Pet goldfish thrown in lakes grow to monstrous size

Team Udayavani, Jul 14, 2021, 11:20 AM IST

The authorities in Minnesota have requested aquarium owners and fish owners to stop releasing their goldfish in local lakes as they tend to grow to several times their normal size and disturb the ecosystem of the water body.

The official Twitter page of Burnsville shared several pictures of oversized goldfish that were found in Keller Lake. The tweet read, “Please don’t release your pet goldfish into ponds and lakes! They grow bigger than you think and contribute to poor water quality by mucking up the bottom sediments and uprooting plants.”

Please don't release your pet goldfish into ponds and lakes! They grow bigger than you think and contribute to poor water quality by mucking up the bottom sediments and uprooting plants.
Groups of these large goldfish were recently found in Keller Lake. pic.twitter.com/Zmya2Ql1E2

— City of Burnsville (@BurnsvilleMN) July 9, 2021

The Guardian reported that last year, officials removed as many as 50,000 goldfish from local waters, which manage to easily survive and reproduce in the Minnesota waters. It is important to note that the fish endanger the other species in the water.

Paul Moline, the county water management manager said that goldfish “are an understudied species” and have a high potential to negatively impact the water quality of these water bodies.

The post has received quite some attention on social media with many wondering why the same fish does not grow when kept in an aquarium but does so in lakes and ponds.

https://twitter.com/_official_cow/status/1414256784659914756

ok, so what would y’all prefer people do with them?

— 🍍 (@teebrown_) July 10, 2021

Don’t buy pets you can’t take care of for there lifespan. If you can’t take care of it any longer for any reason your responsible for finding it a new home, Craig’slist or another friend, some pet stores will take them.

— Jesse (@davadunteram) July 12, 2021

Okay so what are ppl supposed to do with them instead? Don’t throw them in salt water bc they’ll die, don’t throw them in anything else bc they’ll get fat & hurt everything else. At least tell ppl what to do instead, unless PetSmart has a return policy we don’t know about.

— 🛸Bri’ Baby (@boofbri) July 12, 2021