i was fishing brays bayou for bass. (Saw some massive gar btw) I kept getting bit by tilapia. I thought at first it was a snag but after a couple of times especially with the fish hooked by the tail end as if it were chasing he crank bait. If this isn't a tilapia please correct me. Lol I fish mostly salt haha.

I believe that's a Rio grandeur chiclid

Rio Grande perch..

OOOH haha. Thank you guys. I knew I was going to make myself look stupid. I did notice his head starting to get a little lump on it which most African chiclids do. You'll know that if you have a fish tank. The only African fish I know of in Texas is tilapia so I just put 2 and 2 together. Turns out rio grand perch are chiclids too haha

No, tilapia are not carnivorous.....they are omnivorous. So they will pretty much eat anything that has nutritive value and they can catch. That includes a lot of things, including plants and animals of all sorts.

The fish in the pic above, a Rio Grande Perch (aka "Texas Cichlid") is a distant cousin of the tilapia (which is an African cichlid) and the only cichlid native to North America. They are indeed more carnivorous than tilapia and are active predators where they live, in warm waters or ones with thermal refuges such as the Houston Ship channel. We also caught a lot of them in Brays, but they are in a lot of creeks, rivers, and bayous in the Southern half of the state.

Its not unusual to catch a large tilapia or Rio on a lure or piece of live or cut bait.

People that have kept large African cichlids (and Rios) in aquariums know they'll eat feeder minnows, shrimp, worms, insects, as well as pellets, lettuce and oranges (and a lot of other stuff).

If you were in the Houston area of Brays, I did a lot of electrofishing there about fifteen years ago. Lots of tilapia, plecostomus, and other typically tropical fish around there. They keep warm in winter by ship's heat exchangers and city sewage outfalls.

We did catch bass, redfish, and blue catfish in that bayou.

100 percent Rio Grande Cichlid. Female at that!

And manure. Enjoy your Chinese farmed Tilapia.

FWIW I had a banner day on Gibbons Creek many winters ago, catching 3-4 pound tilapia ripping big Poe's crankbaits down the sides of the discharge canal. They were fun. That was the only time I ever caught them in that lake.

+1

"COOL" Labeling is mandatory in the US. "Country Of Origin Label" or COOL must be on the packaging. Many times it is so small you need a magnifying glass to read it, but it is there.

Pretty much if it says "China, India, Anywhere in SE Asia, Many countries in South America, and other places around the world," don't put it in your mouth.

Little or no consumer protection laws are enforced on imported fishery products until somebody gets sick or dies, then its too late.

So, if it says, "USA, Norway, Western Europe, And some of South America (say Chile or Costa Rica for instance)," it has been produced and inspected under governmental consumer protection rules. It will likely also cost more, but be of a higher quality as well as safer.

Watch out for "Product of USA, etc. processed in China," or other places.

Not that manure is a bad fish food and/or fertilizer for ponds.....

friendly fyi....

If a game warden sees you at the Gibbons discharge ripping a treble hooked crank bait for Tilapia or any fish, you will be facing a large fine..its very much illegal practice..in the past others have been cited there for doing that.

Sorry if I misled you -- by "ripping" I was referring to reeling it very fast along the breakline. They wanted it moving fast, as do the bass there from time to time.

Yea. Just wait until they're in the shallows and shoot them with a bow.