*Finding Nemo * was a cartoon. It doesn’t work that way!
Toilets, in most of the world, are either connected to a private septic system or a public sanitary sewer. Private: you flush and Nemo is sucked to an underground tank in your backyard. This is an anaerobic (or no air) environment full of happy bacteria, not fish. Public: you flush and Nemo is sucked into a 5 inch pipe through your yard into a 12-36 inch line going to the waste water treatment plant. All water and what-not go through this plant. First through an ever narrowing series of grids and screens to keep miscellaneous non-degradeable crap out and let other crap through to be treated. Fish don’t live here. (In most places the big manholes connect to the storm sewer where rain water either goes directly to the nearest river or back to water treatment.)
Nice story about what people will try to flush…
Take the fish back to the pet store. It’s the best thing to do. Putting them in a pond is like freeing your kittens in an abandoned barn. They may live, but most likely will be someone’s dinner. I wouldn’t do that to my pet.
I would just like to reiterate, TAKE FISH BACK TO STORE.
The SDMB is about putting an end to ignorace so please, please spread this little tidbit around. Most places will in fact buy back your fish, though at a greatly reduced value.
(Okay, so your local CheapPetDiscount store may not take/buy back the fish. But any places with a reputable fish centre, or ideally an aquarium store, should be happy to oblige.)
Our Animal Shelter (County run on a sub-contract with an SPCA) takes fish.
I bet even if yours doesn’t take them as a policy, the folks working there have an abiding love of animals … like Brian Fellows. A call may give you local resource suggestions.
By all means do the early AM drop and run at the Shelter Door if the clandestine calls to you — even that that seems a more mature solution to your problem than secretly dropping them on others or killing them.
I am not preaching: I totally get that they lived longer than you thought when you got them – I admire you now trying to deal with the situation properly – by reaching out here. As others have said: Don’t kill them. Don’t “free” them.
I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus urging you not to release them into the wild or into someone else’s pond without permission. While goldfish have already been released into the wild in many parts of North America, they are native to East Asia. North America has its own species of Cyrpriniformes (the order to which goldfish belong). While evidence suggests that introduced goldfish don’t fare particularly well at competition with the native carp in North America, irresponsible pet owners who release unwanted fish into public waters are doing one of two things:
Being mean to their fish by releasing them into an environment they won’t survive in and can’t compete in.
Being a nuisance to the native fish by introducing a successful competitor.
I wish you luck in finding pet stores or people willing to take them in (BTW, have you considered making them a gift to a young person at the age they may start wanting a pet… do you have any neices or nephews?), but I ask you please to not make them someone else’s problem. Thank you!
