# Goldfish Bowls...SMH!



## Mr. fish (Mar 8, 2011)

So I went over to a friends house and noticed his Mom purchased a 1 gallon Goldfish bowl with a nice looking betta in it. They had a lil gravel on the bottom and one artificial plant, it looked like the lil man barley had enough room to swim in. (Granted it is a LOT better than keeping them at the store in a small plastic cup)

Anyways, then I started thinking thats cold blooded that companys like Petco and petsmart still promote selling these things with a picture on the front that houses 3 Goldfish in it. What are they thinking?? I guess anything for that quick buck huh? Smh.. It just sets people up for failure. You would think they would lose more money than what they would make on the bowl because more than likely the fish will die in less than 14 days which will need to be replaced.

Then I was at walmart and noticed they sell a 1/2 gallon setup w/light for bettas and call it a show bowl...wow :chair:


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

My favorite tanks to hate are the little tiny, less than one gallon bow front betta tanks with the clear devider so you can put two in it. :-x

But yeah... I cringe whenever I see tiny tanks advertised for any fish at all... especially goldfish. Or when ten gallon tanks are sold in a box with a picture of 30 fish swimming in a nice school on the front...


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## humdedum (Feb 18, 2009)

I personally think it would be nice to show consumers what would actually fit in a tank...perhaps on a ten gallon, they could show a few platys swimming about, and not five common goldfish. :x 

What always confuses me, though, is when books tell me what to mix and what not to mix, and then show photos of lovely tanks with fish contradicting their advice. I often see many tanks with multiple swordtail males, but the text warns that more than one male will equal trouble. Hmm. 

You know what really ticked me off? When the* ASPCA* book about a tank released tons of misinformation. And the ASPCA is supposed to be, like, the authority of pet husbandry! They informed me that five goldfish will live happily in a ten-gallon tank. I knew it was a bad book when I disagreed with the very first sentence, lol. "Coldwater fish are easier to take care of than warmwater." But the first mistake new fishkeepers make is overstocking...and coolwater fish need more room than most tropicals. Do not like!

:chair: So many myths are spread around the fishkeeping world...Sometimes I have to try really, really hard to keep from getting mad. 

I think what gives those big box stores money from false advertising, is that the frazzled customer will come in desperate for a cure for their dying fish. Then the employees can point out expensive chemicals to dump in the tank. I know I've been suckered by it before. And then when you tell them that you don't want to buy more stuff, they get really mad and tell you that your fish are DOOMED and will die a painful, DOOM-filled death of DOOM. It's a shame I have to be older to work at one of those stores. PetSmart hires at 17, and PetCo at 18. 

Once I was buying some fish at PetSmart and knew more about the fish in question than the employee. She actually recommended I apply to work when I'm old enough.  Maybe I should, lol.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Those little things are a pet-peeve of mine, as well. Look online and see this beautiful tank with light, lid and filter cheap. But in the fine print is turns out to be 0.5L and you could've just used a water bottle. 

There are appropriate fish for nano tanks. Cherry shrimp, little rasboras, celestial pearl danios, heterandia formosa. But you will not find them in the PetChain or WalMart where you find the tiny tanks. There you will find the small fry of huge, pond or lake fish such as IR sharks because they are cheapest fish to produce because of their huge spawns.


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## direlime (Jul 17, 2008)

You also mentioned at the beginning about those cups they keep the betta's in, well that just crushes me everytime i see it! And you would think they wouldn't sell any of them because they look so unhealthy and sad! Actually when i bought my betta, i tested the water in the cup just to see what the ammonia was like; it was well over 3 ppm. Those poor fish are swimming in a sesspool of their own waste! :chair: That drives me bananas! But on all counts i know what it's like to buy a small tank and find out you can't put anything in it. It's very very upsetting. For the longest time I thought betta's liked small containers, that's what i'de been told. I'm glad I know better now, cause my betta is nice and happy in his tank =)


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i have about 15 or so small tanks...a few of them 5 gallon and the rest 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 gallons..the smaller ones will house pairs or trios and the 5's will house breeding groups. (6-10 fish)..
no...these tanks are not too small....my fiance and i will be starting to breed several species of killifish..i think we are up to about 12 species on the way here....
if you want a really great small setup ; try killies...they have some amazing colors and are very easy to keep..but you do have to be careful..they do tend to like to become carpet bling...
hmmmm...how come i never had problems keeping a bunch of male swordtails together with the females ?
those fancy little setups would be great for killies...

sometimes the only reliable information we have is our own experiences or that of someone we know that has had a good amount of hands on experience..


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## humdedum (Feb 18, 2009)

The fishes that everyone assures me is virtually immortal always dies on me.  I don't know why...I've learned to just use my own experience sometimes. And my fish are psychotic, lol. Aren't male platys supposed to be aggressive towards females? Then why did my females form a feminist party and attack the poor male? 

Direlime, lots of those "Vet approved" fish guides even say that bettas PREFER tiny containers! 

_"Why, yes, your betta can live in a shoe. Don't you know, they can breathe air!"_

Oh, and loha, I did hear that killi's are pretty good with smaller tanks. People can even run a breeding operation literally in their closet!


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

oh...i love the "breathing air" thing...i always love seeing some clown telling someone that catfish breath air...bettas and many species of catfish can and will go to the surface and take a gulp of air.....but that is not how they actually breathe....
evil feminist killers they are...


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## Mr. fish (Mar 8, 2011)

egoreise said:


> My favorite tanks to hate are the little tiny, less than one gallon bow front betta tanks with the clear devider so you can put two in it. :-x
> 
> But yeah... I cringe whenever I see tiny tanks advertised for any fish at all... especially goldfish. Or when ten gallon tanks are sold in a box with a picture of 30 fish swimming in a nice school on the front...


Yea you just reminded me.. The show bowl that was a 1/2 gallon i mentioned ALSO had a divider to place two bettas in it... smh Imagine that.

Anyways how do you guys think My friends moms betta will do in that 1 gallon bowl? I told her that she needs to clean it Atleast twice a week...


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

He'll live if she keeps it clean. But he'd be sooo much happier in a bigger tank. 

Yeah... and are those deviders clear? Cuz having two males within constant view of each other would be too cruel.


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## direlime (Jul 17, 2008)

Really? You can keep killifish in that small of an aquarium! That's awesome, because I've been admiring them ever since i discovered their existence, but my parents are not letting me get another tank. But I'm sure they'd have no problem with a tiny little 1 1/2 gallon in which i could set up on my nightstand! Well i think i know what I'm gonna be setting up next =P. I think the major problem is the fish that they advertise on the boxes of these tanks. If they advertised killifish on the box then i wouldn't have much of a problem with it, but when they advertise schools of tetra's or something ridiculous like that it is a little upsetting to see. It leads beginners in the wrong direction, that's for sure.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

clown killies are adorable and about an inch long max. Almost no bio-load. You can actually do the 'balanced' aquarium thing with a big wad of hornwort or moss and a little light. They eat flake, but they also like little, live food. So you end up keeping another container with shrimp or daphnia or microworms or devoting space in the freezer to frozen. 

Its the "perfect goldfish starter aquarium" with a pic of 6 fish on the box that annoys me. There should be an asterisk--for one week.


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## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

I know you're talking about false advertisements on fish tanks in general, but would it be off topic to talk about well known fish stores, such as Petco, and in my area Animal Kingdom, who keep abnormally large fish in small confined tanks? I was at Animal Kingdom the other day and they had a Clown Knife at about a foot long, in a dinky 10 gallon tank to try and sell to their consumers. The Clown had fading spots and just looked in terrible condition, I almost wanted to just buy it to get him out of such a horrible home. There's so many other fish I could name at that store that should not be confined, it's just ludicrous. 

If I went off topic a little I apologize, I just felt like it kind of related to what the thread was originally talking about.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

I think that that's on topic! I think that a lot of pet stores operate on pity-sales... They make you pity the animals so much that your heart makes you have to buy them. (Petco... The ways their puppies live is just horrendous.)


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## humdedum (Feb 18, 2009)

Petco sells puppies?! I've seen empty kennels and always assumed they only housed adoption events. Oh dear.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Sorry! PetLand! Huge difference! (At times anyways...)


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## direlime (Jul 17, 2008)

Actually, well were talking about fish being kept in inappropriate tanks, I recently bought a discus from the only locally owned fish store in town and the poor little guy was in with another fish which was easily the most aggressive fish I've ever seen period. There were two of these fish (the store called them tiger fish) and the bigger of the two had actually ripped chunks of flesh out of the smaller one. There were even scales flying around the tank. The worst thing is i actually watched the owner of this store walk right past and not even care. And this tiny poor little discus fish was sitting in the bottom scared out of his mind. I'm so glad we brought him home to live in a much much safer environment. The poor little guy's (my new discus) fins are all torn from the big meany too, and although he's healing well, i feel so bad for him. And I've noticed to that fish just aren't kept well. I bought two rams from this exact store and they were so dull looking that I'm sure nobody would even consider buying them, but when i got them home they brightened up immediately and they actually spawned in my tank just recently. They are so pretty now, but they definitely looked terrible and miserable in the store. 
Sorry for ranting, but i had to tell someone, haha  . The strange thing about where i live is that the best pet store we have in town for treating their animals right is actually a petsmart. The locally owned one we have here is brutal.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Our PetSmart has had their jack Dempsey Cichlids spawn! That's better than some of the local hobbyists I know!

Don't support that store anymore! If they don't treat their fish well, don't support them! Maybe if their sales go down, they'll realize that they take crappy care of their fish and repent!


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## direlime (Jul 17, 2008)

The biggest thing for me is that I live in a small town and my petsmart and pet land do not sell anything even remotely exotic. I actually couldn't believe i found the discus and the rams at that store. The only reason they get any support is because they are the only saltwater place in town and they sell the more exotic species that people are really interested in. I wanted rams SO badly, haha. But since i got my discus and my rams i probably won't support them much anymore, unless i set up a saltwater tank here (I am going to set one up, but probably in a future. Far into the future, as my parents banned all new tanks =P) i won't be shopping there anymore. I was actually sickened by the fish killing each other and nobody doing anything about it.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

A store can get away with putting a huge fish or a huge number of fish in a 10 gallon tank if all the little tanks are connected together and to a big filter in the back. Its the volume of water that matters. 

I miss the days when stores had individual 10 gallon tanks and every store employee knew how to care for a tank and how to stock it because that was the only way they could keep their inventory alive. Now, with everything automated, a store can hire know-nothings and they don't have to learn. You ask them what size tank a fish needs and they look at what it's in and say "10 gallons", without actually having a clue.


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## Mr. fish (Mar 8, 2011)

emc7 said:


> A store can get away with putting a huge fish or a huge number of fish in a 10 gallon tank if all the little tanks are connected together and to a big filter in the back. Its the volume of water that matters.
> 
> I miss the days when stores had individual 10 gallon tanks and every store employee knew how to care for a tank and how to stock it because that was the only way they could keep their inventory alive. Now, with everything automated, a store can hire know-nothings and they don't have to learn. You ask them what size tank a fish needs and they look at what it's in and say "10 gallons", without actually having a clue.


I know what you mean... Most of the employees dont have a clue and look like they always guess... I asked the employee what temp do you guys keep your Neon Tetras in? He's like 82... I'm like 82? Shouldn't they be in cooler waters, hes like nah tetras? They need to be in nothing lower than 80 bro... :x

Thats why most of the time I go strait to the owner to ask questions, they know their stuff but can be rude at times..


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## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

Mr. fish said:


> I know what you mean... Most of the employees dont have a clue and look like they always guess... I asked the employee what temp do you guys keep your Neon Tetras in? He's like 82... I'm like 82? Shouldn't they be in cooler waters, hes like nah tetras? They need to be in nothing lower than 80 bro... :x
> 
> Thats why most of the time I go strait to the owner to ask questions, they know their stuff but can be rude at times..


I totally agree. 

I went to Animal Kingdom last weekend and saw what was labeled as "Dragon Fish" in a 20g tank, which I knew to be Dragon Gobies. When I asked the employee "those are Dragon Gobies right?" he was like, "no, they're Dragon Fish, read the sign," so I proceeded to say "no, I'm pretty sure they're Dragon Gobies, go read some books." He was pretty ticked off and walked away, but I didn't have a care in the world. 

If you work at a LFS, you should KNOW the fish you're selling and KNOW what they need, not lie to a customer and say that "oh yeah, you can put a Red Devil in with Neons and they'll be fine." Sometimes I wish I could just work at a LFS just to have the most knowledge about the whole stock in general. People are so pathetic.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

There are some good store employees, even at PetSmart. You can generally tell by how that one place has much healthier fish than the rest of the chain. But I swear the chains forbid them to say "I don't know, let go find it in one of the books we are selling", the bad ones always guess.


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

There are two employees at our PetSmart that I trust. Because they have several tanks of their own, and they respect that I know more about some of the fish than they do. Then there are the employees I catch telling their customers to set up the tank, wait 24 hours, then add all the fish they want. At Walmart, if I see someone waiting for an employee to net fish for them, I stop to look at the fish and I might get pretty vocal while pointing out the effects of finrot to whoever happens to be with me.


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## Mr. fish (Mar 8, 2011)

And employees hate when you correct them in front of a customer LMAO

I've even had it to where the customer stopped asking the employee questions and start asking me everything... I glance at the employee and shes giving me the EYE :evil:


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## direlime (Jul 17, 2008)

Employee's are pretty bad, especially at two of our local stores. The other store (Happens to be the petsmart i mentioned earlier) is easily the best one we have. I'm pretty sure a majority of the employee's in the fish section have tanks of there own. It's always nice to have knowledgeable employee's, but all too often you don't get them. And i know what you mean Chaos, i always think the exact same thing. (About working at a LFS i mean  )


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i had a store employee insist that an otocinclus was an african cichlid..


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## direlime (Jul 17, 2008)

> i had a store employee insist that an otocinclus was an african cichlid..


Seriously! Thats a whole new level of bad employee's . . .


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

"I miss the days when stores had individual 10 gallon tanks and every store employee knew how to care for a tank and how to stock it because that was the only way they could keep their inventory alive."

That's what my PetSmart is, for the most part. They have about 100 ten gallons that are all tied in to one system. I have never heard one of their employees say anything wrong. I love them!


"If you work at a LFS, you should KNOW the fish you're selling and KNOW what they need, not lie to a customer"

I would rather they tell me that they don't know than lie! PetLand... They're just sleeping! Go away and never "help" anyone again. Please?


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## direlime (Jul 17, 2008)

Our Petland is brutal too. Although they tend to keep all of their animals well cared for, fishies aside. The fish are brutal, and that place is really expensive where i live. It's kindof riduculous


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## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

lohachata said:


> i had a store employee insist that an otocinclus was an african cichlid..


Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.


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