Sooties and Tilapia

bill12 · Guru

Sooties and Tilapia

SnowT · Guru

Are you Serious they are Fining People for having a Dead fish in your in your hand's..

That's a Bit Backwards..

If they know the fish are there Would they not want as many of them removed as they CAN...

Me I would say the more you take the Better..

Tilapia is a Very nice eating fish, had some in America..

A great feed..

Juergen

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

Some background on Tilapia

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/pests-diseases/freshwater-pests/species/tilapia

Cheers - John

antigoon · Veteran Member

Did not even know they had tilapia populations in oz. Poor old folk in NSW; it's pity that you cannot remove them as they are a very tasty fish, you would go a long way to find a better freshwater fish in oz. Used to get these from Lake Malawi (chumbo) - try them simply filleted, dust with flour, chilli powder, pepper and salt then panfried with a squeeze of lime. Tilapia are very popular around the world as an aquaculture species, especially to complement hydroponics. As Juergen said ... "A great feed".

Jonathan · Senior Member

I recently spent some time at Bivuac Junction which is about 20 k's east of Charters Towers in Qld ..

.. in one 2 hr period, I caught 8 tilapia all of which ranged between 1.5 to 2 kg .. great fun fighting fish and if they're biting, there's not much chance of getting competition from any other type ..

Not sure, and still trying to find out for certain but have heard that they can/do carry some 'bug' in their system here that when eaten, causes gastro probs ..

Be keen to know if anyone has experienced this ..

bill12 · Guru

I amnot kidding. Its a $10000 fine just having one ,dead or alive, in your posetion. I understand that they are good eating, but they are an introduced species, and are aggressive breeders.A kayaker, who, by the way was cutting reeds from the water to get his large kayak into the water,Had a go at me when I said that damaging the reeds in a national park was quite probably illegal, and he said Catching Tilapia was a big fine.The one I caught was a great fighter.They seem a better fish than Carp,in my opinion.The aquarium fish called Oscars are tilapia, and when they get too big, people release them in the local waterways, which they take over. Lots in the lakes ane rivers around Townsville, NQ. Catching them for eating is probably a better way to go.Bill

Jonathan · Senior Member

I agree with you Bill .. to that point in time I had not even heard of them ..

GaryKelly · Guru

My experience in matters piscatorial is limited to fish 'n' chip shops and supermarket freezers. But Bill's story and the comments make interesting reading nonetheless. I'm glad the new tug is performing well, Bill.

Gerty Dancer · Guru

We used to have an aquarium, had heard about those fish going feral.... surely, as with carp, catching them is better than leaving them in the water to breed. That's crazy!
Had a look at the Qld legislation on this, and it seems so long as you kill it straight away, there's nothing about not eating it.

http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/66225/Stop-the-spread-Module-3.pdf

Ooops! I read further, no not allowed to eat them either, as it might give them a "trade value".... how stupid.

-- Edited by Gerty Dancer on Sunday 1st of December 2013 09:33:57 AM

03_troopy · Guru

from that PDF file Gerty:

Can people eat tilapia?
Tilapia is a popular food fish in Asia, Africa and
the South Pacific. However, the use of tilapia for
consumption in Queensland is illegal.

haha, you just beat me to it.

-- Edited by 03_troopy on Sunday 1st of December 2013 09:38:51 AM

Yuglamron · Guru

Crazy situations caused by ourselves.

Tilapia are good eating but will take over a body of water and crowd out our natural populations of fish. I used to belong to a fishing club in Qld and we had a visit/talk by a Qld fisheries officer re Tilapia. He told us the spread of these fish is getting to the point where they are like the cane toad. Far too many to control.

We have the situation where commercial fishing of these fish and using them as fertiliser and cat and dog food looks to be a logical way to go. Some of the dams have so many it's a logical next step to harvest the things. They are prolific breeders and crowd out the local species.

The huge fines for catching them or having them dead or alive is a waste of time, just plain wrong.There are just too many of them and what if you genuinely don't recognise your catch as a Tilapia. Tilapia are like lot's of other fish. Water conditions and local changes make them hard to identify. Colour changes and differences in body shape all occur in this species.

Yes have controls and try to keep the spread of these fish down but every time there is a flood they spread further and wider through the creeks and rivers and dams.

It's like, in my opinion those idiots who wanted to import those crossbreed cats from Asia. The cat crossed with the Ocelot because they were so cute and "People" would pay big money to have one. Let them into the environment and we would have no native animals left.

Begs the question, How did the Tilapia get into the country in the first place?

Okayed by the Govt?

-- Edited by Yuglamron on Sunday 1st of December 2013 10:39:54 AM

Bryan · Guru

Here in WA, we have similar problems with Redfin Perch but we are allowed to catch them. The only stipulation is they must be killed and not returned to the water. They are very good eating. Between Christmas and New Year a few of us will be taking our kayaks down to Pemberton to hunt for them in the Warren River.

bill12 · Guru

Let get this straight. You can catch them ,but you have to kill and dispose of them when you catch them. The stupid kayaker told me that I would fined for catching one. I think he was scared I would dob him infor destroying the reeds at the lakes edge.I must admit, after the first one fort hard, I wanted to catch more-there were hundreds in Lake Barrine. If you can,t get rid of them , why not kill and eat them to bring down numbers. Seems logical to me.We have some stupid laws in QLD. To answer the way they got in, they came in as aquarium fish, and when they got too big , people released them in local waterways. Chichlids are tilapia.Gary, the new courier has lots more power and does 7klms to the ltr, with the aircon on, up and down the roads around the Atherton tablelands.Great car! Bill

-- Edited by bill12 on Sunday 1st of December 2013 01:09:47 PM

-- Edited by bill12 on Sunday 1st of December 2013 01:13:28 PM

Birdy1710 · Veteran Member

Have heard the fine occur,s if the fish is returned to the water. (same with carp)

bill12 · Guru

Just got back to Magnetic island where I live, and immediately wanted to get back on the road! I also found out that many of the creeks and rivers around Townsville are full of Tilapia! Ross river, and the lakes are full of them! Oh, and Gary, the newer courier does 8klms to the liter when I don,t have the aircon on.Its nice to keep up with the traffic, and even overtake a few cars, now and again.The newer tug went great with not a worry, and I hope to keep it long term. See you on the road, Bill

03_troopy · Guru

It would seem logical to encourage commercial use of any introduced pest to try to bring the numbers down. The problem here is that you then place a commercial value on them. People, being people, will then try to exploit that by introducing the pests even further so that they can gain from them financially. It's the same with any introduced species. Farmers have been known to tell shooters not to take breeding female pigs or goats at times, on their property so that they can continue to charge shooters to hunt on their property. All feral species, tilapia, redfin, carp, trout, pigs, goats, rabbits etc etc.. should attract a fine for being released into the wild, or any risk of being released, or even encouraging population increases in any way, due to the damage they do and risks they cause to our own wild species with parasites and diseases.

-- Edited by 03_troopy on Saturday 7th of December 2013 07:17:52 AM

Gerty Dancer · Guru

I'm with you Troopy, add horses, donkeys, deer, camels to the list.

But I didn't know redfin wasn't a native fish? Used to enjoy eating the ones we caught in irrigation channels in the Riverina.

03_troopy · Guru

Check it out here Gerty
Redfin Perch

Gerty Dancer · Guru

Thanks Troopy! It seems the rules for Redfin are much more sensible than those for Tilapia...

NSW DPI encourages that any caught redfin are humanely dispatched immediately and utilised or disposed of in an appropriate manner. Anglers should be aware that it is illegal to be in possession of a live redfin, and the catch can only be stored dead, such as on ice in an esky

bill12 · Guru

Seem a lot better way of handling the fish, but QLD is usually behind the times in things like this.We are not going to get rid of them, so why not use them .All you have to do is kill all you catch.I have eaten redfin and they are one of the best freshwater fish I have eaten. Getting big ones is harder as they breed themselves into small sizes, and are very aggressive.I wish the QLD dpi would take a more modern approach. Bill

SnowT · Guru

I think that it would be BETTER to Promote the Capture and culling of the Fish.. Don't Put a Bag Limit just capture as many as you can..

As I have said they are a Great fish to eat and they are also a great breeder, which is why they are such a problem..

Juergen..

Radar · Guru

Very interesting, we have just started to get a liking to the idea of fresh water fishing.

Been collecting ideas to help get the fish into the pan for dinner. Cheers