Goldfish owners who no longer want their pets sometimes feel they’re doing the right thing by setting them free in local waterways or flushing them down the toilet, allowing them a chance to survive.
But these actions are wreaking ecological havoc, Gizmodo reports. In some cases the fish, which are considered an invasive species, are growing to the size of a football.
Officials in Burnsville, MN, near Minneapolis, recently took to Twitter asking residents to stop letting their goldfish go.
“They grow bigger than you think and contribute to poor water quality by mucking up the bottom sediments and uprooting plants,” they wrote.
The fish have recently been found in Keller Lake.
The tweet included photos showing some goldfish about the size of a football.
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Goldfish reproduce prolifically and are highly resilient. They’ve been identified in numerous other locations, including Nevada, Colorado, Maryland and Alberta, Gizmodo reports.
Read more at Gizmodo
