Posted on 09/28/2017 7:01:51 AM PDT by Red Badger
Leah Kongsrude, St. Albert's environment director, says she's seen captured goldfish up to 30 centimetres in length, compared to ones sold by pet stores that measure only about two centimetres
ST. ALBERT, Alta. — Workers have dipped nets and a naturally occurring chemical into a storm water retention pond near Edmonton in a bid to kill thousands of unwanted goldfish that have made the water body home.
Officials say the aquatic invaders are the result of goldfish reproducing after people released their unwanted pets into the wild or flushed them down the toilet.
Leah Kongsrude, St. Albert’s environment director, says she’s seen captured goldfish up to 30 centimetres in length, compared to ones sold by pet stores that measure only about two centimetres.
Kongsrude says goldfish are hardy and can out-compete naturally occurring species for food.
Crews used nets on Tuesday to remove the reddish-gold swimmers and also applied the chemical, Rotenone, which is used to remove unwanted fish species from fresh water.
The pond will be checked later on to determine whether the cull was successful, and workers will also watch another nearby body of water to determine whether goldfish have taken up residence there.
Kongsrude said the city is lucky the fish are just in the pond and not in the Sturgeon River, which flows through St. Albert.
“We pumped this pond down and froze it right to the bottom in the winter and they were back in the spring. So they can live with very limited oxygen and low water temperatures.”
Officials are also reminding residents to not release any fish into any pond or body of water in Alberta — including flushing Goldie down the sewer.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
Koi are expensive. They are slow and perfect targets for predators like herons, eagles and the like.............
Animals will multiply (and grow) until they are restrained by a predator or the carrying capacity of their environment.
Even if they’re harmless, these fish need to be harvested to establish an equilibrium. They can be added to pet food or to the feedstock of pigs, if they’re unfit for human consumption.
The capitalist system naturally turns lemons into lemonade.
NORK H-Bombs and ICBMs. NFL millionaire whiners hating on America. Mutant goldfish.
The end times are here!
I know algae eaters do. We have a 32 gallon BioCube and those 2 things are massive. Wish I could get someone to get them and place them somewhere without killing them. Our aquarium days are over.......;)
They are only immortal until a bigger fish comes along...............
Yes, they are. But still, I’d like to try.
Red carp are sometimes seen with their dull brown kinfolk here at Lake of the Ozarks. I think the color is gradually bred out of the red/orange fish.
Then there are the herons who aren’t picky...
Cross-breed this gold fish with the flying carp.
I knew things would go sideways when I flushed poor dead Goldie all those years ago.
Let’s just say, McDonalds Filet-O-Fish will be on sale for a long time.
Just put some bass, some pike and walleye in there and they will control the goldfish.
They taste like carp.
Because that’s what they are.
That would make great flathead catfish bait.
“released their unwanted pets into the wild or flushed them down the toilet. “
What kind of septic system goes into a pond? Did the fish make it all the way through the treatment plant and get washed out into a creek that feeds the pond?
WTH?
I can see the scales in both pictures.
Aren’t Goldfish just a version of carp? Remembering my history, carp are not native to the Americas but were planted by the US government in the 1870s and 1880s.
They taste OK but have lots of small bones. I understand Israel grows lots of them.
I suspect people were hand delivering the fish to the pond, since it’s a rain run-off pond...................
Carp was my grandmother’s favorite fish to eat. Grossed everyone else out but she loved them. They’d all go catfish fishing and here would come grandma with her carp....and a big smile on her face.
Ahhh memories.
Planted by the US government?......Figures........Fish version of Kudzu...............
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