Tilapia disaster!

[Yowie bait]

Is anyone else sick to death of seeing tilapia and south american cichlids in local creeks and waterholes? Ive seen them in the creeks and local parks in the area. Huge tilapia and nothing else and heard that different types of cichlids are dotted around Qld in different areas. Theres the carp as well and government and local councils seem to do nothing about it aside for a few annual fishing tournaments . I could be wrong though. Ive seldom seen anything on the news and any public awareness campaign. Im hardly a greenie and used to breed tropical fish myself but isnt it time we put a ban on importing tropical fish? There would be so many dodgies importing the prohibited fish and others accidently imported that i dont see how they can regulate this. Anyway thats my vent and i could go on but will save my "ban the zoos" post for another time. Thanks for caring! Would love to hear any opinions on this. Yb

[Tuckeroo]

[quote="Yowie bait"]Is anyone else sick to death of seeing tilapia and south american cichlids in local creeks and waterholes?


G'day YB.

I came across these critters a few years back when I was trying to find out what a palegic fish was.
I followed a link about feral fish species and watched an abc catalyst program concerning these little buggers.
Have'nt seen any myself but used to see a few carp when out caneoing, which was a bit of a concern.

Lots of work done on carp down around sw-nsw. Bought some liquid fertilizer called Charlie Carp, made in
Deniliquin I think, sure does lift the tomatoes. A commercial venture like this is what's needed to deal with any
feral fauna and flora because the authorities don't have much money to throw at the problem.

I agree with you, you never hear about this type of thing in the mainstream media, only sometimes on the abc.
Apparently Talapia's were banned back in the 1970's, with a hefty fine if you possess any. Herein lies the problem,
people got worried and went and released them into the waterways, that's why your seeing more of them today.

Invasive species are where I'm the greenest as I'm a purist when it comes to the oz evironment.
Saw my first cane toad in the yard this summer after living here for ten years and recently discovered those
Asian Gecko's living around my house, the ones that go tch, tch, tch, wondered what the noise was until I saw it
running across the ceiling. Confident little reptiles, not scared of anything; suppose their keeping the mozzies at bay.

Here's the catalyst program link. I've only just typed it in. Maybe you can just highlight and paste into your search if
you want to watch it because I have'nt worked out how to embed these links correctly into these posts.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4122587.htm

cheers T.

[Tuckeroo]

Hey YB, just clicked on the link in my last post and it worked, so my concerns were unfounded.

T.

[Yowie bait]

Thanks for the link Tuckeroo. Just tried it and works fine. I'll have to give that a go next time i want to link something. That catalyst story is an eye opener. Ross river is a mess to say the least. That dna tester is a treat. Great to see theyre doing something. A public awareness campaign much like john howards pharmaceutical drugs booklet would be a help. A bounty would go a long way too and maybe help out a few people who need the money although a bounty on cane toads could be a disaster. They should have done it years ago when bounties on sparrows,starlings etc was still common. The cane toads couldnt even climb the cane or jump high enough to catch the cane beetles they were brought over to eradicate! Maybe they should have found out if the toads could catch the things first. Whatta joke. . Those geckos are losing popularity fast. Cats seem to get sick when they eat them so maybe poisonous or just taste bad?? The government should be spending millions on the waterways and eradicating these pests but Maybe too late. Maybe brisbane and syd residents could forgo the many fireworks displays for a few years and spend the money on sorting out our creeks and forests before its too late. Ive been fishing off a jetty in the mcntyre river near gundawindi a few times. My freinds caught a few good size yellow belly but i couldnt even nab a carp and was shocked at the amount of carp gasping at the top of the water. There was a heap of brightly coloured babies swimming round under the jetty. Ive heard charlie carp is great. I wont start on the mancoon cats and others breeders are bringing into the country . Once they start breeding with the ferals we will have another problem!

[Yowie bait]

Apparently these guys (water dragons)can eat baby cane toads and is why there thriving and frilled lizards cant eat baby cane toads so theyre dying off. This is something ive heard anyway.

[Tuckeroo]

.............. I wont start on the mancoon cats and others breeders are bringing into the country.


Hi Yb,

Me to......don’t get me started on Indian minors; one of the only small birds that walk, most birds hop.
Whenever you see a news report from Sydney and their interviewing someone in the burbs you usually
hear these birds in the background chirping away......licka, licka, licka .

People should learn that sound because you will hear them a while before you see them, as they mark
out territory. At this stage, if there’s only a few of them they can be easily eradicated, otherwise shut the gate.

Interesting what you said about the dragons eating ctoads......

Great pic of the resident dragon. I had a frilly at my place for a while but ended up running over it.
Really disappointing, same as when the birds fly into the back windows. They did it themselves, but equally just as sad.

T.

[Yowie bait]

Hi Tuckeroo. I hope this post is easier to read now ive discovered this arrow thing on the keypad!

The indian minor birds are showing up around here too. Apparently theyre a real problem.



The water dragon showed up at my mothers maybe 4 years ago and comes back every summer. I gave him a hose today when i dropped in.

Hes lost a bit of his tail if u look at recent picture. He gets aggressive and will even fight the full grown scrub Turkey if its on his turf. Hes active in the trees as well. They are bizzare creatures.

He may be an unwanted pet or came up from the river. It climbs the stairs and sits high on the window sill and goes in her house which is annoying.

Saw some tilapia again yesterday at a creek next to the local shopping centre near a busy road.

They were foraging on something near the bank. Creek runs into oxley creek and brisbane river system. I wonder how theyll go in there?

It was amazing (and depressing!) to see how many different types of fish showed up in the local park lagoon after the flood. A freind who lives down there says it was teeming with all types of fish and cormorants and other fishing birds to devour them! Yb