Goldfish Teller Lake could harm the lake's natural ecosystem. From being a favorite pet, now goldfish in Teller Lake is considered pest after findings showed that someone might have dumped a handful of Goldfish into the lake a few years ago.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife say Goldfish Teller Lake have multiplied into thousands that could now be considered threat to the lake's environment. Goldfish eat resources in the lake and are spreading aberrant diseases to other water species, according to Daily Mail.
"These are domestic fish actually. These are fish from a store I imagine. They can out-compete the native fish," Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Jennifer Churchill said.
"[The boat] has little pointers at the front with electroshock. It stuns the fish. It doesn't kill them. They get stunned and they float to the surface and we can collect them."
Today the Colorado Parks and Wildlife team is working hard to remove the Goldfish Teller Lake.
The population of the goldfish in the lake has reach to around 3,000 to 4,000 and if action will not be taken, their growing number can pose dangerous threat to other natural aquatic species and can even wiped out the whole system.
Kristin Cannon, Boulder's district wildlife manager considered the action of dumping pet fish into the lake as 'illegal' and 'bad for the environment.' She strongly encourages people not to dump pets such as Goldfish, Teller Lake.
The Wildlife officials are considering two options in order to solve the increasing population of Goldfish Teller Lake. They said they can use a special boat that collects the goldfish or they could draw off water in the lake and again put natural aquatic species back.
Once collected, the Goldfish Teller Lake can be used as feeds in a raptor rehabilitation center.
Although there is no target date for the wildlife officials to eradicate the fish, reports say that it is more likely that pet fish will be removed from the water by electrofishing.
The invasion of non-natural pet fish like Goldfish Teller Lake and its removal is not the first time in Boulder. In 2012, the same method of electrofishing was used to eradicate about 2,275 koi fish in Thunderbird Lake.
