What Will It Take

[tttnjfttt]

I was at walmart today, and i saw a family buying two 1/4 gallon bowls and two gold fish for their son as a "science experiment" To top it off, from what i heard of their conversation, they have other fish, but didn't want to put the gold fish with them because they "are too dirty". UGH!!! i feel so bad for those fish. Their owners obviously knew they are messy fish, so why are they being put in a 1/4 gallon?

Seriously, what is it going to take to get people to realize that if you have a pet, you need to provide for its needs. And what is it going to take to get manufactures of the stupid things to stop making them?

 

[SPLiSH]

It's sad when stuff like that happens. And using the excuse of a Science project... what's the kids' experiment, how fast he can kill a fish?

 

[kev_kb]

It is indeed a sad situation. I believe people should be educated when they try to buy a fish from the LFS, but at the end of the day people will lie to get what they want so I can't really see a solution.

 

[fatguppy]

I know that people think they are only fish but I will never forget my first attempt at keeping tropical fish - bad advice from the LFS (why are we not surprised) and a very small tank.

We got a nitrite spike (obviously) and I came onto this site and took the advice of the daily water changes to rectify the situation. Sadly the whole thing had gone too far and I sat and watched helplessly as one after another fish died - and it was our fault through sheer ignorance.

Never again! If the fish die because of circumstances beyond your control (ie illness/old age etc) then at least you have done your best. But for them to die because they were poisoned through ignorance is unacceptable.

I think it is important that people realise that we are taking the fish out of their natural environment, the very least we can do is provide them with a healthy, non threatening environment as a result of that.

They give us pleasure so why can't we do the best for them? It's a choice isn't it? If we can't be bothered to look after them properly, then don't have them at all.