The common, or German carp is NOT indigenous to the New World, as claimed. They were, in fact, introduced by our forefathers from Europe in the mid 1800's. For example, an import shipment of five fish in 1872 established the fish in California. Due to public demand for a greater supply of this fish, and declining native fisheries due to overfishing, the then U.S. Commission on Fish and Fisheries promoted a major program, beginning in1877, to increase production by both increasing production at the existing 'carp farms' and encouraging the start of new 'carp farms'.

From a retired fisheries biologist.

A brief historical note on the presence of Tilapia in the fresh waters of Texas.

Back in the late 1940' to mid-late 50' there was a combination Bait,Tackle, and Tropical Fish Shop on Highway 6 (now Valley Mills Drive) in Waco, Texas at the top of the hill before the highway dropped down to Lake Waco.

To the best of anyone's knowledge, sometime in the early 1950's, the owner took shipment of small tilapia to sell to the aquarists. He subsequently put some in one of his concrete raceways where he typically held 'golden shiner minnows' that he sold for bait. As the fish matured,they began to spawn. In short order, he had a raceway full of tilapia of various sizes, and began to sell them as 'bait', and they rapidly grew in popularity as a bait fish.

Those that were released by anglers in the waters in and around Waco did not survive their winters. However, fishermen from as far away as Corsicana bought them and used them for bait on Lake Trinidad, a small power plant heated lake between Corsicana and Athens, where the first known population in Texas waters became established. They subsequently spread from there to power plant cooling reservoirs near San Antonio (Lakes Braunig and Calaveras), and then parts beyond.

FWIF; as a teenager I was often in this Bait/ Tropical Fish Shop, and have vivid recollections of the raceway full of tilapia of various sizes.

This bit of history on tilapia in Texas was the conclusion of the late Dr. Kirk Strawn, Professor of Fisheries Science, Texas A&M Univeristy, who devoted much of his career tracing the history of this fish in Texas, and was personally conveyed to me.


A retired fisheries biologist.

Aged Sage - Great info and interesting

I bet many fish in our local lakes are not native. Striped Bass in Texoma, Hybrid Sand Bass.

Heck according to the TPWD and FishKiller, we neet to gut and kill almost all the fish we catch.

I used to live down the way from Dr. Strawn, in College Station. His yard all dug up and planted with various water lilies....Sometimes Dr. Strawn would come by the pet shop where I was a working my way through school as a clerk (70's), to buy some dwarf South American Cichlids for one of the classes he taught. I'd see him a lot, over the years, at shows where I would be selling koi from my booth. Seeing his name here brought back some memories...

Anyhow, I've supported giving tilapia the same status as common carp in Texas for a long time. They are well established n those habitats where they can thrive, and not in those they cannot thrive in. And as with common carp, no rule, law or regulation can change that.

Most of the habitats, especially the aquatic ones, in Texas, are man made contrivances and as such lend themselves to an array of exotic species, in many cases more than many natives.

Managing all these diverse habitats into productive resources for all manner of interests, is a huge job, which TP&WD does fairly well.

Back to the old timey tilapia days.....my old buddy and partner, a long time and now retired Texas fisheries biologist worked with tilapia back in the 60's and were then known as "Rainbow Perch."

My first experiences with them were at Texas A&M in the late 70's and then at an East Texas fish farm where I discovered a connection between tilapia and largemouth bass.

Even back then I was finding tilapia in places like Martin Creeek Lake and Lake Fairfield, places where I collected fish for TP&WD by electrofishing.

Kirk was the only person in the US in the late '60s to the 90's to have a "moat" around his house! He was a highly respected water lily hybridizer, with many named varieties to his credit; and, which are still sought after today. He also raised some spectacular fancy guppies in those ponds, and supplied many of the tropical fish shops in Houston and Austin with them. A most unique individual, and a good friend!

it is my understanding TPWD has never done anything to stock Tilapia for grass control. Point of order question to your knowledge has TPWD ever fostered Tilapia anywhere for any reason?

North (even central) Texas lake winter temperatures normally will kill off any Tilapia that escaped a bait bucket or hook, or intentional importation. Even central texas ponds cannot normally winter them over.

However last winter was so warm Lewisville might have been able to winter them over. The last few weeks are more normal and will need more to kill all imported Tilapia off.

Did you gut them?

Many years ago TP&WD was very much inot bringing exotic aquatic species into these newly developed, non-natural, man made environments such as powerplant cooling reservoirs, irrigation storage reservoirs, and flood control reservoirs. Tilapia being one they experimented with about the same time they were doing peacock bass, Nile perch, and otehr exotics. Sixties into the seventies.

General statements involving other species does not justify your Tilapia contentions. As far as I know TPWD stocking or even testing Tilapia in public waters is a bad rumor. You might want to recheck the source of your contentions, and if you do find firm evidence of your TPWD Tilapia spreading contention, please bring it forward.

Here is my Fairfield specific knowledge: Yes, Nile perch was one time stocked in Fairfield for a very early year of the lake. You can see this in the lake stocking report. Nile Perch are not Tilapia of the type found in warm water lakes. Nile Perch are not really Tilapia. They did not procreat in Fairfield. It has since has been multiple Nile Perch life spans since that one stocking, and plenty of net throws that would have caught some. Not even the hybrides stockings are still present today.

Blue Tilapia were never stocked by TPWD in public waters. You can however be sure one or more Tilapia specie has escaped from private empoundments into downstream public waters. If that water stayed warm enough over the winter those escapies have prospered in that and all downstream public waters. Their ability to spawn every 6-8 weeks in warm enough water assures they will prosper, and a good reason to regulate their aquaculture by those that have not assured regulators they cannot let adults escape.

Their presence in Fairfield provided ample forage for huge Fairfield preditory game fish growths and greater populations of the breeders.

Ahem, just a minor term correction is needed here. Native refers to an organism native to or evolved for that habitat. Indigenous refers to an alien organism, that is not native to that place but seems to be well adapted for survival there, and has become so common locally as to seem to be a native. So, it seems to me that many of the opinions expressed here are really good ones and tilapia are really pretty harmless. They are vegetarians for the most part, not filter feeders like big head carp. Also, being mouth brooders, mama carries the eggs in her mouth and later the babies, great for farmers of fish.

I cannot find record of TP&WD earl;y work with tilapias, which was even before my time. But i do have personal correspondence from a TP&WD biologist that worked for the department in the fifties and sixties. he tells me of a fish they called "Rainbow Perch" whcih he believes was Blue tilapia. These were stocked in hatchery ponds, reared, and then released to various areas to see how they do. I beleive Sheldon Reservoir got some of those fish, which likely were never recorded. I tried him on the phone but he didn;t answer so I won't use his name until I get his permission. My ex business partner.

If you go back to the time of Bob Kemp, there was a big push to try many exotic species that might adapt better to our non-natural habitats than native species. It was good, progressive thinking but not politically correct. As we so often see, politics very much takes precedece over biology in government run operations like TP&WD.

I've eaten Nile Perch from Lake Victoria in Africa (where it is an imported exotic species and has devestated the histroical, local mbuna (tilapia and similar fishes) fishery). It is a gigantic, striped bass like fish, very unsimilar to tilapia.

I went through some TP&WD reports I found with respect to exotic species in Texas but found them extremely inaccurate and unreliable as a source. Heck, I know I've docemented and reported exotic species many times over the years, but no mention of any of those in the reports.

I will mention some other guys I worked with that were in the TP&WD that could confirm my anecdote. Rob Schmid, Manager at the San Marcos hatcery. Joedy Gray, retired (another good story there) exotic species program leader. Both these guys likely still restricted to the company line, but they know.

Ed Bonn, deceased, former TP&WD Striped Bass program leader and the father of the Texas striper/hybrid striper fishery.

I knew and worked with these people off and on for over thirty years. We discussed many things, including Texas Parks and Wildlife, early days, experiments, and doings of all kinds.

Here is a link about Ed...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxuErY-_wow
Tilapia a common thread from the "olden days." Perhaps undocumented, but they were there.

I know its bad from to reply to my own post....but,

Don Miller above, is correct in that as far as my long time friend, partner and mentor, Billy D. Cooper, tells me, he never worked with tilapia at TP&WD. He says that doesn't mean somebody else might not have had some around, but they were not something he recalls ever seeing until after he left TP&WD to work as a free lance biologist in the areas around Houston.

Further, my friend, Rob at the Sam Marcos hatchery has told me that the department does not favor the tilapia, even when he pointed out that the fish might be a more efficient choice than koi or goldfish as hathery brood bass fodder.

There are many species of tillapine fishes, most belong to the genus Oreochromis and like so many other farm animals, most of the tilapia you will see are not a pure blooded species, but a mix of many species, sort of a "Heinz 57".

Some of them are filter feeders, such as O. mossambicus (Mossambique tilapia) and some or omnivorous, eating whatever is in great abundance. Hence thier value both in fish farming and in sports fisheries management (nowadays that translates to "multi-trophic aquaculture."

At any rate, the tilapia is well entrenched in Texas and no rules are going to change any of that. In fact, I have lobbied at fisheries meetings to change the state fish from a Guadalupe Bass to a tilapia. It is more representative of us.

Introduced, dominant, prolific, resourceful, able to thrive in the most difficult of conditions, widespread, etc. 21 million exotic, non-native, well entrenched, folks.

Some idiot put them in Squaw Creek. Now there are lots of 2-3# fish.