Warinanco Park Pond 4-4-13

[gymrat987654321]

Had a little time to kill between classes today so I drove over to the park around 2:30. Fished for about an hour without catching a thing. I did see some things that worried me. I have fished here probably over 30 times over the past 3 years and have never seen a dead fish in the water. Today as I was walking the shoreline I found, one dead goose, one small dead bullhead, one bullhead that looked dead but was barely moving its gills, one dead red ear slider turtle, and one dead goldfish. All this within 40 feet of eachother. Any explanation for this or just nature taking its course? I felt really bad for the goldfish. It was absolutely beautiful! The size on it was nice too, probably about a pound and a half. I really wish I would have had the chance to catch that beauty while still alive.

[FishOn]

I would think that if that goldfish was in there for any amount of time it would have gone back to a more natural brass/brown color. Maybe it outgrew a tank and was dumped recently. In fish tanks, when multiple different types of animals die (inverts, fish, reptiles, etc) it's usually environmental conditions like water quality and temperature. . If it was a disease affecting a fish, I'm not so sure it would affect the turtle and the goose. Maybe some one was fishing before you and they just happened to hate turtles, catfish and goldfish...and the goose was the only witness.

[gymrat987654321]

Valid points but I don't think the goldfish was released recently. It seems way too big to me to have been in a tank recently and I don't know if goldfish will change colors. The reason I thought that wild goldfish usually have the brass/brown color is because of natural selection, not just the fish changing color. Oh well, maybe just a weird coincidence.

[FishOn]

Nah they can absolutely change color though its usually very gradual. Ive seen it first hand in my pond. And I know of several captive goldfish that push nearly two feet long. It could have been in there for some time but natural selection says that a bright orange goldfish in brown water will be osprey or eagle food very quickly.  I talked to a guy that caught a BIG South American red tail catfish in deal lake. He brought it to me dead to ID it.  Said he was going to eat it (yuck!).  People release/introduce non natives all the time. Red ear sliders are not native to nj either, the turtle in that pic looks like a big 'ol painted turtle. Sliders have a more pronounced plating on their shell. But people release sliders all the time because they are cheap and very available in PA and chinatown NY, they don't realize how big and messy they get, and they dont know that they can live 20-30 years.  So it's common to see them in the summer but unlikely that they will survive a cold nj winter. Anyway sucks that you didn't catch nuttin'