Pet goldfish thrown in Minnesota lakes grow to monstrous size

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. pic.twitter.com/Zmya2Ql1E2

— City of Burnsville (@BurnsvilleMN) July 9, 2021

According to The Guardian, last November officials removed as many as 50,000 goldfish from local waters, which manage to easily survive and reproduce in the Minnesota waters. However, the fish endanger the other species in the water. The county water management manager, Paul Moline told the news website that goldfish “are an understudied species” and have a high potential to negatively impact the water quality of these water bodies.

An advisory by the Minnesota department of natural resources stated that though a few goldfish may seem like a harmless addition to the local water body, in reality, they are not. “When fish are put in waters where they don’t belong, other species and sport anglers often suffer the effects,” the report stated.

Since being shared online, the post has received quite some attention on social media with many wondering why the same fish does not grow when kept in an aquarium but does so in lakes and ponds.

Keep them as pets and feed them to a bigger animal or the toilet when the time comes

— cow (@_official_cow) July 11, 2021

Sooooo before humans started keeping them as pets, were they not in lakes??

— THE VIBE (@NiweAkeine) July 11, 2021

but that’s.. a fishes natural habitat.. where else are u supposed to put it?😭

— itachi (@bodbalenciaga) July 10, 2021

That fish is like don’t body shame me pic.twitter.com/Vx63uAlog6

— Black Lives Matter KC (@BLM_KC) July 10, 2021

Apparently they’re a type of carp which is a bottom feeder, so they taste like dirt

— rolling ray’s lisp (@lauren_ttb) July 10, 2021