What might have killed my goldfish?

[SnailPocalypse]

Seriously doubt your telling the truth.

 

[GobyMaster11276]

Let's just assume that by some almost impossible miracle they did survive that long, I doubt it was happily. When owning fish, you don't want them to survive, but thrive. I'm sure they didn't survive "with no problem". Are you aware of how inhumane that size is for just one goldfish to be in 5 gallons, let alone four?

 

[fluttermoth]

It's quite likely they did survive that long; my aunt had a goldfish back in the 60s and 70s that lived to about 20. Spent it's whole life in a little 5 gallon, angle iron tank that she scrubbed out with Vim every Sunday. No light, no plants, no filter. Goldfish are tough! It is why, sadly, a goldfish in a bowl/tiny tank is a 'thing'; no one tries keeping seahorses, or discus like it, because they wouldn't last a day. Poor goldies!!

Of course, the fact that they can survive doesn't make it right or morally acceptable, as GobyMaster rightly says.

Science and animal rights have moved on a long way now, and there's no excuse for continuing to do things just because they were done and, to a certain extent worked, in the past.