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| indoors in winter! |
There are quite a few invasive species in many parts of this continent. I never thought of the goldfish as invasive. Mind you, I was given 5 goldfish to add to my collection. I should have thought about it.
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| my (mostly) hand-dug goldfish pond |
Mine were found by a biologist in a ditch, where there were thousands of them, dumped by somebody, but they survive our terrible winters. She collected them in a water bottle and brought them home.
I brought in about a dozen goldfish for the winter, they look lovely, but another 2 dozen survived in the frozen pond!
The local lakes are infested with zebra mussels. Another invasive species. The shoreline is terrible to navigate, and they wash up on the beaches. Boaters have been negligent, and these little guys have taken over. The last photo shows them attached to a clam shell.
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| Geraldine, last year |
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| Leopard frogs |
Kay asked about my buddy, Geraldine. She is off looking for love, and will return once she's laid eggs, methinks. She overwintered in my pond. I've had the odd leopard frog, but they are happy in the dewy grass. Once August comes, with the hot, dry days, they will come to my pond.
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You can see the mix of species and colours.
Shirley, large with the white, has died. |
In my goldfish pond I have goldfish, plus another invasive species, Alewives. They came with plants I transplanted from the frog pond, a vernal pond down beside our meadow. They have bred with the goldfish, you can spot them with the darker fins, but orange colour, and seem to be doing well!
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| They have interbred |
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| Alewives, AKA shiners |
• Learn how to identify goldfish and how to prevent accidentally spreading this invasive species.
• Don’t release any live fish into Ontario lakes, rivers or streams or flush them down the toilet. Return or donate unwanted aquarium fish to a pet store or offer them up on
FreeCycle.org.
• Inspect your boat, trailer and equipment after each use. Remove all plants, animals and mud before moving to a new waterbody.
• If you’ve seen a goldfish or other invasive species in the wild, please contact the toll-free Invading Species Hotline at 1-800-563-7711, or
visit Invading Species (Ontario) to report a sighting.
6 comments:
I love the frog and fish pictures!
Geraldine looks so fat in that photo!
Invasive species are a problem everywhere now.
I hadn't thought of goldfish as an invasive species.
I'm afraid we've done major damage to the planet because of world trade and travel.
It's surprising to think such a pretty fish is invasive. It's what has happened in Hawaii though... unfortunately. People have let their pets loose and they've proliferated and caused the native species to go extinct. When I left Hawaii over 35 years ago, I didn't see bulbuls or all the millions of different finches flying about. Now they seem to have taken over the island along with the pigeons and mynahs.
The things I learn from your blog!
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