Researchers at a university in Australia discovered a school of massive goldfish migrating between Western Australia waterways.
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Once established they are hard to eradicate and damage Australian ecosystems, Murdoch University researchers have found.
They used strategically placed acoustic receivers to examine the movement patterns of an introduced goldfish population in the river. In other words, pet goldfish can grow to be more than 4 lbs. when released in major waterways.
The fish were “introduced” to the river as either pets or aquarium-owned goldfish and then dumped, unwanted or not purchased, into local wetlands that feed into the river systems.
The goldfishes found in the lakes are getting as big as the fish found in the oceans. Let’s say you’re exhausted of your pet goldfish, and wish to release it in the river next to your house. At worst, goldfish will actually fatten up on the eggs of native species.
The researchers hope what they’ve learned about the fish can assist wildlife officials in efforts to control them.
The invasive fish could impact water quality and introduce disease, Dr Beatty added.
Goldfish – once household pets – are becoming an invasive species.
In addition to achieving a size and weight of hallucinating proportions, the wild goldfish is also a marathon runner.
If left to grow and thrive, they can live up to 25 years and be more than 15 inches long, the RSPCA said. The results have been published in a paper in the journal, ‘Ecology of Freshwater Fish’.
Stephen Beatty and his team of researchers have spent the previous year studying the movement patterns of goldfish in the wild.
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He and his team-members regularly found goldfish weighing in at 2 pounds, they told Australian radio station 720 ABC Perth. In the meantime, he encourages those with unwanted goldfish to either return them to the pet shop or, “if you’re going to euthanize them, putting them in the freezer is the most humane way”, he says.
