Buying a Goldfish

No, this isn't some sort of double entendre.

About 6 months ago, I promised my daughter a goldfish for her 4th birthday if she was potty trained. She did a great job but I promptly forgot about my promise until she reminded me this morning that her birthday is next week and she wanted to know when her goldfish was coming.

I've never owned a pet and I'm completely clueless about what to do. Should buy a big tank or just something small? Should I buy multiple fish in case one of them goes to visit their friends in fish heaven? What else to I have to buy?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

My daughter won two goldfish at a fair two years ago. One of them is still with us.

Don't put more than one goldfish in a 10 gallon aquarium. Goldfish need at least 10 gallons per fish, if not more thanks to all of their poo. I finally upgraded the surviving fish to a 20 gallon tank & she's doing great.

Once you get the water going well (a couple of weeks I'd guess), you won't have to do to much maintenance other than replacing a few gallons of water per week and changing some of the filter materials.

When I get home, I'll share with you all the specifics in terms of equipment, filters, etc.

I would start with one fish, a 10 gallon tank & a good filter, all of which can be found at Petsmart.

 

Just buy one of those inexpensive old-fashioned one-gallon goldfish bowls.

Try to keep it as clean as possible, changing the water frequently. You'll have to dechlorinate the water while the fish is out of the bowl (in a cup or something). Chlorine kills fish.

Steer your daughter toward picking a cheap goldfish that looks similar to all the other cheap goldfish at the store. That way, if Mr. Goldie decides to take a gravel nap, you can tell your daughter he's sleeping and switch it out with another fish when she won't notice.

 

...cause they're so delicious. I love goldfish!

 

Exactly. That's the rough part. They just don't last long, so there is a decent chance you're going to have a very upset little girl on your hands.

I had goldfish for most of my childhood. We took good care of them, but I don't remember any of the ones we bought as pets lasting more than a year or two.

Actually, the ones that lasted the longest weren't supposed to survive the week. We had two turtles and for some reason they stopped eating. We asked the vet for advice and were told we had to try feeding them live fish, so we bought two goldfish to feed them. Just before we were going to send them to their fate, we gave the turtles one last chance to eat their regular food and they did. So we had two new pets that outlasted the turtles.

 

I won a goldfish at some fair when I was a kid, and I remember the frantic call to my mom's work about a week later: "(whatever-its-name-was)' bowl is empty! There's water all over the counter! The cat is licking his paws! What happened?"

 

Remains a mystery to this day.

 

The same thing happened at our house, AB. Maybe there was a serial fish killer out there.

 

Fish are friends, not food.

 

WTF! 10 or 20 gallons for one goldfish? That must be one big-ass fish. And for the record, Nemo was a clown fish.