Lake Tahoe Suffers Invasion Of The Giant Goldfish

Lake Tahoe, located at the California and Nevada borderline, is suffering from a bit of a problem. Biology Researchers have found giant goldfish in the lake waters and have determined that the goldfish population has grown exponentially in recent years. To make matters worse, the goldfish are getting larger.

Biologists associated with the University of California at Davis’ Tahoe Environmental Research Center recently caught some of those large suckers. According to Reuters some of the fish caught were 18 inches long and weighed up to four pounds. While goldfish are known for getting huge when they have the space to roam freely, this is not necessarily a good thing. If the goldfish population gets any larger, it may cause huge problems for Lake Tahoe.

First, despite efforts to curb the goldfish population by removing the fish and replacing them with native species like trout, the goldfish population is still burgeoning. They compete with the native fish for resources like bugs and vegetation. Problematically for Lake Tahoe, one of the clearest bodies of water in the world, they can also excrete a lot, which encourages algae growth and creates gross, murky water. Lake Tahoe isn’t the only body of water encountering the same problem, but it may be one of the clearest and if scientists can help it, they would really like to get the goldfish population under control.

Of course, humanity is likely to blame for the problem. The biologists believe the fish initially washed into the lake by humans who no longer wanted their household pets.

Photo Credit@ Shutterstock/ Mr. Suttipon Yakham