Tilapia Ignorance

[astro2]

Went for a quick flick with the flyrod this arvo but the only thing around were seemingly hundreds of Tilapia. A few people had gathered around as I dragged a 50cm fish up the bank and dispatched of it as quickly as I could (didn't have a knife on me so a large stick to the head). The abuse I then recieved from a couple of guys who I have seen fishing before around the same area was ridiculous!
"One of Gods creatures" and "Killing for the thrill" were just a couple of comments even after I explained the fishes noxious status etc.
Along the same lines as fish sizes and bag limits perhaps every piece of fishing equipment sold in Australia should come with a small "Guide to Fishing" Outlaying the rules and regulations of the State in question. They could even be handed out like reciepts at Fishing stores.
Just a thought.

Dave.

hey, if losers dont' change there tone after the noxious fish explanation you should've said "its against the law if i throw it back and the fine can be hundreds and thousands of dollars, you gonna pay the fine for me you d*ck"?? lmao

[Ozwald]

What a coincidence! a tilapia thread......... I've signed up to fish in the 1st Mayor Win Gatchalian Cup here in Manila next Sunday and we will be fishing for Milkfish and Tilapia. Never fished for them before so any tips on techniques, tactics etc much appreciated. Can you burley them up? We will be fishing in a very large fish pond and so anything for an edge over the 150 or so other competitors. Unfortunately popular local techniques involving TNT and cyanide are banned in this competition.....
Regards
oz

[Dick Pasfield]

Just curious, what's the extent of tilapia on the east coast at the moment and what's their main mechanism for getting from one waterway to another??

[FNQCairns]

Just curious, what's the extent of tilapia on the east coast at the moment and what's their main mechanism for getting from one waterway to another??

Their tail! not being smart they have no eggs to stick to birds legs or swept away vegetation etc, the other one is fossil fuel as in dip s.hits who dump them, sure some have been transported as live bait also.

Pretty fine eating for a freshwater fish.

cheers fnq

[Dick Pasfield]

Thanks for that, they move around fairly freely within a catchment and their initial introduction into that system is as live bait or unwanted aquarium releases???

Control is mainly by predation such as barras or is there some other means?

My interest comes from my job, spend a lot of time controlling ferals, mainly plants but involved in animal control as well

[FNQCairns]

Yes initial introduction to any catchment is either release or live bait.

No competent control measures that I know of - too hard and no 'money' to protect to warrant the cost to government, they ecological damage they do is OK as it is largely unseen by most so no good power or kudos will be gained by any government department heads to bother pushing for their eradication or any concerted effort to control them adequately.

Predation must play a part, although competition sees them winning against many natives.

cheers fnq

[wokii1]

The main problem with them is they are a mouth breeder and have a very high survival rate. The young hang around the parents and any sign of trouble they hide in the parents mouth and the parent can take the bolt. I spied some in a creek down the road from me about a year ago while getting some other noxious fish out of it to feed to my grunter and jack (yes I know it's not right but it's better out of the creek than not at all.) , tried to catch them with a cast net at night but didn't do to well. After that we had a large storm and havn't see them agian. My dad saw a kid catch one at forest lake and then chuck it back, he went and told him what it was ect.. but the kid didn't really care. There really does need to be more education about this. Our creeks are full of introduced fish

[tunaticer]

Unfortunately they can survive quite well in brackish waters and even in the upper reaches of clean salt water. I have caught quite a few in the past 10 years in the Pine River down as far as Deepwater Bend. Most tho have been from Castle hill up to North Pine Country Park barrage.

Jack.

[oldboot]

Aparantly they grow excelent roses.

One good sized fish in the bottom of the hole when planting.

cheers

[Cammy]

isnt it wrong to take one home for a feed, fines r about $150,00 for keeping these fish dead or alive.

Cammo

[Dick Pasfield]

What are their impacts, habitat destruction, predation?

[Ozwald]

isnt it wrong to take one home for a feed, fines r about $150,00 for keeping these fish dead or alive.

Cammo

Maybe thats why nobody wants to share any tips on how to catch them? I'm going to be stocking up on earth worms and trying some float fishing for Sunday's tournament,
Oz

[FNQCairns]

What are their impacts, habitat destruction, predation?

Actually not much is known or wasn't known when I had to deal with stuff like this, Tilapia were outside my region then but I understand the impact is largely because they are where they shouldn't be bit like some environmental land weeds, there certainly are vegetation impacts which is probably the worst of it, of coarse there would other competitive impacts although I dunno if the studys have been done to make any findings 'science'.

cheers fnq

[Outsider1]

Not sure if you have seen these links Dick?, a fair bit of info on them from some of the State DPIs;

http://www.fisheries.nsw.gov.au/thre...fn_tilapia.htm

http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb/1406.html

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/dp...8_ENA_HTML.htm

http://www.nt.gov.au/dpifm/Fisheries...ts/tilapia.pdf

http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/pub/I...age05.php?0506

plus some other links with info on them;

http://sweetwaterfishing.com.au/tilapia.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2005/s1305418.htm

http://www.invasiveanimals.com/invas...pia/index.html

http://www.mitchell-river.com.au/news_and_issues.html

Cheers

Dave

[PNG1M]

I lived in East Africa for a few years and they are abundant both in Lake Victoria, the river systems and other lakes too. There are many variations of size and colour, from silvery to orange; black and even spotty rainbow colour.

As they were not known there as a niusance and were commonly for sale in the local markets, I used to fish for them a fair bit.

My favourite's were the orangy coloured ones that grew to a nice pan-sized average, from Lake Mburo National Park in Uganda. We used to relax on a camping chair by the water's edge (yes, with hippos in the background) with a container of freshly dug live earthworms by our side. We found that a live, wriggly worm suspended about a metre or less under a float & cast out near the papyrus groves was a Tilapia gimmee.

I didn't realise until I read about it a year or so ago that Tilapia were becoming an introduced pest in our Oz waterways. I really can't stand any situation where our natives must compete with introduced species for the same food & habitat resources.

No matter how good on the tooth they are (smoked Tilapia are taste bud friendly) I'd prefer to see the complete eradication of these introduced varieties. If elimination is out of the question then methods of control (biological or other) need to be implemented, monitored and maintained otherwise native stocks will decline or even vanish.

Creating general public awareness of this is crucial so then at least you might not be hounded by the 'un-informed' next time you send a Tilapia to meet it's maker.