United States Invasive/Alien Species

[teleost]

So I see that weather loaches are invasive near Chicago. Anybody know where I can catch a few?

Hmmm. Druuu! how serious are you about finding them? I've been looking for a guy like you

I know of some places where they've been found in the past and found bubkiss.

I'd like to get an enthusiast in the water and photo them as well as document preferred habitat.

You'll need an Illinois permit, waders and a desire to wade up to your chest in muck.....still interested? The season is nearing and end for this fish. Contact me via PM.

weather loaches shouldn't be harmful at all. They just eat decaying plant matter and hide under leaves and silt. Oh and if you want to catch one find a calm body of water/ stream with a lot of dead leaves, water plant mats and sediment on the banks(combination gravel,mud, sand bottom is ideal). Take a large scoop net and scrape threw it. The biggest one i've caught was like 9 1/2" inches, but they mite grow bigger in hawaii due to climate.

It should be shallow water, no more than shin deep, and if its only ankle deep or less thats even better. But if you havent got any after 2 or 3 big scoops they probably arent there.

Shocking to hear form Hawaii. Anytime you introduce a non native, you displace natives unless the invasive fills an entirely new niche. This is uncommon at best. I'll bet the loaches compete with natives to some degree.

 

[Polypterus]

Shocking to hear form Hawaii. Anytime you introduce a non native, you displace natives unless the invasive fills an entirely new niche. This is uncommon at best. I'll bet the loaches compete with natives to some degree.

We have a locally established population here in Michigan and while the jury is still out on exactly what impact they have had, they clearly displace natives where found. It is interesting that here we do not find them in the habitats as described above at all but in areas of slow riffles or on the back side of pool edges. Often the areas have no real vegetation (Aside from algae or willow moss) or any sediment or debris build up at all. In some cases we have sampled them over rather high gradient and flow conditions.

 

[teleost]

We have a locally established population here in Michigan and while the jury is still out on exactly what impact they have had, they clearly displace natives where found. It is interesting that here we do not find them in the habitats as described above at all but in areas of slow riffles or on the back side of pool edges. Often the areas have no real vegetation (Aside from algae or willow moss) or any sediment or debris build up at all. In some cases we have sampled them over rather high gradient and flow conditions.

Whoa! I might be concentrating in the wrong places. I scouted quite a bit and avoided all but the sparsely vegetated areas that were outside of known distribution. I might need to pay another visit. Thanks for the tip Poly!

 

[rjmtx]

Hypostomus plecostomus
Suckermouth Catfish​

Texas distribution: Was introduced to the San Antonio River, Comal Springs (Hubbs et al 1991). Was first introduced in 1956 into the San Antonio River, and has maintained a large and obvious presence since (Edwards 2001). Reproducing populations occur in spring-influenced habitats of the San Antonio River (Bexar County), Comal Springs (Comal County), San Marcos River (Hays County), and San Felipe Creek (Val Verde County) (Hoover et al. 2004; Whiteside and Berkhouse 1992; Lopez-Fernandez and Winemiller 2005).

(Above from Thomas, Bonner, and Whiteside 2007)

They are also showing up all over the coastal plains, especially as the temperature zones move north. They're a big problem in the bayous around Houston, where they are destroying the banks with their nests. The thing is, they guard their fry until they are inedible to just about every native. I cooked up a dozen one night (caught in clear spring water), steamed with a lemon/butter/garlic sauce. Not bad, consistancy of shellfish, but absolute hell to clean. My hands were like hamburger meat afterwards. In a small stretch of the San Marcos River that was diverted temporarily to do some restoration on it, 6 large gabage cans of Plecos were pulled out, and later mulched. There's no telling how bad the long term affects of their residence will be, but it ain't gonna be pretty.

 

[Louie]

The pollution has grown so much be it car fumes, construction,etc that some of the local canals are barren of fish except for African cichlids and they keep the mosquito population down (I prefer that over dropping poison like Miami gvmt enjoys doing)
The native tiny fish like Everglade sunfish,etc were going downhill in many areas not due to non natives but due to changes like the above.
To look at a canal thats barren is disgusting to see little non natives swim by is better and again keeps mosquitos down . I think non natives fill a niche that was open or opening due to man caused pollution and other problems that were hurting the native fish who were on their way out anyway.
You have cichlids in area canals that had no fish to begin with . Its like the Brown anole lizard which has replaced the green native anole in many areas not because it displaced it but because the growing population of humans ,cement backyards -lack of trees were killing it anyway thus it was on its way out.
Go to the Everglades TONS of Green anoles as no problem than go to many areas in Miami that are built up like Doral and only brown anoles because it was man who killed/killing the native thus the non native was able to adapt.
I prefer to have some nature than nothing thus LOVE the non natives I have never subscribed to that they displace much I think they simply step in where there is an opening.
Ofcourse if you introduce a snakehead where there are no fish like it or foxes where there are no predators like it than you have a problem but as a whole the non natives are harmless .
Its the pollution and the zillion feral cats in Miami that are the problem.

 

[duanes]

I hear, if you steam them (plecos)before cleaning, they crack open and the flesh is easy to get and guts easy to clean, and tastes like lobster. No personal experience though, I'll have to try it when mine gets big enough, or when one pops up at the auction for $2.

 

[Rockbass6]

One thing that sucks with the goby is that people who catch them in Michigan at times are afraid to kill them, or don't know how and let them go back into the water...

Our biologist here in pennsylvania are finding that the round goby is making our gamefish bigger than ever!!! They are invasive and they do feed on the gamefishes fry and eggs, but they are here to stay... They cover the bottom of lake erie. Fisherman killing a couple hundred isn't going to put the slightest dent in the population. I found from my experience that I catch them in rocky bottoms and never on a sandy bottom. The biologist in pennsylvania say its just a matter of time before the round goby helps rewrite the record books for state records for size on smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, perch, walleye, and even lake trout and steelhead. They have found that these fish have been using the goby as a main source of food. The biggest perch I ever caught, I caught using a round goby as bait. I caught it on a minnow and rehooked it through the upper jaw and bounced it on the bottom and hooked a 14.5 inch yellow perch. As much as they are considered bad for the lake, they are doing some good, by providing an Great food source for the game fish!!

 

[rjmtx]

I hear, if you steam them (plecos)before cleaning, they crack open and the flesh is easy to get and guts easy to clean, and tastes like lobster. No personal experience though, I'll have to try it when mine gets big enough, or when one pops up at the auction for $2.

I've eaten them. They are a little crabby tasting, but it's mostly the consistancy that's the same. I fileted a dowzen that were ~1' each and got a thumb sized hunk of meat off of each filet. My hands were torn to hell, and my knife dull at the end of it. They didn't taste bad, but the cost/benefit ratio of them (labor intensive, tear up everything tearing them down) makes them not woth the effort. I wish they were so people would have a reason to pull them out of the rivers.

And on the round gobies... Don't get so excited about the game fish being bigger than ever. It won't do the trout fishery any good after all those huge fish eventually die after not having reproduced successfully. They also eat their partner in crime, zebra mussels, which, being filter feeders, filter out and act as reservoirs for conatminants. Thus contaminating the gobies, and on to the apex predators, which no one will be advised to eat because of the danger. I don't know a lot about the round gobies (not a problem down here), but I know they have the potential to devestate the ecosystem even more than they already are. If someone is pushing the benefits of an invasive species instead of giving the whole story, they are just acting as an invasive species apologist.

 

[Polypterus]

Our biologist here in pennsylvania are finding that the round goby is making our gamefish bigger than ever!!! They are invasive and they do feed on the gamefishes fry and eggs, but they are here to stay... They cover the bottom of lake erie. Fisherman killing a couple hundred isn't going to put the slightest dent in the population. I found from my experience that I catch them in rocky bottoms and never on a sandy bottom. The biologist in pennsylvania say its just a matter of time before the round goby helps rewrite the record books for state records for size on smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, perch, walleye, and even lake trout and steelhead. They have found that these fish have been using the goby as a main source of food. The biggest perch I ever caught, I caught using a round goby as bait. I caught it on a minnow and rehooked it through the upper jaw and bounced it on the bottom and hooked a 14.5 inch yellow perch. As much as they are considered bad for the lake, they are doing some good, by providing an Great food source for the game fish!!

OMFG please tell me I'm not reading this......It is just a bad dream and I'll wake up never having seen it...

 

[ShadowBass]

Because (assuming that's true - which I don't know anything about) we all know that bigger game fish are the main indicator of a healthy ecosystem.

Nice going there RockBass. You succeed in missing the total point.

The last time I went to Lake Michigan (8 yrs ago or so probably) I was so disappointed, having not been to any of the great lakes in several years, all I caught was round gobies. One after the other, NOTHING but round gobies, about 100 fish. Unfortunately at the time me and my dad had no idea what they were and kept throwing them back at first(for all we knew, they were native and there was just a large amount of them in that spot).
Finally someone else came along, we asked what they were and they explained.Me and my dad were so sickened that I'd just put all these nasty invasive pests back into the water. The ONLY people I saw take any instead of just putting them back was a group of chinese people collecting baskets full of them to eat. We ended up giving any subsequent catches to them.

So think whatever you want. Good for game fish and not destructive? Ok. I used to actually catch a pretty good variety of fish up there. Now there's so many round gobies it's not even funny. Where were the small bass and stuff I used to catch while fishing on shore or on the docks? And even then there was still a problem with other invasive fish, but I don't remember ever catching NOTHING but invasive fish, and the same species repeatedly for that matter.
SO WHAT if there might be ONE good thing they do. several invasive species are of benefit in some ways while being extremely destructive in others, it does NOT mean attempts shouldn't be made to limit their destruction and eliminate them from our native waterways.