Non-native fish species invade man’s pond in Alva
Exotic breeds can cause natives problems

By PAMELA SMITH HAYFORD, phayford@news-press.com

Potentially dangerous foreign fish may be more abundant in Southwest Florida than scientists think.

CHECKING: Steve Brookman looks for exotic fish in a trap from a man-made pond Jan. 16. The pond was stocked with native species, but exotics have made their way into the area. CLINT KRAUSE/news-press.com

Two Alva men and the Southwest Florida Watershed Council are determined to find out — and perhaps prevent future epidemics — through a new research and education program.

Non-native species can obliterate the food sources of native fish and bring in deadly diseases.

“Korea lost its whole shrimp industry because one virus got in there,” said Steve Brookman, one of the men behind the Southwest Florida Aquatic Nuisance Species Surveillance and Education Network.

The United States spends $137 billion every year trying to control invasive species, according to a Cornell University report released in 2002.

After getting the network started, Brookman decided to take a look in an isolated pond he dug on his property about 2½ years ago.

Brookman stocked it with sunfish, bass and gar.

“But that’s about it,” Brookman said.

What he found surprised him, considering the pond was not connected to any other body of water, even nearby Telegraph Creek or the Caloosahatchee River.

Brookman caught dozens of jewel cichlids.

“I lost track after about 300 jewel cichlids,” Brookman said.

And there were black acaras, Mayan cichlids and hoplo armored catfish.

“We’re figuring it’s got to be sheetflow,” Brookman said.

Sheetflow is when rain water runs across broad swaths of land to the lowest point.

Brookman and the Southwest Florida Watershed Council, co-founded by his wife, Susan Brookman, have a $3,000 grant from the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program to get started.

The network certainly has a lot of work ahead of it. Its coverage area stretches from southern Polk County through Collier County and will need more money and volunteers, Brookman said.

“Volunteers being the key there,” Brookman said.

Council co-founder John Cassani is the program manager.

The two men still monitor Brookman’s pond.

A January count saw only two jewels, a bunch of mosquito fish and native bluegills.

But Cassani and Brookman are certain the jewels are in the 8-foot-deep pond.

“They’ll just kind of chill out down there,” Brookman said. Jewels hate the cold.

The colorful tropical fish is popular in aquariums — as are a lot of non-native species swimming around in local waters.

Many scientists and environmentalists blame aquarium owners who release unwanted pets into the wild.

That’s where the education comes in.

The program encourages aquarium owners to either return unwanted fish, snails or whatever, to the pet store, euthanize them or eat them — but not release them.

Brookman posted advice, links and a simple recipe on the network’s Web site.

“It’s a public-education challenge what we’re up against,” Cassani said. “They think it’s humane to let it go but, god, it’s a huge problem.”

Some pet shop owners are receptive to the program’s efforts, putting up posters warning of an alien invasion.

Others take offense.

“I’d say it’s a myth. We’ve been doing this a while and everybody brings them back,” said Jerry Lynn, 36, who works at Tropical Fish on the Net 2 in North Fort Myers.

The shop, in turn, sells the fish to people with larger aquariums.

Lynn said putting aquarium-raised fish in the wild would be inhumane anyway.

“You throw it in the ocean, you’re going to kill it — especially if it’s been raised in a tank,” Lynn said.

Brookman said it’s obvious that enough are surviving to be a problem.

“Once the genie’s out of the bottle, it’s hard to put them back in,” Brookman said.