The authorities in the US state of Minnesota are requesting the aquarium owners to stop releasing pet fish into waterways after cases of several goldfish growing exponentially in size have surfaced.

The Burnsville officials have told the public that released goldfish can grow to several times their normal size and are detrimental for the species normally found in the lake in a small town just 15 miles from Minneapolis.

“Please don’t release your pet goldfish into ponds and lakes! They grow bigger than you think and contribute to poor water quality by mucking up the bottom sediments and uprooting plants,” said a tweet from the city’s official Twitter account.

The Carver county officials had removed as many as 50,000 goldfish from local waters in November 2020.  Goldfish can easily reproduce and survive through low levels of oxygen during the Minnesota winter.

Ecological destruction due to the release of aquarium pets is not a new phenomenon. Many such cases have been reported, most notably the case of carnivorous lionfish that is native to the Indo-Pacific. Many Florida pet owners released their lionfish after Hurricane Andrew struck in 1982. The released fish have killed off dozens of Caribbean species, allowing seaweed to overtake the reefs, the Guardian reported.