Florida poisons entire pond on purpose...

[Crispy]

I think there were better ways of dealing with this than poisoning the entire pond. Sad sad sad...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-palm-piranha-20091117,0,3028527.story?page=1

[robflanker]

You got a better way of catching 2 piranha in a pond that size i'd like to hear it...

Whilst it is sad that this happened, not sure there were many other practical solutions.

It also gives them the opportunity to wipe the canvas clean, re-stock it with healthy fish and fish that might not have been found there for a while.

[tetra]

sad, I bet it does more to the ecosytem then just kill fish, I am sure most ponds are connected by small streams and under ground rivers.

[robflanker]

sad, I bet it does more to the ecosytem then just kill fish, I am sure most ponds are connected by small streams and under ground rivers.
Yah i bet it is, but I wonder what the half-life of the poison is or how it works.

Doesn't mean its going to stay in the water forever. Otherwise, they'd never be able to restock the pond

[tetra]

Im thinking it was pure amonia? or would that even work ?

[robflanker]

Its not pure ammonia, and that would kill everything thats for sure.

[Scrup]

Florida is pretty crazy about ponds. I worked over a summer in the 90's doing landscaping on a retirement community. I only caught the tail end of this debacle, but it still cracks me up.

They had a few ponds, one of them was super overgrown with weeds/random florida vegatation so they threw in about 10 carp in the hopes it would solve the problem without having to pay for any actual work. A few months later there were no plants left in the pond, so the city started fgiving them fines for breaking some ordinance about bodies of water with no plants. They fenced off a small area and planted it, the carp broke through and ate those plants. Another fine. They put out $15 rewards for anyone who could catch the carp, and by this time they were easily 3'. They were so big when they ate off the bottom of the pond the tails would stick up out of the water. Almost every day they had people out in row boats trying to catch them, net them, shoot them with arrows, had fish finders, everything you could think of....

No luck..those carp were smart enough to keep their distance.

What they didn't know was when we would weedeat around the pond, they would always follow us eating the grass clippings.

Well some Polish guys I worked with made a home made spear out of a huge nail and a rake handle.
It ended up they didn't turn them in for the reward..they took them home and made soup.


Actually I support taking swift action on invasive species problems like this. Granted I would not have poisoned it, but still, they solved the problem.

[rhonin]

sad, I bet it does more to the ecosytem then just kill fish, I am sure most ponds are connected by small streams and under ground rivers.

It is a retention pond and they used rotenone for the poison.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2009/11/florida-piranha.html

Funny part is I get more info from a local paper on the other side of the country... :hmm3grin2orange:

[Northernguy]

Rob they found two but had no idea how were left.
Its a sad situation but probably the fastest way to to kill them off.
I wonder what the count was?

[terrapin24h]

Florida is pretty crazy about ponds. I worked over a summer in the 90's doing landscaping on a retirement community. I only caught the tail end of this debacle, but it still cracks me up.

They had a few ponds, one of them was super overgrown with weeds/random florida vegatation so they threw in about 10 carp in the hopes it would solve the problem without having to pay for any actual work. A few months later there were no plants left in the pond, so the city started fgiving them fines for breaking some ordinance about bodies of water with no plants. They fenced off a small area and planted it, the carp broke through and ate those plants. Another fine. They put out $15 rewards for anyone who could catch the carp, and by this time they were easily 3'. They were so big when they ate off the bottom of the pond the tails would stick up out of the water. Almost every day they had people out in row boats trying to catch them, net them, shoot them with arrows, had fish finders, everything you could think of....

No luck..those carp were smart enough to keep their distance.

What they didn't know was when we would weedeat around the pond, they would always follow us eating the grass clippings.

Well some Polish guys I worked with made a home made spear out of a huge nail and a rake handle.
It ended up they didn't turn them in for the reward..they took them home and made soup.


Actually I support taking swift action on invasive species problems like this. Granted I would not have poisoned it, but still, they solved the problem.

Easiest way to catch carp i know of is to throw balls of bread into the water, and then one with a treble-hook in it. Gets'm every time. Carp CANNOT resist wonder bread thumbs2:

--chris

[jay2487]

I live by a park called Edward Medard that is recently repairing a Dam, so they are draining the entire resoivor and then pouring poison into all the surviving deep holes to kill every last Plecossamus. I guess they are really overcrowded and they need a new dam so two birds with one stone. The draining alone will end up displacing 1000's of Gators and other wildlife and I can't imagine what will happen to all the fish but the ones that go to the deepest holes seeking refuge will be poisoned. Sad really

[Kazenouta]

Yeah, this is pretty terribly. I'll never understand why we feel it's our right to choose who lives and who dies in the animal kingdom

[jay2487]

and not like there threatening our lives or hurting anything. I remember when I was a boy they added plecos to that resorvoir to keep the boat ramps clean because someone slipped and fell. 15 years later and there trying to kill them all because of overpopulation. The pirhanas I can sort of understand but plecos!? What can they possibly do? They eat algae not food fish. Worst case scenario they suck up a few eggs but because fishermen don't want to fish for bass and catch a pleco they are killing them all. When if it wasn't for some sue happy old man busting his butt on a boat ramp they wouldn't be there to begin with.

[annageckos]

Plecos and pirhana and many many other fish are not native to these ecosystems. They can do consiterable amont of damage and outcompete native wildlife. They can carry disease and eat a native animals food sorce, pushing it out and killing it off. I understand and agree that they need to go. But the way that they do it... Is there a better way? I don't know, my guess is yes, but I don't know what it is. Now what I don't agree with is that they (fish and game people, goverment) stock non native animals all the time. Bass and trout where they never where before, peacock bass and I am sure others too. They stock all types of gamebirds, pheasants are not native, but that is getting off the subject. These fish they killed, where they even pirhana? Or where they pacu? I didn't see a pic so I don't know. I saw an other news story where northern pike where interduced to a lake system. Well the people where very upset because the pike(not native) where eating the trout(also not native) So they poisoned the lake to kill the pike so that they could restock a non native animal. It just doen't make sence to me.

[jay2487]

They were real pirhanas. Theres a link to the article with a few pics. As I understand it they found two so that's enough to poison several acres of water. They brought the plecos in too.

[Kazenouta]

Yeah, I guess in this case it's tough. The fact is these species weren't supposed to be in these bodies of water so, what can you do to preserve the ecosystem besides "wipe the slate clean" as someone had mentioned.

[jay2487]

What you can do is not introduce them in the first place, it's not like some bird toted the pirhanas from south america and dropped them in a Florida pond. Some ignorant aquarist bought them and then thought it would be a good ides to toss them out in a pond or lake or river when they became a problem. Nothing but human error resulting in millions of animal deaths

[tetra]

Theres a pond hair that some one put koi in it. I looked for it but couldnt find it. I wanted to catch a few for my manmade pond so i dont pay outragous price.

[annageckos]

Sure, the best thing to do is not release them in the first place. But many people don't care or don't know. Many don't care to know. But people will always do this. It is a shame. And it hurts responcible fish keepers. Look at snakeheads. They where released not by a fish keeper but by someone that in their culture releasing a pair brought luck(or something like that). Also some got away from a person selling for the food market. People paniced and the gov. banned all snakeheads everywhere when there are many small tropical species that could not survive in cool climates. Pirhana will be baned one day out of fear. As for the pics on that site I don't think they where actual pics of the fish they got, just genrule pics of pirhana. So many times I see articals on "pirhana" being caught and the pics clearly show a pacu. Many people, even people who should know better, don't.

[little hawaii]

I live by a park called Edward Medard that is recently repairing a Dam, so they are draining the entire resoivor and then pouring poison into all the surviving deep holes to kill every last Plecossamus. I guess they are really overcrowded and they need a new dam so two birds with one stone. The draining alone will end up displacing 1000's of Gators and other wildlife and I can't imagine what will happen to all the fish but the ones that go to the deepest holes seeking refuge will be poisoned. Sad really



It makes me sick, althuogh man is the sadist, sickest animal of all. Where is wisdom?:fish2:

[little hawaii]

Kasenouta: I just read your blog and I just wanted to say welcome to the best hobby I know. I have been at it for 42 yrs. and I think I like it more now than my first tank even. I do not know anyone in this forum yet but I wanted to say merry Christmas to someone and I picked you at random.Hows your second tank running? I currently have over 400 gallons going in 7 tanks. I've breed, raised and sold a lot of species over the years and am currently working with Ancistrus, Cardinal Tetras, Clown loaches, and a few South american Cichlids. It certanly is an enjoyable hobby. So Merry Christmas to you and your fish and good luck. From that freaky little guy in the red suit.
Ps: I put you on my friend list ok?

[male molly kid]

YA ME AND MY DAD GO FISHING ALOT IN SUMER/SPTING CANT WAIT TO GET OUT THERthumbs2:

[Lady Hobbs]

molly kid............please stop posting in two year old threads. Had you read this thread, you would have seen the link is no longer even valid!