Real or Fake?

[Krtismo]

What do you think?





http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_sp3575

[WaffleJaw]

Real...Koi carp get big too

[Jrob78]

Saw that on the news last night, if it's real, it's a monster!

[nofearengineer]

Totally real.

This reminds me of a funny misadventure I once had.

There are a couple of lakes at the local state hospital where I live. People would release goldfish in them of course. And what I noticed was that goldfish, placed in a wild state, developed that awesome reddish-orange coloring you see in that koi. And they got huge. 10-12 inches long.

Well, I had a 55 gallon aquarium that was recently vacated when I gave away my Spectacled Caiman (another story for another day haha). I decided I would put a couple of these beautiful goldfish in it.

So I take my trusty castnet down to one of the lakes, and soon spotted 3 or 4 of these big orange goldfish. The water was a bit murky and stained, so they were not that easy to see. I took careful aim, and threw. Jackpot! A perfect throw. I smiled as I started to haul in the cord, closing the net.

At this point, I sensed something was not right. At first I was worried I had caught a stump or something, and I was not looking forward to tearing my net up. But then the net started moving...a lot. I thought maybe I had caught one of those "phantom" 50 lb catfish people always theorize about in the local fishing hole.

The truth was even funnier. It turns out that the released goldfish had been breeding. And most of the offspring had reverted back to their natural, metallic brown color. These fish were basically invisible in the murky water, swimming right alongside their gold-colored brethren.

You should have seen me trying to pull a cast net full of about 100 lbs of flopping goldfish up the steep bank to where I could sort them out.

I got my pretty gold fish though, and a couple kids around there, who had gathered to see the spectacle, even took home a few. We tossed the rest of the brown ones back into the lake to startle future net fishermen.

[3dkicker]

We see goldfish on the river all the time. 10-16" is the normal size. Never seen any bigger.

[dave]

Look at his left arm. It doesn't look like it is in the right position to hold that fish.

[little z]

Fake. You can do alot of things on the computer any more to make things look real. The fish is too bright color to be real.

[Abbeysdad]

Originally Posted by nofearengineer

There are a couple of lakes at the local state hospital where I live.

So Nofear, you live at the local state hospital....which ward? And they let you have sharp hooks?

[nofearengineer]

Originally Posted by little z

Fake. You can do alot of things on the computer any more to make things look real. The fish is too bright color to be real.

Nope...like I said, I have personally seen wild goldfish that bright orange. Hmmm.....I do have my new cast net, and tomorrow off. Maybe I will drive by the state hospital and see if they are still there for some visual proof.