anyone ever tried eating peacock bass?

[bluetreefingers]

anyone ever dared to try eating one of these?

i live in south florida where they are abundant, but i am scared to eat them, they just look too pretty you know!

anyone here had any luck with that?

thanks!

[SenkoBasser]

From Wikipedia.org:

PEACOCK BASS

Their eating quality is very good. Their flesh is white and sweet when cooked, and has very little oil, making it similar in taste to snapper or grouper. Also, they are not excessively bony. However, most professional American anglers recommend practicing catch and release for these species to protect their numbers in the United States. To help ensure this, Florida Wildlife and Game Commission officers strictly enforce bag limits for these fish.

I'd check the bag limits and if the water is clean, ....... why not?

There's 5 species of peacock bass and they are all cichlids.

Speckled peacock bass (3-barred peacock when spawning)

Butterfly peacock bass

..........and two others with no english name.

They introduced butterly and speckled to Your state in 1984.

[JRL]

There are only Butterfly Peacocks in FL.

The Speckled all died off relatively quick, and Im glad they did. Their easy to spot due to a "speckled" pattern around their eyes/gil plates. Plus their "bars" are way more defined. And the easiest way to know if you have caught one is that if you are in Florida, you didnt catch one.

I know of a few people who eat them. They are supposed to be excellent. They follow the same rule as largemouth. Keep 1 pounders or smaller. 2 pounds or more get released.

If you really want to eat a non native fish, try Mayan Cichlids. They really are excellent eating.

[bocabasser]

during the summer i will take some of my students fishing for mayan cichlids because they are soooo easy to catch. i will keep about 30 of them and give them to the ladies that work in my schools cafeteria. i have kept a couple of peacocks (about 2 pounds) and gave them away as well. they told me they are delicious asked if i could get them some more. i tell them cichlids first with the occasional peacock. i personally would never eat anything out of my fresh waterways unless i was on survivor or something.

[BadKarma42]

Nothing against legally and responsibly harvesting fish, but I just don't think I could do that to a peacock.  They seem like such great fish on TV.

[alarcher]

No harm in eating exotics if you want to (as long as it's legal).  Remember, when the state fishery agencies stock these fish they are mostly intended for "put and take" and to give anglers a new species to fish.  

However I agree with Karma, cool fish and I am a catch and release kind of guy.

[Jay_G]

We used to eat them all the time in Panama. We would bring them back to the dock and the locals would fillet them for .10 each or for some Old Milwaukee. You could easily catch 100 in a 5-6 hour day. Gatun Lake is plain full of them. Nothing very big, mostly 12-15 inches.

[thetr20one]

Go to the supermarket and get ya some catfish fillets or something. Put those fish back for the future!