Fish sauced? Goldfish turn to alcohol to survive icy winters

By Matt McGrathEnvironment correspondent

11 August 2017 

Scientists have decoded the secrets behind a goldfish's ability to survive in ice-covered lakes.

They've worked out how and why the fish turn lactic acid in their bodies into alcohol, as a means of staying alive.

Some goldfish were found to have levels well above legal drink-driving limits in many countries.

The researchers say the work may help with the study of some alcohol impacts in humans.

Scientists have known about the peculiar survival abilities of goldfish and their wild relatives, crucian carp, since the 1980s.

While humans and most vertebrates die in a few minutes without oxygen, these fish are able to survive for months in icy conditions in ponds and lakes in northern Europe.

Researchers have now uncovered the molecular mechanism behind this ability.

In most animals there is a single set of proteins that channel carbohydrates towards the mitochondria, which are the power packs of cells.

In the absence of oxygen, the consumption of carbohydrates generates lactic acid, which the goldfish can't get rid of and which kills them in minutes.

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A guy made a wheelchair for his goldfish, and the internet can't cope

Wed Mar 15 2017

When 19-year-old Taylor Dean shared a photo she received on Twitter of a goldfish using a custom wheelchair, the internet reacted as you'd expect.

You see, Derek works in a local aquarium in San Antonio, so this guy really knows what he's doing. He proudly revealed his invention after other treatments for the poorly goldfish hadn't worked.

He told Buzzfeed News: "I got some airline tubing that people usually use in their tank and just placed it around the goldfish.

"I added some valves to the bottom of it, which acted as a chair to prop him up."

He then tied on some styrofoam as a buoyancy aid and meticulously removed pieces until the weight was just right for the fish to move around freely.

Read on 

Giant goldfish found in Australian rivers after being released by pet owners

Researchers find the invasive species weighing 2kg and up to 30 cm in length

Jess Staufenberg 

Enormous goldfish and other pet fish have been found in the rivers of Australia by researchers who believe they were released by their owners.

The common misconception of the goldfish as a small, domesticated species best suited to an aquarium has been challenged yet again by scientists who have warned of their damaging impact on natural ecosystems.

Researchers at Murdoch University in Perth have caught goldfish which tipped the scales at up to 2kg and grew up to 30cm.

They have warned that goldfish and other abandoned species such as koi carp are destroying habitats for native breeds of fish by eating their spawn and uprooting plants and sediment on the river bed.

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Violent 'monster goldfish' has outgrown tanks four times and splashes water out if he doesn't get fed

13:03, 17 NOV 2015

UPDATED 14:09, 17 NOV 2015

BY DAVID KEANE

Bob was just an inch-long when he was bought three years ago but a diet of Sunday lunches has seen him grow into a foot-long beast

A goldfish has become a FOOT-LONG monster who angrily splashes water out of his tanks if he spots a cat or does not get fed.

Bob the goldfish left his owner stunned with his refusal to stop growing which forced her to splash out on buying the brute FOUR new tanks.

Anne Cooper bought two inch-long goldfish from her local pet store three years ago but while one of them stayed small, the other continued to grow.

Big, bad Bob now even joins in on Sunday lunch and terrorises the family's two cats while also charges at anything he spots which is the colour red.

The three-year-old monster goldfish demands feeding twice a day and takes part in Sunday lunch by swimming to the surface to be fed garden peas BY HAND.

Anne, 56, who lives in Scarborough, Yorkshire, said: "Bob seems to be still growing and I have no idea when he will stop. How big can a goldfish grow? I am going to have to get another new tank now as he is now too big for this one - despite it being about five feet long.

"He is more than a foot in length and shows no signs of stopping. His size is quite intimidating to the cats who often approach him but if he moves suddenly then they run away in fright.

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Nyah! Nyah! How Goldfish Eluded Huge Predator for Years

by Tia Ghose, Senior Writer | July 01, 2015 06:29pm ET

Talk about survival instincts.

A goldfish that was meant to be fish food found a hideout and lived in a tank with its predator for seven years, according to Japanese news reports.

The goldfish was tossed into the tank of an arapaima, a massive, predatory fish native to South America. But instead of going quietly to its fate, the plucky goldfish swam into a filtration unit in the tank at Japan's Shima Marineland aquarium. Workers discovered the lurker after a routine cleaning.

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Government takes action against the giant goldfish clogging up Canada's lakes and rivers

Goldfish released from domestic fish tanks are growing to gargantuan sizes, and causing problems for Alberta's fragile ecosystem

DOUG BOLTON

Thursday 25 June 2015

Giant goldfish released from domestic fish tanks are multiplying like rabbits in the ponds and lakes of Alberta, Canada, and the local government has been forced to take steps to prevent them spreading further.

Some of the rogue fish are growing to the size of dinner plates, and they're causing huge problems for the delicate native ecosystem.

The problem stems from people releasing their pet goldfish into Alberta's streams and lakes once they get sick of taking care of them.

Once in the wild, the fish can survive Alberta's harsh winters and grow to huge sizes. Since they have no natural predators in the province, they can out-compete native fish species for food and other resources and reduce biodiversity in the area.

Kate Wilson, aquatic invasive species coordinator at Alberta Environment and Parks, told CBC Calgary she was surprised at how large some of the fish are, and at the sheer numbers they are finding.

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Goldfish helping to kill off frogs by spreading 'devastating disease', scientists warn

Goldfish and other non-native fish should not be put into garden ponds because they help spread a “devastating disease” that is killing off thousands of frogs every year, scientists have said.

The researchers, who published a paper in the PLoS One journal, also said the use of common garden chemicals was weakening frogs’ immune systems which put them at greater risk of deadly ranavirosis. Amphibians are also among the animals most at risk from climate change.

Alexandra North, of Exeter University and lead author of the study, which looked at frog deaths from 1992 to 2000, told The Daily Telegraph: “It is important to stop stocking ponds with non-native species like goldfish. Our results show that we can all help limit the impact of this devastating disease.

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3,000 Goldfish! Dumped Aquarium Pets Multiply in Lake

by Jeanna Bryner, Live Science Managing Editor | April 09, 2015 03:13pm ET

They multiply like … fish! Apparently, a handful of goldfish dumped into a lake in Boulder, Colorado, just three years ago have reproduced and now number in the thousands.

Credit: Colorado Parks and Wildlife

The explosion of these exotic fish, which are not native to anywhere in North America, has biologists worried and trying to figure out options for the animals' removal.

"Based on their size, it looks like they're 3-year-olds, which were probably produced from a small handful of fish that were illegally introduced into the lake," Ben Swigle, a fish biologist at the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), told Live Science.

Read on ...

Two Pet Goldfish Get Surgeries Totaling $750

by Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer | March 12, 2015 07:21am ET

For some people, the price of a pet's health is never too high: A team of veterinarians in Scotland performed a set of operations on pet goldfish that cost nearly $750.

The team — from Inglis Veterinary Hospital in Fife, Scotland — removed the blind, cancerous eye of a goldfish named "Star." They also operated on another fish named "Nemo" to remove a lump. The complex operations, which cost $747 U.S. (500 British pounds), involved an exotic consultant surgeon, a vet to keep the fish anesthetized and a nurse to monitor their heart rates, hospital staff wrote in a Facebook post.

"This is a highly specialist field — using anesthetic on a goldfish carries a very high risk —and I'm delighted for the owner that everything went OK and the owners are happy," said exotic-animals expert Brigitte Lord, according to the post. "The financial value of a goldfish may be quite small, but I think the fact that someone should have paid that much for an operation reflects the true value of the bond between pets and humans."

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Constipated goldfish undergoes £300 life-saving surgery

A constipated goldfish escapes his untimely demise as owner splashes out £300 on life-saving operation

By Agency

10:57AM GMT 01 Jan 2015

A devoted pet owner splashed out £300 - to save the life of his constipated goldfish.

Photo: SWNS

The man took the tiddler to vets to ease its discomfort after noticing it was struggling to poo.

He hoped after a simple procedure the fish would be back happily swimming in his office tank.

But the company boss was in for a shock when staff at the Toll Barn Veterinary Centre told him the delicate surgery would cost £300.

He turned down the treatment and left his fish to its fate - but had a change of mind 10 minutes later and went back to give the go-ahead.

Vet Faye Bethell, 29, was then tasked with carefully administering anesthetic before using tiny instruments to remove a lump close to the fish's anus.

A second lump was removed from his dorsal fin before the pet was returned to water and handed back to his grateful owner.

The vet said the three inch fish made a full recovery after the 50-minute operation and it would have died if it was left untreated.

She said: "I have never done a procedure like that on a goldfish, although I have done it before on more valuable fish like a carp.

"The actual surgery is quite straightforward but administering the anesthetic is quite complicated.

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This goldfish looks so angry even its mate is leaving it well alone

This goldfish doesn’t look too happy.

The pet, which was recently purchased by reddit user Brovanz, has the hump over something but we’re not too sure what.

Anyone would think it would be happy it has a new home but the markings on its face suggest otherwise.

When another fish crossed its path seemingly trying to cheer it up, it still refused to crack a smile.

Tommarshall thought the fish resembled an angry businessman, and wrote: ‘He looks like a businessman who has had a bad day and is late for his 3 o’clock meeting.’

http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/24/this-goldfish-looks-so-angry-even-its-mate-is-leaving-it-well-alone-4675982/

Smokey the goldfish survives house fire and two years with no food

A goldfish thought to have been killed in a house fire was found alive and well despite not being fed for two years.

Smokey spent 21 months under a plastic sheet in a pond following the blaze in Harwich, Essex.

Owner Jackie Broadley said: ‘Having him back has really lifted our spirits.’

The 60-year-old said she thought she had retrieved all the fish from her pond and was amazed when she was told Smokey had been found alive and well.

‘When I got the phone call to say there was a surviving fish from the old pond, I thought somebody was winding me up,’ she added.

‘It’s really nice to have Smokey as it was a horrible experience for us to lose our house and have to re-home all our other fish.’

An RSPCA spokeswoman said she was surprised the fish had survived because they normally required oxygen in the water to breathe and there wasn’t an obvious source of this.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/09/20/smokey-the-goldfish-survives-house-fire-and-two-years-with-no-food-4060574/

Goldfish, the classical music aficionados: The famously forgetful fish can distinguish between Bach and Stravinsky, study shows

• Fish able to distinguish composers around three quarters of the time
• They even developed personal tastes, claims study by Japanese team

Goldfish may be forgetful, but when it comes to classical music, it seems they know what they like.

They can distinguish between a piece by 18th century German composer Johann Sebastian Bach and one by 20th century Russian Igor Stravinsky, a study found.

Japanese researchers played goldfish Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. They trained four of them to bite a red bead on hearing one piece, but not the other.

Professor Sigeru Watanabe, from the department of psychology at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan, said goldfish have evolved to develop similar hearing mechanisms as seemingly far more complex animals.

He said: ‘Humans... can easily recognise and enjoy a variety of types of music.

‘Several studies have investigated whether these properties of music exist in non-human animals.

‘Goldfish are known as a hearing specialist species, since they have evolved a structure to enhance auditory signals detected by the inner ear.

‘This suggests that goldfish have evolved specific features for hearing and can recognise complex auditory stimuli similar to those recognised by modern vertebrates.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2407609/Goldfish-classical-music-aficionados-The-famously-forgetful-fish-distinguish-Bach-Stravinsky-study-shows.html#ixzz2dwptKye0

China holds world's first beauty contest for goldfish

More than 3,000 fish from 14 different countries competed in the newly established International Goldfish Championships held in Fuzhou at the weekend.

Breeders battled it out for a range of different titles, with the World Goldfish Queen crown the most fiercely contested category.

Lined up on rows of tables in giant bowls, the ornamental fish were judged across 12 categories including the longest and heaviest goldfish.

'We judge goldfish mainly by five criteria: breed, body shape, swimming gesture, colour, which is very important, and overall impression,' explained Ye Qichang, a member of the judge panel.

The judge was particularly impressed with a giant 1.75kg (3lb 5oz) prized specimen fish competing in the competition.

'I have raised gold fish for some 40 or 50 years, and it is the first time I've seen such a big creature,' said Mr Qichang.

Goldfish breeding is big business in China, said to be worth millions to the economy.

'I have started running this business since 1984, it’s been almost 28 years,' said local fish farm owner Wang Aimin.

'Our fish was mainly exported to Japan and southeast Asia, but the domestic market has grown really fast in recent years.

'In Fuzhou, we export goldfish worth $30million every year and the domestic market has reached over 100million yen.'

Video here: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/912260-china-holds-worlds-first-beauty-contest-for-goldfish#ixzz26uwfjeSZ

Goldfish the latest weapon to protect world leaders at summit

In addition to thousands of heavily-armed police and troops, six goldfish will put their lives on the line to safeguard world leaders at this week's G-20 summit in the South Korean capital, officials said Tuesday.


The Convention and Exhibition Center in southern Seoul, which is hosting the event, will use the fish to check the purity of the water supply to restrooms.

"The fish also symbolize an eco-friendly water policy, which recycles used water for the restrooms," Oh Su-Young, PR manager at the center, told AFP, adding that they were just part of the inspection process.

The center, which shares its water supply with a neighboring shopping mall and trade center, recycles more than 37 million gallons (142,000 cubic meters) a year at an annual saving of 360 million won (US$322,436).

Yob arrested after he bought £1.99 goldfish and then swallowed it in pet shop

A yob has been arrested after buying a goldfish in a pet shop and swallowing it in front of horrified shop staff. Chris Caswell, 30, was arrested yesterday over the prank that was videoed by his friends and posted on Facebook.

He paid £1.99 for the fish and then asked staff to put it in a glass he had bought with him, claiming he just lived across the road. A shopworker agreed and then watched in horror as he downed the fish in one gulp. After Caswell ate the creature, his friend, videoing the encounter, said: ‘Goldfish down the hatch!’ They then walked out of the shop laughing and joking.

Police were alerted after the footage was posted on the social networking website.
Caswell, a roofer, was arrested in a dawn raid at his home in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, yesterday, on suspicion of cruelty to animals. He was quizzed at a police station for an hour then released.

Last night he insisted he was an animal lover and said he had been drinking at the time.
He told the Sun: ‘It was over a year ago. We had been out drinking at a friend’s party. I can’t remember much about it. I have just got a puppy. I like animals.’

The RSPCA last night said it was still investigating the stunt at the Petals and Pets shop in Newton Aycliffe. If Caswell is found guilty of animal cruelty he could face a £20,000 fine or six months in jail.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1315075/Yob-arrested-bought-1-99-goldfish-swallowed-pet-shop.html?ITO=socialnet-twitter-dmailnews#ixzz10cyf882M

Big fish

15 July 2010 16:30 GMT

A British boy has caught the world's biggest goldfish.

The 2.27 kg fish was caught in a lake in Poole, Dorset, by 16-year-old Nick Richards, who was fishing for carp in the area.

He said: "I'd heard rumours there might be some big carp there and thought I'd see for myself. I was there for two days running and caught some big common carp. Then suddenly I saw this big orange fish cruising along the top of the lake.

"It wasn't too much trouble to reel it in. At first I thought it must be a really fat Koi carp, but when I saw it properly I realised it was a common goldfish - just like one you might keep as a pet."

http://entertainment.stv.tv/showbiz/187107-big-fish/