How do fish get INTO a new body of water?

Question

In a lake or pond with no streams or anything leading into it, without humans stocking it, how did they get in there? How did they start if there were no fish there to begin with?

Answer 1

The fact that no streams lead to it now does not mean that there were none in the past. Many lakes and ponds, when looked at from the air, form into patterns which suggest linkage by streams and rivers. Also, don't discount the possibility of underground streams, either currently or in the past. Underground streams can carry fish eggs for miles. Also occasional large floods can move eggs and small fish between lakes, by forming temporary streams, or by deluge.

Answer 2

Many ponds and lakes that are not physically connected to a river or stream would not naturally have fish. In undeveloped parts of Alaska where there is no history of fish stocking, there are numerous lakes with no fish. Same thing for many small lakes high in the Rocky Mountains. Fish have been stocked in the US for more than 250 years, and in Europe for more than 700 years, so people have put fish nearly everywhere there is water.

Fish that occur naturally in unconnected lakes and ponds colonized them during a flood, prehistoric times when the water bodies were once connected, and sometimes though groundwater connections such as cave systems.

I can't think of any fish species that was likely to have been introduced by birds or other animals since fish eggs don't live very long outside of water. Egg transport by birds or other animals is possible, but extremely unlikely.

Answer 3

Flooding, when water level rivers ponds and lakes uaually cut off from a source or the water way can become come reconected, fish then enter the pond or lake and stay there even when the water level decreases. As the water level decreases again the fish become stuck and cannot get out they then breed with the remaining fish in the pond until they all die out.

Answer 4

I agree with captain jack (except the Nessie part). I have always heard similar reasons for importation of fish eggs, especially from birds dropping fish or eggs and even dropping eggs through excreting.
Another answer about flood waters makes sense also, so long as there is another body of water close by (even if it doesn't feed the lake or pond).

Answer 5

They definitely don't just grow there without coming from somewhere. Sometimes people throw fish in there...or maybe a bird dropped a fish with eggs. Or some other animal transported the eggs...snake, frog, loch ness monster. The eggs could have stuck to the side of a boat or even got into the wind and were blown.

Most likely it was people that would do it. There are plenty of lakes, ponds, etc that have absolutely no fish in them though.

Answer 6

As formerly_bob said, it is exceedingly unlikely that fish eggs could survive transport via bird's leg or stuck to some other object. Fish eggs tend to be rather fragile, that's why they lay so many of them.

Without being deliberately introduced by man, or through a connection via stream or flooding (no matter how temporary), it's unlikely that a body of water will ever have fish in it. I know of several man-made stormwater lakes that are completely fish free, despite the presence of (literally) hundreds of Canada geese, ducks and gulls over the years.

One method of fish introduction that has not been mentioned so far is tornadoes. Hard as it is to believe, tornadoes, cyclones and dust devils have been known to touch down on a lake or pond with fish, and suck fish up into the sky, and then later rain them down on other regions. Sometimes the fish survive, and end up in lakes and ponds that previously did not have fish. Rains of frogs and fish have been recorded many times throughout history, and this is the likely source of those falls.

I know of at least one farmer's dugout in northern Alberta that had brook stickleback introduced this way.

Answer 7

There are two ways a isolated body of water can get fish in it. The first way is rain. Fish eggs are so small that they can actually get in to the earths atmosphere from evaporation of water molecules. When it rains, the eggs are transplanted into the body of water. The other way is the legs of birds. Birds land in a pond with fish in it, get fish eggs on their feet, and fly to the isolated pond.

Answer 8

If it was man made, many construction companies will place fish in there. Most of the large lakes around now will have their origins in the reallllllly olden days when just about everything was under water. But for the newer and smaller lakes, some animals, i think, will eat small fish's eggs, and poop them out into, or near the new lake. There's probably other ways, too.

Answer 9

Floods, tornadoes can carry the fish out and plop them down in a pond or lake, assuming the tornado sucked up lots of water to with the fish. The fish eggs on birds talons I even have considered earlier, as this question has been asked and responded infinite situations, and that's regularly chosen via fact the suitable answer in maximum circumstances. merely one among mom natures little mysteries. a thank you to bugs get on your room once you have a demonstrate interior the window too? Makes you ask your self.

Answer 10

You need to give an example. Lakes or ponds with no streams feeding them become dry, so your question is probably moot.