GOLDFISH

minister poxbottle

Can anyone please tell me the life exspectancy of goldfish? thanks in advance.

karlog

I had a goldfish for 3 years but i heard they can live longer than that.

minister poxbottle

karlog wrote: »

I had a goldfish for 3 years but i heard they can live longer than that.

Was that in just a fish bowl or a fancy aquarium?

Podgoricka

the longest i had one was for 10 yrs. only in a normal bowl. and i reckon it would hav lived longer too only for the fact when i went to college it was kinda forgotten about by my mom :mad: also had another for 8. i think the key is feeding them.. i only ever fed mine 3 times a wk at most. usually only twice tbh.. alot of ppl feed them this much a day! no need

karlog

minister poxbottle wrote: »

Was that in just a fish bowl or a fancy aquarium?

Not a fancy aquarium only 25 litres. I'd say it would of lived longer if i cleaned the tank more often.

minister poxbottle

Podgoricka wrote: »

the longest i had one was for 10 yrs. only in a normal bowl. and i reckon it would hav lived longer too only for the fact when i went to college it was kinda forgotten about by my mom :mad: also had another for 8. i think the key is feeding them.. i only ever fed mine 3 times a wk at most. usually only twice tbh.. alot of ppl feed them this much a day! no need

My 11 year son won the fish at a fair 4 weeks ago so we bought a bowl and food, the guy in the pet shop said feed 3 times a day and change the water every second day, does this sound right?

BlueNemo

Longest I've had was roughly 7 years(bowl). Shortest was 3 months(new tank). My current set have lasted about a year in a 60L tank.

(Thats a bit of a lie, 3 out of the 12 in the tank died and we replaced 2 of them as soon as they did.)

We had a few out in the pond in the back for about 4 years, they all survived 4 years of the pond freezing over during the winter! Cats got them in the end .

Kylo Ren

minister poxbottle wrote: »

My 11 year son won the fish at a fair 4 weeks ago so we bought a bowl and food, the guy in the pet shop said feed 3 times a day and change the water every second day, does this sound right?

Is it a feckin shark he won? :P

1 big meal a day or 2 small meals should suffice. Some people say feed them as much as they will eat in under 2 min, the rest should be netted out immediately to prevent ammonia spikes in your tank.

minister poxbottle

Keno 92 wrote: »

Is it a feckin shark he won? :P

1 big meal a day or 2 small meals should suffice. Some people say feed them as much as they will eat in under 2 min, the rest should be netted out immediately to prevent ammonia spikes in your tank.

This fish is in a bowl how often should the water be changed?

BlueNemo

minister poxbottle wrote: »

My 11 year son won the fish at a fair 4 weeks ago so we bought a bowl and food, the guy in the pet shop said feed 3 times a day and change the water every second day, does this sound right?

We fed ours a few flakes each once a day and cleaned it out about once a week. They might have lasted longer then 4 years if we took better care of them. They're tough little things though, we used to even lift them out of the water occasionally :rolleyes:

minister poxbottle

Thats great thanks everyone for the advice.

Wolfsberg

Don't "clean out" a goldfish bowl ever! :mad:
If you must keep the goldfish in a bowl, every second or third day remove a cupful or two of the water and replace with dechlorinated water. You can buy water dechlorinators in pet shops, such as API Stress Coat or Nutrafin Aqua Plus.
Feed the goldfish a tiny amount once a day with a rest-day of no feeding one day a week. Always have the rest-day on the same day. As mentioned above remove any uneaten food after a minute or two.
Some people may say that their goldfish survived many years of abuse but the fish would have almost definately been stressed to hell and had it's life expectancy shortened. There is no reason why a goldfish shouldn't live for 20 or 30 years.
Please consider getting a proper tank if you are going to keep fish.

Some very poor advice on this thread.

marlin vs

Have a read of the link below.(the last line)
Link

CathyMoran

We have some that are about 20 years old - fish tend to grow very big in our tank. No doubt my husband will be on with details of our fish.

Cookie_Monster

CathyMoran wrote: »

We have some that are about 20 years old - fish tend to grow very big in our tank. No doubt my husband will be on with details of our fish.

20 years, jebus! how big are they?

D4NI3L88

I've heard some living for 40 years + and given large ponds and being maintained correctly its quite possible.

CathyMoran

More than a foot long - sorry, am rubbish at measuring sizes...we rescued them from another tank and we have a 180L tank now (husband will confirm details, he looks after them, I just love watching them),

godtabh

The best thing about fish is watching them

We've had goldfish/koi for years. In the pond in the garden we had 6+ year old koi/goldfish until something eat them

Cookie_Monster

godtabh wrote: »

The best thing about fish is watching them

my GF's sister has a tank on the shelf under the TV. I find myself watching the fish instead of the TV frequently

godtabh

I have mine beside the sofa. Right beside my favorite seat

The_Conductor

godtabh wrote: »

I have mine beside the sofa. Right beside my favorite seat

We have a cold water tank in the living room by the sofa too- its a 180ltr tank, with 5 ghost koi, 2 butterfly koi, a plecotamus, 3 black goldfish and 5 orange goldfish of varying ages. Two of the orange goldfish are 22 years old, the others are 7 years old, the koi are 9 years old, the black goldfish are about 5 years old and the pleco is 4.......

I go through stresscoat by the gallon (literally- I buy it online from the UK- I can't afford Irish prices, I have Fish and Fins in Polegate on speeddial on my phone!)

We love our fish!

Ps- the 22 year old goldfish are just over 11 inches long (and almost barrel shaped).

godtabh

smccarrick wrote: »

We have a cold water tank in the living room by the sofa too- its a 180ltr tank, with 5 ghost koi, 2 butterfly koi, a plecotamus, 3 black goldfish and 5 orange goldfish of varying ages. Two of the orange goldfish are 22 years old, the others are 7 years old, the koi are 9 years old, the black goldfish are about 5 years old and the pleco is 4.......

I go through stresscoat by the gallon (literally- I buy it online from the UK- I can't afford Irish prices, I have Fish and Fins in Polegate on speeddial on my phone!)

We love our fish!

Ps- the 22 year old goldfish are just over 11 inches long (and almost barrel shaped).

That sounds like a nice mix

Hope to put some YouTube stuff of my tank later.

I've two tanks. Latest is a 300l tanganyika community tank. 18 fish in it now. Want to get 4-5 more. All juvies at the moment.

godtabh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnHlXzZpN8A&sns=em

Can't embed it on my iPhone