A Conversation for Cleaning Fish Bowls

Have people not learnt?

Post 1

Assaye

I am astonished at the level of misinformation in this article.

Lets get one thing straight - goldfish bowls are not a cute tradition or a great way of keeping a much loved family pet. Goldfish bowls are death traps. Even the smallest varieties of fancy goldfish reach about 6 inches in length and can live for 20 years. Goldfish bowls stunt their growth and cause them to fester in their own organic waste, eventually killing them from a combination of dwarfism and ammonia poisoning.

What you think of as clean water - stuff that isn't green and doesn't smell - is not what a goldfish sees as clean water. Do you know what ammonia is? Nitrite? Nitrate? Do you know the effects of pH and hardness on fish? The effects of shock? Do you know about the hormones goldfish secrete that stunt their growth? Do you know what chlorine actually does to fish, apart from apparently bleaching them white? Do you know what a filter actually does or why you should have one?

If you can't answer these questions, you shouldn't be keeping fish. Any fish. Goldfish are the single most abused pet in the world because of stupid assumptions, neglectful traditions and this sense that these animals are idiotic, mindless and 'easy' to care for.

Keeping goldfish in bowls is like locking your child in your bathroom without a flushing toilet or running water and only letting it out when you clean. It's like keeping a horse in a stable without a field or exercise and letting it stand in it's own waste. It's like keeping a dog in a cage 24/7.

Sure, if you have to keep a goldfish in a bowl then you had better know how to clean it, but that's like saying that if you feel like abusing your children you hope there is an article somewhere online that tells you how to clean up afterwards.

I'm pretty enraged to be honest so I'll just leave you with these links:

http://www.ultimatebettas.com/index.php?showtopic=45531

http://www.ultimatebettas.com/index.php?showtopic=4460

http://www.ultimatebettas.com/index.php?showtopic=5660

If you care about your pet goldfish, read them. If you don't care enough to read them then you shouldn't have pets.


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