Transient properties of the Lotka-Volterra model perturbed by external white noise have been investigated. Stochastic metastability was observed for a degenerate case in which both order parameters shared the same rates and initiated from the common deterministic fixed point. Near this unique state, fluctuations have been shown analytically to be diverging with time, while mean values and the Lyapunov function remained unchanged. Fluctuations in order parameters due to additive noises have been found to have the same time dependence as Brownian particles. Those due to multiplicative noises have shown deviations at larger times and for larger noise intensities. The time duration over which this metastable state could persist has been estimated for three types of noises. Noise effects associated with different nonlinearities were compared systematically and explicitly.
