I have two goldfish that I bought at the beginning of the year, but I am now leaving the country and unable to bring them with me. In all honesty, I thought they’d be dead by now. No one I know is willing to take them in, though they are really very lovely (even affectionate) creatures who can go for a week unfed. Someone told me that I should bring them back to the pet store. Will they really take them? Or are they too scared their own fish might get infected or something? And what about local gardens? Would it be cruel to put them in a pond, maybe even someone’s goldfish pond in a nighttime covert op?
While I’m on the topic, is it silly to not want the fish to get split up? I realize that they are on the low end of the animal IQ scale but I really do believe that they have some sort of couple-thing going on- chasing each other around, sleeping with their heads together. Am I imagining things?
(mods- feel free to move this if it’s too opinion-orientated)
DO NOT PUT THEM IN SOMEONE’S POND.
Speaking as a pond owner, that would be very very bad.
Don’t put them where there are already fish, as one group of fish may infect and kill the other, or there may be predation between the species.
Don’t put them where there are not fish, as the environment may not be suitable, or the chemicals used may kill fish.
You should be able to put in an ad in a local pond/aquarium board and get a taker. Plenty of people need new fish right now to make up for the deaths that occur over the winter. It really shouldn’t be a problem to get rid of them to a nice home. Make sure you check it out first, as with any “Free” pet offer.
I would try your network of friends to see if anyone has or is building a pond, and see if they can take your fish. Also, a call to some local pet stores would be an easy way to see if they will take them or not, worth a try. Gold fish are so common I would doubt anyone would take them, but definately make some calls.
If you can’t get anyone one to take them after giving it a sincere effort, I would look into the quickest and most humane way to kill them. Some people put them in the freezer for a few minutes until they die. In my opinion, the most humane way to kill them is instant death, if you have the stomach for it, by throwing them forcefully onto hard ground, or a quick stab through the brain with a sharp knife. Alternatives are giving them to a cat or dog, which will likely kill them quickly or eat them whole.
Not a good situation either way, but do the best you can. I would certainly avoid putting them is someone’s pond without their permission, while certainly not legal, it is just plain rude. Perhaps a local park might accept them?
I wouldn’t put your fish into someone’s private pond (for fear of infections/trespassing) but I think the responses about putting them into a real pond are wrong. Real pond being a natural body of water, as large as possible, which is sufficiently unpolluted that fish are already living in it.
I could no longer keep some goldfish that I’d had for over ten years – they’d simply outgrown the largest tank it was possible for me to maintain in my house. In my town there happens to be a large pond (something like 75 acres) that is in a nature preserve. It’s a healthy ecosystem full of fish and frogs and birds and so forth. One spring day at dawn I hauled my fish there and liberated them. I was all teary – the ungrateful fish never looked back.
Actually, the edge of the pond was shallow enough, the water clear enough, and my fish such bright gold that I was able to watch them for nearly 20 minutes before I lost sight. It was kind of funny: they sort of swam in ovals, gradually expanding over a larger and larger area, as if they couldn’t grasp the idea right away that they wouldn’t be brought up short by the end of the tank. All of them (I’d had 14) pretty much stayed in a loose clump as they swam, at least until they were too far out into the pond for me to see them.
I’ve often wondered what their fate was. As I said, the pond included turtles and fish plenty big enough to snack on mine, as well as herons and other fishing birds. Were my bright gold babies easy to spot prey and snacked to death quickly? Or, giving that they were pretty good sized (up to 9" long) and there were 14 – did they stay together as a gang and terrorize the rest of the pond? I visit that pond often, it’s a lovely area for nature walks, and sometimes I think I spot a gleam of gold – though whether they are my fish, descendants of my fish, or other people’s releases who can say.
Anyway, long post. But if you can’t find someone to adopt your fish, I’d vote for finding a natural pond and releasing them. Goldfish are fairly tough and adaptable fish, and turning them loose now gives them a long time to acclimate before the rigors of winter.
Even if they end up being eaten by another fish or whatever, it’s certainly no worse than getting frozen or stabbed or whatever. :eek:
I don’t think anyone would be able to give a definitive answer on this one, but I don’t think you could say, “no”. Adam and Jamie of *Mythbusters * fame (a show on the Discovery Channel) wanted to bust the myth of “do goldfish only have a 3 second memory span?”. They conditioned them to swim through a crude maze to be fed - and it was surprisingly effective. They may not “know” each other, or remember the other’s favorite color, but they are probably conditioned to each other’s company.
In most regions of the U.S., ponds are nearly always man-made, very rarely “natural”. While I don’t know the specifics, I’d bet dollars to donuts that your real 75ac pond is actually an impoundment created by a dammed stream. Even if you do live in a part of the country where ponds (and lakes) are common and natural, why the hell do you think it is OK to release non-native fish into a natural system just because you have become tired of taking care of them?
In most areas, release of any non-native species (including unwanted aquarium fish, turtles, baby alligators, etc.) is strictly prohibited. While your goldfish may not necessarily upset the ecosystem, you are breaking the law. Why should a natural ecosystem potentially suffer for your lack of foresight? You purchased the fish. Either care for them or dispose of them properly. Don’t make them someone else’s problem.
Please DON’T put them in a pond. If your fish aren’t already part of the ecosystem there, lots of bad things could happen - non-native species can cause a lot of damage without having any natural predators. This happened a few years ago in the town where I grew up - somebody had at one point released a pair of Asian northern snakeheads into a pond, and they took over the entire thing. From a CNN article on the same fish:
I used to fish in this pond all the time when I was growing up, and it broke my heart to read about them poisoning the pond. It’s an extreme example, but why take the chance?
There actually are feral goldfish in many parts of the world that they aren’t native to exactly because of people releasing them into the wild. A feral population of anything often means a native species is getting crowded out. In the wild, they lose their gold color, and revert back to a drabber coloration. A blurb concerning wild goldfish in Tasmania:
I am slowly recalling an article, perhaps one of the ones already mentioned, about released goldfish ruining ecosystems. I don’t know why it didn’t come to mind before. I was probably thinking on a grade three level- ‘oh the fishies will be so happy in a huge lake, they’ll make so many friends.’ I think I am going to do a little more searching amongst my friends here (here being London. Anywhere near here, Senggum?), and might just consider euthanasia. I know it would be absolutely horrid, but it’s not as if I don’t eat fish and I think it would build character (at least that’s what Calvin’s father said).
But if anyone in London wants them, they do come with a lovely vase and healthy good luck bamboo.
At my job we waste an ungodly amount of time and money (good thing it’s government work ) trying to get federal/provincial approval and permits to move fish around even in secure buildings due to the dangers of ferral fish as have been shown time and time again… and all these regulations were set up because of people getting too emotional and doing what I quoted above.
They’re just goldfish - it’s not like they’re gonna discover the cure for cancer or bring about world peace or something if they live. Offer them to friends first then take them to a local pet store; they will get sold as pond fish or tank fish. If they don’t want them, leave them there in their fish bag… what are the owners gonna do, call the cops? They’ll either put them in their own tank or find another quick easy solution. Either way you’ll be left out of it.
Do not “set them free in the wild”. Non-native species tend to create ecological nightmares: Witness milfoil in northern lakes and kudzu on southern powerlines - and that’s just plants!
Okay, I agree you shouldn’t turn loose your rare, imported from outer Kazakistan omnivorous Killing Machine fish. But, people, goldfish are just a species of carp, and carp are already present in the lakes/ponds of New England.
I don’t know about the OPs location, but if carp are already living in whatever body of water he’s contemplating, I don’t see that two more will cause the end of the world’s ecology.
As far as I know, all carp are non-native to North America.
I do know that when you want, say, grass carp for a pond, you can only buy non-fertile ones. Why? Because carp are incredibly good at overrunning an ecosystem.
But seriously, what would happen if the fish did get flushed down the commode? Might they make it alive to a local waterway, or would it be a certainty that the fish would die in a water treatment plant first?
I visit that pond often, it’s a lovely area for nature walks, and sometimes I think I spot a gleam of gold – though whether they are my fish, descendants of my fish, or other people’s releases who can say.
Don’t kill them. Find a lake near you, at least they might have a chance …