Went to the fair..won a goldfish

Tikibirds

Frozen Eskimo Pony
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What would posess someone to offer a live fish as a prize for a carnival game?? There were not only one but TWO booths where the prizes were goldfish! One booth was even proving the new owner with a tank that holds less then 1/2 gallon of water!

This INFURIATES me as goldfish, especially commet tail goldfish (think feeder fish at Petco) if given proper care can get to well over a foot in length...and require rather large tanks, more like outside ponds if they grow to their full potential.

Did I mention they had them in plastic bags, stacked up inside a box??

Anyways, feeling sorry for them...we played the game and took home a baby goldfish.
Right now its chilling in a 10 gallon tank with a female betta. I havent been able to catch her to remove her and put her into another tank. I'm gonna need something much bigger at some point but for now this will do. Im gonna have to up the water changes to every 2-3 or so days since goldfish are dirty - high waste and ammonia producers.

Anyways..meet argyle. The fair was in the town of Argyle so...yeah.
This was the water in its bag..nasty.
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and a few hours later. You can see he colored up (his coloring got darker). I doubt his fair buddies will fare as well... :(
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He is a sweetie :winkpony:, its so wrong to give live goldfish as prizes. Anybody could win one and they might end up with people who don't care about them :cry2: Also its so stressful for them in the fair environment (loud music etc...) I'm so glad that he went to somebody who loves him and will give him care for life :smilepony:

bigmlpfan xx
 
he's so cute. they deserve better than being prizes .i'm so happy he has a good home with you . please post more photos of him at times so we can see how he grows. I have two happy goldfish that live together in a large tank with a filter and some plants to eat and other lovely things, mine were purchased from a pet store .
 
I was gonna come in and give my typical talk about how goldfish can't live in bowls and how they can get quite large n' stuff, but then you came in and did it for me :D
It's been said that fish are some of the most abused animals on the planet because people think them as "just fish" and don't do research about owning a certain fish before they buy one. It's especially bad for goldfish and pirranhas because of the stereotypes we see in media like goldfish living in bowls and pirranhas being vicious eating machines (they're actually quite timid and mostly go after small food and dead stuff)
Good job saving your goldfish friend!
 
I was gonna come in and give my typical talk about how goldfish can't live in bowls and how they can get quite large n' stuff, but then you came in and did it for me :D
It's been said that fish are some of the most abused animals on the planet because people think them as "just fish" and don't do research about owning a certain fish before they buy one. It's especially bad for goldfish and pirranhas because of the stereotypes we see in media like goldfish living in bowls and pirranhas being vicious eating machines (they're actually quite timid and mostly go after small food and dead stuff)
Good job saving your goldfish friend!

I hate seeing this at fairs. And I hate that hermit crabs are sold as pets, too. Most people have no CLUE how to care for them. Cute souvenir from the shore for the kids, then they die two weeks later. They can live for MANY years (just like goldfish!) The whole "throw away pet" thing just really gets under my skin big time. :madpony:

Since this practice won't be going away any time soon, It makes me happy that someone who knows how to care for a goldfish won one!
 
I hate seeing this at fairs. And I hate that hermit crabs are sold as pets, too. Most people have no CLUE how to care for them. Cute souvenir from the shore for the kids, then they die two weeks later. They can live for MANY years (just like goldfish!) The whole "throw away pet" thing just really gets under my skin big time. :madpony:

Since this practice won't be going away any time soon, It makes me happy that someone who knows how to care for a goldfish won one!

Oh my I love hermit crabs, I have three as pets and I actually know how to take care of them (the one I've had the longest is 5 now) they have so much personality for such little guys!
I hate seeing them in painted shells because I think it's disrespectful to the crab (as well as dangerous because they knaw on shells sometimes and can ingest the paint) I personally think they're a pet for children over the age of 12 and no younger. Little children simply don't understand what they need and how important the right conditions are to them. They are certainly not a low matenince pet as many people claim, they need fresh and salt water, humidity and fresh food (vegtables, fruits, nuts and seeds, pretty much whatever)
 
I was gonna come in and give my typical talk about how goldfish can't live in bowls and how they can get quite large n' stuff, but then you came in and did it for me
It's been said that fish are some of the most abused animals on the planet because people think them as "just fish" and don't do research about owning a certain fish before they buy one. It's especially bad for goldfish and pirranhas because of the stereotypes we see in media like goldfish living in bowls and pirranhas being vicious eating machines (they're actually quite timid and mostly go after small food and dead stuff)
Good job saving your goldfish friend!

Bettas and goldfish get the worst of it, I think. They are sold cheap and most people are not willing to put in the $$ to properly provide for a fish they bough for $4 at walmart. Plus most idiots seem to believe the hype that bettas can live in those vases with the plants in them (uh..they breathe air from the surface..cant really do that with a stupid pothos plant in the way) or they live in foot prints and puddles...Have these people ever seen a rice paddy? They are HUGE...and the whole bowl thing. Plus petshop employees usually have no idea what they are talking about.

His life wont be perfect since there is no way I can get a 100 gallon tank or larger, unless I can find a basement apartment someplace...but at least I know how to properly care for fish.

Might as well show off some of my bettas..

This was my latest Petco rescue - Baron Von Fishie Fins the 3rd.
No the tank is not dirty. Mopani wood releases tannins which bettas like (makes it more like their natural enviroment) and tints the water amber colored.
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El Kabong lives on the left side but you cant see him. Hes a yellow crowntail male

In the 20G is my girls (yes they can live together...usually)
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This is after I added the plant substrate..made my water cloudy for a few hours...and one of my apple snails
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Yes I named the snails too
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Sluggles. Drove him from Alaska to NY in 2012
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Found him like this in Walmart
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@philly: totally with you on hermit crab love!! I stopped keeping them because, even though we tried to get the bigger ones, so they wouldn't need to molt as soon, I could never get them safely through a molt, no matter what I tried, so figured it wasn't fair (even though they had a good life until they decided it was time to molt.). I did once see one of them trying out different shells, swinging his (or her?) scrawny lil butt from one shell to another like a gymnast on the parallel bars LOL. We had a couple chirpers, too. Always talking in the middle of the night, of course. Heh.

@tiki--appalling, the beta you found in walmart!! But glad he's in good hands now. and OMG... "El kabong"?!?!?! That's a cartoon character from *my* childhood (back in the dark ages)!! I haven't thought of him in decades! what a great name for a fish... Your fish and snails are gorgeous.
 
I hate seeing this at fairs. And I hate that hermit crabs are sold as pets, too. Most people have no CLUE how to care for them. Cute souvenir from the shore for the kids, then they die two weeks later. They can live for MANY years (just like goldfish!) The whole "throw away pet" thing just really gets under my skin big time.

Since this practice won't be going away any time soon, It makes me happy that someone who knows how to care for a goldfish won one!

Ugh this.

I mean, I'm guilty of it. For my high school graduation party (oh my, 10 years ago now) we had little goldfish in bubble bowls as centerpieces then asked people to take them home... My two did live for over a year, and I changed their water a few times a week, but they were each just in tiny little "fishbowl" bubble bowls.

I didn't know any better; I've only recently learned how abused goldfish are in the last couple of years! I posted a link to a really good explanation of it to my FB, which I don't use much, but I know 99% of my friends there just don't know either. It's actually really simple and good for educating people, if you want to pass it along. People just don't know.

Common myths and misconceptions about goldfish by goldfishgal.


I love fish and would like to keep them but I know I'm not willing to put the work into taking care of them properly, so no fishies for me. :x
 
Yesterday at Kmart I noticed a shelf of poor bettas being sold in vases with the stupid plant for $15. This has to be one of the worst things I've seen, one betta had almost no water. He had the plant, and gravel, and not even enough water to swim in let alone cover him all the way. I took him to the service desk and told them he needed more water but the people working there looked like they did nt care at all or knew what i was talking about and just set him aside. I went back over to the shelf to see who else needed rescuing but they were all ok but then i noticed a vase with gravel and water, no fish or plant. I took it over to the service counter and asked for the fish and gave him the water. It was the least I could do and you can guarantee he was content getting what little freedom he had back. I really despise that stores can sell animals like this and you are right, no one cares because they are just ''fish'' I am thankful for people like you who rescue fish, you've done a nice thing for that poor goldfish and your latest betta rescue! If only we could help them all.
 
@philly: totally with you on hermit crab love!! I stopped keeping them because, even though we tried to get the bigger ones, so they wouldn't need to molt as soon, I could never get them safely through a molt, no matter what I tried, so figured it wasn't fair (even though they had a good life until they decided it was time to molt.). I did once see one of them trying out different shells, swinging his (or her?) scrawny lil butt from one shell to another like a gymnast on the parallel bars LOL. We had a couple chirpers, too. Always talking in the middle of the night, of course. Heh.

@tiki--appalling, the beta you found in walmart!! But glad he's in good hands now. and OMG... "El kabong"?!?!?! That's a cartoon character from *my* childhood (back in the dark ages)!! I haven't thought of him in decades! what a great name for a fish... Your fish and snails are gorgeous.

My babies have survived through several molts but recently one of them died from what I beleive was molting complications, he was about 4 :(
It was the first time I'd lost one because of a molt.
Mine chirp sometimes, we have a big guy who has a really deep voice and it's pretty funny when he does chirp.
 
Thats pretty nasty... I never knew they still did it. I've only seen it in Anime and Cartoons
 
It figures...

Pffft. Wouldn't you know, we went to a carnival last night. DB went on ahead and when I caught up, he'd already won a goldfish. The fish there looked in surprisingly good condition, kept separately from the little bowls they use for tossing the ping pong balls into (when I was a kid, the poor fish used to be IN the little bowls!), in nice, flitered tanks, separated by size. Ten "wins" got you ten small (feeder fish no doubt), two mediums or one so-called large goldfish. We wound up with one so called large (thinking we were going to have two mediums but the guy insisted it was a large lol). Sooooo when we got home, it was hustle hustle to get the tank running again, while poor Fish (no name yet) waited impatiently in his bag, and hope that there's still some good gunk left in the gravel from our last goldfish (well, koi, really, who was about six when he died) to at least give the tank a head start on stabilizing. And of course all our supplies are out of date... :shockpony: Pet store run...

*sigh*

but it's nice to have a goldfish again. He/she needs a friend in that 20 gallon tank, though. I guess we'll wait to make sure the tank stabilizes before adding one. I was thinking maybe to add some duckweed or some floating real plant matter this time. Any suggestions?
 
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@tiki--appalling, the beta you found in walmart!! But glad he's in good hands now. and OMG... "El kabong"?!?!?! That's a cartoon character from *my* childhood (back in the dark ages)!! I haven't thought of him in decades! what a great name for a fish... Your fish and snails are gorgeous. __________________

I wanted to EL KABONG the people who had the goldfish prizes with a guitar right in the head! I love the Hanna Barbara cartoons :LOL:

but it's nice to have a goldfish again. He/she needs a friend in that 20 gallon tank, though. I guess we'll wait to make sure the tank stabilizes before adding one. I was thinking maybe to add some duckweed or some floating real plant matter this time. Any suggestions?

goldfish will eat duckweed and quite a few other plants too but not sure which they are.
Anacharis and hornwort should be safe since they are not "leafy" and both are floating plants. Some people dont like hornwort though because its needles can shed alot.

I usually get my plants off ebay or Aquabid (like ebay but for all things aquatic).
I usually get them from a seller called mikeswetpets. He is located in NY which I like, since I am also in NY.
Items in Mikeswetpets Aquarium Plants store on eBay!

I also like plantedaquariumscentral.com for plants. I do NOT trust petco or petsmart. Alot of their aquatic plants in a tube are NOT aquatic at all.

Jungle vals might work as well. I think goldies only eat the plants that are more leaf like...and jungle vals are look like tall blades of grass.
I have a 20G long and I do have them but they would work much better in a taller tank. The ones I got from some seller on ebay were like 3 feet tall and I had to chop them down to like 10 inches. Plus they had pond snails on them. I dont mind snails but alot of people do not like pond snails, ramshorn snails or mayalsian trumpet snails because they are hermaphroditic and will breed like rabbits.
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As for the stability, was the filter continously running the whole time? or did the filter media dry out? If it was dry for a while, I would start over with everything new. As long as the filter is running and there is an ammonia source (the fish), the tank will cycle. And you can do a fish-in cycle but you need to keep up on 2 water changes a week so the ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte levels do not get too bad. Or you can buy a water test kit and test the water every day or every 2-3 days. Most people dont even know about the cycle - especially if they have bettas or goldfish as they are pretty hardy fish.

The tank I put my goldie in, I had torn it down and let it sit dry for about 2 weeks because I had a disease outbreak, so I started with all new stuff. New filter (I broke the one I had), new filter cartridge and new filter foam. Instead of replacing the cartridge every month, I usually stuff the filter full of aquarium foam/sponge as it will last alot longer then a cartridge and it will still do mechanical and biological (good bacteria) filteration - kind of like the older sponge filters. I just rinse the foam out in OLD tank water about once every 2-4 weeks depending on the tank. One betta its not going to get that dirty but n my 20G with all the snails and heavy poopers, i rinse it out once a week. Never rinse in tap water as it will ill off the bacteria you want to keep.
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If you already know all this, just ignore me :p

Betta Fish and Betta Fish Care or Tropical Fish Keeping - Aquarium fish care and resources has some knowledgeable goldfish members but the thing about posting on a fish board is---> some people can get very defensive about tank sizes and will say you MUST have a 55 gallon tank or I need a 300 gallon pond (depending on the species). I see it as - they would of died in a few weeks in a 1/2 gallon "tank" or they can live a nice life with people who know how to care for fish and change the water weekly, even if the tank size is not ideal.

I think for comet goldfish, they require 180 gallon tanks for ONE (assuming they grow to their full potential).. I dont even want to think about how much that tank would weigh. each gallon of water weights..8 pounds? I would need to live in a basement or have an inforced floor! or a pond. I always wanted a garden pond :D

But for now he is quite content in a 10 gallon.
 
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My sister has 2 fancy tailed goldfish in a 20G, not ideal but they dont get as large as the single tailed variety so if thats the kind you have, you can get away with 2...but there will be alot of pooping going on in that tank. I am the one who siphons the gravel and OMG its disgusting!

oooh - a water siphon/gravel vaccume with a bucket or 5 or so gallon storage bin will be your best friend if you dont already have one.

OOOH, If you can find them - Japanese trapdoor snails would do well in a goldfish tank since they like cooler temps. Plus they are intersting to watch when they are out and about...They are pretty ugly though - basic olive green color but they get about the size of a golfball.
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Oooh, thanks for all the resources!! I did, at one point, know all this stuff, but am having to dredge it out from the never-never land of my brain. This was an excellent refresher course :LOL: so, thank you!

Yeah, I'm worried about it now because we're leaving on sat for five days away, with the tank having been only restarted since about a week ago Saturday (and yes, everything had dried out, but there was still some water in there although the filter had been turned off; I reused the sponges hoping there'd be some leftover bio stuff in there--plus I had nothing to take their place-- but gave it all new bio bags and charcoal etc.) (i like the idea of using the aquarium sponges, that's interesting...)Hopefully I can talk hubby into doing at least one 50% water change while we're gone. I figure I'll change it right before we leave in the morning, and if he can get it once, say on monday or tuesday, and can be convinced to not overfeed (he's such a soft touch, and those goldies are such little beggars!!), maybe the poor fish has a fighting chance...
 
it sucks to see what people do to bettas and goldfish these days... my family went to a fish store to buy a tank for my brother's betta ( we have like, 3 now) and they said that a betta "tank" was the size of a cereal bowl! a really small one too.. I'd get a 10 gallon tank for each of my bettas, but my mom won't let me. One is really happy in a 1/2 gallon tank... Imagine it in a 10 gallon tank!
 
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That poor fishie...LOL

You can divided a 10 gallon tank 3 ways so that each betta gets about 3 gallons of water. That way you only need one filter and one heater for all 3 of them. The dividers are easy to make with craft mesh and those report cover binders. Just make sure they are securly in place with no gaps or you may ned up with 2 on one side.

Diagla - your fishie should be OK for the 5 days. I have been working so much in the past 2 weeks, I havent been able to do ANY water changes. Im gonna do them all tonight though. My tanks are all cycled though.
 
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