How Does Algae Eating Glass Cleaning Sucker Catfish Pleco Taste Like?

As a fish keeping enthusiast, I have long been fascinated by the glass cleaning catfish. There are a few varieties but the most intriguing one is the Common Pleco.

It's large, and not a pretty fish. Grows to two feet long in the wild. Does the useful work of clearing the aquarium glass and pebbles of pesky algae.

I always marvel at this pre-historic wonder, its scales like a knight's armour, a living fossil from many millions of years ago when giant reptiles roamed our planet. Older than the human species.

I kept a few when I had fish tanks at home, always making sure I had a few hardworking helpers to keep the glass clean.

I stopped keeping fish years ago, so haven't kept up my fish knowledge. The only other thing I heard about the pleco was, it is now considered an invasive species, a pest in the rivers and lakes of North America.

During my recent trip to Vietnam, we went to a morning market in Hau Giang in the Mekong Delta. Markets, morning and night always attracted me because walking through the market stalls is like reading a book about the place I am visiting - the produce from the land, rivers and sea, what people eat and how they live.

So many interesting things to see, including these foot long pleco. Took some photos and made a mental note that pleco is considered food fish in Vietnam.

Though I was curious, I didn't want to impose on my hosts' hospitality to try the pleco.

So, you can imagine my delight that my host got us some pleco for dinner 😛 🙏

The fish were scaled, marinated in a blend of savoury sauce and aromatics such as lemongrass, then grilled over slow fire (which was earlier used to cook banh tet or rice dumplings).

It was part of our dinner.

The fish sans scale, head and tail were grilled till deliciously looking golden brown outside.

I like them enough to eat quite a few, maybe close to half a dozen 🤭

The meat was relatively dry and fibrous (not flaky, not juicy) but soft tender. It has its own unique flavour, not sweet, not earthy, a kind mild savouriness. The savoury marination complemented the fish's natural taste. As mentioned, I enjoyed it enough to go for a few 🤭