Word.ws English Dictionary

janitor fish

janitor fish noun: a pleco, pleco fish or plec: Any of several South and Central American fish, of the family Loricariidae.

janitor fish: a pleco, pleco fish or plec: Any of several South and Central American fish, of the family...
Image: Judgefloro, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

janitor fish (plural janitor fish or janitor fishes)

  1. (Philippines) A pleco, pleco fish or plec: Any of several South and Central American fish, of the family Loricariidae.
    • The janitor fish infestation that has plagued Marikina River and Laguna de Bay has also spread to Mindanao, and is now threatening to run riot across the delicately balanced ecosystem of Asia’s largest marshland, the Agusan Marsh in Agusan del Sur.2006 June 6, Mike Baños, “Janitor fish threatens Asia's largest marshland”, in Philstar.com

Forms of janitor fish

pluraljanitor fish
pluraljanitor fishes

Origin of janitor fish

From janitor + fish, coined by the Filipino locals and as well as the aquarium fish enthusiasts for its ability to clean aquaria by eating algae and fish excrements.

Questions about janitor fish

What does janitor fish mean?
Janitor fish means a pleco, pleco fish or plec: Any of several South and Central American fish, of the family Loricariidae.
What part of speech is janitor fish?
Janitor fish is a noun.
What is the plural of janitor fish?
The plural of janitor fish is janitor fish.

Words near janitor fish in the dictionary

  1. Janiszewski
  2. Janiszewskis
  3. Janite
  4. Janites
  5. janitor
  6. janitor fish
  7. janitor fishes
  8. janitorial
  9. janitorially
  10. janitoriat
  11. janitoring

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: janitor fish (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “janitor fish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/janitor_fish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.