Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello alll,

The Department of Fisheries Western Australia has recently made an announcement about the current Noxious fish species. These changes will be in effect as of the 23rd of July this year. .

The species which i have noticed may affect W.A Aquaponic enthusiasts include:

Tilapia Sp. ( entire genus - except Tilapia Butterkoferi)
Oreochromis Sp. (entire genus) - Various Tilapia






(This information was made Available by "Fish Antics (Tony) - PCS")

I thought i should let you all know about these recent changes as it will strongly affect anyone who is currently keeping Tilapia in Western Australia. Under these new changes you can be fined very large ammounts for possession of fish and unfortunatley the noxious list also includes fish such as Piranah and Channa sp. (Snakehead) so fish such as Tilapia will be treated in the same light as them.

But please what ever you do, DO NOT release your fish into our water ways! their has been contact made to the fisheries about collection of fish and proper ways of disposal, also compensation of loss of fish. It is a shame that this has happened but i can see from the fisheries point of view, this is a very prolific breeding species and can withstand saltwater, low temperature, high and low ph and would easily out compete native species in our water ways.

Please also make note to check over the additions to the noxious fish if you may be in possession of them.

Thanks

Thanks for that Nic....

Wow, and it was only about 12 months ago the translocation officer was recommending them for aquaponic systems in W.A.

yeah exactley, I love it also how they state: "None of the species to be listed are believed to be kept in Western Australia".... hmmm nobody correct them

Its a pretty full on change and being unaware isnt a get out of jail card, the fines can be in the 10s of thousands especially if your stock is breeding. I will update when more information is available.

Cheers

Nic

Yep, brings WA inline with the rest of the states... with a national noxious species list... although WA & Qld still have specific species...

Cichlids ( entire genus ) is listed in there ?!

doesn't that affect pretty much every fresh water aquarium / aquarium store, or am I thinking of a different fish ?

Damn , there goes my self powered electric eel AP system idea ..

Yep.... and it is a national list....

Here's the links for all states.... viewtopic.php?p=220905#p220905

The Mississippi Paddlefish is banned? I suspect someone had too much time on their hands. Obviously it is non-native to Australia, but I don't think it is much of a candidate for being a dangerous invader. It is protected in its native range where it is neither a food fish nor an ornamental. It is a very ancient fish.

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/er/biodiversity/index.asp?mode=info&Grp=13&SpecCode=AFCAB01010

they only list one genus (Serranochromis) as banned though (and just the common name as cichlid), so most of the normal ornamental ones are still OK.
Not entirely sure why they picked on that genus. Possibly cause they have an enormous mouth.

most of the list seems pretty reasonable. Not sure i'd like snakeheads or tigerfish invading any waterways around here.

We don't have Tilapia any more.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/200 ... 539668.htm
I remember this article
I think they found some more this year too

Seems like some members of the Perth Cichlid Society are organising some form of petition against this list.

The Cichlid Societies... and ornamentalists... have been petitioning constantly for the last 12 months...

The national list is essentially a done deal.... with only some specific state by state exclusions being argued...

I don't know why they are trying to protect the native fish in the rivers any way. If it was not for the tens of thousands of fingerlings they put in the local river every year the chemicals would of killed them off years ago.

Hi Carbis, it may be protected there but having a look at what it eats and where it lives would make it a threat to our native fish/crustaceans, our most famous Marron, (paddle fish would easily feed on juvenile marron which take 3+ years to grow to a size of 6") which is indigenous to West Australia would certainly be threatened, WA fisheries are very protective of our waterways and ban almost all introduced fish, Red Fin and Tilapia have already been released into waterways with redfin in almost every river and dam in my area.

Interesting that Gambusia (Mosquito Fish) is on the list, they are in plague proportions down this way, they were introduced by what is now Fisheries WA in the 60's from memory to kill mosquito larvae, incorrectly, their main diet here is fish eggs, mainly the eggs of the Western Pygmy Perch which ironically are the best catchers of mosquito's in town, WPP also eat larvae but not enough research had been done on WPP or Gambusia back then, WPP are now severely threatened