Tilapia in Sandgate

[Si]

Well if you are aware of the lagoons located in sandgate then you would probably know of the tilapia located in them in plague proportions.

However. i have now spotted a school of large size individuals in a small drainage channel that flows past deagon cricket parks, crosses board and braun streets and then into cabbage tree creek. this spot i saw them (braun st near squash centre) is usually estuarine with mangroves located on the edges but i think with all the fresh they have been washed down. pretty surprising to see them in an environment thats basically a drain!

These fish are having a massive effect on our native freshwater fish displacing most of them through competition for prey and habitat, predation and are highly aggressive. They breed fast and look after their young.

wasnt sure if this was supposed to go in fw or sw so feel free to move. cheers

[sharkymark2]

We have some very large ones in a park on Beenleigh Road near Stones Road.

[ShaneC]

Ring the fishos then mate.....

I'm sure they will have a way to close something down to explain the spread!!

Seriously, maybe you should give them a bell, that might be a concern to DPI.

[loophole]

If they can live in a small fish tank Toped up with Udl Beer and Rum ;) they would be able to live in a drian, Id say the flood has flushed these things out

[Midnight]

There was a call that went out for the local fisho's to fish the Sandgate dams, and they had a great response, but then I'm pretty sure that the bureaucrats put the kibosh on it for some reason????

They say they want them eradicated, but then decide " ahhh no, no we think about it, we better not let you catch and kill them in full view of the greenies and animal welfare types"

Who knows??

Go and see if you can catch a few. Good cat food

[TheRealAndy]

What do you catch them on? Sounds like a good way to enjoy a few beers! Wander down with the esky, sit back and have a comp to see who can land the most!

[ShaneC]

I suppose, we could do that, similar to like we used to with snapper.....

Is this the proposed solution??

[gunna]

What do you catch them on? Sounds like a good way to enjoy a few beers! Wander down with the esky, sit back and have a comp to see who can land the most!
Worms will do. We get them on a dough/cheese mix when fishing for mullet.

[johnlikes2fish]

I have rang about them in Kedron brook and jacksons/nudgee and dept of env said they are everywhere and they are not trying anything to eradicate them as it is impossible, there are several species i think they said

[grave41]

The species i know of are tilapia Mossambic, Tilapia Marie, Tilapia bertone The latter being infested all!! around Brisbane.This species i had not heard of untill recently and it seems to be more prolific than the others which have been around for 20 years..Gee im getting old and i was an avid aquarist back then.My spelling of there names could be a little incorrect also.

[grave41]

The species i know of in the wild were Tilapia Mossambic ,Tilapia Marie but now this species tilapia bertone . My spelling might be incorrect as i have not kept fish for 15 years.they are very adaptable fish.
When Heiko Bleher {owner of Aquarium Rio and collector of fish species from around the world also with species named after him] Was asked the question.Who is causing more damage to the enviroment tilapia or man? After carefull consideration he answered man because of the way we are destroying our rainforests tilapia a close second.
Hope this gives a little insight about tilapia.
Graham

[rando]

Throw a net over them. If an inspector bitches about netting a Freshwater stream, tell him your just doing his job for him.

[Flash the toad feeder]

Any tips for line catching these things? I don't have a net.
I want to have a go at getting some out of Forest Lake.

[grave41]

THEY'RE that thick over there just use your hands if not a scoop net will get them.
Graham

[ifish86]

iv caught them with next to no lead and tiny hooks with bits of bread rolled up and even earthworms

[TheRealAndy]

Wonder if you can get them on fly rod with a bread lure...

[Luc]

Yes.

Berley them with bread first then go for it.

Also worth trying with a red bread fly to imitate a piece of worm.

Luc

[oldboot]

typical of the EPA......they say they cant be irradicated, and they don't even want to try.......there is no budjet and no political will.

and yep they are all over the place.

Almost any lake in public park land will have them.

Minipi park lands off Bulimba creek.

The golf course down at Beenleigh

Leslie harison dam/ Tingalpa creek.

many of the creeks in the Redlands.

The way the law is, is rediculous......you cant have them in possession, ya cant eat em, ya cant let em go and ya cant cut em up for bait...ya cant even feed em to ya cat.

I think the situation has got past the point where further infestation is the problem.

I recon the laws should be modified to allow them to be targeted and eaten.

Lots of people complain about this and that making them a poor table fish.

But the are very commonly eaten, commercilay fished and grown overseas, and one of my brotherin laws mates eats em out of the lakes up in Townsville and recons they are good eating if they are prepared properly.

I recon there would be plenty of Asians and Africans that would hop into em big time if it was legal and they were told where they were.

We might never completely iradicate them but, with the help of a few cultrual groups and keen anglers we could give em a belting and reduce their environmental impact.

cheers

[Si]

typical of the EPA......they say they cant be irradicated, and they don't even want to try.......there is no budjet and no political will.

and yep they are all over the place.

Almost any lake in public park land will have them.

Minipi park lands off Bulimba creek.

The golf course down at Beenleigh

Leslie harison dam/ Tingalpa creek.

many of the creeks in the Redlands.

The way the law is, is rediculous......you cant have them in possession, ya cant eat em, ya cant let em go and ya cant cut em up for bait...ya cant even feed em to ya cat.

I think the situation has got past the point where further infestation is the problem.

I recon the laws should be modified to allow them to be targeted and eaten.

Lots of people complain about this and that making them a poor table fish.

But the are very commonly eaten, commercilay fished and grown overseas, and one of my brotherin laws mates eats em out of the lakes up in Townsville and recons they are good eating if they are prepared properly.

I recon there would be plenty of Asians and Africans that would hop into em big time if it was legal and they were told where they were.

We might never completely iradicate them but, with the help of a few cultrual groups and keen anglers we could give em a belting and reduce their environmental impact.

cheers

yeah totally agree with everyone. simple question is why not. some of the bigger ones would put up a great fight i think. there are some really big ones in the sandgate lagoons. why not set up a kids fishing day. that way you teach kids the value and fun of basic fishing and get them away from the tv, becomes a commuinty event, get the local member vicki darling down there to support it and at the same time educate people on the effects of exotic fish species on our awesome native fw fish.

[BrandonH]

hey mate, a kids fishing day would be a great idea!! I am sure you would get a huge number of family's in the Sandgate area who would be keen to get involved.

Many years ago my dad and I caught over 50 each at NPD from the shore. we were using earth worms, small bean sinker and a size 1 hook. nearly every cast was a fish, some of them would have been close to 4lb and yep they go quite well;) We actually ended up having an Asian guy who said he wanted to take them if all we were doing was throwing them up the bank! He stopped fishing and started de-hooking all our captures, sitting on his esky reading the paper for the rest of the arvo lol.

Cheers
Brandon...

[oldboot]

I recon if ya got a series of Vietnamese family days in these parks, the yellow raincoats would give those Talapia a good belting.

Never heard of those guys turning down a good free feed.


Yeh all this reminds me of the eel problem in the botanic gardens......the problems was the eels were biting the feet of the ducklings, someone thaught that they could get the Scouts down there for a week end and clean them out for "bob A job"........Oh there was a hue and cry...Oh how inhumane.

Parks and gardens ended up having to drain the ponds.

An no the european community was not consulted......I recon half of West End would have been over there give half a chance...... Eel is a primo dish in some Europeans eyes.

cheers

[Scott nthQld]

tilapia are everywhere up here at the moment with the storm water just sitting in many drains.

My brother and I went down to one easement the other week with 2 big hessian bags. Armed with 2lb outfits and a loaf of bread and small hooks, we erradicated about 50-60kg of tilapia, with most fish being around 750gm. Also noticed large numbers of tarpon in the same drain so went back the next day with some small poppers and got about 70 of the acrobatic chromies, not real big fish, with the largest around 30cm long, but great fun on ultralight gear. As the water starts to drain into the creek will go back with some larger lures and fish the drain for some big barra just waiting to snaffle these large bait fish. Some people have been catching the tarpon and pinning them on massive hooks and have been getting some monster barra at the bottom side of Aplins weir, one bloke i saw caught 2 massive swamp donkeys within an hour of each other 135 and 140cm!! both caught on live foot long tarpon and 10/0's.

Been a few alright sized milkfish around too, with us getting a few 2-3kg models in the castnet chasing mullet.

If anyone wants to target these fish shoot me a pm and I'll tell you where...all landbased, but you may get muddy

[Luc]

FQ doesn't want people to be able to keep / eat them as they're worried that if this is allowed, people will deliberately transfer them to where they don't currently exist especially dams. In any case, FQ knows the battle has been lost and all that's left is delaying action.

Unfortunately, those that do that sort of thing won't be stopped by any law.
IMO it's only a matter of time before they invade new waters either by flood or human assistance. Just think, with SE Qld now drought-proofed with many dams interconnected, how long before all these dams become tilapia havens

FQ is so worried about translocation of native fishes but ferals have open slater.

Luc

[oldboot]

As far as them spreading......That realy isn't too much of an issue with them in just about every fresh water costal stream and small lake in SEQ...and some of the larger dams.

In many of the locations they were introduced by the government

The laws should be a bit more inteligent and specific, rather than the same old stuff that has been in the legeslation for decades.

It seems to me they only reach the plague proportions in small enclosed bodies of water where the bigger predators can't get at them.

cheers

[Sillaginid]

Old Boot

Where abouts were they introduced by the Government?
Surely they can't be that stupid.

[Gon Fishun]

Old Boot

Where abouts were they introduced by the Government?
Surely they can't be that stupid.

Yes they can and yes they are.;D

[oldboot]

Back in the seventies they introduces talapia into Leslie Harison dam shortly after it was built.
Quite probaly arround the same time they were introduced many other places.

Just like the mosquito fish was introduced into many small lakes, creeks and streams, because the yanks thaught it was a good idea for us.

Ya look at how wide the carp distribution is...ya recon they all came from fishponds..yeh right.

Just like the cane toad, back in the pre 70's the government introduced quite a few " bio control spicies" with out enough thaught or research.

Insufficient thaught or reasearch...... not much changes, green zones, snapper closures, and climate change.

cheers

[oldboot]

Yeh the government seems to be putting pest spicies in the "to hard" and "ignore" basket if they possibly can.

At one time Lantanna was a "declared weed".....that required compulsory irradication under pain of large fines.......then they found most of the lantanna was on government land.......all of a sudden it was decided that it wasn't such a bad thing and it provided shelter for native animals.
There are immense tracts of the stuff in soposedly "pristien" national parks and forestly, there seems to be absolutly no intention of addressing the issue.

Wild pigs and wild dogs are huge problems in many places in the country, property owners are spending heaps of time and money trying to controll them, but the government is making next to no effort in neibouring foresty and national park......the same forestry and national park they are closing us out of.

There are heaps of people who would happily go to shoot feral pig, dogs and cats on crown land if they were allowed.

Back when the Iwasaki development was in its early stages, the foreman would come down the local pub buying drinks and , "complaining" that he had a pig problem in a certain section of the property and mentioning "off the record" that certain gates had been left open and security was busy else where for a while.

Don't know if it did the pig problem any good but there were plenty of pork dinners eated arround the area. I have seen photos of one of Mr Iwasakis sows that was so big it had to be cut in half with an axe to load it on the landrover.

Unless it is a high profile pest like the fire ant, the government realy is not interested in vermin control.

Yeh interesting that they will say it is not possibly to irradicate or even controll this or that pest spicies.... but it seems very easy to drive anything else into extinction by our "damaging human impacts"

cheers