The school fish.

[DrRob]

So, the OH brought home the school goldfish for us to look after over the Christmas holiday.

It's a tiny oranda, only about 4cm long and arrived in a 10l tank with a small internal filter (the sort that you can pick up in various shops with pictures of several goldfish on the packaging).

Now it seems healthy enough, and the story is that they run them like this for a year before transferring to a pond at the end of the year in the class but the whole set up makes me twitch.

Part of me doesn't want to give it back, part of me wants to hit the shops and improve the kit (bearing in mind that they'll have to give it to a random parent at various points to look after, so it'll need to be relatively portable). I'm not sure they'll cope with the spare 4 footer I have in the shed.

 

[Colin_T]

40 litre plastic storage container, 40 litre plastic rubbish bin, 20 litre plastic bucket.

It depends on how long you are looking after it. If you're only caring for it for a few weeks just leave it where it is. If you can find a 20 litre tank it would be better for the fish and just as easy to move as the 10 litre one. And a 30 litre is the same as a 20 litre.

Just give them a couple of 20 litre plastic buckets with lids and they can use that for the water and fish and then move the empty tank. Make sure you use a permanent marker and write "FISH ONLY" on the buckets and lids so nobody uses them for anything toxic.

 

[DrRob]

Not sure that buckets will stay with the set up, but am definitely tempted by at least upgrading to a 20l.

 

[NickAu]

A 100 liter tub like this is about 15 dollars' They also make great quarantine and hospital tanks.

What I would do is set up the 4 footer in the school and when the fish need to be looked after they can use the tub.