Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
If we had non-native fishes like that swimming around here, I would be out there every week collecting them and selling to the shops.
I like the website, "don't feed the wild monkeys". I didn't know Florida was home to wild monkeys, plenty that drive cars and use phones but didn't know about the wild ones
Yeah, Florida has a lot going for it but all the invasives are a real problem. It's not easy to go to any canal or stream and find native fish species in quantity or sometimes at all. Some are not even just from aquarists. Many waterways in the Southern areas are connected ditches that were dug for making roads. The engineers then filled in the ditches with water and connected them all to the everglades so there were then fish species in the canals. The bright Florida sun then made all the canals fil with algae so the Dept of Wildlife imported Tilapia to eat the algae. They did so well that they overpopulated so the Dept of Wildlife imported Peacock Bass to eat the Tilapia. The only problem with all that was the Peacocks found the native fish easier to eat than the Tilapia so there was a depletion of natural species. The only real positive to all this was the creation of an industry based around fishing for Peacock Bass. When the Bass were first imported, it was illegal to target fish for them or keep any you accidently caught. Now, doing that is big business.
So now you can catch all kinds of livebearers, African Cichlids, South American Cichlids, Snakeheads, Oscars, Clown Knifefish ( to name a few) in the canals and lakes so most stores won't take any let alone buy them. I had that with Oscars I brought with me when I moved from New Jersey to Florida. People in NJ were buying them like crazy. People in Florida could care less about them. " We don't need to buy them. If we want Oscars, we just have to go to any canal with a net." If there was any money to be made from collecting them, the canals would be less populated. LOL
As for wild Monkeys, yeah, there are wild populations that started as escapees from some research facilities. There were also lost pets. I got my Squirrel Monkey from a woman who had him living in her back yard. She came into the pet store I was working in asking how to care for him when he decided he wanted to live inside her house and my co-workers all told her to talk to me as I was the exotics " expert". I told her what she needed to do and get and offered to take him if he was too much for her. Long story short, I got a call about a week later to come get him. LOL I had him for over 21 years. He was partially trained so had to be a pet that escaped. Me and my Monkey: https://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/members/41382-albums14447-picture69400.html
So as I said, in the 40+ years I've lived in Florida, I've seen the exotic invasives list grow from a few lines to a pages full of species.