Side note and friendly reminders: fishes generally need a lot of living space, and a bowl like this would be torture for one fish, let alone three.
Just like hamsters, birds, and basically most pet, you generally will need a much bigger living area than you assume they need.
(Hamster cages that are a good 20cm x 20cm? The very bare minimum is 1m x 50cm x 50cm. Yes, the bare minimum.)
Especially goldfish, which are in the carp family and honestly theres a good case to be made theyre really pond fish more than fish-tank fish.
The only reason they stay so small in captivity is because they produce a hormone that stunts growth- this is supposed to give them a competive advantage over other goldfish, and help the collective population survive if they’re in a small body of water where resources are limited. This can and does happen in nature, but a bowl or even moderately sized tank takes that to a pretty significant extreme compared to what “limited space and resources” might look like in a sectioned off area of even a small pond
If we’re taking care of animals and accepting responsibility for their wellbeing I think its fair to say we really ought to provide them with reasonable conditions and not just saddle them with less than that because they are hardy enough to survive those suboptimal conditions
Just realized I’m posting from my alt lol, I may not see replies for a bit
Absolutely. I think many people would actually be surprised at how big regular old goldfish can get in a pond with adequate space, food, and water quality.
On top of being in the carp family, they can actually produce hybrid offspring with carp (koi), though I think those offspring are sterile.
Source: have koi pond. Have given away dozens of chonky goldfish to other pond people.
Side note and friendly reminders: fishes generally need a lot of living space, and a bowl like this would be torture for one fish, let alone three.
Just like hamsters, birds, and basically most pet, you generally will need a much bigger living area than you assume they need. (Hamster cages that are a good 20cm x 20cm? The very bare minimum is 1m x 50cm x 50cm. Yes, the bare minimum.)
Especially goldfish, which are in the carp family and honestly theres a good case to be made theyre really pond fish more than fish-tank fish.
The only reason they stay so small in captivity is because they produce a hormone that stunts growth- this is supposed to give them a competive advantage over other goldfish, and help the collective population survive if they’re in a small body of water where resources are limited. This can and does happen in nature, but a bowl or even moderately sized tank takes that to a pretty significant extreme compared to what “limited space and resources” might look like in a sectioned off area of even a small pond
If we’re taking care of animals and accepting responsibility for their wellbeing I think its fair to say we really ought to provide them with reasonable conditions and not just saddle them with less than that because they are hardy enough to survive those suboptimal conditions
Just realized I’m posting from my alt lol, I may not see replies for a bit
Absolutely. I think many people would actually be surprised at how big regular old goldfish can get in a pond with adequate space, food, and water quality.
On top of being in the carp family, they can actually produce hybrid offspring with carp (koi), though I think those offspring are sterile.
Source: have koi pond. Have given away dozens of chonky goldfish to other pond people.
TIL, I always wondered that about goldfish