When you posted this, I didn't know they went that far. We just had a couple new ponds stocked this evening and the driver said he was in South Carolina a week ago, and that one of his coworkers was on a route in Virginia, eastern Kentucky and Tennessee this week.
I've had goldfish in my water troughs for years. I put a couple of cinder blocks with the hollow centers in the troughs, gives the fish a place to hide when the raccoons & other critters come to fish. The goldfish will survive most Texas winters well. Have had tanks half ice & the goldfish made it through. They keep the algae down & prevent mosquitoes, the latter being the biggest issue for me.
My Great Uncle kept goldfish in his large concrete trough (over 500 gallons) here in the Northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia for decades. Never heard of him having any issues.
Guess im heading to somewhere that has goldfish next week.
Planted invasive fish are the worst idea ever.
Squaw fish are native to the northwest. They do such a good job of feeding on the young salmon that the Fish and Wildlife people have or had a bounty on them in certain areas. $2 a fish. I know people who were making a living catching them in the lower Columbia.
All our water tanks were gravity fed from a couple of farm ponds uphill from the pastures. Small bluegill fry occasionally 'made the trip' downhill through 1.25" and 3/4" waterlines to the stock tanks. Had some in a big concrete tank that lived for couple of years until the waterline got broken, and the cows drank all the water out, leaving the bluegills high and dry.
IDK, but do you suppose that Pavlov thought about feeding his dog when he heard a bell ring?
I googled "northern pike" and it said they weren't native... but now I've googled "squaw fish" and it says they are native. So I'm confused. It doesn't matter a lot. Fisheries across the country have been ruined by cultivated and planted fish, in my opinion. I get the idea, but there are far too many people with power that have conflicting ideas, and once the non-native fish are planted the better ideas are moot. I'd love to see authentic native rainbows somewhere but I doubt they exist in the wild. Maybe Canada? That's too far to go for an enjoyable evening and a few fish for dinner.
The Colorado Game and Fish put northern pike into the Yampa River years ago. A game and fish guy told my grandfather that the pike don't eat trout; my grand father looked at him and said bull**** they eat anything that moves. The Juniper/Cross Mountain dams where stopped because of the Colorado Squawfish and Humpback Chub. It would seen a little hard to protect those fish when you put pike in the river. The Yampa used to be a pretty good place to fish for trout.
don't know about trade off for algae vs fish waste but we have kept goldfish in troughs for 50 years or more. no respiratory disease here. Cranes occasionally show up and snag them. racoons used to as well but haven's had them around in a while.
