May last year my wife took the kids to a carnival, and came home with a stupid goldfish in a plastic bag.

I didn't expect it to survive long, so I went to the store looking for an el-cheapo glass bowl to put it in for a few days...

Apparently we weren't the only ones to win a goldfish, because the friggin store was sold out of fish bowls...

So now I'm forced to make a decision...
Do I flush the fish when the kids are asleep ?
Or do I buy a damn fish tank for one goldfish ?

We'll I caved to pressure, and bought a 10 gallon tank.

For one stinkin goldfish.

After a few days, the goldfish was still alive...
He looked bored and lonely, so we bought about $20 worth of fancy little colorful fish friends...
They all died within a week or so...
We figured they were sick, so we tried another $20 batch...
One week, all dead.
Free carnival Goldfish still alive.

I figured if we bought two GIANT goldfish at about $7ea, they would "adapt" a little better.

Giant goldfish #1 died about a month later...
Giant goldfish #2 is now about 6" long and fat as hell.

The original carnival goldfish has grown HUGE !!!
He's now damn near the size of the giant goldfish ! A good 5" long or so...

Do these things live forever ???

Now I'm worried about what I'm 'gonna do with them when they do finally float to the top of the tank.
I'll probably have to bury them in the yard, as they will probably clog my plumbing if I flush them...

We have a couple fantails that are about five years old so far and we got some a long time ago that a guy raised in a large tank for much, much longer (can't remember how long), that grew to enormous propotions.  Most of them were what I believe they call black moors, which are the black bug-eyed, fantailed ones, and normally don't get real large.  No one I've ever talked to has ever heard of anyone getting them to grow as large as this guy did.  He was moving to Germany and had to get rid of them.

Unfortunately, we put them in an outside pond, without a cover and the raccoons got them within a week:(

Goldfish are VERY hardy fish.  when the first batch of fish died, you should have checked the water for Ph and other chemicals.  Goldfish can live in just about any condition, and is why they are popular in artificial backyard ponds.

Dont bury them...no!!!!!!

filet them and a few minutes under the broiler... mmmm add lemon and I expect a dinner pic post from you too!

We bought a goldfish and it has been with us now for a few months... I have a customer that has hers now for years and that sucker is HUGE!!!

that goldfish has you...."OWNED!"

I don't know how long they live on average but the oldest living goldfish on record was something like 42-43 years. You could be dead before the goldfish so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

40+ YEARS!!!???

I've already dumped nearly $200 in that stupid fishtank in the last year...
Food, filters, fish, etc...

The fish are so damn big, my wife started buying the $15 quart sized can of fish food...


I thought this was going to be a cost effective, low-maintenance pet...[:D]

At least is doesn't crap in a litter box or piss on my rug. [:D]

Or bite your nut.

Ahhh, that brings back memories.

As a kid, my family was not all that well off (they're doin better now), and I wasn't allowed to have any pets. Well, when I was around 5 or 6, my parents caved in and let me get two goldfish.

I was so happy. They were a far cry from a dog, but still... they were something, and they were mine.

I named them "capitain hook" and "Mrs. hook", hahaha. They had a nice tiny fishbowl to live in, and I thought they were the coolest things in the world for the first day or two.

Then, the unthinkable. My little sister (2 years younger than me) decided she'd feed them. And oh, the humanity. Her 3 or 4 year old mind decided that they should eat what she liked... popcorn and koolaid.

Needless to say, after 2 or 3 days of sheer bliss, I lost my goldfish.

I never got a pet after that, only could keep whatever I could catch down in Louisiana. Lots of crawdads, snakes, spiders, minnows, etc... but no more goldfish. ::sigh::

If you really want to off them, drop a hint to your kids that the fish would like some of their favorite treats.

Goldfish = Carp family = lives anywhere, in anything.  Forever.

When I was younger, I won a goldfish at a carnival.  The thing lived for over 3 years.  It finally died one night when my sister had a slumber party.  The fish tank sat on an old stereo/furniture type unit we had that hardly got used.  Well, her and her friends were blasting dance music all night and by next morning, the fish was doing the backstroke.    

It makes your kids happy.

Your kids will only have one childhood.

Is it really that much of an inconvenience when viewed in this light?

Not at all.[:D]

I love hearing the little ones say: "Can I feed da fissys can I feed da fissys?"

I think that's why the fish grew so big, they eat better than I do.[:D]

Yeah, when I was two or three I decided that my dad's tropical fish needed a bath because the water sure looked dirty.

So I,in my child's wisdom, dropped a bar of soap in the tank so they could wash.

Dad was not pleased.

Dont gold fish grow as big as their environment allow?

The carp family is pretty large tho.
Some kinds of carp are eaten in japan.
They eat them in Missouri too.
But they about any kind of fish, carp, drum, buffalo  I wouldn't be supprised if they ate gar over there.


I've never really liked high maintiance fish,  betas(aka the fighting fish) are cool and rather low maintinace.  Their natural habitat is mud puddles in south east asia.  So they only require less than a quart jar to live in.
You need to keep them seperate,  or else they fight.

my kids won a goldfish last year. I thought it would live a couple of days and tossed it my fish aquarium. Sucker is now like 10 times his original size.  I would dump him but the kids like him.

My friend had an Oscar once.  The oscar ate all his other fish and he grew tired of it.  He hardly ever changed the water.  It would get down to about four inches high before he would add water. he would crunch up crackers and toss them in for food.  Sucker never died.  He eventually gave it away.

I have seen personally goldfish and carp measured in FEET. The goldfish was in a Golfcourse pond, i only saw the Golden "shadow" in the water but it was at least 4 feet long. It never got close enuff for me to SEE it, but I got the Fvck out of the water. We were catching 2 foot Largemouths and we saw plenty of 12-16 inch gold carp. It freaked me out. I saw A carp my boss caught, he sent me in after he fought it for 20 mins on 10lbs test. I followed the line, i was almost there, I saw a dark shape and a HUGE tail and it swished and almost knocked me off my feet. I was like GET YOUR OWN DAMNED MONSTER FISH! They get huge and live long.

OK ill also break it to you.
That fidh will live forever!
I also had the same experience.
My little bros won 2 little gold fish as a carnival. The parents bought a 10 gallon tank thinking that would work great. Well Ill lket ya know that that was 7 years ago and those 2 gold fish are both about 5 inches long and are too big for the tank.

You might try this though...
When I had gold fish when I was younger... I just kept them in our horse water trough. Its like 100 gallons and worked great never fed them opr did anything to them. Just keep it full of water and your good to go. And when ya wanna look at your fish there they are when ya dont you can forget about them. mine always lasted several years including being frozen solid one winter. they just ate the algea off the side of the tank so dont go get a new tank and try it its got to have some slime on it.

Mine is a pretty funy story too.

back in Feb you may remember I had to put my cat 'Z' to sleep.

My 3 year old girl was heartbroken so, when my bride and my 10 year old went to a swim meet the next day, me and my 3 year old went to the pet store and got 2 goldfish, tank, food the works.

My 10 year old gets home and says "Oh man you guys got fish?? I want a fish!!" so... the next day we get a fish, tank, food, the works for her.

Now tank number 1 that has 2 goldfish is starting to have problems... you see I bought feeder fish which are pretty much married cousins so, they arent going to live... nor did they. 1 week later BOTH were dead.

3 year old is upset so THIS time we get a fancy goldfish which is supposed to live AND we get a Betta (Siamese fighting fish)

The Betta starts kicking the shit out of the goldfish so NOW I have to get ANOTHER tank for the fucking Betta!!!

I have 3 tanks now with 3 fish in them.

I was just trying to be nice.

If you don't want your gold fish to get any bigger, put them in a smaller tank. Goldfish are a type of animal that will never outgrow their environment. When I was a kid, I wasn't very well off and I had to put my fish in a pickle jar. They lived for years and never grew bigger than the day I bought them. Aligators are the same way in that they will never outgrow their dwelling.

Speaking of dwelling, wasn't there a regular here named dwelling? Don't remember anything about him, just remember he posted a lot.

I had a goldfish that went on forever too.  One tough hardcore mofo!  One night he jumped out of the fish tank and I didn't know it ( dark ).  I fckn stepped on him by accident!  He didn't move.  I threw him in the toilet and didn't flush yet, few minutes later he starts swimming again.

Put him back in the fish tank and he went on for years more until he got really sick and I took him to a lake and transplanted him.

By my best estimates he lasted over ten years.  No shit.  I had a Kissing Gourami that lived pretty damm long too.  Outlived everything else in the tank.  One time I tried to pet him and the mofo poked my ass.  Spiny finned tropipcal bastard!

"Survival of the Fittest."

Borrowed photo:
[img]http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/sbs_kissing.jpg[/img]

With good care the average goldfish can live around 25-30 years.

We bought Max, our common goldfish for around 75 cents.  We spent at least 4-500 dollars on tanks, filters and consumables on him before he gave up the ghost from some kind of infection at age 7.

BTW, current doctrine is that buying the huge bulk containers of food isn't always a good idea.  When the can/package is opened, any air soluable nutrients start to lose their value.  A good rule of thumb is to not buy a container larger than what your critters consume in 50-60 days.  But if your fish really is big enough consume a quart can every two months that's pretty cool too!

I always manage to win fair fish..  I got one a few years ago..then my cousin had to have one.. So I went ahead and won her one.. I bought a small tank for them both and left them at my aunt's house until they got a tank themselves.  Lo and behold, the next day my fish dies because her cannibalistic fish ate it's fins!!!!  She owes me a dollar..and another five for the crappy plastic tank.