My son caught a Rio Grande Cichlid in my sister's suburban neighborhood pond. We threw it back and later read they were invasive. Do they cause issues in ponds/lakes? Brother in law said he'd dispose of any additional ones he catches. That necessary? This is a typical neighborhood retention pond type thing where people enjoy fishing for fun to mainly catch catfish, catch and release.

I don't believe that is necessary. They are native to Texas and not listed as invasive by TPWD.

http://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/cichlid/

They're not technically an invasive. They're native to parts of Texas however, they were previously limited to a few watersheds. I'm not sure when or how they started to spread but they're pretty common around the Houston bayous and I know they're regularly caught on the Guadalupe, San Marcos, and Colorado Rivers. Not sure where else though.

Thanks guys. This was in west Pearland. My son was pretty pumped to catch such a crazy looking fish!

BUILD THE NET!!

They catch huge catfish! That is my favorite "perch" to catch when we are on the Devil's. We always catch a big yellowcat on a Rio Grande.

Used to catch them at Lake Travis (Austin).

They seemed to get along fine, as I caught probably 8 regular ole' sunfish for every RG Cichlid I ever caught..... off the same docks

830 is correct. In Texas they are more commonly called Rio Grande Perch. I suppose a t-sip biologist might not call them that but rednecks like me do a double take when someone calls them a chiclet.

Sgt. Hartman said:

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830 is correct. In Texas they are more commonly called Rio Grande Perch. I suppose a t-sip biologist might not call them that but rednecks like me do a double take when someone calls them a chiclet.

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I do a double take when people refer to them as a pack of gum you buy for a neekel when you cross the Rio Grande.

One time we were walking in to the Corona Club in Acuna and my uncle was tired of being bothered by the kids selling chicle, so he bought a whole box from this little kid thinking they would quit bothering him once he had bought some. When we left, there were at least 20 kids with boxes of gum outside Corona Club waiting on my uncle, thinking "Don Chicle" was gonna buy some more.

Just poking fun at all the biologists on this board!

That was my first fish to catch on an artificial lure at about age 10 after a couple of years of failure while the rest of the family was using shiners. In Landa Park. They fought like crazy.

I'd throw it back. Haven't heard of Rio grande cichlids spreading into the Houston bayous. I'd think that tilapia would be more likely.

Dirty-8-thirty Ag said:

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They catch huge catfish! That is my favorite "perch" to catch when we are on the Devil's. We always catch a big yellowcat on a Rio Grande.

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They are preferred by many trotline/dropline catfishers because they stay alive on the hook for a lot longer than sunfish.

I would imagine this is why some waters have a population of them..... catfishermen have moved them around.

Yeah, they are tough as hell, they stay alive on the hook for a couple days even during the summer. Although, I would imagine they occur naturally in the Devil's River, since the Pecos, RG and Devil's all converge at Lake Amistad, it is extremely possible that they just went up river from the lake.

They are fun to catch on fly...

I can't be the only one wondering how they taste?

Were you catching him or stealing his wallet?

Reel Aggies said:

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They are fun to catch on fly...

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Antifa is now fishing too?! ****

They taste good to me, like bluegill.

Another common name for the RG, is Texas cichlid

Had one in an a aquarium years ago

Used to catch them in South Llano.......good eating!

Skin cancer prevention brah