Thousands of Goldfish take over a Colorado Lake

[JBtheExplorer]

Saw this story and thought I would share.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife say goldfish have taken over a lake in Boulder.Wildlife officials believe someone dumped a handful of the pet fish into Teller Lake a few years ago. That handful has now multiplied to thousands."These are domestic fish actually.These are fish from a store I imagine. They can out-compete the native fish," Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Jennifer Churchill said.

The goldfish are much larger than the ones you may win at the fair. If they aren't contained to a fishbowl, goldfish can grow to be several inches long.Wildlife officials say they have two options: They can drain the lake and start rebuilding the natural fish stock from scratch, or they can bring in a specialized boat that would allow them to pick out the goldfish only.

"[The boat] has little pointers at the front with electroshock. It stuns the fish. It doesn't kill them. They get stunned and they float to the surface and we can collect them," Churchill said. In that scenario, the fish would then go to a raptor rehabilitation center as feed. There is no timetable for when CPW will actually remove the fish.



Link:
http://www.9news.com/story/news/loc...of-goldfish-taking-over-teller-lake/25435855/

 

[j.w]

Shame on the people who let them go like that. Now what a mess!
At least they will go to feed critters but that seems like it would take forever to get them all outta there and then what happens if they don't get them all? Guess they will have to keep an eye on the population and try to keep it down. Bad situation.

 

[Mmathis]

I read that, too, and have a few questions.....

• Well, first of all, why do people do that? Do they think they are doing the humane thing for their fish? And obviously they aren't knowledgable enough to realize the health risk due to introduced pathogens....
• Apparently there are native fish in that lake, but why aren't those fish helpling to keep the goldfish population in check? Of course, they mention the potential impact on the native population, but have they done any studies to see if there has actually been an impact?
• Seems like any attempt they make to eliminate the GF is going to either have a detrimental effect on anything else living in the lake, or they're always going to have the GF unless they get every single last one!
• And where the heck are all those herons and other birds and critters that decimate our home ponds? Maybe we should send them our birds, LOL!

 

[Meyer Jordan]

You beat me to it, jb. I was going to post the same article.
The point to be taking from this is events such as these are exactly what triggers the process of putting a specie on the invasive list. Goldfish are already classified as a nuisance specie by many states. It won't take much to get to the tipping point where they are classified as invasive and banned, much as Maine banned Koi years ago.
Tell everyone, be responsible.

 

[Mmathis]

@Meyer Jordan I'm going to have some GF to rehome in the next year, and though the thought has crossed my mind, I would never consider actually releasing them in the wild! I don't want my state to be one to ban the sale/purchase of GF! So, yes, pass the word that people need to be responsible!

 

[Big Lou]

What a shame. People are natures biggest threat.

 

[C-Note]

@Meyer Jordan ... Maine BANNED koi? What the? Now I have to go scour the interwebs for more info. Fascinating. I wondered the same as @Mmathis , where are those pesky herons when you actually need them? I had my first one find my pond this week. Husband scared it away and it hasn't been back. Also, pond is 3' deep all over with nowhere for a heron to really land and hunt. And we have 3 dogs. So I'm hoping will not be a problem.

 

[Nepen]

I never actually got goldfish fry in my pond that last more than a week. I put guppies in my pond in summer and they eats all the eggs and small fry. I only get more fish if I bought it or raise the fry in another tank.
This article make me think I'm lucky I dont have fry everywhere...

 

[callingcolleen1]

we have to be careful of things like that, and watch out that you do not let plants such as hornwort loose either. Do not flush hornwort down toilet either cause it can escape that way as well,

 

[Big Lou]

Think about the devastating impact of crap.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

What a shame. People are natures biggest threat.

Always have been and it gets progressively worse as time passes.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Well, first of all, why do people do that?

It really does come down to people not realizing what will happen. Most think they'll put the fish in a natural pond or lake and it will live out the rest of its life and that will be that. They just don't realize the consequences of what really can happen. It seems obvious to us because fish are our hobby and we see them breed and these kind of stories stand out to us, so we all know better.

The truth is, we're all guilty of destroying the natural world in some way or another, whether we realize it or not. I used to be a terrible litterer when I was a teenager. Just figured it would blow away and disappear. (Thats probably relative to most situations. Everyone thinks whatever they do will just disappear and have no impact.)
Now days I get angry every time hiking and find beer cans, bottles, and empty bags of chips. It gets worse all the time, too.

 

[RobAmy]

Sad to see, could have been so easy to avoid. Seems like they waited a bit to long to fix the problem.

 

[CountryEscape]

There is a local restaurant that has a pond right off their back deck, with huge koi. I wonder about the overflow, and where fry go when they wash out of the pond ... since that pond likely drains into the huge Lake Sara north of Effingham. Same issue is going to happen, or could. I would love to put extra koi into my farm pond, and although I am several miles from the closest stream, in a downpour, my pond could easily allow fry to wash into the ditch, and then into local streams. I don't want to be responsible for that ever happening. I'd hate to think of the fines associated with it!

 

[Big Lou]

Thy will probably over multiply.