Starter Pet lesson 101

[moonwolf23]

Well, this past week, i learned that goldfish, while a tasty snack, do not a good starter pet make. They need bottled spring water, if you don't get the chlorine conditioner. If you decide to go the route of bottled water, get the gallon size, as one bottle will not fill up a goldfish bowl.

The pretty orange and black goldfish, after one day in our house, must have had premonitions of doom, because it gave up, to spare itself further misery. That left us with two goldfish, one orange, and one orange and white, and some cloudy water. Mind you, I had already cleaned that bowl and added fresh water twice. So lesson learned, here, try flakes over pellets.

The third goldfish, decided it's life purpose, was to show, just how much he hated chlorine and cheese. My autistic child, decided he was going to pluck him out of his bowl, put him in the spring water container, with tap water and cheese. I can't get mad, my son was so proud of himself, for sharing the cheese, and making the fish happy. The last one left, valiantly swam around for half a day more, before aquiesing to the inevitable.

On the bonus side, the kids loved them, for the short time they existed in our home. They are inexpensive, and quite pretty. I'm going to try again, with a beta, which hopefully is more durable. If that doesn't work out, pet rocks, as an outside pet, might be my next option.

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Needs some editing. But this is the starter of my short article, that I'm hoping to give to parents and kids and maybe another place.

Comments

[pinkpolarity.livejournal.com]

I followed you home from wiccan, I hope you don't mind. Just couldn't resist commenting on this as someone who has kept aquaria for ages: goldfish need more than a bowl. Keeping them in such tiny quarters long-term is rather cruel-- they can, yes, exist in a bowl sans filter much longer than tropicals (because they require a lower water temp, for one thing), but their quality of life is going to be kind of crappy. Better to give them a 10 gal (or 5, if you must) with a decent filter on it. They'll live longer and happier that way. (It's also a lot tougher for a kid to just grab a goldfish out of a larger tank, so that's a plus, too. And startup tank rigs are pretty cheap. If your family tires of goldfish, swordfish and platies are also very easy keepers in a 10gal.) It's also worth getting the water conditioner, since a bottle of StartRite lasts for ages and I think now adds nutrients along with taking out the chlorine. My last fish died this winter, and I'm having to put the tank away (lack of space) till I move. I miss it already!

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkk

[moonwolf23.livejournal.com]

Ok, now that I'm done being silly. It's ok, if you follow me and comment on my journal, if I cared, I'd have f locked it. :) The edited entry is f locked for copyright protection:)

Thanks for the info on the fish. I went to petsmart and followed their directions. Are Betta's ok, without filters?