Tropical Fish in the Austrian Alps

[Wildfisher]

This is bizarre and worth a watch.

[Bobfly]

Fish tank fly tipping !!!! Dumping tanks with fish, insects and plants.

[Fishtales]

We have Terrapins in the canal and loch here

[Wildfisher]

There were terrapins just along the road in Balgavies Loch reserve, might still be some there.

And all that Canadian pond weed must have come from somewhere. The big difference of course is the tropical fish will never spread past the hot springs, they are  effectively in a tank.

[Fishtales]

Unless of course over the years one or two survive in some cooler water and breed then a few years later some of those survive in still cooler water and breed. Evolution at work, tropical fish in cold water. Remember too that some of them come from areas where low temperatures can go drop into the 60'sºF.

[Wildfisher]

Either way introducing aliens is not a good idea -  unless they are trout of course. 

[Jon]

This brings back memories of a ski trip to the Canadian Rockies in the early noughties, one January.

We visited a place called the Cave And Basin. A natural hot springs located in the mountains where the water remains around 27 c all year long. It transpired that local aquarists had performed their own experiments by introducing various tropical fish species into the water there to see what would survive.

Whilst there we saw West African jewel cichlids, Sailfin Mollies and the ubiquitous mosquito fish (I've seen the latter in several countries that they don't belong in now).

But what odd was peering into the water from an icy wooden boardwalk surrounded by snow.

It seems out of everything dumped in there, these three species had won out and were now thriving. However this had come at a cost. The native Banff longnose dace is now extinct as a result of being out competed by the invasives.