Freakishly Large Goldfish Found In South Carolina Lake

How’d you like win this goldfish at a carnival?

Park officials in Greenville County, South Carolina, reported Monday that they found a 9-pound goldfish in Oak Grove Lake.

“Anyone missing their goldfish?” Greenville Rec asked with a photo of the supersize swimmer.

The goldfish floated to the surface in an “electrofishing” test to survey the underwater population as part of a management study, the Facebook entry noted. Electrofishing stuns the fish but causes no harm, Ty Houck of Greenville County Parks, Recreation & Tourism told WYFF.

Despite goldfish not being a native species in South Carolina lakes, the giant was returned to the lake because it was not causing problems, Houck said.

National Geographic notes that the size of a goldfish “is usually constrained by the size of its tank.” Houck told CNN that goldfish can “grow to their environment” and that this probable former pet thrived in the food-rich 12-acre pond.

“We think someone must have just dropped their fish in the lake because they didn’t want it anymore, instead of flushing it down the toilet,” Houck said.

Guinness World Records lists a 2-pound goldfish as the largest and an 18.7-inch one as the longest.

However, some aquarium goldfish and others found in the wild were reportedly heavier.

A man claimed to have caught a 20-pound goldfish in 2019, but a Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources spokesman said it was likely a butterfly koi ― “not a goldfish.”