What Fish Gets The Most Abuse.

[snowflake311]

What fish do you see that tends to get the worst care From stupid people that are clueless. I was thinking about this while I was looking at craigslist and saw many oscars in need of homes. Also gold fish in a 10 gal tank that are no longer wanted.

If you answered other please tell us what the other is.

 

[Truck]

Mikrogeouphagus ramirezi, without a doubt!

 

[GuppyGoddess]

Hard to say. I'd guess they're about equal. Of every person I know or talk to (especially those who WORK in petstores) I've only found one other who keeps a betta in a bigger tank. A gal at Petco said hers is in a 5-gallon (without a heater/filter, though). All others keep theirs in fish bowls. On friend, sadly, has hers in a 1 gallon and has it half filled with rocks and then the water isn't filled to the top, so my guess, is at most, the fish has .5 gallons of actual water to swim in.

 

[Wills]

I went with goldfish just because of the scale on which they are sold and distributed. Even if a pet store does not have a fish section you can guarantee they will have a vat of goldfish with bowls next to them. Also for the amount of time its being going on and its all over the world. I will always remember when I was on my travels in china and I was in Shanxi province somewhere and we were in a 24 hour corner store and the owner had 2 tiny goldfish in a jam jar! Saw a similar thing when we went on a boat trip and stopped on an island in a river must have been a good 2 hour journey from anywhere and an old lady selling ice creams had the same thing but this jar was a little smaller.

 

[Shelby]

I went with bettas because I constantly see them in 1/2 gallon or less of water. It's very sad. Little tiny jars and the like. It's terrible.

 

[Honeythorn]

Goldfish and bettas pretty much tie with eachother. The misinformation on correct safe tanks sizes ( which actually give the poor buggers room to swim and enough water to not be swamped with their own waste ) available for these fish, and their basic requirements, is utterly staggering.

 

[snowflake311]

I had a hard time picking too. I went with common pleco because out of the thousands that get sold everyday only 2% ever get to grow to be over 8" most die very young and are offten starved.

But goldfish are maybe worst off after I think more about it. They are often bought as decoration, feeders, for pranks, and given away at fairs. Only to go home to someone that has not clue how to care for fish. They try to c are for them but end up dead because your mom did not put the water treatment in the tank after WC . then she feels awful about killing your fish and refuses to get you any more. so you turn into a crazy fish person with 3 or more tanks when you grow up.

Anyways Only maybe 1% of them get a happy home.

 

[CrystalClear16]

They try to c are for them but end up dead because your mom did not put the water treatment in the tank after WC . then she feels awful about killing your fish and refuses to get you any more. so you turn into a crazy fish person with 3 or more tanks when you grow up.

And we learn a little more about you

But I agree, goldfish probably. I was given three goldfish and a 10L bowl w2hen I was little. Oddly enough they didn't survive long

The problem is, many people don't see fish as 'real' animals. Most people would be shocked to think of a puppy cramped and unable to excersise, but no one seems bothered about fish.

 

[cheesy feet]

Obviously the goldfish, but I think the bettas can cope with most conditions, e.g goldfish bowl and weekly water change, much more say than a oscar in a 10 gallon tank for its life, so oscars.
Poor old goldfish will never shake their personna

Somehow I didn't see the pleco lol...They're ahead of oscar for me.Shop assistant "They will stay that size and keep your whole tank clean", and because they're so tough they hang on for a long time until their bellies are sunken and there's no way back.

 

[Assaye]

Goldfish, without a doubt.

For every betta we sell and every large plec we sell, we sell 40 goldfish into tanks that are far too small.

That is the way the pet store business works.

 

[AdamM]

They try to c are for them but end up dead because your mom did not put the water treatment in the tank after WC . then she feels awful about killing your fish and refuses to get you any more. so you turn into a crazy fish person with 3 or more tanks when you grow up.

Thats sooo not me

 

[Alind]

Gold Fish And Bettas, Today at my LFS i saw each of them in a bowl less than your coffee mug.

That's Hurting.

 

[Mayu]

I wish I could vote for Goldfish AND Plecos.

I always hear about Goldfish being put into goldfish bowls or 5 gallon tanks... but mostly goldfish bowls. I go on this one pet forum occassionally and you'd hear how many people will yell at you for saying "there is no such thing as a goldfish bowl... the only fish that can survive in a bowl is a betta, and even they don't live as long or as healthy as they would in a tank."

they think because it's called a "goldfish" bowl, it HAS to be ok for goldfish. "Oh my goldfish lived forever in that bowl. He was almost a year old when he died." "Uh... did you know Goldfish can live over 5 years if in the right conditions? I had a goldfish in a 30 gallon tank that lived 7 years." "oh... well anyway" It FRUSTRATES the heck out of me.

But I also feel bad for plecos.

I had one pleco that was over a foot long when I was younger. He's still alive in fact. I had him for 6 years but turned him over to my friend's 100 gallon tank when I moved because I couldn't move him with me. I miss that big guy.

Yet I always hear people recommending plecos when people ask what a good algae eater/bottom feeder for their 10, 20 gallon tanks would be.

Seriously? a foot long pleco in a 20 gallon tank with other fish? That's just not right.

 

[Honeythorn]

" "Uh... did you know Goldfish can live over 5 years if in the right conditions? I had a goldfish in a 30 gallon tank that lived 7 years."

Their lifespan easily exceeds 20 years actually. The oldest so far reached around 42 if I recall correctly.

I too had a goldfish when I was very small. Mother won her at a fair and she was called Harriet. She lived for 10 years in a 10 gallon tank in the hall. No filter, just gravel and a bridge for decor ( mother's choice, as a child I of course thought that was normal and fine )

I think Harriet survived that long because my mother changed all of the water every single week ( which most morons who have them don't do ) except for the large bowlful of water containg the fish while she did that , that water went back in when it was all done . Admittedly she also boiled the gravel to "clean" it

Incorrect way to do things of course, but that was the way fish were kept at that time, and the water changes were advised by my grandfather, who had always kept tropical fish. He was a proper "old school" type, but he knew golds were messy at least, so he told mother to do the water changes.

I think Harriet would probably have lived even longer if mother hadn't one day added too mich warm water to bring it to temp and put the fish back in. She died of shock.


I'd really like goldfish again in the future when I have space for a 55 gal ^__^ I need someone to grow old with

 

[star4]

I had to go the the common pleco, but wish I could have voted goldfish too.