Thousands Of Goldfish Take Over Colorado Lake

Joined
May 26, 2014
Messages
973
Reaction score
492
Hardiness Zone
13b
A scrummy snack for herons, foxes, mink, otter, kingfishers, snakes and umpteen native game fish when they find them
in wild its different story , they are not that easy target , water is deeper and more places to hide and run in comparison to restricted small pond , also i read that the goldfishes are very adaptive and hardy that they can survive in worst waterquality and extreme cold warm climate , they can eat alot and any thing , that makes them invasive , there rate of growth and spawning is very high too even if they are eaten by predators stil they remain abundant . this makes other competitor fishes at risk
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2011
Messages
1,305
Reaction score
806
Location
carolinas
Hardiness Zone
8a
at dawn, during low pressure systems they will be gasping at the surface and any cat, fox, heron, snake will have easy pickings

Native game fish will grow amazingly big and fast living large on such a banquet

During harsh winters the pond will ice over and snow blot all light out, all the organic stuff and algae, submerged aquatics doing a mass die off will kill every single one of them
 
Joined
May 26, 2014
Messages
973
Reaction score
492
Hardiness Zone
13b
at dawn, during low pressure systems they will be gasping at the surface and any cat, fox, heron, snake will have easy pickings

Native game fish will grow amazingly big and fast living large on such a banquet

During harsh winters the pond will ice over and snow blot all light out, all the organic stuff and algae, submerged aquatics doing a mass die off will kill every single one of them
hmm all these things are more likely to happen in shallow small ponds , but not at macro level in lakes , rivers
 
Last edited:
Joined
Nov 11, 2010
Messages
4,068
Reaction score
4,008
Location
Chicago Area
Hardiness Zone
5b
Country
United States
Introducing non native species in the wild is always a really bad idea. You should never release goldfish or pond plants into the wild. A few years ago there was a lake in Wisconsin that had most of the native fish get sick from a parasite they had no resistance to. Something totally inoculous to a goldfish can be deadly to a whole lake of fish.
 
Joined
Apr 14, 2017
Messages
71
Reaction score
41
Country
United States
at dawn, during low pressure systems they will be gasping at the surface and any cat, fox, heron, snake will have easy pickings

Native game fish will grow amazingly big and fast living large on such a banquet

During harsh winters the pond will ice over and snow blot all light out, all the organic stuff and algae, submerged aquatics doing a mass die off will kill every single one of them

Not necessarily. We have self-sustaining goldfish populations in several bodies of water in Minnesota, including very large ponds where you think they would be easy targets.

Here's a picture I took this spring of a local urban pond that has had goldfish for years despite a healthy population of cormorants, herons, egrets, etc. (there were about three times as many fish than this; I just captured a section of them):
 

Attachments

  • image.png
    image.png
    128.2 KB · Views: 239
Joined
May 26, 2014
Messages
973
Reaction score
492
Hardiness Zone
13b
Not necessarily. We have self-sustaining goldfish populations in several bodies of water in Minnesota, including very large ponds where you think they would be easy targets.

Here's a picture I took this spring of a local urban pond that has had goldfish for years despite a healthy population of cormorants, herons, egrets, etc. (there were about three times as many fish than this; I just captured a section of them):
Beautiful , are people allowed to catch them ?
 

Meyer Jordan

Tadpole
Joined
Oct 10, 2014
Messages
7,177
Reaction score
5,674
Location
Pensacola, Florida
Hardiness Zone
9a
Country
United States
Not necessarily. We have self-sustaining goldfish populations in several bodies of water in Minnesota, including very large ponds where you think they would be easy targets.

Here's a picture I took this spring of a local urban pond that has had goldfish for years despite a healthy population of cormorants, herons, egrets, etc. (there were about three times as many fish than this; I just captured a section of them):

Yup!!
 
Joined
Apr 14, 2017
Messages
71
Reaction score
41
Country
United States
Beautiful , are people allowed to catch them ?

I'm guessing anyone can catch and release them as long as you have a fishing license. In Minnesota, you can only transport live fish (non-threatened species) home for aquarium display if you're 16 or under and bring your own transport water.

I don't know how to interpret this MN DNR regulation that affects goldfish, among several other invasive species, "It is legal to possess, sell, buy, and transport regulated invasive species, but they may not be introduced into a free-living state, such as being released or planted in public waters."

Sounds like they are saying it's OK to take them from the wild, but not to introduce them into the wild. That regulation affects ring-neck pheasants, which we allow the hunting of.

The weird thing is that every spring, all of these goldfish in this pond surface and swim very slowly in one or two very large circles. I don't know if it happens on multiple days or just one day.

I go to that pond all of the time, but I only ever see the goldfish once a year, and it's during this weird spring tradition of theirs.
 
Joined
Jun 10, 2014
Messages
358
Reaction score
498
Location
Morton, WA
Showcase(s):
2
Hardiness Zone
8a (10 - 15 degrees F)
Country
United States
Ugh. This is what threatens koi keeping in the US. Irresponsible people fish-dumping into wild bodies of water. It can ruin the hobby for everyone!
 

callingcolleen1

mad hatter
Joined
May 1, 2012
Messages
9,431
Reaction score
8,128
Location
Medicine Hat Alberta, Canada (zone 2/3)
Hardiness Zone
4a
Country
Canada
Now that they are out in the wild it can be very hard to control them. Lakes and ponds always have a water source that feeds the lake, or a heavy rain runnoff can bring them either up or down stream and that is how they spread.
Not much can be done now, and dandilons are not supposed to be here either.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
30,781
Messages
508,561
Members
13,042
Latest member
lucaryan

Latest Threads

Top