Pirahna in Florida?!

[Lizardlover]

Just saw this on the news, some people in FL may have seen it to, just thought Id share, seems like just about anything can get loose and thrive here! (sorry Dan(jojackson) im taking your job lol)

http://www.wptv.com/mostpopular/sto...ptv-concern-exoti/06dh8yLpM0u-pP9lA-pFVw.cspx

 

[Syn]

Wonder how many other fish they are killing just to remove the piranha.

 

[Lizardlover]

alot probably, you should see my lake when they treat it for some kind of bacteria algae thing, fish everywhere, you dont even want to know the stench

 

[Syn]

What a waste of life. *sigh*

 

[Lizardlover]

I agree wholeheartedly.

 

[lotus02]

Irresponsible pet owners ruin it for everyone and everything else. So sad that irresponsibility will cost so many lives.

 

[james L]

This pond is only a few miles away from me, it makes me want to check out all the ponds around town. Ive heard about a few pirahna populations that were around in the 70's, i think they have been outlawed here in florida for some time now it makes you wonder what else people have that they shouldnt. This kind of stuff is going to kill the pet trade.

 

[bugboy]

theyre illegal in ny cause people were dumping them in some river i forget which but it makes me pissed off at people who do stupid $#!& like this. flush 'em down the toilet at least!

 

[Rocky]

Pirahnas are illegal to own without a permit every where. The reason they are using rotenone is because if for some reason pirahnas reproduced in that pond and then spread it would be a very bad out break and would more than likely destroy surrounding environments.

The chemical they are using only affects fish and the pond they are using it in is more than likely a stock pond. Even if they do kill of a few fish in that pond it is worth it if it saves the entire area. It is a natural chemical so it really only affects fish.

Also, I'm not sure on its uses for pirahna, but I know that it if used properly it can kill off certain fish while leaving others alone. I'm sure that is what the biologists are trying to do. Most of the fish in that pond should have a high tolerance to it and the pirahnas probably have a low tolerance to it. That being said they can introduce a small amount to go in an kill the fish and the chemical breaks down in about a week so it wont have enough time to harm and fish that have a high tolerance to it.

It really does suck that bad pet owners ruin a lot of really fun pets for people. Pirahnas are pretty cool fish (but they get huge in private tanks).

On another not. Check out this article.
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/9542967/detail.html

someone caught a fish that has human teeth at our local lake O.O

 

[Courtney]

i think its a red bellied pacu look alot like the others..you buy them for around 10$ at petsmart they get huge rerally fast they zoom back and forth in your tank and cause cracks i unfortunately have let one go tsk tsk on me i was only 14 so dont be too hard on me the petstores wouldnt take tha darn thing fromme and it wouldnt go down the toilet and i dont like killing animals just cause they break my 55gal

 

[jojackson]

What a waste of life. *sigh*


In this case I have to agree, definately overkill. The video claims they wouldnt survive in the pond anyway. (though you wonder how long they have already). Still, chemically nuking the pond seems destructive and not particularly a great example of enviromental management. I suppose it was the cheapest option, other than nothing, and they 'had to do something' ofcourse, otherwise how do they justify their jobs?

Seemed remarkabley large, though I beleive there is a few piranah species.
Personally I think this is simply the cost of making innocent people criminals with stupid laws. God bless the taxpayer's endless pocket eh!
When folk want something bad enough, they get it legal or otherwise, a little forthought and commonsense could go a long way.
Who wants to get busted just for owning a cool fish (or anything else) so where does it end up.
Some laws create more problems than they prevent.

Idiots trying to legislate against human nature cost everyone, look at the new HR bill in florida.
Wouldnt it make more sense to spend money resolving/preventing the inevitable (dumping/disposal) than to try to stop
people, pointlessly creating more criminals and clogging law courts and costing the taxpayer much more in the long run, and trying fix a mess afterwards.
Build adoption/euthanisation centers and remove the illegality and fear. Encourage folk to do the right thing without
persecution and there wouldnt be piranah and burmese pythons and chameleons in the everglades.

Find a legislator smart enough to understand that, and with enough balls to educate (his/her) potential voters, and your on a winner.

 

[james L]

The sad truth is that in my area there are so many different non-native fish in the ponds,lakes and canals. I bet 80% of the fish you catch in fresh water here are invaders. You can catch any thing from oscars to clown knife fish and everything in between.I believe the worlds largest clown knifefish was caught in a lake in my county. It makes me wonder how so many non-native living things can thrive in Florida.

 

[Rocky]

-The reason they are using the chemical is to prevent the spread of the species, what they didnt tell you in the video is how easy they could have spread. Not only could they have swam through the canals / irrigation ditches but they could laid eggs and the eggs or baby fish can be carried from that pond to another pond or river by a bird. There are a lot of ponds that have no fish to start out with but eventually start having perch / minnows in them because birds carry them from pond to pond.

-The news channel said the pirahna may not survive long in that pond, but there are areas around that pond that they would thrive in. There are populaitons of peacock bass in florida (they come from the same area as that pirahna). Luckily peacock bass are not as detrimental to environments as pirahnas are.

It is extremely important to stop a non native specie from spreading. There are many instances where a non native specie comes and destroys environments. Especially when it comes to marine life.

I dont think they did anything wrong, it is what should have been done. That was a stock pond anyways (basically it gets fished dry and then the city restocks it). Would you rather spend some money restocking a pond or spend millions trying to catch them in the rivers that they are destroying?

That is a huge blow to the anti HR bill though, it's just another reason that exotics should be banned because irresponsible people let them go. (I am not for banning exotics, but I can see their side of the story. It's definitely a lot safer to ban people from having certain pets then natural wildlife being destroyed)

 

[james L]

Rocky is very right. Things spread very quick with all the canals and drainage systems. Most ponds and lakes here are made to collect rain so houses dont flood so they start off empty and sure enough the local kids let something go or heavy rains sometimes flood steets and areas low enough to then allows smaller fish to swim pond to pond. I believe the pirhnas could have survived and maybe even breed if they hadnt all ready. We have other south american fish that just thrive here like plecos, and as funny as it sounds people have been putting them to good use lately by releasing them into pools of empty/forclosed homes to keep them clean.

 

[Lizardlover]

I have tons of plecos in my lake, gotta love FL while boating a few weeks ago we saw about 5 wild monkeys, craziest thing!

 

[Montium]

I'll be the bad guy here and say that I frankly like having the " invaders " here. When I first started herping as a kid I had caught everything that was native down here. I think in many ways they are a benefit, the one exception to this being the cane toad ( Bufo marinus )

In Hawaii they are fighting day geckos as " the bad gecko " give me a break tourists take tons of pictures of them, buy figurines, t-shirts etc etc. So what? they are going to crowd out the indo pacific house gecko? a tragic loss They beep about the jacksons as well because they eat some native snail, heavens no

In my time in Florida I have found that the most destructive animal here is man, followed by animals the government brought in without good research ( cane toad ) for all the sensational news about the pythons being all over the place they seldom find any.

One man's invader is another man's treasure

 

[Rocky]

I dont think anyone will argue with you that sometimes it is cool to find "invaders", however, the main problem is that they harm the local environment. You may not think it's cool to see the native species because you are used to seeing them, but when they are all gone you may think differently.

 

[Montium]

That makes the assumption that they will all die off or be killed off. It hasn't been the case for anything here that I have heard of, sure there may be fewer of them but they are still around. Take the green anole for example. I think things tend to find a balance in nature.

 

[Rocky]

It may seem like things balance off but they really dont. The reason being is that when animals grow up in the wild they inherit certain instincts and learn to evolve with their natural predators. There is a lot to be said about evolution, but basically the prey start dying off so the ones that dont die reproduce and their ability to survive against predators helps their population flourish until eventually the predator evolves etc.

However, if you introduce a new predator then the prey hasn't adapted to escaping that predator so the new predator can wipe out all those species. The same will happen if something is introduced that isn't a predator but still competes for the same niche another animal fills in that ecosystem. Then eventually one of them wont be able to survive.

Examples-

Guam: The brown tree snake was introduced by accident in guam. The birds in that area have no instincts on how to escape the snakes. Now there are very few birds left in guam.

http://www.physorg.com/news137389145.html

America: Common Carp in america should not be here. They actually destroy a lot of lakes. The lake in my home town is filled with algae thanks to the common carp. They breed voraciously and over take lakes. They release more phosphorous and that leads to more algae. They basically make the water quality bad and destroy plats that waterfowl and other native fish eat.

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2009/11/asian_carp_threaten_great_lake.html

Fire ants: they were accidently brought over with imported fruits and since then they have been a pest to everyone and have destroyed many low land bird populations including quail / phesants

Nutria: Trappers introduced these to the states because they reproduce fast and their fur sold for a lot. Now they destroy wetland habitats needed by our local waterfowl including the wood duck which is going extinct.

Feral Hogs: these invasive hogs are destroying millions in dollars in crops.

Galapagos: Luckily nothin bad has happened to these islands, however, if a new predator was introduced the island would be destroyed. None of the animals there have evolved to fear land predators. Due to this humans can literally go up and lay next to the sea lions that inhabit the island. If any kind of wild dog was introduced there it would literally have a feeding frenzy and destroy the island.

Not only does it hurt the ecosystem it hurts the economy.
http://www.glu.org/sites/default/files/lodge_factsheet.pdf

http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/economic/main.shtml



If you want to do some good reading on invasive species and what they have done read through this website http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/index.shtml

 

[Rocky]

Also, I am majoring in wildlife management so I have taken classes on what invasive species do to ecosystems, so I'm not just spurting off information without actually knowing what I'm talking about.