My Turn for Whatzit....??

gogittum

I was giving Gladdy a short pit run by an off-shoot of Bradley Lake in Floral City this morning and came across this thing in the weeds where someone or something had dropped it.  Not an area I'd expect someone to be fishing but I have seen Great Blue Herons and Egrets in there.  Maybe one of them gave up on it ??



Not too familiar with local species yet; still, it doesn't look like anything I've seen pictures of.  What do you guys make of it ??

Jonsredfishin

I’d guess dried out armored catfish. They’re everywhere up here now. 

Doc Stressor

Yep.

gogittum

i hafta agree, from pics I've seen but didn't like to say so in case I was missing something obvious.

Thing was still there this morning.  Guess the local varmints don't like Catfish.

smh

Brown Hoplo

gogittum

smh said:

Brown Hoplo

Googled that and looks like you're right..  Other details seem correct, too.  Thanks.

tankered

They're everywhere now, and according to all the sources they are a prized food fish in their native range. I'm curious as to the cleaning technique and how much meat one can actually get from the little buggers. 

Certainly doesn't look worth it to me. 

gogittum

tankered said:

They're everywhere now, and according to all the sources they are a prized food fish in their native range. I'm curious as to the cleaning technique and how much meat one can actually get from the little buggers. 

Certainly doesn't look worth it to me. 

Ya never know.  A French lady I knew in Idaho had a recipe for Sparrow breasts that her husband swore was absolutely delicious.  Not much to each, but apparently very worth it.  Never did get to try them.

On the site I found about the Hoplos, it mentioned that they were detritus (??) feeders and don't take a hook.  Wonder how you'd go about catching them ??  Traps, maybe ??

Cleaning may be touchy.  That armor looked pretty solid and the dorsal spines heavy and sharp.  Being a Catfish, likely other spines, too.  I'd guess skinning would be best......??

There's a short canal leading into the lake under the Bushnell Hwy and this fish was on the bank by the water control dam.  A really big Great Blue Heron lives in there - my guess is that he grabbed that fish and juggled it around for a bit, then spit it out.  Nothing else wanted it.

tankered

A friend of mine was catching a bunch in his cast net in the Lochloosa area a few years back, when I first saw them I had no idea what they were either so I did the research.

Never took any to eat, wasn't hungry enough I guess, but they did live for days in the bed of his truck. Which could be one of the reasons they're popular in the places they are, minimal need for refrigeration or ice.

If someone else did the work I'd gladly try them, same with any catfish. I'll eat them as long as I don't have to screw with cleaning them, and I actually enjoy cleaning fish....just not catfish. 

Moon Shadow

I posted a few weeks back of seeing them by the thousands in Payne's Prairie.  This video just showed the easy ones to see. The water was cover with them near the spillway. I was just having a little fun at the end.  I know they probably did escape from a pond in southern Florida. that someone brought the fish from South America because they are so good to eat.  Here are a couple of videos showing them. As you can see behind the bird the water is just cover with them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JnzdZhKBdk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98wmd5NCig4

tankered

Wow they really are swarming. That's gotta have some kind of effect on the native flora and fauna. 

tankered

If you could find a market there might be money to be made, you could just dipnet them by the thousands at places like that!

smh

I know that at one time in the not-too-distant past, there was a commercial castnet fishery for brown hoplos down south in the Upper St. Johns River basin.  I believe they were sold/shipped live and brought a pretty good price at different markets.  If you could find the right buyer or channel up in this area, you might be able to make some money.  I've really only heard of them being targeted with cast nets, although I wonder if they could be caught effectively in hoop nets or some other passive gear.  I have also heard of them being taken on hook and line occasionally, mainly on bottom rigs with a piece of earthworm.  As to their table quality, they aren't bad.  Out of curiosity, we threw a few on the grill after removing their heads and guts.  You pick the meat out of the armored "shell", kinda like you would a lobster tail.  

gogittum

Who would ever have guessed all this, eh ??  Never heard of them before this.  Yesterday the carcass was still there, but the insects had been at it and hollowed it out.  (prob'ly ants ??)  The armor seems to be in bands around the body and they were separating.  Looks to me like it would be a tough nut for a predator to crack - that armor is substantial for such a small fish.

Thinking ants - many years ago, diving in the NW I caught a good sized Octopus and wanted to save the beak.  Others told me to put it on an ant hill and they'd clean it up real good for me.....so I did that.  Came back a couple days later and all that was left was the outer rim of the beak - everything else was gone.  Ants are tough little critters.

tankered

Smh  -  Are there bones to pick around in addition to the "shell"? 

How many would one have to eat to constitute a meal?

I like to try odd things and these certainly fit that bill, and I have seen them referred to as "prized and / or valuable food fish" more than once...

dave44

gogittum said:

Who would ever have guessed all this, eh ??  Never heard of them before this.  Yesterday the carcass was still there, but the insects had been at it and hollowed it out.  (prob'ly ants ??)  The armor seems to be in bands around the body and they were separating.  Looks to me like it would be a tough nut for a predator to crack - that armor is substantial for such a small fish.

Thinking ants - many years ago, diving in the NW I caught a good sized Octopus and wanted to save the beak.  Others told me to put it on an ant hill and they'd clean it up real good for me.....so I did that.  Came back a couple days later and all that was left was the outer rim of the beak - everything else was gone.  Ants are tough little critters.

Red ant mounds were great for that. I believe fire ants are killing them across the south and west wherever they cross.
    Fire ants might do it too, but it might take a while and they would build a nest under it.

4WARD

Im pretty sure that I heard about some people that found a market for them in the big cities up north in the street markets.
 I think the law finally caught on and shut it down.

tankered

Why would they shut it down, it's an invasive species?

Oh that's right, it's the LAW we're talking about. Almost always doing the opposite of what makes sense.

gogittum

Thing I read on them said they're detritus feeders - sucking in debris off the bottom and getting whatever food value from it.  They don't bite a baited hook.  I wonder if crab traps would work ??  Maybe modify the opening a bit ??  Bait it with dog food or cat food.....or both ??

tankered

From the looks of Moon Shadow's videos you could just scoop them up by the bushel. Crab traps sound like too much effort. 

smh

tankered,

I don't remember much about their internal skeletal structure, but I'd imagine there'd be at least some bones to pick around when eating them.  I think that you could probably make a meal out of 3-4 decent sized ones (depending on what else you had to eat and how big of an appetite you have).  They don't get real big.  From what I've seen, an eight-incher would be considered large.

capt louie

I've dip netted them. They did a hole and lay a large blob of orange eggs inside. I put the net over the hole and it swam in. Watched Bluegabe dig um out with his hands like a lobster. He grabbed out a bunch of the egg clusters but no one would eat the "caviar" on youtube.