Gigantic goldfish

Please don’t release your pet goldfish into ponds and lakes!

The city of Burnsville, Minnesota on a disruptive population of gigantic goldfish suddenly appearing in one of the area’s lakes.

• The city issued this full warning on social media: 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.
• In the wild, goldfish are often viewed as an invasive species.
• Several other areas in the U.S. have warned about releasing “pets” into ponds.
• One person described the goldfish in Burnsville as growing to the size of footballs. (See Photos Here)
• Why It Matters: It’s a good lesson for anyone debating a “natural release” for a struggling or ignored goldfish.

Burnsville Twitter account

A good write-up by The Washington Post that shows this story isn’t just a one-off!

“Far from being an innocuous domestic animal, a goldfish freed in fresh water is an invasive species, an organism that is introduced to an environment, can quickly reproduce, outcompete native species and destroy a habitat. And even though they get less attention than invasive organisms such as Asian carp or zebra mussels, goldfish appear to be a growing problem in bodies of water across the United States and around the world, triggering warnings from government officials in Virginia, Washington state, Australia, Canada and elsewhere.

“A few goldfish might seem to some like a harmless addition to the local water body — but they’re not,” the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources advised this year.”