NEVER release an aquarium fish into the wild.

[mjmc]

I completely understand what you're saying ewurm. However you have to think that humans have been catching and releasing wild animals for hundreds of years. I personally have caught and kept snakes, lizards, squirrels, turtles, and fish my entire life. I have raised squirrels, ducks, geese, raccoons, and various other animals. Our family is a sort of rescue for abandoned animals. We have released these animals back into the wild. I have not seen any population drop of any of these animals. Maybe these animals carried pathogens back with them to their wild populations, maybe not. But the wild populations have not suffered noticeably. I still see black rat snakes where I released one I kept for a couple of years, and I still see red-eared sliders where I released one. There are plenty of squirrels, raccoons, blue gills and five lined skinks around. I just think the whole disease spread question is overblown. Wildlife is more resilient than most people seem to think.

An aside, I have emailed the Division of Wildlife to clarify if there are any laws here about releasing native animals. I am unaware of any, but that doesn't mean there aren't.

 

[oscarboy8]

isn't that why snakeheads r illeagle in some places?

 

[andrejnr]

Here in Portugal (for anyone that doens't now it, its the more Western country in Europe) we've had some foreing introductions in lakes and rivers. The most noticeble two happened during the 1930s; the introduction of the mosquito fish (gambuzia affinis) for the (stupid) purpose of reducing mosquito plagues and subsquently the introduction of a Cichlid native to South and Central America, suposedly from Brazil called Cichlassoma Facetum. Nowadays both species live in most of the more southern rivers both in Portugal and in Spain. C. Facetum is indeed the only Cichlid known to occur naturally in Europe at this time and populations in Portugal exibit some collor diferences from one location to the other, so you can say tha there are diferent collor morphs. One of these diferences is in the eye collor. Some populations exibit an eye collor of yellow wilst others exibit a full red collor even when not in "breeding dress". Another interesting feature is that the Portuguese population of the C. Facetum (as well as the Spanish one I would think) exibit a smaller size from theyre original American predecessors; as the original C. Facetum from the americas grew to 30cm the European populations are known to grow only to sizes from 15cm to 20cm. This I find to be very intrieguing since wild cought Facetum from portuguese rivers do not grow past this size even if put in aquaria heated to tropical temperatures.
Note that some of the habitats that the C. Facetum has conquered in Portugal exibit quite extremely diverse climate conditions from Summer to Winter both in air and water temperatures. These last can vary from less than 10ºC in the Winter to more than 25ºC in the Summer.


There have nonetheless been other more desastrous introduction in Spain tha are now invading Portugal too, like some species of catfishes that grow quite rapidly and obliterate native fish almost completly...

 

[ewurm]

I completely understand what you're saying ewurm. However you have to think that humans have been catching and releasing wild animals for hundreds of years. I personally have caught and kept snakes, lizards, squirrels, turtles, and fish my entire life. I have raised squirrels, ducks, geese, raccoons, and various other animals. Our family is a sort of rescue for abandoned animals. We have released these animals back into the wild. I have not seen any population drop of any of these animals. Maybe these animals carried pathogens back with them to their wild populations, maybe not. But the wild populations have not suffered noticeably. I still see black rat snakes where I released one I kept for a couple of years, and I still see red-eared sliders where I released one. There are plenty of squirrels, raccoons, blue gills and five lined skinks around. I just think the whole disease spread question is overblown. Wildlife is more resilient than most people seem to think.

An aside, I have emailed the Division of Wildlife to clarify if there are any laws here about releasing native animals. I am unaware of any, but that doesn't mean there aren't.

I imagine that releasing captive animals in any state is illegal, as it is in mine.

 

[ewurm]

isn't that why snakeheads r illeagle in some places?

That's why Snakeheads are illegal in all places in the US.

 

[ewurm]

Also check out the sticky by teleost, he details effects of releasing native fish into the wild.

 

[Zoso]

In Pa most tropicals will die in the winter thank god, but scumbags that don't neuter cats let them run rampant and breed. Then the cats kill the baby pheasants, grouse, and rabbits, which i am supposed to eat. So i kill the wild feral cats. If it is on the state gameland, and doesn't have a collar, it becomes fertilizer. If i saw an invasive fish, i would catch it and raise it, or kill and eat it. I don't kill things unless i eat them. But i do eat alot.

 

[ewurm]

You should eat the cats too! What a waste! LOL! Seriously, the more non-natives you can remove, the better. Unfortunately, I don't think you will have much effect on breeding populations of non-natives.

 

[dmarinko]

i agree in 2002 people released snakeheads in maryland

 

[ewurm]

i agree in 2002 people released snakeheads in maryland

Yeah, that would be a key example why you shouldn't do it.