My grandma's goldfish...

ChicoRaton

Se?or Member
Jun 5, 2004
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Idaho, USA
www.hazy8.com
So my grandmother has a small 75 gallon-ish pond in her back yard with a goldfish in it. She brought it in for the winter and keeps it in a 1 gal fish BOWL, filled half way up. She over-feeds it 4-5 times/day, and uses chlorinated tap water. This thing is like 4 inches long. It can't even turn around. I've politely told her how sheneeds a bigger tank with a filter, and to feed less, and to use dechlorinator, but she really doesn't care and trusts her intuition on how to keep a fish alive more than my silly "scientific knowledge"... But this thing is STILL alive, has been for almost 6 months, and looks completely healthy. how?....HOW?!?! It defies the laws of nature... unless she just keeps replacing it when it dies... I don't know, man...:huh:
 
The odds are that sooner or later it will die. They seem to handle poor conditions by adapting. But it does cause stunting and stress.

Try to explain why she should be doing things different by associaing it to keeping a dog or cat in a shoebox.
 
Well he's moving back to the pond pretty soon. I'm just gonna let my grandma do her own thing. She just acts like I don't know what I'm talking about because I'm her cute little boy when I say anything so... meh. Sadly, working at an LFS desensitized me to feeder goldfish deaths...
 
We leave our fish in the pond for the winter, just put a little heater to keep a hole if it ices over. Haven't had a problem since we got it (I think 7 years ago or more). Then again, I don't think taking out a lot of goldfish would help. There are so many in there and they keep multiplying every year.
 
my mom in law in Colorado leaves her fish to winter in their outdoor pond. Granted, they are put in a proper pond (dug deep enough below freezing point, and has running water to keep ice from forming and an air pump with air holes punched into surface ice if needed. they are doing well and come back strong. Goldfish (not fancys or bubble eyes) have done well in that pond.
 
Yea ours is dug deep enough as well. Goldfish, Kio and comets seem to do really good in the pond (now that the great blue crane can't get them). I have my fat fish that is some calico goldfish type thing with a long fancy tail and bubbly eyes, he's been in there since the very beginning and is still alive :)
 
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