WILD PEARL CICHLIDS IN AUSTRALIA, Feral Geophagus brasiliensis are taking over our Waterways!

This beautiful aquarium fish has unfortunately started to make a bad name for it self, originally from South America this fish has been pretty popular in the aquarium industry in the past, unfortunately for them they are very tough and produce 100s of young readily, some would think this is a good thing but they can quickly overwhelm the owner hobbyist and their local fish store that can only sell so many. We all hate the tough laws in Australia but if we’re not responsible as pet owners they will only get tougher and here’s a good example. Us as hobbyists have a responsibility to first see if there is a demand for a fish before breeding it as it can’t help it’s own natural instinct to want to reproduce, I have made this short video to show just what could happen when things start to get out of hand. If you want to keep these types of fish as I do my self just don’t let them reproduce unless you definitely have people that want them or this is what could happen, most may feel sorry for the fish and think it’s humane to release them, but what about all our poor natives that then have to deal with our mistake. It is actually illegal to release even native fish into our waterways as even the natives can spread disease or cross breed with other fish locals to produce hybrids, nothing good can come from this practice unless licensed to do so, for example qualified restocking programs. Thank you for watching I hope this was helpful and please don’t release unwanted fish, if you see any strange fish or aquatic plants don’t hesitate to report them to your local fisheries, you may help stop the spread and damage as you have seen in this video.