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The New York Times has a story that describes just how devastating it can be to an ecosystem to dispose of goldfish, "the most invasive aquatic species" in a river or stream.
Two decades ago, someone dropped a handful of unwanted pet goldfish into a creek in southwestern Australia. Those goldfish grew, swam downstream, mucked up waters wherever they went and spawned like mad. Before long, they took over the whole river.
Researchers from Murdoch University believe this scenario, or something like it, is the cause of a feral goldfish invasion in Australia's Vasse River. Since 2003, they have been running a goldfish tracking and control program that involves catching fish along the length of the river, freezing them to death and studying them in the lab. Despite this program, goldfish in the Vasse are thriving, with some fish growing as long as 16 inches and weighing up to four pounds — the size of a two-liter soda bottle.
The article contains some insightful information as to how to get rid of unwanted goldfish:
The best strategy is to give healthy fish away, to a responsible aquarium, pet store or hobbyist.... In Florida, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission takes unwanted exotic pets off people's hands on regularly scheduled amnesty days.
If your fish is sick, the most humane way to kill it is probably to put it in an ice slurry. As for whether you should flush your fish down the toilet, experts recommend against it. Not only is there a slight chance your fish could survive a journey through the septic system and end up in the wild, but, in general, it's just not a very pleasant way to say goodbye to Bubbles.
I have a couple alternate solutions. First, tropical lion fish love goldfish, as I learned in a middle school science class. Second, goldfish are edible. Think about that the next time you complain about the price of fish!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Saturday September 24 2016, @12:55AM
I've eaten carp in Asia. It tastes fine. Why not eat them here?
If it's a nuisance fish, then don't limit a fisherman's catch. It's a good way to control the carp population, given enough hungry people.
On the North Shore of Long Island I see Russians, Chinese, Latinos, and other immigrants pull sea robins [wikipedia.org] out of the water by the bucketful, presumably because there's no catch limit. They're the funniest looking fish and don't look like they'd be edible, but the fishermen say they filet & bread them and they taste fine (think: fish & chips style). Native white Long Island fishermen barely register sea robins, so beneath contempt they are as a species of fish. But everybody else chows down.
Food cultures are a funny thing, full of contradictions and visceral reactions. My wife scoffs at picking dandelion greens from a field (my god, you want me to eat weeds?!), but will pay $3/lb for them in the supermarket (look, they're organic!). She thinks it's perfectly normal to gather ginkgo nuts, which smell like vomit to me, but is horribly embarrassed when I pick sumac spikes at the side of the road in August, even though she says she would pay good money in a store for the sumac juice, it's so good. Wild onions shoot up everywhere in Prospect Park in Brooklyn in the spring, but the missus waxes indignant that I teach the kids to gather & eat them; then she'll see an ad on TV for one of those counter-top herbal gardens for the kitchen that features--you guessed it--chives, and she's whipping the credit card out.
Carp. It's what's for dinner.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 24 2016, @01:58AM
I used to love foraging for wild fruits and berries as a kid in New England. Wild plums, elderberries, apples, grapes, cherries, blue berries, crab apples, raspberries, blackberries, rhubarb, sassafras, ... We even tapped or maple trees for syrup. Alas, my wife and kids don't feel the same way.