Yep, a ‘little’ goldfish… like the ones in your little aquarium, except somebody threw them in a lake and they grew up… AKA CARP!!!
They are aggressive, grow bigger than you think, and contribute to poor water quality when they uproot and disturb submerged vegetation while searching for insect larvae to eat. They also reduce water clarity and stir up bottom phosphorus-containing sediments, which contributes to algae blooms.
Are they that much of a problem???
Yes! HERE is an article from Popular Mechanics about dealing with invasive carp.
OBTW, they aren’t really that edible either. Oily and, as bottom feeders, tend to be ‘muddy’ flavored unless ‘cleaned out’ thoroughly in clear water.
FYI, Koi (the pretty fish in a lot of Japanese fish tanks/hotels/Hawaii are also carp!!!
I saw bigger at a local lake in spawning season, and them raising fountains in the shallows. Got a picture of one that was 2-3″ thick in the body. Apparently no season or limit on taking them, and if you get a snakehead, keep it too.
Some people like to eat carp. I don’t get why.
Some people eat Tilapia also. Which I find to be a muddy, mostly flavorless fish. Bleh.
IIRC, there’s a scene in Niven and Pournelle’s “Lucifer’s Hammer” concerning a post-apocalyptic fishing camp that survives by catching the (very large) goldfish that escaped from suburban goldfish bowls when the comet hit.
They happily exchanged their fish for corn bread.
They tend to cause digestive problems, too – namely, post-koi-tal distress.
😉
Forget thee not that Sarah Hoyt has a Carp-a-pult for commenters who irritate her…
You might want to look into getting one for yourself…
Minor correction here: The carpapult is reserved for truly awful/impressive puns (looking in Peter Grant’s direction… 🙂 ). People who really irritate Sarah discover that there can be Portuguese berserkers.
Lessee…
Goldfish
Silver Carp
Snakeheads
The Common Squirrel (it’s actually an English squirrel…)
Iguana
Tegu
Lotsa snakes.
Nutria
Hogs
All invasive species.
And the only solution is open warfare on them.
And eating them, of course.
My brother spent 10 years in the Florida Keys. It was not a military job. He referred to iguanas as reptilian rats. He hated them. More so after an incident. A German tourist driving down US 1 in a BMW came to a screeching halt so as not to hit an iguana. My brother had to lay his motorcycle over to avoid rearending the guy and got a good dose of road rash which was better than the alternative. My brother’s dogs dispatched a few. He dispatched some more with a good pellet gun.
A youtuber that we like was catching some of these at a local lake to feed to her alligator and snapping turtle (in moderation).
Carp are edible, provided that they get filleted and cleaned. The best carp are smoked, a little like smoked catfish.
Wild hog can be good eating, but you have to be careful when hunting them. I heard one old boy talk about hitting a wild hog right square between the manson lamps with a .30-30, and the hog charged him and treed him. Kept him up there all night until someone showed up the next morning with a .458 magnum.
The Florida snake population is out of control, and they should be hunted to extinction. The trouble is that the snakes live in the Everglades, so you’ll need an airboat and a guide.
All- Thanks for the comments, and no, I won’t eat them. Tried once, muddy is right. I also don’t eat Tilapia… MJ, I did the same thing back in the 60s, but we weren’t treed for long. Lucky shot by cousin killed it with a .22…sigh
Yes, I remember. I was taking some poetic license there, just to keep your day interesting. 🙂
.22 short, long, lR, WMR, .556?
We had goldfish in the garden pond.
One of the fish, about 6″ long, got iced in one winter. And I mean IN the ice.
It survived!
Oh my. Carp, fun to catch, especially when they’re huge, which they often are. Tricky, though.
It’s kind of a thing in Europe, less so here, more of an accident. A happy one when you bring one of those beasts in.
I was amused to see Karpf [carp] magazine front and center in the news stand in Fraport. [Frankfurt’s main airport]. It was all about carp fishing, tournaments, records, which bait was best . . .
MJ- LOL
Ed- .22 long out of a Colt Woodsman.
Frank- Yep, amazing survival abilities!
LSP- Yes, and y’all can KEEP it over there!
In my grandmother’s day they kept the (live) carp in a tub of clean water for a few days to clean it out, before they ground it and spiced it into ‘gefilte fish’. It was a lot of work for a mediocre fish but it was the only fish they had.
I remember seeing them loose in the Dupage River where my Dad would take me to fish. He said they were carp, just like the silver ones we saw, and called them garbage fish, only good for fertilizer.
Lurker- Yep, we did the same with catfish
drjim- Pretty much…
Learn something new every day…
Here in northern California, koi are known to the raccoons as “sushi.”
Goldfish can withstand being frozen in. The salts in their blood supply get concentrated in the brain and internal organs, keeping them from freezing, and they produce an antifreeze to crowd out their plasma once temps get low enough to slow their metabolism.
Glad that $100,000 science education I haven’t used in 20 years taught me something.
Also, ground up, goldfish make a great silage or protein slurry for feeds for animals or more tasty fish. Or go full injun and throw a goldfish under your plant seedlings for fertilizer when you get the garden going in spring.