Texas Parks and Wildlife is using a photo of an unusual catch, a large exotic mirror koi fish found in Marine Creek Reservoir in Fort Worth in April 2018, as a reminder to not dump pet fish into Texas waterways.
"Never dump your pets into Texas waterways," Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Fishing tweeted last week. "Not every non-native fish will become a pest, but they can still transmit parasites and bacteria to native fish species."
The koi fish was caught by TPWD Inland fisheries biologists during a largemouth bass sampling and the koi was released back into the lake, a Texas Parks and Wildlife spokesperson said.
"Koi are not commonly found in our reservoirs and usually end up there from someone dumping an aquarium or escaping an ornamental fish pond during a flood event," Aubry Buzek from TPWD said.
Koi are a variety of carp and carp are considered "naturalized" in Texas.
