Goldfish - Filters required?

[NeilRUFC]

Hi

Many Many Years - 1985 when i was just a little kid, i kept Goldfish. Back in those days I never used any kind of filter or Air stones!!. Now i went to a well know local pet shop. While waiting to be served at the fish section, The couple in front of me had a goldfish bowl in there hands. Thy wanted to buy some goldfish. Now the lady serving turned round and said in very bitchy way - "You cannot have the goldfish now. Go home set the goldfish bowl up, Put in a filter & airstone and come back in 48 hours and show me your reciept" Now the couple in front dumped the goldfish bowl and told her to sod off LOL . Now for such a small bowl is it worth having a filter. I rememebr the one of the goldfish we had. Its was years old. He looked so happy. We changed his water once a week.

Anyone here keep or have kept Goldfish without filters or air stones?

 

[Teelie]

Goldfish need a 20 gallon minimum tank; for the fancy variety, the "regular" variety need about 300 at adult size. You need more filtration than usual for Goldfish as Goldfish produce more waste than most fish do. A "Goldfish bowl" is only suitable for Betta, ADF's, shrimp and snails.

 

[luxum]

Ditto Teelie. Goldfish are completely inappropriate for bowls, only bettas are adapted to that sort of living and even for them it is not ideal. Goldfish need filtration even more than most fish because they are poop machines! They are also very tough so they can survive shortterm in a bowl, like the fish you remember when you were a kid. The fish in the bowl probably had to be replaced often due to deaths. If kept properly, goldfish normally have very long lifespans, 20 years is not unheard of.

 

[Nina7777]

have to agree with everyone else. When I was a kid i had goldfish in bowls, and thought my my what boring fish. But now that I have 2 in a 20 gallon i see how truly amazing they can be! The ones in the bowl were just suffocating and had nowhere enough room!

 

[endparenthesis]

Yeah, it's funny that the bitchy "expert" lady didn't have a problem with the fact that it was a BOWL.