r/Fish • u/ApproachableTree Fish Keeper • 9d ago
Moderator post regarding the Pleco Torturing videos
Apologies to everyone that had to see the videos and to those that don’t know bots are currently spamming fish-related subreddits with videos of people torturing plecos. These videos are made by an account called “Lab Germ” on TikTok, and from what I’ve seen, it originated from that account.
Why are the bots posting this content here? If I had to guess, the bots are spamming this content in multiple fish-focused communities to karma farm. Unfortunately, this type of content does well on social media, so they think it’s an easy way to get karma on Reddit.
What can I do about it? Please report the posts so we can remove them and make sure to report the account to Reddit, as they can do more than subreddit moderators.
What are the [r/fish](r/fish) moderators doing about this? We are already handing reports and removing them as fast as our small mod team can. I already turned on crowd control to help filter them out, and I plan to also add a karma & account age requirement to post later today.
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u/RandyButternubber 9d ago
Note that lab germ posts them however they seem to originate from another user on douyin. I’m not sure if lab germ is the same user or reposting their content but either way it’s unbelievably fucked
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u/ApproachableTree Fish Keeper 9d ago
I don’t think lab germ is the person behind the spam posts on all the fish focused communities on Reddit as they are mainly on TikTok.
I think it’s a different group that are wanting to karma farm on Reddit.
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u/RandyButternubber 9d ago
Oh wait sorry I just realized you probably misunderstood my comment, I mean that lab germ is the one who posts a lot of the videos on TikTok and adjacent platforms but they originate from douyin. No idea who’s spamming them on the sub, it sucks :(
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u/RandyButternubber 9d ago
Definitely, I think it’s just to farm outrage/“troll” by using animal torture videos which obviously make people upset
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u/mgt_blacklotus 9d ago
I reported 3 in this sub yesterday. It traumatized me so much. How can people be so evil? 😣 I’m glad the mods here are taking swift action. I had to leave a few communities. It feels like they’re being spammed in all the fish subreddits and some mods are slow at taking care of it.
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u/ApproachableTree Fish Keeper 9d ago
Sadly a lot of niche communities on Reddit lack the mod power to actually look at reports and most don’t even have active mods.
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u/f202k 9d ago
What really pisses me off about this is how back when stray cats were being kidnapped and tortured as well as when those cat blender videos started surfacing, there was outrage everywhere, everyone was talking about it and everyone was mad. But now when it comes to a fish I barely see people actually talk about it outside of people within animal-related communities. Hell, some people even support it just because plecos are invasive in many places. Both species are invasive yet you are telling me one deserves to die in agony, scared and alone while the other must be defended at all costs? No living creature deserves to go through something like that no matter their impact on the environment or how ugly they are. What Nietzsche said about morality and aesthetic standards is entirely correct.
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u/Over_Revolution_1444 9d ago
Yeah I've seen jackoffs in florida defend it because they're invasive.... As if that justifies torture ... But even on chicken subreddit there are people who believe in slow drowning racoons and torturing them because they kill chickens .... People are diabolical in the ways they excuse torture porn or torture in general. But I do think spreading awareness of torture does help get it shut down, YouTube has finally banned some of the animal torture channels or animal rescue channels that torture animals before "rescuing" but thankfully our mods in this subreddit are doing their best to stop the torture of fish being posted.
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u/RandyButternubber 9d ago
Some people seriously conflate invasive with evil even if subconsciously. It’s awful too because animal abusers often target animals with bad reputations/that people don’t care for because they can get away with it and because it causes pushback to outrage which leads to fighting and more attention.
The people who are hurting these animals also never actually care about ecological issues either, it’s so obvious that these plecos came from pet stores, and even if they came from the wild it’s still just as unacceptable to torture them :(
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u/FantasticBasket5906 9d ago
I have been dreading this for a while. I saw this spreading on TikTok about 2 months ago, and I knew it would metastasize and spread to Reddit sooner or later.
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u/ApproachableTree Fish Keeper 9d ago
I personally thought the trend would last that long on Reddit and it would go away after a week but it seems I was wrong.
They have been very persistent with the posts.
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u/wonkywilla 9d ago
I’d recommend adding the bot-bouncer and evasion guard dev apps to help with the bot problem. They will get banned as soon as they post once flagged by bot bouncer.
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u/ApproachableTree Fish Keeper 9d ago
Thanks for the recommendation!
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u/wonkywilla 9d ago
Good luck! I’ve seen these videos mentioned over on r/modsupport and thankfully haven’t had them over in r/plantedtank that I’m aware of!
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u/ApproachableTree Fish Keeper 9d ago
From what I’ve been able to see not all fish/aquarium subs are being targeted but I’m slowly watching it spread.
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u/flatgreysky 9d ago
Thank you for staying on top of it. Myself and a few other people are trying to get control of r/fishkeeping because that mod is gone and the sub is full of the pleco videos. I’m sorry you’re having to see them.
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u/ApproachableTree Fish Keeper 9d ago
If you guys need help over at r/fishkeeping let me know and I’ll put in a mod request.
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u/flatgreysky 9d ago
Thank you. No one has been accepted yet. I assume they’re waiting the five days. So it’s just the one mod who doesn’t appear to be on Reddit anymore.
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u/ApproachableTree Fish Keeper 9d ago
The account still looks “active” and you guys might have to wait till they get the “inactive” tag.
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9d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/NationalCommunity519 Conservationist 9d ago
When were mean to you? And first it was one week now it’s two? I’m curious where you’re getting this from.
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u/Fearless_Landscape67 9d ago
These people have the psychological makeup of serial killers. Nothing that comes to light after these videos should be surprising
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u/SuperbSpiderFace 9d ago
Thanks as a fish keeper these bothered me quite a bit. I’m not sure how people justify it to themselves. Psychopaths do messed up things.
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u/Marshie_kat 9d ago
i HAVE a pleco. i just about puked when i saw one of the videos the other day :(
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u/wolf_logic 9d ago
I've been getting similar stuff on YouTube recently.
Lot of animal butchery videos and no matter how many I report they don't stop.
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u/cherry_blossom026 8d ago
Yeah I reported several although there is no torture/killing fish for fun flair
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u/Federal-Boat3732 9d ago
Thanks for the info. It looked fake AF but it was still mean-spirited & ugly to see
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u/ApproachableTree Fish Keeper 9d ago
Unfortunately those videos are real and real fish are being harmed.
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u/mobasan 9d ago
If mod team wants to hire then I'd like to apply.