# A Goldfish Won't Outgrow Its Fishbowl **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 5, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265 "2010-08-05T14:08:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265/21 "2010-08-07T02:39:43Z")
Big goldfish - my goodness [http://www.google.com.au/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLL\_en&q=world+largest+goldfish](http://www.google.com.au/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLL_en&q=world+largest+goldfish) They must be quite old to get to thoses sizes ---
**Author:** ![acetylene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@acetylene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/acetylene)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265/22 "2010-08-07T04:16:41Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > I got for Christmas one year a betta in one of those big glass vases with a peace lilly floating on top. The lilly soon died, so I threw it away, put some marbles in the bottom of the vase, and The Red Menace flourished for years! He lived for his little betta pellets twice a day. I kept a pail of tap water uncovered so there would be no chlorine in it, and every couple of days would scoop The Red Menace out, dump out the foul-smelling vase water, fill it up with water from the pail, and return the fish. All of this took less than three minutes, twice a week, and betta pellets lasted nearly a year. The Red Menace was a great pet! And very photogenic. That’s good to hear. I just bought a beautiful blue crowntail betta yesterday. He seems very happy in his one gallon tank with no filtration. He has tons of personality. A lot of websites I read said filtration is bad because of the currents, which stress the fish. I will change his water diligently and keep an eye on him ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265/23 "2010-08-07T04:28:42Z")
> [@acetylene](#): > > That’s good to hear. I just bought a beautiful blue crowntail betta yesterday. He seems very happy in his one gallon tank with no filtration. He has tons of personality. A lot of websites I read said filtration is bad because of the currents, which stress the fish. I will change his water diligently and keep an eye on him Betas have a labyrinth organ that allows then to breath air and live in horrible conditions. You sound quite responsible and I hope he will do well. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Amblydoper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@Amblydoper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amblydoper)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265/24 "2010-08-07T04:41:49Z")
> [@acetylene](#): > > That’s good to hear. I just bought a beautiful blue crowntail betta yesterday. He seems very happy in his one gallon tank with no filtration. He has tons of personality. A lot of websites I read said **filtration is bad because of the currents** , which stress the fish. I will change his water diligently and keep an eye on him A sponge filter would work well for a beta tank. They are about the easiest filter type to maintain, and they are so gentle that they are required for hatching fry. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265/25 "2010-08-08T02:25:36Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Apparently you have never read “[A Fish Out of Water](http://www.amazon.com/Fish-Out-Water-Helen-Palmer/dp/0394800230#_)” 😃 I was thinking about that book the other day, for reasons I can’t now reconstruct, and was trying to figure out how to google it, based on vague memories dating back a half century or so … ---
**Author:** ![Carassius\_auratus\_auratus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3da27b/32.png) [@Carassius\_auratus\_auratus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carassius_auratus_auratus)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265/26 "2013-09-17T03:19:47Z")
Mine was a feeder, I bought 7 and put them in a bowl with a bubbler. Six died within two weeks. So I bought a 10 gallon tank with filter and light. After a few years I inherited a 20 gallon tank where he lived for a few years until the tank broke when I fell on it . We both lived. Then he went back into a bowl for his last five years. He died the hottest day in 91 out here in S,F, the day Oakland burned. The heat was too much for him and I felt bad. An ice cube or putting his bowl in a sink of cooler water and he would have lived. He was hardy. He was never bigger than two inches. So, not defending how he lived so much in a bowl, I’m still feeling guilty about it. But facts are facts. He did not outgrow his environment and I was always careful not to overfeed him and maybe that helped. I have no doubt he had more years in him when we got that heat wave. If he’d stayed even in that 10 gallon tank, with the right care, persistently (the hard part, because we are not the same people year in and year out in our 30s, some years we get sidetracked) he might be alive today. He’d be 33 and a very special pal by now. If you want a goldfish, think Amazon Parrot, except cheap to buy. But almost as expensive to watch over year after year, decade after decade. That is why they are always in demand and because they’re so inexpensive, almost cursed by their hardiness. They make excellent pets. But get just 2 and put them in 20 gallons and change some water every week. Use a water conditioner always and keep the temp. pretty even. Get a filter and clean it in tank water to protect the bacteria in there that turns fish ammonia into nitrites. Don’t over feed them, only once a day, just a little, and most of all don’t take them for granted. Down the road, as life makes its’ changes to you and where you are, your pal will be there for you calmly watching. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265/27 "2013-09-17T04:45:35Z")
Pump in ionized oxygen and watch the goldfish fill the bowl --keeping alive and well. ---
**Author:** ![DivineComedienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c67d28/32.png) [@DivineComedienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DivineComedienne)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265/28 "2013-09-17T13:34:38Z")
LittleDivine wanted fish, so we got a 3-gallon tank (with filtration) and bought two goldfish-type fish at Walmart. “Sushi” didn’t last very long, but “Bitey” is still going strong on his own nearly two years later. He’s gotten much bigger, though. How do you judge how big is “too big” for the tank? This fish has survived unchanged cloudy water, an 8-day vacation (we did leave him one of those feeding tablets, though), cold weather, hot weather (tank is not climate-controlled), and my crude attempts at cleaning the tank. To clean the tank once a month or so, I scoop him out into a bowl of (his own) water, then scrub out the tank and contents; refill it with tap water, put in some kind of water treatment drops I also got at Walmart, and pop him right back in the tank. That damn fish is still alive! I can’t believe I haven’t killed him yet, especially after the Great Fire-Bellied Toad Escape of 2010. I’ve debated getting Bitey a new companion, thinking he must be bored and lonely in there by himself. But I wonder if he would tolerate another fish? ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265/29 "2013-09-17T16:36:25Z")
> [@DivineComedienne](#): > > To clean the tank once a month or so, I scoop him out into a bowl of (his own) water, then scrub out the tank and contents; refill it with tap water, put in some kind of water treatment drops I also got at Walmart, and pop him right back in the tank. That damn fish is still alive! I can’t believe I haven’t killed him yet, especially after the Great Fire-Bellied Toad Escape of 2010. Just FYI: It’s not a good idea to change out too much of the water a time. 50% water changes at most; something like 20% is probably a better practice. Likewise, it’s not idea to completely scrub out the tank. There are bacterial colonies in the filter and gravel (and on every surface, really) that process ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. The first two are poisonous to fish, so a big reduction in the bacterial colonies can mean a time where those chemicals build up in the water. My preference is to never scrub out the tank. Get an algae-eating fish like a plecostamus and then periodically use a siphon to suck up waste that accumulates in the gravel. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265/30 "2013-09-17T16:59:24Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Get an algae-eating fish like a plecostamus and then periodically use a siphon to suck up waste that accumulates in the gravel. There is not enough room for a pleco; the water quality has good to be pretty bad with a single goldfish. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265/31 "2013-09-17T17:08:50Z")
Don’t bother getting ‘feeding tablets’ for an 8-day break- a reasonably healthy fish, (even one as small as a neon tetra), can easily survive occasionally periods that long without any external food being added to the tank. They’ll clean up the alage in the tank a bit, but their metabolism is far, far slower than ours, and it really won’t harm them. The feeding blocks are also often made of stuff like plaster of paris, which does your water chemistry absolutely no good at all when it dissolves, as it’s designed to do. They also often dissolve far faster than claimed (after all, they’re intended for use where no-one can see them) which can result in food being released too fast, and just rotting in the tank. They’re a bit of a scam, to be honest ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265/32 "2013-09-17T19:17:01Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Slightly off-topic: There was a news story a few years ago about a local family here in suburban northern Virginia that brought home (what they thought was) an adorable little pot-bellied pig as a pet. Said animal turned out not to be a pot-bellied pig but rather a piglet from an ordinary barnyard hog, and he grew to be something like 400 pounds. By then, he was a member of the family, and they were fighting with the county over whether they could continue to keep him in their home. The exact same thing happened to my son’s aunt. They found a small potbelly pig, adopted it and raised it like a family dog. It eventually turned out to be a feral hog, and the damn thing must weigh a quarter-ton. It’s got a bedroom in the house all to itself. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265/33 "2013-09-17T19:55:38Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > There is not enough room for a pleco; the water quality has good to be pretty bad with a single goldfish. Yeah… that’s true. By that point in my post, I’d forgotten that we were talking about a 3-gallon tank. There are some plecos that stay small, but they’re not as tough in regards to water conditions as goldfish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-goldfish-wont-outgrow-its-fishbowl/549265.md?page=1)