Coptodon zillii

It’s ability to easily switch food sources allow for populations to continue to grow in the absence of a depleted food source. For example, redbelly tilapia was reported to eliminate all aquatic macrophytes from Hyco Reservoir, North Carolina, within a two year period that coincided with declines in populations of several native fishes (Molnar, 2008). However, populations of redbelly tilapia continued expanding in the absence of macrophytes because of its ability to switch to alternate food sources (Crutchfield et al. 1992; Crutchfield, 1995).

“Redbelly tilapia (Tilapia zilli Gervais) rapidly established a reproducing population in a North Carolina power plant cooling reservoir after inadvertent introduction in 1984. It eliminated the submersed macrophyte community, including a 57-ha infestation of Egeria densa (Planch.) [nonnative] by late 1985.”

“Juvenile T. zillii were implicated in population declines of desert pupfish Cyprinodon macularius inhabiting shallow irrigation canals near the Salton Sea, California (Lee et al. 1980 et seq.; Schoenherr 1985). In Florida, this species was found to be highly aggressive; it is considered a serious threat to native aquatic plants and to fish that rely on plants for cover, foraging, or spawning sites (Courtenay et al. 1974).”; \"In both drainages, redbelly tilapia was the dominant fish, which relegated smaller habitat units to the other coexisting species of fishes, increasing competition among them and decreasing Kr and abundance of the endemic killifish.”; \" Declines of native fish species, such as the endangered Baja California Killifish and the desert pupfish Cyprinodon macularius, have been attributed to C. zillii.\"

Adult Tilapia zillii are considered to be voracious herbivores, often decreasing plant densit.

C. zillii also eliminated the aquatic macrophyte community of the Hyco Reservoir in North Carolina.

Não encontrei evidências para irreversibilidade da extinção local