What Kind Of Fish Is This???

[MN BassFisher]

Haha...you make a good point!

[Ralph Wiggum]

I hope this is a ruse and that you didn't honestly catch those in MN waters.

[jentz]

Tilapia are native from Africa,they were imported to clean algae out of canals in California,They migrated into the saltin sea and can be caught by the hundreds!! In Raymond where they raise them as food fish, the water isnt any warmer than the local water and if the channel starts running low well water is used and thats no where near the tropical 80 degrees mentioned.Fresh water fish that adapted to the salinity of the Saltin Sea, much more salty than our oceans.

[Burchoid]

Everything I've read said they die in water below 55 degrees...

[abcnerdd]

What if, what if, what if did evolve? Gulp.

[half-dutch]

So what really does live in the sewers under our two biggest Minnesota cities?

[bASS_BLASTER]

If and if a decendent of Tilapias adapted to the weather, they will be competing for food with the asian carps. I rather the tilapia's win then those worthless carps.

[Bkchero]

I live in Ft. Lauderdale, but my wife is from the cities and we go visit her family a couple times a year.

Those are definitely tilapia. I have caught several in the canals and man made lakes around here. Yes there are resident populations in extreme South Florida, but they cannot survive much north of West Palm Beach because if the water temp drops below 65 or so they will die and yes, even in winter down here we get cold snaps that drop the water temp low enough to prevent any spreading to the north. (Unfortunately, we don't get ice, but that's why we come up there in January.) That is generally true of all the exotics that now live in the South Florida canals, both those introduced intentionally (peacock bass) and those released by pet owners who didn't want them any more, such as oscars, ciclids, and tilapia. You name it, we have it in So. Fla. I was in the pet store in Forest Lake (don't remember the name) w/my bro-in-law and when looking at the freshwater fish section I was like, I've caught that, seen that, heard about that, etc.

My guess is if they were 13-15 inches they were released recently by a pet owner who could no longer fit them in his/her tank and did not want to buy a larger tank. The proper move at that point is to take them back to the pet store or else kill them. The other possibility is that they found a home in a warm water discharge by a power plant and during the summer they moved away. When winter comes and the water temp. drops they will die and become eagle food (the eagles down here love them) unless they find their way back to the warm water of the power plant. There could also be resident fish near the power plan who have reproduced, but no one has caught or seen them b/c they have not strayed far from the plant.

Tilapia are supposed to be good eating. I have never had it, I would not eat anything I catch out of the canals down here b/c the canals are full of feritilizer from lawns, gas/oil from roads, garbage, etc. that gets washed in during rainstorms, but they seem to sell a lot of it at the grocery store and everybody I know who has tried it says its decent eating.

Keep us posted on what the DNR says, I'm sure it will be interesting . . .

[chris63]

These fish could easily find warm water discharge in winter and survive/thrive in the river.I'm not saying that is what has happened.It is in the realm of possibilities!c63

[PurpleFloyd]

I just reread the thread and noticed that nobody asked the single most important question-

What were you using for bait and what color? Was it something Chartreuse?

[Fish_Observer]

Others are right: these are tilapias.

If S. Hunter got two out of three, I'm sure there are more in that River. The entire river could not have had just 3.

Tilapias survive better in tropical weathers. But it looks like Hunter got them in the summer. They must have travelled up the Mississippi and may be going back (the surviving ones, that is)--they may be going back down to the warmer areas as winter kicks in.

[DARK30]

I think the people at Sam's Club are fishin the same spot?

[popriveter]

A friend of mine caught a tilapia the same size as these in the mississippi last summer too. I believe i know where they came from. You can go to any any asian grocery store around town and buy live tilapia from the tank for $2 a pound. Someone must have decided to stock the river with a delicious non-native species. Bad decision, but the good news is it won't work. They will winterkill. Even if some find a warm-water discharge to winter in, they'd never thrive and harm the ecosystem.

Still, that's 3 tilapia caught in the mpls stretch of the mississippi this year. What a strange world.

Oh yeah, my friend kept his too.

[SaintPaulPaul]

They don't look like Tilapia to me. I've caught them in Florida in golf course ponds (Tilapia, that is) and they have a rather unnerving vertical-pupil eyeball that makes them really easy to identify- almost like a cat's eye in bright light, but white. I've also caught Mayan Cichlids on Rapalas (along with Snook, Tarpon, etc.) in these same ponds, and the cichlids are much more colorful, larger, and very aggressive with a mouth full of teeth.

(Actually, after looking at the picture of the Nile Tilapia, they look identical. The ones I'd see sitting on nests had these goofy eyeballs and were probably a different type of Tilapia; my buddy that lives on the golf course says they're tilapia, anyway. Still interesting fishing on a golf course...the course is connected to Naples Bay and all the ponds are interconnected. I've seen some weird stuff, including gators...)

[eyebjim]

They look a lot like the big mouth buffalo fish I've caught out of buffalo lake. The one on the right looks like a small mouth buffalo.

[Hoey]

Would you all believe that I caught this fish in the street water runoff pond in my back yard.

[RIPN LIPS]

That sure looks like the pocoa's I had in my fish tank...

[pushbutton]

it sure does...did it have any teeth?

[Hoey]

Well - I was not very... hands-on in dealing with it, not knowing what it was, sort of looking pirana-like.

Using a new reel and rod with new 8lb line, I rigged up a jig and bobber with a crawler. Fishing visually, I dropped the line near the two fish. And the fight was on. It peeled out line and was heading for weeds and tree branches. The line cut my finger pretty badly as I tried to slow it down. The fish straighten-out the hook.

I re-rigged and hooked up again. This time I was able to pull it up on shore. It straigthen-out the hook again on shore and slipped back into the pond. My photographer did the best she could to get photos. I had to leave for the for the tractor pull. I have not seen this fish since.

[EBass]

How much ice is on that pond? Maybe we could ice fish for it?

[sanka]

Thats a Pacu

[pushbutton]

looks like you were not alone..... in the wikpedia spread minnesota was listed. apparently it is really fast growing and why it ended in your pond and also why it is increasingly being used in aquiculture......keep it and eat it the next time

[Acemac]

better send that to the DNR

[tsewdim]

Hoey...Looks like a pacu someone released.