3,000 Reasons Not To Dump Unwanted
Goldfish Into A Lake
Part 2
If
you haven’t read part one of my post then you may want to read it right now;
click on the link below so you can get up to speed on this delicate subject.
Right
now there is a young lady in the New England state of Maine fighting
legislation so that hobbyists in that state can have Koi and Goldfish as pets
for outdoor ponds. I know this sounds ridiculous to most of us, but it’s true.
That state-which is probably the only one in the union- will not allow
hobbyists to have Koi or Goldfish unless they have a licenses to do so and not
in a pond. The hobbyist also has to account for all living fish fry from a
spawning of their pets or face stiff fines of thousands of dollars. The
reasoning is: That koi and/or Goldfish are an invasive species of fish and will
outcompete with the indigenes species and bring in unwanted diseases. Note:
Lernaea crustaceans AKA: Anchor Worms were one of the diseases mentioned in a
Maine article but they are a parasite of freshwater fishes not a disease.
It’s
editorials like the one I posted in part one that brings horror stores to the
public’s eye on why Goldfish and Koi should be banned from this great hobby of
ours. Hardcore proof is not needed for sectors of our government to implement
laws governing hobbyists into submission and relinquishing our rights to own fish
that have been around for thousands of years as pets. Of course they will say
we are not picking on the whole hobby, just some of the more aggressive species
kept in the hobby like Maine is doing.
Today
it will be Goldfish and Koi and tomorrow it will be saltwater fish. After all
we must stop the rape and pillaging of our treasured oceans to get these exotic
fish because they are not an endless resource for the greedy hobbyist. As
history has thought us: Give then an inch and they then will take a foot instead!
Colorado
Parks and Wildlife (CPW) recognizes the fact that two years ago five Goldfish
were released into Boulder Counties, Boulder Lake and within two years 3 to 4
thousand Goldfish now have invasively taken over the lake. Does anyone see a
Red flag here are is it just me? I mean; when you first notice the “five
Goldfish” two years ago, why didn’t you just catch them then and get rid of
them? After all, if you had the time to count their numbers; didn’t you have
time to catch them too? I’m sure one big large fishnet would have done the
trick. So why did the CPW let this
get out of hand, and now the blameworthiness falls on the hobbyist shoulders?
The
next question is: Where are all the indigenes species of fish they talk about in
this lake and why didn’t they see these easy orange targets of food? I mean road workers have bright Safety Orange
Vest tops on so we can see them on the roadways a mile away, and our eyesight
isn’t nearly as acute as a fish’s eye sight. Anyone that has kept fish long
enough knows that a predator fish like the Oscar cichlid (Astonotus ocellatus) for
example makes a quick meal of our feeder Goldfish because speed is everything to
a predator and Goldfish are very easy to spot. Goldfish are fast, but did you
ever notice that they are not really that hard to catch like some other species
of fish are? Speed is really not their forte for these animals. Add a few Channel
Catfish into a pond and they will make short work of overpopulated ponds with
Goldfish or Koi.
I
understand that articles like the one in part one does make people aware of
what is going on in their community, but do they really have any hard core evidence
that what they are predicting will become a reality? Yet, carp have been
released into our lakes and rivers ever since the European immigrants came to this
country and brought carp with them for game fishing and I have yet to see the
common carp completely take over any body of water here in the US. Even in
public ponds (Example: St. Louis Mo. Tower Grove Park and Reservoir Park all
part of Shaw’s Gardens) that Goldfish were present for many years have I ever seen
such a proliferation of Goldfish as this article states in just two years, but
then again those ponds also had Sunfish and stockier fish like Bullhead Catfish
(Ameriurus catfishes in the family of Ictaluridae), frogs in them too and all
are consider to be the birth control of Goldfish.
In
closing I would like to say:
The
responsibility of keeping our pet fish in our aquariums and ponds is the
hobbyist, and only the hobbyist. Carelessness and our throwaway attitude has no place in this hobby if we are to keep it
safely in the hands of the hobbyist and not the government legislators. We as
hobbyist have a responsibility to our government to keep our waterways free and
clear of unwanted exotic and/or invasive animal life if we in turn wish them to
respect our rights as hobbyist. One is as important as the other and all must
concede to the fact that accidents do happen from time to time and our
government is not infallible to making mistakes themselves.
A Dedication To Kevin
When I gaze upon this hobby of his, I
lose myself,
For I know this is a miniature reef of
extraordinary wealth.
There are mountains of mushrooms
and fields of clams,
And the one-cell animals over the
horizon expand.
The water is salty, the fish are few,
you only knew.
I love this man who cares so much
For the ocean creatures that are in his
clutch.
The moral of this story, is you must
consult and read.
If you take some of God’s ocean, you’d
better then succeed.
Terri M. Novak
Library of Congress
Cataloging in Publication Data
ISBN 1-57553-153-4
OF SUNSHINE AND DAYDREAMS
The National Library of Poetry
Photos
are of Chinese ponds with Goldfish in them taken on sabbatical.
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As you can see the Chinese love
the Goldfish and dedicate whole ponds to them for their enjoyment.
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