Goldfish and Bowls

[lochness]

Anything less than a 20gallon for 1 goldfish is too small

please do not place goldfish in a bowl or a container less than 20gallons - some may even say 20 is too small and it should be 30 gallons but i understand that some families just want *a little tank* for their child - and real life being what it is, many will just buy a small 5 gallon - DON'T do this!

if you cannot house at least a 20gallon tank in your home for a goldfish, then consider another pet. it will only cause grief and heartache when the goldfish dies, and the next you replace it with dies, and so on and so forth.

if you're looking for more than 1 goldfish then purchase 29 gallons for 2 or a bigger aquarium for more.

goldfish are messy - they don't eat everything you feed and they excrete high ammonia - this can create a poisonous level of ammonia and literally burn your fish's gills and skin and eventually inner organs. death will follow shortly.

a small containers under 20 gallons creates a very unstable environment: fluctuations in temperature, nitrates, nitrites and ammonia are so often that it makes it extremely difficult to survive.

yes i've heard of goldfish stories where they live happily in a goldfish bowl - i suppose if humans were made to live in elevators all their lives, there might be some small percentages of hardy individuals that would survive this.

but would that be considered happily living?

[Ichthius]

some may even say 20 is too small and it should be 30 gallons but i understand that some families just want *a little tank* for their child

It all really depends on the type of goldfish you're talking about as well. 30g seems to be a common recommended size for small/growing and fancy goldfish, but they still need much larger tanks, in my opinion. If you've seen the "smaller" fancy goldfish in larger aquaria with proper care, you'd understand why. I've personally seen some pretty massive black moors and other fancies.

Your info is good otherwise. I just recommend way more than a 20g. If someone wants a small tank for their kid, they should keep the right fish, not goldfish. It was a good idea to bring up the subject though, considering the time of year. I'm sure many bored kiddies headed back to school in the next month will be wanting a fish stuck in a bowl

[Sock Yee]

You are right to say that. In fact, I would say keeping them in bowls are very cruel.

[TheOldSalt]

This is good timing, yes. It will soon be County Fair season across most of the country, and many of those fairs will feature the good old "toss the-pingpong ball into the betta bowl with a goldfish in it" contest. That's been happily outlawed in many areas, but not enough areas, so soon kids all over the place will be bringing home new comets in little plastic bowls. Some of them will wind up here, as they always do, and this can be useful info for them. Their parents won't like it, of course...