Went To Alligator Alley

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MN_Rebel;3944750; said:
Isnt most exotics escaped from fish farms?
Yes, they is. :D

Flooding is the primary cause of the escape of farmed fish (in case anyone was wondering). There are many species that are only aquarium fish, so you are right; the fish farms can't bear all of the blame. There are plecos and armored catfish among others that have no food market value through out Florida. Each of these species represents countless events of released aquarium fish.
 
MN_Rebel;3945179; said:
Tilapia aint excatly aquarium type fish, I guess they escaped from a fish farm when it was flooded from hurricanes. Florida has lots of fish farms around there, thats where majority of our tropical fish were raised. I'm just saying that some exotics do not come from aquarium releases.


They recently had a talipia segment on news and your right bred in fish farms for food this yr it has cost them a fortune to heat the greenhouses they keep them in.
 
armac;3945392; said:
The tilapia, all over the world, are not coming from the aquarium trade, they are coming fromm farms, that are breeding them as food fish.

I believe some tilapia have even been released by government agencies to reduce invasive plant growth in the water, then the tilapias took over and created a bigger problem.


You know what your talking about as few know the state gave the okay to release talipia. Now they try to blame talipia farmers.

"The first record of this tilapia in Florida was that of 3,000 fish stocked in a series of phosphate pits for aquatic plant control experiments at the Pleasant Grove Research Station in Hillsborough County in August 1961 (Crittenden 1965; Courtenay et al. 1974; Courtenay and Hensley 1979a). The tilapia later spread and reproduced, and subsequent attempts to eradicate it failed (Langford et al. 1978; Hale et al. 1995). The species is now considered the most widespread foreign species in Florida. It has been reported or collected in more than 20 Florida counties, and is established in most of these "

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?speciesID=463
 
megalops///;3944965;3944965 said:
I'm about 25 miles east of the airport. Live bait is all I've been using. We have a pretty steady supply of wild golden shiners and of course a near endless supply of small bream and sunfish. I've been fishing golf courses and small ponds with good success. I've also fished a couple lake by UCF and have done very well, as in multiple 5+ pound LMB's on Culprits worms. I haven't yet been to lake toho this year, except to duck hunt a couple times. Hopefully I can make it over there soon to slay some crappie. :headbang2




No doubt. I have a feeling a lot of people on this site think it is just fine to realease exotics into the wild. Defintiely not the majority by any means, but still, I get the drift that some people let their emotions rule them instead of reason and logic. Im not saying saying don't listen to emotion, I just hope they use common sense.
I agree and people who release exotics into local waters because they have no common sense or are irresponsible need a good :nutkick:!
 
Ok went out fishing for a few minutes in one of my local canals about 4 miles out from the Glades in Broward County. Right off of Griffin Road. This canals water was always popping between the Clarius and the Plecos. It was still and silent. When I walk the shoreline nothing darted from the shoreline like last year. The mollies were abundant and not very scared to be swiming around. They were swiming around even away fromt he top water foilage. Nothing is chomping on them. I think a very good chunk of Browards Exotics BIT it in the big SFLA freeze. I will say this another canal fed by the same main canal a few miles east. I saw two huge mozambique tilapia swimming around but those were the ONLY two exotics I saw. The rest of what I saw was native.
 
Robbwilder;3981833;3981833 said:
Ok went out fishing for a few minutes in one of my local canals about 4 miles out from the Glades in Broward County. Right off of Griffin Road. This canals water was always popping between the Clarius and the Plecos. It was still and silent. When I walk the shoreline nothing darted from the shoreline like last year. The mollies were abundant and not very scared to be swiming around. They were swiming around even away fromt he top water foilage. Nothing is chomping on them. I think a very good chunk of Browards Exotics BIT it in the big SFLA freeze. I will say this another canal fed by the same main canal a few miles east. I saw two huge mozambique tilapia swimming around but those were the ONLY two exotics I saw. The rest of what I saw was native.
Good maybe the Warmouth and Florida Bluegill still have a chance of coming back in the abscence of the exotics.
 
There isn't exactly a shortage of either Warmouths or Bluegills in my parts. I can't speak for the fringes of South Florida, but they are so plentiful here (Orlando) that there isn't any worry. They probably won't be restocking down there.

Left to its own devices (and our screwy FWC), the South Florida ecosystem will return to its normal self (complete with invasives).
 
warmouth;4000301; said:
Good maybe the Warmouth and Florida Bluegill still have a chance of coming back in the abscence of the exotics.

I've been seeing a great number of warmouth in my canal, which have never been there in my 17 years of living on this canal, so maybe the invasives getting taken aback has helped, although I've been catching less fish than ever because I used to catch a lot of pbass and mayans and now all I catch is LMB's (cant complain about that but my numbers are done and variety has left).
 
fhawk362;4001552; said:
I've been seeing a great number of warmouth in my canal, which have never been there in my 17 years of living on this canal, so maybe the invasives getting taken aback has helped, although I've been catching less fish than ever because I used to catch a lot of pbass and mayans and now all I catch is LMB's (cant complain about that but my numbers are done and variety has left).
I am glad you and Chompers have replied.....your probably right about warmouth and Lmbs.....Florida Bluegill is a subspecies of Bluegill and is only endemic to the Florida peninsula.......have you all seen how the Florida bluegill are doing, how about Everglades Pygmy Sunfish? Thanks Joe.
 
The bag limit for bluegill is 50 per person per day (no size limit). :grinyes:

They are everywhere and in high numbers. When nothing else is biting, you can always count on the bluegill.
 
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