The office in Burnsville, a city about 24 miles south of Minneapolis, issued a warning for residents to stop releasing their pet fish into the city’s Lake Keller.
“Please don’t let your pet goldfish into the pond and lake!” city officials said in a statement on Twitter.
“They grow bigger than you think and contribute to poor water quality by polluting bottom sediments and uprooting plants.”
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Goldfish released in the lake is known to grow several times larger than its apparent size. It wreaks havoc on the ecological networks on which native species depend for survival.
According to reports Live Cience Previously, in aquariums the goldfish grew only 5.1 centimeters but grew large in the wild. In 2013 one super-sized goldfish caught in Lake Tahoe measured nearly 46 cm and weighed over 2 kilograms.
In the wild, these fish are known to live up to 25 years and can survive in oxygen-poor water for up to 5 months. When in lakes, these fish can dominate new habitats at the expense of native species.
Officials in Carver County near Minnesota moved about 50,000 goldfish from local waters in November 2020, according to the Washington Post.
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