Just a hypotethical question, animal or in this case fish lovers dont start acting up. I was just wondering whether a goldfish would survive and where it probably will end up?
Once the fish left the drain-pipe of an individual house and joined the sanitary sewer system, it would be in a pretty toxic environment. I don’t think it would last long in a sanitary sewer pipe. Just a guess.
It would likely be left hung up in a pipe without water in your house. That one gallon of water doesn’t get material to the city sewer system when flushed. Think of the fish going a few feet further every time the toilet is flushed
Oh. I somehow always had this delusional thought that the goldfish might somehow survive and flow to the ocean. lol.
Hmm wont the fish die first from the constant sh1t and pee literally being flushed down on him everytime? Just wondering. I know pee is actually mostly water though. But shit definetly has bacteria and stuff, and is defiently dirty.
A fish hung up in a waterless pipe dies.The lifeless fish makes it’s way further down the pipe each flush, unless it gets stuck. I never implied it was going to live.
Yes, if the fish was fortunate (?) enough to make it to the main drain in a house where someone had left the water running or was draining a bath tub, it might make it to the sewer system, where the bacteria and other nasty stuff would do it in. Otherwise, it would have a good chance of being stranded as Harmonious Discord says. Either way, it’ not going to see the ocean unless the toilet is on a ship.
Anyway why would it want to make it to the ocean? It’s a fresh water fish that would die in the saltwater.
Let’s all say this together:
Finding Nemo is fiction.
And even if it did by some “miracle” make it to the sewer main, and somehow survive a trip in that (say, after a very heavy rain in one of those places with shared storm and sanitary sewers), it would ultimately end up in a sewage treatment plant*. Not the ocean, not a lake, not a river, but a sewage treatment plant. There, it would be caught in a screen, and/or chopped up and hauled to a landfill, or if it squeezed through that it would be exposed a toxic goop of sewage, bacteria, enzymes, and whatever other water treatment chemicals are used at that particular plant, and whatever’s left would be decomposed, filtered out, squeezed dry, and carted to a landfill.
Getting eaten by a shark would be the very least of its (or its Dad’s) worries.
*Or, I suppose, your septic tank. Which would also be extremely inhospitable.
Wow. I can barely manage to get a decent dump to flush down my toilet, and this kid gets a PUPPY to go down. Bizarre, horrifying, and sad, yet happy that it survived. However, I do have to think it’s a bit different. As foul as the air must be in those pipes, the water is surely worse. And fish will either have to live in the water or die outside of it. And if you’ve ever owned a fish, it’s a huge PITA to keep them from dying even in clean water.
Oh, and of course, if it hadn’t been rescued it wouldn’t have survived for long. You know, falling victim to alligators and such. 
Actually, the job would start immediately, with the chlorine in your water burning it’s gills. Unless you are on an untreated well water system, the fish would begin to suffocate fairly quickly. Also, the chances are good that the water in the toilet, being fresh from the pipe, would be substantially colder than that in the bowl or bag, thus sending him into shock.
And let’s not forget the bashing he’d receive on the way down. He’s gonna be smacking into walls and whacked around pretty good in the u bend.
He won’t die quickly or painlessly, but he will die.
Not to mention the chlorine in the water. I know that my town uses some type of chlorine that requires treatment before using water for ponds or aquariums. You used to be able to just let the water sit for a couple days and the chlorine would evaporate out, but no longer.
I must confess, in my college days I did indeed swallow several live goldfish. I never did eat a clownfish thought. I bet they taste like (rubber)chicken.
They’re likley using chloramines. My water authority just started that and we got the same warning. The water also tastes like garbage now.
Should I mention all the ammonia? It is very toxic to fish. Even if by chance the goldfish had enough water, and it was an air breather, the level of ammonia in the system would severely burn the eyes, gills, skin.
FYI, chlorine at least breaks down. Chloramines don’t, or at least, don’t with the speed of chlorine, which is why water systems have begun using it.
No. They just taste…funny.
What if it were in Victoria, BC?
Grinding Nemo?