Round Goby

No Robert. It is illegal to maintain these fish as well as transport them. They are a horrible problem in the Great Lakes region and they should all be killed and properly disposed of on sight.

I am NOT trying to be a wiseguy here; this is a serious question:

What is meant by "properly disposed of on sight"? Thanks.

I am NOT trying to be a wiseguy here; this is a serious question:

What is meant by "properly disposed of on sight"? Thanks.

Meaning, if you see one, kill it and dispose of it properly. Such as burying it, putting it in a bag in the trash, etc. Don't kill it and leave it on the shore or flick it back into the water. Makes us look bad. Even though the dead fish would get taken care of naturally by being eaten, people see it in the mean time and it upsets lots of folks that don't know the issue.

Meaning, if you see one, kill it and dispose of it properly. Such as burying it, putting it in a bag in the trash, etc. Don't kill it and leave it on the shore or flick it back into the water. Makes us look bad. Even though the dead fish would get taken care of naturally by being eaten, people see it in the mean time and it upsets lots of folks that don't know the issue.

OK, I thought it might mean bury but wasn't sure.

Thanks.

UGH! If I had only known! I took my son to a small pond at a local park for blue gill and the 2nd fish we caught was a Goby. I thought it was a sculpin till i read about the fused pelvic fins that sculpin dont have. If I had known I would have fed him to the seagulls that were there.


Thats the pond at State Road Park in Parma.

I showed this pic to my wife who's been fishing her whole life, and she said, "WHAT'S THAT?!?. I said, "an invasive". She said it looks like it; looks like it's from Mars".

Then I asked her what she thought she would do if she caught one, and she said she would probably have thrown it back for not knowing for sure.

So info like this is good to have. We'll have to take a real long look at it and/or print some of these photos we see on here to bring to the fishing holes.

Is there any evidence of predation on the goby by any native species?

As mentioned early walleye and smallmouth bass really like them. I've been told although they are not a native species, in shore brown trout love them too. With the forage base of alewife and smelt in the Great Lakes (other nonnatives of course) declining or at a low phase the trout and salmon are looking for other forage fish.

Is there any evidence of predation on the goby by any native species?

Aren't the walleye and smallmouth bass both native species? I also heard inshore brown trout love them too although they are not a native species.

Speaking of how some exotics are treated better than others I found the following humorous. A friend who runs a trout hatchery in Michigan was told by a Michigan DNR biologist that he didn't want his domestic browns interbreeding with their native brown trout. My friend replied, "When the hell did a brown trout become a native fish?"

Edited by az9, 02 January 2009 - 08:22 PM.

Snakes eat them. In fact, the once highly endangered Lake Erie Brown Water Snake is making a huge comeback on account of scarfing down the gobies like popcorn. That's about the only good news concerning them, but it's pretty good. Maybe someday the gobies will be decimated, devoured by huge swarms of snakes. Uh...waitaminute...

and Ill be there to wrangle them
theres tons of gobies around here, at Unimin park the seagulls stay close by waiting for the buffet to start

They are "Lake Erie water snake" and they are Fed-listed as Threatened. Dr. Richard King(NIU) and his students have found that round gobies comprise 92% of the Lake Erie water snake; almost completely replacing native fish in their diets. They have found that snakes show an increase in body size and growth rates since the introduction of gobies. Females larger body size allows them to have more young per litter and the young are larger at birth resulting in greater survivorship.

In regard to Richard's(BrookLamprey) comment about the concern over bioaccumulation of environmental toxins, Dr. Kings group took blood samples post-goby and comapred them to frozen pre-goby samples. They found that contaminants in Lake Erie water snakes have not increased as a result of consuming gobies. Most of the 50 different environmental contaminants measured fell below detectable levels.

-Scott

Snakes eat them. In fact, the once highly endangered Lake Erie Brown Water Snake is making a huge comeback on account of scarfing down the gobies like popcorn. That's about the only good news concerning them, but it's pretty good. Maybe someday the gobies will be decimated, devoured by huge swarms of snakes. Uh...waitaminute...

Is there any evidence of predation on the goby by any native species?

According to a local fish hatchery manager here in NY, atlantic salmon might be benefitting from round goby. Atlantic salmon stocks may have collapsed when alewifes became overly abundant since they produce an enzyme that breaks down (thiamine? might be spelled wrong), which is important to eggs and larvae of atlantic salmon. Goby are high in thiamine and have been recorded recently having successful spawnings and may make a comeback. But in general most fish will eat them if available, in fact according to some of my scientist contacts they are being investigated as culprits in spreading VHS and may have hurt musky populations on the St. Lawrence.

Are you saying alewifes became overabundant in the Great Lakes, or in general? It seems to be a stretch to blame alewifes given everything else that's happened to Atlantic salmon.

I caught one of these at my neck of the woods last summer. They are all over the St. Lawrence here in Montreal. I did a little work with environment canada where tehy were electrofishing and seining the river looking for invasive species populations and the round gobies popped up all along the river. They weren't the most numerous species but there were sure a lot of them.
Don

I agree -- I think people are just afraid of them because they don't look like "normal fish". I've heard that sea lamprey is excellent, but they look like a blood-sucking worms and that turns people off.

I heard that in some parts of Europe their is still a fishery for sea lamprey. In the US during colonial times they were eaten. In fact back when Manchester NH was called Derryfield they were such a major staples of the city they were nicknamed Derryfield Beef.