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Re: More questions on the Exotic Removal Program
-----Original Message-----
From: Moontanman at aol_com <Moontanman at aol_com>
To: nfc at actwin_com <nfc at actwin_com>
Date: Tuesday, June 30, 1998 4:14 PM
Subject: Re: More questions on the Exotic Removal Program
>I'm confused, if the rainbow cichlid eats algae and no other fish does,
it's
>prolific nature would mean more small fish for predators to eat and the
fish
>themselves wouldn't be in Competition with any natives. I can't believe a
>large mouth bass wouldn't eat a small cichlid, or a pike. I once had a
>flathead catfish eat 12 small piranha after they harassed him all day, the
>night belonged to him! I know we are supposed to believe in zero
tolerance,
>but wouldn't it make sense to zero in on species that compete for the same
>niches that native fish fill?
I apologize if I'm answering a question that someone else has already
tackled, but, if they did answer, I did not see the posting.
An important point seems to have been missed here. It doesn't matter how
similar two species' niches are as long as no resources are in short supply,
but it also doesn't matter how different two species needs are if they both
need one resource that is in short supply (i.e., limiting resource). In this
case, the fish's diet may be irrelevant if it competes with natives for
another limiting resource such as breeding sites. In some cases tilapia seem
to have simply crowded natives out of areas, although their diets were not
similar to those of the natives.
Ed Matheson