amazingly, some 50+ years old now.

Jools

[Bas Pels]

You are completely right, and the words are also correct.

[TwoTankAmin]

As far as I understand it, the term pleco in the states basically refers to any of the suckermouth catfish. I assume this includes at least most members of the Family Loricariidae. The problem is in the scientific names. Every "cory" species in Genera in its name "Corydoras." The same applies to the other two genera in the family. But the family Loricariidae has no such convenient naming convention. So the fallback here has become "pleco." Not all of the sub-families are referred to as plecos especially those with fewer than 10 members.

I suppose one might define a pleco as any fish, described or not, which has had or currently has only an L or an LDA number designation could be considered a "pleco?"

But that is the problem with generic terminology.

@Mhscotty, I overnighted at the Madonna Inn on a Highway 1 drive from SF to LA in 1987

[Mhscotty]

Loving the feedback everyone! I find nomenclature and locational slang so fascinating.

Its interesting to me that “pleco” has caught on to describe the Loricariidae family even though Plecostomus aren’t the half of it! Perhaps they were the first offered in the aquarium trade? Or the most popular species in the trade?

Very interesting, please continue with the feedback on what you call these fish in your area

@twotankamin small world! I drive by the Madonna Inn everyday! We had our first reptile expo in my area there last month.

[Jools]

I would argue that although cory originally derived from Corydoras, nowadays it's a derivative of the subfamily name, corydoradinae.

Not sure about the l-number definition above,

Hypostomus plecostomus

(called Plecostomus plecostomus when the term pleco was coined), doesn't have an l-number. Neither does, for example, the

blue eyed pleco

, and others are a matter of timing, we were calling a royal pleco with that name well before

L191

was created.

As TTA says common names have no particular rules or governance, their only "rule" is usage. Who knew when I made up the name leopard frog pleco that it'd stick (not me!). So, I think the term pleco is applied to the subfamily hypostominae because I can't think of any usage outside of that sub-family. Of course, I made be entirely wrong. Does anyone have examples from other sub-fams?

Jools

Let's ignore the Hong Kong "pleco",

Beaufortia kweichowensis

too. The rules are there ain't no rules!!!

[Bas Pels]

I was also thinking, a placo must be large. Ancistrus would do, but smaller? Anybody calling an Otocinclus pleco?

[Jools]

I was also thinking, a placo must be large. Ancistrus would do, but smaller? Anybody calling an Otocinclus pleco?

A zebra pleco is not very big?

Jools

[Bas Pels]

I was also thinking, a placo must be large. Ancistrus would do, but smaller? Anybody calling an Otocinclus pleco?

A zebra pleco is not very big?

Jools

That´s right. But I never heard the wordt pleco for any of the Hypoptopomatinae

[TwoTankAmin]

I have always considered these little guys as being tiny plecos, but we refer to them, generically, as Otos. "Corys" are all corys, there is not an alternative or added name involved. This must mean the unwritten rules for generic naming conventions prohibit calling Otos plecos. They are one or the other, and Otos has been assigned. That is why we have zebra otos and zebra plecos.

Otocinclus are almost as cute as corys, imo, and are also one of my very few "death" fish. I have kept ,and often had spawn, about 10 different species of "pleco" (mostly Hypancistrus plus various versions of the bastard tank bristlenose). They all thrived. Except for Otos. I think I killed about 75 of them over 18 months before I realized I should not keep them. I did have two that lived in one tank for several years. I kept two different species and they nearly all went to the big tank in the great beyond within six months. Maybe that argues for their not being a "pleco"?