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

[KarenH]

Originally Posted by Allison K

If you get non-carnivorous fish, get some snails too. They eat the algea so you won't have to clean it nearly as often.

But don't get snailS (plural). Get only ONE snail of a given species. Otherwise, you will wind up with a tank completely full of snails. Snails are hermaphroditic, and they produce lots of eggs.

Anyway, the ram's horn snail we had was fun to watch. Sometimes it would go to the top of the tank, then let go and float down to the bottom, instead of just sliding along the glass. We liked our snail better than our algae-eating fish, because it lived a lot longer, and it didn't bother the goldfish. I had to be careful when cleaning the tank, so that I didn't accidentally crush the snail's shell.

We kept goldfish in a 10-gallon aquarium, and cleaning the aquarium was a dreadful chore, in my opinion. I was glad to get rid of it! The pet store guy did warn us that goldfish are very dirty, compared with other fish. I think a simple bowl, with careful water changes as suggested, is a lot easier; that's what we did when I was a kid.

[Elgin Clock]

HOLY COW!! This sounds like more work than I wanted just for an excuse to use something that has been sitting in storage for a couple years.

Maybe I'll just buy some pretty blue glass beads and put some fake flowers in the bowl...

Thanks for all the detailed input.
Looks like we have a few future marine biologists in our ranks here.

I'll decide what to do over the break the next few days, and go from there and keep everyone posted. I just cleaned the bowl today, so if I do something, I want to do it soon so it doesn't get dirty just sitting there.

Yeah, dont buy goldfish either.... A guy at a petstore once told me that they breed goldfish so much, so fast and so "cheaply" as he put it, that they aren't expected to hold up more then a few weeks, unless you get one of the larger ones that cost a few bucks (but aren't reccomended to swim in those little bowls....

I used to raise Gala Sharks, they are easy to maintain, friendly to other fish, but if they last more then a year they will get too big for your bowl and you will need to transfer them to at least a 10 gallon aqarium. A friend of mine had one once that he bought that was the size of a typical small goldfish that when it died it was the size of a small trout....yeah they do get big.


Anyway, if you plan on getting a fish, I noticed that someone said get a beta. Thats an excellent idea if you are only going to have one fish. They are easy to maintain and last a good long time.

[rocknthehawk]

I've had both goldfish and beta's and i would say the easist fish to own/take care of is a beta. My beta lived for about 13 months, and all i had to do was feed it a pinch about 3 times a week, and change half the water every week or so. With beta, it's not a good idea to keep them in direct sunlight, so maybe on the window sill isn't the best idea. Also, beta live better in small tanks(mine was seriously about 4 inches in diameter at its widest point), but as stated before, dont put more than one in the bowl.