Have you ever been fishing and hooked onto a fish, had it put up a good fight, and when you finally reel him in, you look down and say…
Earlier this year, in Riley County, an armored catfish specimen, known as sailfin pleco was found in Kansas waters for the first time, and it definitely shouldn’t have been there. It is common in South and Central America. They are very common in the aquarium trade, so scientists are thinking it was probably a fish someone didn’t want any more and they dumped it into a Kansas waterway. But…the fish has been found in the wild as far north as Texas, Florida, and Nevada, so who knows! More tropical fish like pacu, a piranha type fish, have been found in Kansas, plus many others.
Kansas fish and game leaders are urging people not to release fish from aquariums into the waters of Kansas. First, they don’t fare very well in Kansas winters, and second, they could pose a threat to the environment and other native wildlife.
