Places like Walmart and various pet stores sells dozens of goldfish everyday. People buy these fish all of the time because they are cheap, easy to take care of and dangerous?

Officials believe that two or three years ago, someone dumped about five pet goldfish into Teller lake in Boulder, Colorado. This is a major issue and threat to the wildlife currently living in the once goldfish-free lake that is now crowded with over 4,000 goldfish. Even though these household pets may not be a threat to any human being, they are a huge threat to other wildlife.

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) spokeswoman, Jennifer Churchill, explained, in a 9news interview, why these goldfish are dangerous., “Goldfish are not a native species and are very harmful to the aquatic ecosystem,” Churchill said. She went on to explain that because of the fishes’ upbringing in a store, they could have diseases which can be spread along to the other aquatic life inside the lake.

If potential disease is not enough then outsourcing food and space is. These goldfish have been taking up so much room and resources that they have become a danger to the channel catfish, sunfish, and blue gill fish along with miscellaneous aquatic plants.

The CPW have so far come up with two potential solutions to this issue. At first they suggested that they drain the lake and after removing the goldfish, they would simply “restart” it. This would be the most time consuming option though as it would take a few days to dry out the lake and a few more to scoop up the tiny aquatic life.

The other option would be to stun the fish. This process involves a lot less time and effort. According to Churchill, “[The boat] has little pointers at the front with electroshock. It stuns the fish. It doesn’t kill them. They get stunned and they float to the surface and we can collect them,”

The fish would be then removed and sent to a reptilian rehabilitation center and be kept as food.

For more information, visit these sites.

http://www.newser.com/story/205106/colorado-lake-overrun-with-thousands-of-pet-goldfish.html

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/04/07/goldfish-lake-boulder-colorado/25439075/