When is pleco season and what can we expect?

[Savant]

I understand that there is a "pleco season" where we can expect to see huge imports of plecos from the wild sources...

Frankly I was quite surprised to be told that its currently off season for plecos (Since the LFS do stock a very large quantity and variety of plecos, I had assumed that it is currently pleco season)

So when is pleco season and what can we expect to see in our shores?

[celticfish]

The guys at PCS have mentioned to me that the season proper starts sometime next month.
But there have been reports from a brazilian forum member in PF that mentioned the rainy season has ended there.
So the plecos should be arrive early though select species first.
I believe the fish we have in the LFS currentlyare Venezuelan.

[Savant]

Ah nice...

Looking forward to seeing more interesting species... actually I'm still looking out for L134, although I am not sure where to house them... probably I will comm a few of these smaller guys in my "zap pa lang" tank for them to grow out... Then figure which species I want to try breed...

[Quixotic]

For Brazil, the dry season lasts from June to December and is often called "summer" by the locals as it is hot and sunny. The wet season typically runs from December to May and is referred to as "winter."

During the wet season, the Amazon basin will be heavily flooded. See Wikipedia, Amazon River, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_River (as of May. 25, 2008, 17:00 GMT)

The average depth of the river in the height of the rainy season is 40 m (131 ft) and the average width can be nearly 40 km (25 mi)

With this in mind, these may present great difficulties in collecting for fish, although they can be collected via diving. However, I doubt many collectors have the necessary means to do so, but a minority does and this could account for the species you see during "off-pleco season".

In the dry season, the river is considerably shallower (including isolated pools) and this presents better opportunities to collect fish. Therefore, the principal collecting time is normally summer to early winter, hence the "pleco season".

So there are potentially many more species available during the period, although the stocking entirely depends on the LFS.

[celticfish]

What will we do without you Quixotic?
Thanks for your usual detailed and informative links!

[Panut]

Quixotic's like a walking dictionary, im going to kill him and steal his brain

[Savant]

End of rainy season also means somewhere out there in those rivers, the plecos are breeding!!!

[soltari007]

I doubt we'll see many imports this year because of the pleco ban... Most plecos you see are non-brazilian in origin.

[Panut]

If they are non-brazilian i thought they should be able to come in?

[ccs]

Does Pleco season also indicates the start of other fishes like discus, altum and apistogramma etc..

[celticfish]

@ ccs,
Yup.
The effect of the lowering water level creates pools that are cut-off.
This makes it easier to catch the fish.

@ soltari007,
I had the same suspicion from the recent pleco species in the LFS.
But I'm still hoping there is at least one "last shot out" for this coming season.
Otherwise the highly anticipated new season will turn into a very very uneventful year/s...
Any news from the pleco LFS like fish haven or NKS?

[soltari007]

we'll see in the coming weeks.