Wild Caught Cichlids In Australia!!! - Oh No.

[oscar]

Don't know how far the news has spread, but i suspect you may hear about it in the comming days/weeks.

Up here in my neck of the woods, well close enough anyway, at Gladstone someone has found a Convict Cichlid in a water body in a disused quarry pit. :?

I guess this leads us to believe it's a sealed water body and hopefully there aren't any anywhere else, but who knows.

Pending what follow-up investigations reveal, this may hit mainstream news i guess.

Thought some may be interested.

Cheers.

[sammigold]

About 2 years ago I was given a bag of about 8 little cichlids (unidentified) which I put in my tank at the time.... and then I took one to the LFS for id.... he told me to get rid of them straight away as they would grow up to be extremely aggressive and kill my other fish as well as each other... I cant remember what they were called now but I took them out and gave them to him as feeders. Anyway he told me that there is a lake about an hour from where I live in Vic. where these guys are breeding prolifically after someone released some into the lake... imagine what they would do if they got released into the creeks.. :( I dont know if it is true it may have just been a rumour....

[G-1000]

I dont know if anyone is aware but there are mutant fish in the harbour (sydney).

I have seen discus that are up to 50cm long - it must be the really clean and toxin free water they swim in !!

lol

G

[oscar]

It may need clarification.

This is not a joke or an urban legend.

It happened and was on the radio news this morning.

[axelfaz]

hi oscar here a thread you might find intersting from a while back
http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3064&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=ross+river&&start=0

cameron

[Proteus]

I cant think of the name of the dam in Victoria (near a power station) but it is meant to be full to the brim of Cichlids

[sammigold]

Yeah I think we are thinking of the same one Proteus... apparently there is heaps of different ones in there...

[Proteus]

Hazelwood pond???

something like that I think

[Merrilyn]

That's close Ro. It's Hazelwood power station pondage. The water is warm there because of the run off from the power station.

Here are some pics of fish caught there last week, by a friend. They catch them on tiny hooks and sweet corn. And no, it's no joke. They've been there for years. Perhaps some of our cichlid enthusiasts might be able to identify them.

[nicholas76]

nice "wilds" huh :roll:


tank busters ! red devils mutants

[Mattzilla]

definately look like they have some devil in them

[nicholas76]

sure do

and from experience they are sooo AGRO! hate to go swimming in that water

with my red devils - i had to clean there tanks with a broom handle attached to a window cleaner thinggy ( like the windscreen wiper cleaner you get at the local servo station.

mine used to leave nasty hickies / bite marks on my hands, would also draw blood.

[sammigold]

the second picture looks like a firemouth?
That is exactly the name of the place I was thinking about!!!
So it was for real!!!! :shock:

[Dangerous Dave]

The second picture looks like a Trimac.

[OscarManAlpha]

I will have a guess at the fish on the left of the third photo, as being a Tilapia of some discription !!

Cheers,

Mark

[endless]

I've been to hazelwood pondage before and its actually quite fun to catch these fish. The Tilapias are pretty good fighters if you have really light line and rod. There's plenty of fish and you'd probably be pulling up a fish every 2 minutes.

Sammigold, dont worry these fish will never survive in our creeks cause the water is way too cold in winter. They only survive in hazelwood cause of the powerstation nearby which uses the lake water to cool its generators hence the water is always warm even in winter.

[goldenpigeon]

hey G,

the fish you have seen are actually sunfish. do they look a lot like discus or only round? sunfish are in the syd harbour all the time and the boats have a lot of trouble with them because they can get over 2 meters round and weigh over a tonne.

HTH

[nicholas76]

so in theory.......... if someone was to drop some discus into the warm waters up north ..........

apart from being negligent could they survive?

[axelfaz]

up in darwin and cairns they might have a chance nic the water up there is very similiar and so are the seasons.

Cameron

[nicholas76]

hmmmmm

axlefaz ,,,, out door pondage massive discus farms hmmmmm the mind ponders.

what a business idea!

[wonna]

Don't know how far the news has spread, but i suspect you may hear about it in the comming days/weeks.

Up here in my neck of the woods, well close enough anyway, at Gladstone someone has found a Convict Cichlid in a water body in a disused quarry pit. :?

I guess this leads us to believe it's a sealed water body and hopefully there aren't any anywhere else, but who knows.

Pending what follow-up investigations reveal, this may hit mainstream news i guess.

Thought some may be interested.

Cheers.

i think i heard about that ( not 100% sure)

ps where n cq are you, im in rocky :P

[stonedavid]

Here in Cairns we have a large range of introduced tropical fish, mostly living in our storm water drains. Some of the breeds range from the common red swordtail and molley to the more noxtious species like the mozambique mouthbreeder, blue acara and pearl cichlid. I think the last time Qld Park and wildlife did a check we had 3 tilapia species in out drains. Continuing problem here in the far north, and yes discus wld go crazy up in this area.

[Dave76]

Here is an article about some in QLD

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18023845-421,00.html