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Tilapia
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When the Tilapia get into a river system what happens to the fish that are native to that system. Our river system is healthy , Spring or King , Coho , Pink , Chum , occasional Sockeye , some steelhead and Native Cutthroat trout . What might theTilapia do to a river system if there was an escapement from a farm that raises the Tilapia ?
PeteC:
You are correct on all counts JW, ;),I have not researched which specie this is.All I've heard is its common name,"Blue Tilapia".We also have" Common Tilapia" as well,in other lakes in our area.
Winston,tilapia cannot survive in cold water.They only live in our coal fired power plant lakes in this area.They do live futher south and can survive if it does'nt get too cold.The fellas from the florida area have them in many waterways.The lakes where I hunt these fish also have very healthy game and bait fish populations. God Bless
JW_Halverson:
At about 72 degrees F they stop feeding, much below that and they become torporous, below 50 degrees they drown because their bodies stop functioning. Not many places in the continental U.S that can support escaped (or released by the Florida DNR in the 1950's to control weeds in the canal systems) tilapia.
Oddly enough there is a healthy tilapia population here in western South Dakota. There is a wild-flowing geothermal well near the town of Phillip, the water comes outa the ground at 172 degrees and has enough minerals dissolved in it to float gravel on the surface. It flows into a large cooling pond and then overflows into Lake Waggoner. There are catchable populations in the cooling pond as well as in the inflow area on the lake. When I moved there to set up the hatchery system I was quite taken back by the state Game and Fish people, they didn't require any filtration system on the waste water from the hatchery nor did they care if any of these tilapia escaped. The way they explained it to me was that they would welcome another baitfish base for the bass to feed on in Lake Waggoner. I asked what they would do if the tilapia overpopulated the lake and they laughed, said they would divert the water from flowing into the lake for a week in December and end the problem. Next time I'm down there I'll have to take the bow.
Good fishing, Pete.
Tsalagi:
Wow, I find myself envious. I love tilapia.
sticknstring:
hey Pete, I bet yours taste better than mine.
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