You've heard the name a few times over the last number of years, but Prussian carp are still posing a risk to our provincial lakes and rivers.

A strategy was revealed earlier this year by the government of Saskatchewan after the fish was found in the South Saskatchewan River and Lake Diefenbaker. It's already been found widespread throughout Alberta.

Executive Director with the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, Darrell Crabbe, explains how the fish showed up in the province.

"They're usually released. They were in the pet trade for a long time and most of them were released by people who didn't want to euthanize a fish, so they released them into public water. That's primarily how these things occur. Or they could have escaped from a fish farm."

The fish looks like a silver, oversized goldfish. While they don't grow very big, their impact can be massive.

"They're very prolific and they're population expands very quickly, and they're very territorial. They will very aggressively defend their territory and they overtake almost all of the other species in that ecosystem, pretty well collapsing the body of water for any other species there."

The invasive species, native to Europe and Asia, can spawn up to 3 times a year compared to the normal once per year. They are also able to clone themselves by stealing other species’ sperm to fertilize their eggs.

If you are fishing and catch a Prussian carp, you're asked to euthanize it and send a picture of it to the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation.

It's also recommended that if you catch any fish you don't recognize within the province, to take a picture of it and send it to the Federation.