“Invasive Catfish Condos” making homes in Florida waters

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    MIAMI, Florida (WFOR) — One invasive fish is building quite the home, with mysterious holes showing up alongside Florida’s riverbanks. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Research Institute calls them “Invasive Catfish Condos.”

Friday, the institute posted a photo of sizeable holes along a Florida riverbank while holding an armored sailfin catfish. The post points out they’ve become a common sight in freshwater and create nesting sites to protect their eggs.

And their presence “destabilize[s] banks and contribute[s] to erosion and increased [cloudiness] in the water.”

Some Floridians believe it’s their calling to hunt invasive species.

“Get the community together and try to tackle this problem,” South Floridian Raj Deonarine said.

He calls himself the “Iguana Man” and posts videos on his YouTube channel, hunting invasive species professionally in South Florida for a living, like the armored sailfin catfish.

CBS News Miami asked him, “Do you ever worry about getting hurt on any of these adventures?”

Deonarine said: “I do get hurt. It’s a lot of wear and tear on the ankles on the body. A lot of scratches, a lot of fatigue on the body.”

You might wonder how the armored sailfin catfish even made it into Florida’s waterways and the Everglades. The FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute points out that oftentimes, they start off as pets in aquariums, released into the wild, and it leads to serious consequences to the environment and natural wildlife.

It’s why Deonarine hunts.

“It’s just amazing, like the expansion of these, like, pets gone wild,” Deonarine. said “You know, these iguanas, these armored catfish, the pythons in the Everglades, it’s pretty crazy.”

“We try to be educational, and we try to give a good experience to the people outside our world,” he said.

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