High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A number of tilapiine cichlids that are native to Africa and the Levant have been widely introduced into tropical fresh and brackish waters around the world. In some cases, the introductions were deliberate, for example to control invasive aquatic plants, as in the U.S. states of Florida and Texas. Across much of Asia and Africa they have been introduced into ponds and waterways for the purposes of aquaculture. In other cases, unwanted fish have been released by aquarists or ornamental fish farmers into the wild.