Pet goldfish thrown in Minnesota lakes grow to monstrous size

In a bizarre incident, the authorities in Minnesota have requested aquarium owners and fish owners to stop releasing their goldfish in local lakes as they tend to grow to several times than their normal size and disturb the ecosystem of the water body.

In a tweet from the official Twitter page of Burnsville, they shared several pictures of oversized goldfish that were found in Keller Lake. Their appeal read, “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.”

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.