TENTATIVE SOLUTIONS TO AN ALIEN SPECIES INVASION FROM

AQUARIUM AQUACULTURE: DEVELOPING VIABLE INDUSTRIES TO

EXPLOIT AND CONTROL PTERYGOPLICHTHYS MULTIRADIATUS
HANCOCK 1828 IN MEXICO.

Carlos Martinez Palacios*
1
, Carmen Aguilar Valdez, Philip Scott
2
, Lindsay Ross
3


1
Lab de Acuicultura, IIAF, UMSNH, Michoacn, Mxico. fobospalacios@hotmail.com
2
Univerisdade Santa Ursula, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
3
Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, UK.

Introduction
The Rio Balsas catchment in west-central Mxico covers an area comprising 6 states of
the republic and a number of important dams have been constructed along its length. The
largest of these, the Adolfo Lopez Mateos dam (el Infiernillo) covers an area of
2,475km
-2
. It was constructed in 1961 and quickly became one of the largest Tilapia
fisheries in Latin America with many families dependent upon its productivity.

The South American sail fin catfish Pterygoplichthys multiradiatus was released
accidentally into the upper tributaries of the Rio Balsas catchment, probably from
aquaculture for the aquarium trade. The species was first found in the natural
environment in 1995 but appeared in the dam in 2000/2001. At that time it was a relative
rarity and even the subject of some competition between fishermen to land a specimen.
The tilapia fishery has declined in recent years for a number of reasons but one of the
major changes has been the explosion of the population of Pterygoplichthys
multiradiatus which has increased to such an extent that 80% of every catch now
consists of this alien species.

There is no tradition of utilization of
this fish in the region and hence, up to
now the species is considered as a by-
catch, albeit a massive one, from what
is essentially a tilapia fishery.
Concern has also grown because the
fish damages gill nets and the spiny
scales and fins make the animal
difficult to remove from the mesh, as
well as being painful to handle. The
body of this species has a large head
and small tail (Fig. 1) and so the
recoverable flesh quantity at about
28% is relatively low when compared
to many other species (Fig. 2).

Possible solutions
One ideal solution to this problem
would be to remove the species from
the natural environment (Mendoza et
al., 2007) although there is little
prospect of achieving this in the short to medium term. A better immediate term solution
is to intensively exploit products from this new fishery and here we describe a series of
trials, ongoing during 2007, to investigate this opportunity.

Fresh product: This and similar species are consumed fresh in Brazil, Colombia and
other countries. This fishing activity and natural predation contribute to keeping the
populations under control. In fact, in parts of Brazil the fishery is now controlled to
avoid over-exploitation. Preliminary trials in Mexico show that with proper training
high quality fillets can be recovered from the species (Fig. 3). Simple preparation

Fig. 1. Adult specimen of Pterygoplichthys
multiradiatus.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
0 50 100 150 200 250
Fillet weight (g)
T
o
t
a
l

b
o
d
y

w
e
i
g
h
t

(
g
)

Fig. 2. Flesh yield of Pterygoplichthys
multiradiatus.
has resulted in a product which has high
nutritional value and which has been well
accepted in taste trials with the local
communities.

Smoked product: Trials with artisanal
smokers have been very successful. The
smoked tail fillets have a good flavour
and quality and also give a product with
added value. The main impediment to this
approach is in developing a market.

Silage: Once the flesh has been recovered
from the species, the head, guts and skin can be ensiled to produce a proteinaceous
product for addition to animal feeds. Preliminary trials at the kilogram scale have
shown that a stable, semi-moist product can be produced from relatively
unpromising ingredients.

Soap manufacture: A by-product from silage manufacture is a layer of oil on top of
the mixture. This can be skimmed off and used, either alone or in combination with
waste cooking oil, to prepare soap for local use or sale.

Enzyme extraction: The alimentary tract of these fish contains a range of powerful
enzymes for dealing with the detritus on which they principally feed. These
enzymes can be extracted, concentrated, freeze dried and used for digestion of
sewage and polluted waters to reduce environmental impacts.

Fish meal production: There have been several proposals to develop a fish meal
industry based on this fishery. However, this is not a viable economic proposition
because the fishery is not sufficient to provide the source material for even the
minimum sized industrial fish meal plant. Current estimates show that a fish meal
yield of only 8 tonnes per day could be expected if collection and management were
optimized. Artisanal fish meal operations almost always result in a very poor
quality product and also have no future in this situation.

State and Governmental involvement
As there is no established use for the species the current practice is to simply discard the
product. This has environmental consequences as well as being a waste of a resource. As
already mentioned, exploitation is the most probable short to medium term solution to
the problem. The problem has become so serious that the national biodiversity agency
(CONABIO) has expressed concern and National and State governments have moved to
develop projects to resolve the issue. This involves not only technical research to
develop exploitation methods but also essential work with communities to increase
awareness and to raise the value of this species so as to promote its exploitation. An
important aspect of this will be the development of markets and a serious programme of
commercialization of any viable products.

Conclusions
This paper shows some of the alternatives for intensive exploitation of an invasive alien
species. We suggest that these methods are the best approach to managing the problem
of population explosion of this species but the success of such a project requires not only
technical solutions but also the financial and political support of state and local
government.

References:
Mendoza, R., Contreras, S., Ramirez, C., Koleff, P., Alvarez, P. and Aguilar, V. Los peces Diablo:
Especies invasoras de alto impacto. Biodiversitas. 70: 1-5.

Fig. 3. The fresh product tastes good!