Cooking a Plecostomus

The following is an entry I made when I was in Leticia, Colombia, on the Amazon River in December, 2009. I was not able to upload it at that time and place.

"Quien madruga, Dios le ayuda", that is "God helps those who get up early". I have never been an early riser, but I have been wrenching myself from bed at 5 am the last couple of days because that is when things happen here along the river. Boats are unloading at first light and the market is in full swing before 6. Small craft come in loaded to the gunnels with fish on ice. I don't know where they get the ice though - they sell it on the docks, but it wouldn't last long in this heat. Maybe larger boats with refrigeration provide ice up the tributaries where they catch the fish.

River water is muddy, so visual lures are useless. It is necessary to use bait the fish can smell. I am told piranas are a nuisance if you are trying to catch something larger, but they make good bait on a big hook.

Among other fish, I notice they catch red tail cats, which Wikipedia says are not eaten because they have dark meat according to a book by Herbert Axelrod. Well that is bullshit; red tail meat is not especially dark and people are buying them in the market without reservation.

I had a red tail cat which lived by itself in an 130 gallon tank until the aquarium sprung a leak in the middle of the night and I had to kill my pet. I was more attached to that fish than any I have had; I would catch night crawlers for it every time it rained and it would come to the surface whenever I entered the room, waving its foot long barbels above the water.

Notice the dark colored fish in the top photo; these are plecostomuses, an armored catfish I would have considered inedible, but people here tell me they make good soup stock. I always kept a plecostomus in each tank because they eat the slime and algae off the glass and keep the tank clean. My plecos also enjoyed zucchini, and for a long time my son wouldn't eat that vegetable because he considered it fish food.

From Vancouver Aquarium and from my own tanks I also recognize arrawanas, red hooks, piranas, pacus (kind of a big vegetarian version of piranas) and oscars. Some of the cat fish have heads over a foot wide. I have not seen them landing any piraracus and I suspect they may be fishing them out; I think I should avoid eating them.