I Want Fish, But...

[pennykit&amanda]

How do I get them? I would never buy from a pet store that sells animals, so where else can I get just one, maybe two goldfish? It's not like there are rescues for them, and I never see them being re-homed on CL. So what do I do?

[misspiggy&piper]

Wow, that is a really interesting question..... I will try my best to look around and see what I can find for you on Pet Finder and any other place I can think of. If you live close to KY I wouldn't mind giving you some Black Mollies. But I bought them at Wal-Mart, so I guess that leaves us at square one................

[sludge07]

Depending on the type of fish you want you can go to a breeder. If you don't want to buy fish then put an ad on craigs list or your local classifieds.

On a side note, have you done research on the fish you want? Fish are the same as having anyother animal but they live in a tank and not a cage.

[misspiggy&piper]

Yes, each different type of fish can require different water temperatures, use of small amounts of aquarium salt to maintain health and many other things. I recommend researching the type of fish you are interested in. I own strictly Mollies, so I researched them before I bought any. And I'm very glad I did. They require more than just water and food. Best of luck in whatever type you choose!!

[AnimalHouse36]

If you find a reputal shop that seems to fit these discriptions:
No dead fish in tank.
All the fish have proper care (no betta's in a cup)
The tanks seem clean
THe fish are all healthy (no "ick" ect. ect.)
The fish are with fish that are compatable (no betta to betta, ect. ect.)
The emploies seem knowledgable.

Also, if I was you I would check out where they buy them from.

If you think the store follows the above, I would consider buying from them.

[lmarieaa]

NO SALTWATER!!! Please don't get saltwater fish,corals,rock,etc. Most of them have been poisoned (for easy catching) and stolen from their rightful home- the ocean. They do NOT thrive in the typical captive home tank. Most of them die within the first few months of captivity anyway. We cannot duplicate their ocean environment, or duplicate their natural diets. If you buy saltwater critters, you support an horrible pet trade involving the removal wild animals from their homes for someones personal profit. We have very little natural reef left in our oceans, and they need all their fish, their coral, and their rock (they sell "live rock" which is rock taken from reefs), to survive.

[Haley0489]

She said in her original post that she wanted goldfish.

There is such a thing as fish rescues and you can adopt them, but they're even more difficult to locate than small animal rescues. VJ posted this link a few months ago. Welcome to Monster Fish Rescue

Also, Susan9608 posted this thread about adopting fish. http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/...can-adopt.html

[Gilraen]

Speaking as a reefkeeper <_< It IS possible to have an environmentally friendly reef. There are plenty of sources to buy either completely artificial rocks, and then buy sludge from the bottoms of tanks(though there's still discussion on the pros/cons of that, and they are pretty even) OR "manufactured" rock that is rocks from the earth that are left out at sea until they get life in/on them, then are harvested and sold to people. You aren't tearing apart a reef to do that.

There's also a growing list of saltwater fish that are captive bred. They haven't been in the wild ever. And even with wild caught ones, if you do proper research, you won't end up with something like a moorish idol that WILL die in captivity PERIOD, or a tang that needs a massive tank to truly do well and thrive, and so far has not been bred in captivity because of how big of systems they need. Corals are also becoming extremely easy to find not wild caught. If you get a coral frag from a fellow reefkeeper, it is one that has grown in that person's tank(most of the time anyway) and isn't still wild. Just takes research, like any other pet. And even if you DO get a wild caught fish, if you look into it well enough to find a reputable seller you can find them un-poisoned.

And for goldfish. I don't know about getting them as rescues, but they DO take a LOT of work. They're social fish(not really schooling, per say, but they need companionship) and if you go fancies(Ryukins, fantails, lion-heads, black moors, bubble eyes(which are really tricky, their eyes will get infected if they aren't in good enough water and they can rip them open on anything mildly sharp. . .) etc) the FIST fish needs a 20 gallon(or more!) tank and any additional ones you add need at least 10 gallons. If you want 2 of them, get a 29 gallon or larger. I'm not up to speed on the single tailed ones, but they CAN grow to over 2 FEET long, so unless you've got a pond, one of them may not be best. . .

They're super messy fish. I do a 50% water change on my tank weekly(and of course more since I have a rescue now that I NEED to find a new home for. Hoping someone on another forum is taking him. . .) Which also means that they need a lot of filtration. 10X the water movement is the standard "rule" for them. My 29 gallon tank has a 350 GPH canister filter on it, and that seems to work well. I don't like to use carbon(was "raised" in fishkeeping on a cichlid forum, and the general concensus there is that it can be dangerous for some fish, like the bigger cichlids) since it "expires" quickly in a tank, and it is really only good for removing things from the water. If it gets "full" and can't take in more, it may start to leech the chemicals from the water back into it, and it takes out odors. A well kept fish tank will NOT smell bad(if anything they have a minor odor that you can't notice unless you are smelling the water!) I've got 3 tanks in my room(10 gallon fish-less reef, 29 gallon goldfish and 20 gallon divided with 2 bettas and a clown pleco) and you can't smell them, but I don't use carbon. From what I've read, if you DO use carbon, it will take away any smell from the tanks, which can be a sign of problems. In my filter I use the bio-rocks(go by a lot of names, but they're basically a small piece of usually ceramic with a lot of space for bacteria to grow in them) to "clean" the water and use sponges for tanks and some of the "polishing pads"(though unused quilt batting works well too!) to take the solid waste out of it. Especially with larger messier fish it is really up to you if you ever replace the media, but I would suggest NOT replacing the bio-media and only doing the sponges when they start to fall apart(once a month or more/less depending on who you talk to, but at the least before the filter's flow starts to get affected! clean them using old tank water, takes all the gunk out of them and doesn't kill the bacteria in them!) from being cleaned too much. I also run an air pump on mine. Helps keep oxygen in the water, some people say their goldies like to play in the bubbles.

*also gravel is kinda bad. If you use it, you need to get something like river rocks that they can't pick up since they can and do choke on gravel that they can pick up in their mouths. Barebottom is great, though. You can get decorations for the tank(of course it makes the fish feel safer too!) to make it look less bare, but if you don't have substrate, you don't have to clean the substrate. Any fish poo that doesn't get sucked into the filter will get stuck in the gravel and if it gets left there long enough(the exception being if you've got a planted tank, though they can be a LOT of work) it'll contribute to the waste level in the tank as it pretty much rots in there. I've got a piece of plywood under my tank so you can see the wood grain under it, and you could really do that with anything so you don't only have to look at a bare bottomed tank if you don't like the way they look.

And of course, after you get your tank, you must cycle it first before you get your fish! A lot of people get their fish and toss them into the tank and either end up with sick fish or dead ones. There's no bacteria in the tank to convert their ammonia to nitrates, which can be toxic in high amounts, but aren't deadly like the ammonia is. Get a GOOD test kit. Liquid ones, NOT strips(the strips react to what is in the air as well as the water, and it makes them a lot less accurate.) Make sure that at the very least you have ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. That'll ensure that you're keeping the water safe as possible, though if you are using non-bottled water(and doing 50% water changes a week, I can see why you wouldn't want to buy 15 gallons of bottled water or more a week!) your ph will change and large changes can stress your fish really badly. I can dig up the method for fishless cycling for you if you are still thinking about getting fish, though. Basically you put store-bought PLAIN ammonia in the tank(forget the exact ratio. Like I said, I can look it up for you ) at a certain ratio per day and(it helps if you've got a friend with a clean tank that you can get some gravel or filter media from to start it going with some bacteria) until the bacteria grows enough to convert it all to nitrates, the least deadly bi-product of fish waste. You can also(if you get at least decent lights, though that's where it starts to become a pain!) certain stem plants to help(but NOT entirely!) remove the nitrates from the water. Hornwort apparently is supposed to grow like a weed in even the lowest of light, but in anything other than a moderately lit tank I haven't been able to keep it decent looking. Anacharis is easy to grow and likes to suck out nutrients, as does floated riccia and some of the faster growing floating plants, BUT your goldies WILL devour them if they're healthy and get hungry! And a lot of the time they will just because they like the taste of it too!

Food is at least good Wild carp will eat a bit of animal material(bugs and freshwater inverts and sometimes scraps from dead fish) so it is not a bad thing to have a bit in their diet, as long as it is not much. I make my own goldfish food. I DO use a bit of store-bought pellets, just out of habit, but 80+% of it is veggies. Leafy greens are great, peas help ensure that they don't get swim bladder issues(fancies are prone to them because of their weird body shape) and just random other ones, I used about 6 or 7 different veggies in my current mix and then got some dead canned mealworms and crickets(the still juicy kind, blech) a couple of shrimp a TINY bit of catfish and some bloodworms(frozen at almost any pet store, freeze dried loses a lot of nutritional value!) to add to it. Pretty much puree that stuff with some gelatine(if ANYONE knows of a good veggie binding agent alternative to that garbage, PLEASE let me know!) and put it in the freezer on a cooking sheet in a thin layer until it gets hard enough to score and break apart. Then let it freeze all the way and put it in a container in the freezer.

May I ask why you want goldfish? Is it because they're close to a vegan fish, or do you just like them? Other than the livebearers(which I think are still omniverous) I'm pretty sure most commonly kept species are carniverous. So if it is just because they're veggie friendly(to an extent. I really haven't done much research into keeping them on JUST veggies, and you'd DEFINITELY need to make their food if you wanted to do that! ALL of the commercially made diets for ANY fish have at least SOME meat in them) then as long as you can stand the water changes they're really awesome fish. If it is just because they're pretty, have you looked into anything else? If you don't want to/can't afford a larger tank, some of the smaller fish would be better(and not really require all that filtration on them XD) and depending on what you like you can find some really pretty commmunity fish too!

[pennykit&amanda]

Wow, I didn't know this many people would reply. Anyway, I'm still debating whether I'm getting them or not. I still don't even have a place to put the tank, yet. I know all there is to know about owning goldfish, so I'm all set there. I also had no idea there were fish rescues. I haven't even found a small animal rescue near here, so I doubt there's a fish one. Once I'm all set with the supplies, I will probably post a wanted on CL. If nothing comes up there, its not like I "need" fish.

I want goldfish, because I think they're cute, and my mom wont spend much on the price of the actual fish.

[sludge07]

Just remember to cycle your tank BEFORE you get the fish. I am sure you know this already, but goldfish need atLEAST 10 gallons per fish.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

[Gilraen]

If price is really a big issue, may I suggest a betta? If your mom isn't dead set on something like a vase, or a tiny cutesy death trap or something. I've seen a lot of people who keep 2 in a divided 10 gallon tank(which are cheap!) and you could always do 1 in a 10 gallon. Or smaller, but usually 10 gallons are about the most bang for you buck. Don't know how it is elsewhere, but around here 5 and 2.5 gallon tanks are more expensive than a 10 gallon is.

My boys are in a 20 gallon that is divided in half(working on making it a planted tank) and they love it. They've got plenty of ROOM and in a tank that size, you can cycle it and water changes are a breeze Plus you can get a rainbow of colours in them and they're about as personable as a goldfish is. If you just get a pet store guy they're usually about the same price as a goldie is. Food is cheaper and you don't need tons of filtration either. Of course I'm biased because my first fish was a betta too.

[Froggirl009]

I went to a pet store and they had the beta in a cup thing.... half of them were dead.... makes me sick.

[Alusdra]

I got my current beta and mollie off of CL- they were free, too. I do have a pleco as well, but I ended up getting him/her for free as I had nothing but a tank (left over from geckos) so I needed the heater, filter, food, gravel, etc. etc. and they were having a special on if you spent more than x $'s then you got x # of fish for free. Research the heck out of plecos if you want one- I think they are the cutest things ever, but some stay 4" and some grow to be 2'. I have the three of them in a 10g and they like the room- have to scoop up the mollie when feeding the beta though, otherwise the beta doesn't get anything to eat. I may have to rehome the mollie if my new separation strategy doesn't work out.

I don't really know of any fish rescues, either. Probably a better bet is through sites like Craigslist or fish-specific forums and/or Yahoo groups.