Talapia- Please explain.

[Gon Fishun]

Copied and pasted from Wikipedia.
What are your thoughts.
Tilapia serve as a natural, biological control for most aquatic plant problems. Tilapia consume floating aquatic plants, such as duckweed watermeal (Lemna sp.), most "undesirable" submerged plants, and most forms of algae.[26] In the United States and countries such as Thailand, they are becoming the plant control method of choice, reducing or eliminating the use of toxic chemicals and heavy metal-based algaecides.
Tilapia rarely compete with other "pond" fish for food. Instead, because they consume plants and nutrients unused by other fish species and substantially reduce oxygen-depleting detritus, adding tilapia often increases the population, size and health of other fish.

[Mike Delisser]

6 tilapia were released into golf course lake in Nth Qld, 5 years later around 5 ton were removed with nets. Prolific breeders and will take over, from an anglers point of view you will get to the point of it being useless to bait fish in the same water for any other species. They breed several time a year and can breed as soon as they're a couple of inches long. Check out the pic below of the 8cm talapia carrying its babies in its mouth, they grow to over 50cm and several kilos, that's an bloody lot of babies over their life-time.

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[Lovey80]

Mike, do you have any info on native predators like Mangrove Jack being able to keep them under control? Would be good to use some of these more land locked lakes around SEQ that are full of them as test cases for having MJ or similar beneficial natives species introduced as pest control. Also in flood events, big fat MJ get washed downstream and into the salt instead of spreading Tilapia?

Would love more info on this.

[Mike Delisser]

The PRFMA are trying something at Kurwongbah with natives, best to contact then or see their web site.

Nearly every arvo for the last 2 years I've seen a doz odd anglers take a sugar bag each away at the back of Nth Pine, it still doesn't make a dent. last time I tried I got 3 tilapia in 3 casts in 3 mins. I realy believe the only way to irradicate them will be by gene manipulation or biologically some how.

BTW, I know there are a few different species of tilapia around the world and I think the ones often referred as being positive to the environment may not be the same tilapia we have here in Australia.

[STUIE63]

there is talk that up here when they electrofish the river through town that the tilapia numbers have come down since they introduced barra and jacks into it . but I have seen nothing official

[PinHead]

introducing non native species of any animal poses problems. eg cane toads, foxes, rabbits, goats, camels etc etc They all do irreparable damage. I think about the only successful introduction was cactoblastis..did its job without detroying anything else.

[Funchy]

introducing non native species of any animal poses problems. eg cane toads, foxes, rabbits, goats, camels etc etc They all do irreparable damage. I think about the only successful introduction was cactoblastis..did its job without detroying anything else.

From the good ol' WWW. Prickly pear was a big issue for NSW.

"The answer to the main prickly pear problem came in the form of biological control. As the amazing spread of prickly pear in eastern Australia was considered to be one of the botanical wonders of the world, its virtual destruction by cactoblastis caterpillars (Cactoblastis cactorum) is still regarded as the world's most spectacular example of successful weed biological control. The first liberations of cactoblastis were made in 1926, after extensive laboratory testing to ensure they would not move into other plant species.
Within six years, most of the original, thick stands of pear were gone. Properties previously abandoned were reclaimed and brought back into production."