Back in 2007 I was invited to South FL on a peacock bass fishing trip, which ended up being way more than just a peacock bass trip. A friend at that time was preparing and planning for this trip and had a crew of guys getting together for this excursion and I was lucky enough to be one of them. What surprised me a little though were all the various types of exotic species we were catching alongside the peacocks. Allot of these fish looked like they belonged in an aquarium and that's partly why they were in these ponds and canals. Though Florida Fish and Wildlife stocked some non-native fish as management tools. Such as the very peacock bass we were targeting, which were released to help control the growing population of exotic fishes and the (triploid) grass carp that feed on plants and are deliberately stocked into waters as a tool for weed control. Most of the other non-native fish however wound up being introduced by pet owners who no longer wanted their aquarium fish and versus killing them or finding new homes for them instead opted to release these pet fish into the wild. Other fish keepers also released their pet fish when they out grew their tanks. The belief that many people have of fish not capable of growing large in a small tank is clearly a misconception. Those who choose to purchase a fish at a pet store should find out what the maximum size their potential pet fish can attain before making the purchase. A fish that can grow over a foot or more for example would be a pretty bad choice if you were going to house it in a 10-gallon tank. Species should be chosen according to tank size.

It is also thought that live fish from Asian food markets were also illegally introduced and further adding to the exotic fish problems. All these illegally released exotics found each other and began breeding. Causing wild and natural reproduction to occur. Southern Florida's water's certainly are warm enough to support these invasive immigrants and sure enough, they thrive.
 
Non-native species getting into an ecosystem can potentially cause all kinds of damage to native fish and habitat. This is obviously not a good thing and I certainly don't want to make light of it. However on the flip side of the coin, taking lemons and making lemonade is an expression that I like and fits to part of the agenda of this trip. Which was for us to also target some of the exotics from various continents. It was a blast and literally felt like a fish safari. One strange fish after another was caught in between the peacock bass. Some specific ponds were purposely fished to intentionally catch specific exotics. It was probably one of the most unusual and one of the more fun trips I had ever done. Especially if your into catching a variety of species. If your looking to do something different head down to Southern Florida.