Goldfish in Lake O

[captpierre]

CTV News tonight says 40,000 goldfish in Lake O.  Mostly from flushing pets down the toilet.  Those are tough fish. ?

[OhioFisherman]

I saw a video the other day of people rescuing goldfish that were coming out of the sewers during some flooding, in the USA I believe, there was a pet store and a Walmart nearby. They are carp, tough fish, I am surprised there aren't more of them in the great lakes.

I have seen them in Lake Erie since I was a little kid, never any small ones though, I think those get eaten,with their color it's hard for them to hide?

[John Bacon]

30 minutes ago, captpierre said:

CTV News tonight says 40,000 goldfish in Lake O.  Mostly from flushing pets down the toilet.  Those are tough fish. ?

Flushing one down the toilet would usually send it to a sewage treatment plant, so I highly doubt that is the way that most of them got into the lake.

If you are on a combined sewar and you flushed during a major storm, it may have a chance.  But, I think dumping them from an acquarium directly into a stream/pond/lake is a far more likely source for them.

[OhioFisherman]

https://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/04/great_lakes_goldfish.html

"

How goldfish became a lucrative Great Lakes commercial catch "

[dave524]

5 hours ago, OhioFisherman said:

https://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/04/great_lakes_goldfish.html

"

How goldfish became a lucrative Great Lakes commercial catch "

Like this article states they have been in Erie and Ontario and tribs for years , I saw them on occasion over 50 years ago as a kid. 

[Mike Pike]

10 hours ago, OhioFisherman said:

https://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/04/great_lakes_goldfish.html

"

How goldfish became a lucrative Great Lakes commercial catch "

Wow, who'd of thought!  Commercially harvesting goldfish for the table!

Thanks for posting that Ohio.  Fascinating.  I was especially fascinated by the Michigan Biologist who said; I think most purists and biologists would prefer not to have them as part of the wild environment, but I'm not sure they meet the classification of harmful," said Goniea. For that reason, they aren't, per se, "invasive."

Here in Hamilton( Lake Ontario ), they've been pretty much demonized.  lol  

[OhioFisherman]

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.4095348

Actually the number they mention is 40,000,000, I thought 40,000 was a low ball figure. The goldfish in the scheme of things are small, a pike - ski - bass - walleye- salmon probably won't have much trouble eating a fairly good sized one. They don't belong there, but of more concern to me is the common carp or other invasive carp that grow to a size that no other game fish can eat them? There are probably billions of carp swimming  around in the great lakes.

[OhioFisherman]

14 minutes ago, Mike Pike said:

Wow, who'd of thought!  Commercially harvesting goldfish for the table!

Thanks for posting that Ohio.  Fascinating.  I was especially fascinated by the Michigan Biologist who said; I think most purists and biologists would prefer not to have them as part of the wild environment, but I'm not sure they meet the classification of harmful," said Goniea. For that reason, they aren't, per se, "invasive."

Here in Hamilton( Lake Ontario ), they've been pretty much demonized.  lol  

Mike, I live about 25 miles south of Lake Erie, but I am still far enough north so that our rivers and streams are part of the flow to the great lakes, that changes about 15 - 20 miles south of me and they flow to the Ohio river.

There is a decent sized stream that crosses the highway into town, I stopped one day years ago to see if it had a decent bait fish population, the first fish I noticed were carp in the 8 - 10 pound range. Not good here, but probably even more of a problem in northern waters with trout populations?

[captpierre]

20 hours ago, OhioFisherman said:

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.4095348

Actually the number they mention is 40,000,000, I thought 40,000 was a low ball figure. The goldfish in the scheme of things are small, a pike - ski - bass - walleye- salmon probably won't have much trouble eating a fairly good sized one. They don't belong there, but of more concern to me is the common carp or other invasive carp that grow to a size that no other game fish can eat them? There are probably billions of carp swimming  around in the great lakes.

Crap. I was only out by a factor of 1000. ?. My bad. 

[OhioFisherman]

2 hours ago, captpierre said:

Crap. I was only out by a factor of 1000. ?. My bad. 

LOL Cap, it didn't take the gobies long to out number them?