Pointless Endeavour

[Ampatent]

So my sister is fish sitting for a friend of hers. And she asked me if she could have some fish food because her friend forgot to leave her fish's food. So I ask what type of fish it is and my sister says its a betta. I'm thinking this will be simple and I won't have to give it a whole lot of food.

But when I take a look at the FISH BOWL the fish is in, I see that it is not a Betta, but in fact, it's a Goldfish! Obviously this bowl is WAAAAY too small for this fish, but I don't think I can convince my sister's friend that she needs to buy a large aquarium for this fish.

I don't want to try and adopt the fish because I'm worried it may have some type of parasite or disease. But I don't like the idea of seeing this fish being confined to a tiny little bowl that's only half filled with water.

What should I do?

[Red]

I would show her articles, profiles and how big a goldfish really gets using this site. And BTW, where are you in IL? (if you don't mind me asking)

[Northernguy]

What kind of goldfish is it?

[Red]

What kind of goldfish is it?

What does that have anything to do with helping or answering the question? LOL

I forgot to ask, do you have a pond or anything you could put it in?

[Ampatent]

Southern Illinois, smack dab on I-55 in a town called Salem. The problem is that I don't hardly know this girl and from past experience she's not shown a whole lot of desire or maturity when it comes to making the right decisions.

I was going to ask my sister to let her know, in hopes that she might listen to her, but I doubt that will even make a difference.

I'd be happy and willing to adopt it into my 29 gallon, but I'm worried about the possibilities of disease and the fact that my tank isn't even cycled yet. Not to mention the fact that my aquarium might not even be big enough for this fish.

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k137/killdrone/IMG_1840.jpg

And no, we don't have anything other than my own aquarium that would be suitable for keeping the fish in.

[Lab_Rat]

Like Red said, all you can really do is give her the information to read about proper fish keeping and help her if she asks. You can't force her to do what is right for the fish, no matter how much you want to help it, unfortunately.

[Red]

Thats a good ole comet. Its a tough decison, I would do what I said above, to show her the site blah blah.

I take it you know where I live, downers boring grove.

[Ampatent]

Well hopefully I'll be here tomorrow when she comes back to pick it up.

[Aeonflame]

Unfortunately, the sad truth is, many people are ignorant about this and keep fish just "cuz they're pretty". If what you say is true, there may be nothing you can do except try to convince her.

[Kaz]

Well I don't find it surprising that the goldfish is in a bowl because people always put goldfish in bowls.

I do find it odd she said a goldfish was a betta.

I mean, if there is one type of fish everybody knows about, it is the goldfish and the next most well known fish is the betta.

I wonder if anybody has any pictures of a full grown comet.

Dammit Turk! Make Kojima grow faster!

Also, would you actually be able to keep it in the 29g, or would you have to get rid of your current fish?

Assuming you would have to, because your tank has bloodfin tetras, do you actually want to keep goldfish?

[Deleted User]

Personally, my husband and I love goldfish. Fancy goldfish are our current favorite, but we're soon going to try dwarf and regular cichlids (separate tanks). So, our favs may change but I'm sure the "boring" fancy goldfish will remain right near the top of our list. They're just so cute and personable!

I admire your hopes of getting a better life for the fish in question. Some people honestly just don't know better but once exposed to some actual facts and given time to soak it in, they may improve their current way of doing things. However, if the owner of the goldfish is a kid, then maybe there's not the flexibility to buy a bigger aquarium. That would have been a tall order for me as a kid and not knowing any better, I did keep the same two "plain" goldfish in a bowl for years and years. My parents and I thought we were taking very good care of them because I cleaned their bowl and water very regularly.

[Lady Hobbs]

That decision with have to be with your sisters friend since it's her fish. Hopefully you can talk to her on her return and print out the size chart in the goldfish section as to what size this fish will grow. (I moved this post to the goldfish section.)

Can't believe she couldn't tell a Betta from a goldfish tho. :)