Have you ever had fish as a "pet"? If so look here please!

[Wayne C.]

Fish, like all animals, need a certain amount of space and they really don't appreciate goldfish bowls. Thousands of goldfish are given out at fairs and carnivals each year to die in a few days. So goldfish bowls are all over the place.

However, as many above have already stated, Bettas are probably the most hardy things you could keep since they live in stagnant canals from SE Asia. They are part of a group called Anabantids and have specialized gills that allow them to gulp air and therefore survive low oxygen conditions.

But they are tropical fish and need room temps of about 75 degrees to be happy so sitting them on a windowsill means they get all sorts of extremes.

Goldfish, on the other hand are very cheap and tolerant of cold. I keep them outside in a pool all year and they grow about a foot long and breed every spring. They are just a form of Asiatic carp and easily survive a temperate winter. But in a bowl they rapidly get stunted and tend to be very dirty. All freshwater fish have hyperactive kidneys to get rid of the constant influx of water that invades their cells (a hypotonic environment). Therefore, in just a few days or so, a goldfish bowl becomes a sewer and the fish is swimming in essentially urine in a very short time. Therefore they need frequent changes of water to be healthy and most people don't exercise that kind of level of care for such cheap fish.

To keep fish well requires work. They aren't toys.

Hope this helps.

WC

[Jaine Perotti]

Most things about fish have been mentioned already, but there are a couple of things that I would like to mention (I have two fish tanks -- one 55 gallon and another 25 gallon -- all with African ciclids):

1) Putting it near the window will probably give you algae problems. The sunlight may cause your fishbowl to get green in a hurry. (This has already been mentioned, but the proximity to the window may also cause extreme fluctuations in temperature, depending on how drafty it is)

2) To deal with the water changing issue -- what I do is I save our old half gallon and whole gallon milk bottles, fill them up with regular tap water, and keep them in one of our kitchen cabinets. After 24 hours, the chlorine found in tap water will evaporate out of the water and will not harm fish. This way, I know that I will have good water every time I do a water change.

However this does not eliminate the shock issue completely -- in order to survive, fish need a certain amount of bacteria present in the water. These bacteria develop over time as the fish lives in it's environment. However, if you change all of the water at once, the fish will no longer have enough bacteria and likely will die of shock. I recommend changing only 1/4 of the water at a time -- that way there will not be a dangerous lack of bacteria and the bacteria already in the water will have a chance to multiply themselves.

3) Get a book about fish before you buy one. A little bit of literature will help you immensely. Talk to the person at the pet store to figure out what's right for you. Fish can be a bigger commitment than one may think. Depending on the species of fish that you get, the difficulty of care varies greatly. Do your research so that things don't end up in disaster!

Hope this helps!

[Bcahn836]

I know this probably isn't helpful but...
the only "pet fish" i have had are guppies, but those were for my pet garder snake. You put the fish in the snake's water dish and he slithers in there makes a ring around the fish and eats them one at a time. Poor little fish, but it is very cool to watch.