West Medical set for Goldfish rehab - again!

Goldfish might be fun and docile pets in the home aquarium, but they turn into monsters when dumped into local lakes.

For the second time since 2018 West Medical Lake and its fishery will pay the price, but fishing enthusiasts can reap benefits.

Effective immediately, West Medical is open to unlimited fishing for trout through Oct. 13 with no minimum size requirements.

All other fish species must be released, according to WDWF. This directive comes in advance of closure of the lake Oct. 14 for a treatment of rotenone to rid it of Goldfish.

“Many trout fisheries have suffered, and in the case of West Medical, been destroyed by Goldfish,” WDFW fish biologist Randy Osborne explained in an email.

Once in the ecosystem, the species proves difficult to manage.

“Although our goal on any lake rehab is to achieve a 100% kill, it is very hard to accomplish, especially when trying to eradicate a species like Goldfish,” he said.

Throughout the spectrum, they are more tolerant of unfavorable water conditions than most fish, Osborne added.

Goldfish are also highly prolific, meaning if only a few happen to remain, they can quickly start reproducing and within a

handful of years and become dense enough to start causing problems.

When overpopulated, Goldfish will eat all the food that’s available leaving nothing for the trout fry, causing those plants to fail.

Larger surviving trout — generally not a very large population — that have already surpassed what Osborne terms “the food bottleneck” and were able to consume juvenile Goldfish, can survive and grow quite large.

“However, most trout only live for five years or so, meaning those larger trout that remain will soon die of old age,” Osborne explained.

It is typical for WDFW to open these waters to unlimited trout harvest prior to rehabilitation just to give the public an opportunity to utilize any remaining fish. Otherwise, they will perish in the rehab anyway.

All this effort and expense from what might seem to be an innocent act of compassion.

Goldfish are an aquarium fish that can be purchased at just about any pet shop and are easy to acquire. “People can even win them at many county fairs,” Osborne pointed out.

They become a family pet, but as in many cases kids will promise to take care of them. Then the parents end up caring for them until they get tired of doing so.

“Many times, the parents have too big of a heart to euthanize them, so they think they are doing a good thing by taking them down to the nearest lake or pond and releasing them,” Osborne said.

But people do not realize exactly what ecological damage Goldfish can cause, nor do they know it is illegal.

“When released into a lake or pond, they (Goldfish) quickly multiply,” Osborne said.

And in the case of a public water with a trout fishery in it, they eat the same thing as the trout do and outcompete them. There simply are too many mouths to feed with the given resources available.

And to restock a fishery, the cost can be quite significant.

The cost to stock a trout fry is around five cents ($0.05) per fish, whereas the cost to stock a catchable size trout is $1.75 each. Trout fry are used to stock lakes that remain clean of any predators that may eat them, or competitors — like Goldfish — that would eat so much of the food.