Are You Keeping Your Goldfish In A Glass Bowl?
If you are, get your goldfish out of the bowl now or as soon as possible!
It’s good news indeed that Monza, a northern Italian city, had passed a ruling to ban pet owners form keeping their goldfish in bowls. This ruling, the first in Italy, may be a tiny drop in the aquarium, figuratively speaking, but let’s hope it will create bigger ripples around the fishkeeping world.
Many people have the notion that keeping goldfish in a “goldfish bowl” is an acceptable thing to do. This is a misperception that is likely to have come from our being weaned on too many cute graphic depictions of a lone goldfish sashaying about contentedly in a glass bowl, in popular comic books and TV cartoon series.
Contrary to popular belief, a glass bowl isn’t the ideal home for goldfish.
Here’s Why Goldfish Won’t Thrive Well In a Bowl
1. They Eat a lot, and They Grow Bigger
Goldfish need sufficient room to swim around – the optimum amount of space should be about 10 to 20 gallons of water per fish in an aquarium, or 30 to 50 gallons of water per fish in a pond. An aquarium measuring 60 x 30 x 30 cm should be adequate for housing about five to six goldfish.
These fish are voracious feeders. As they grow, they will eat just about anything else that’s edible in the aquarium, so they will keep on growing in size too. Some species are capable of growing to well over 12 inches in length.
2. More Waste Output, Higher Level of Toxins
Most goldfish kept in bowls do not survive long because of poor water quality and other accompanying factors. Unlike the betta, which can breathe at the surface of the water, goldfish do not thrive well in small containers.
Goldfish excrete larger amounts of waster products than smaller tropical fish. The larger waste output results in higher level of ammonia being produced. Thus, if you keep your goldfish in a smaller aquarium, you will have to maintain it better, and make more frequent water changes.
Though goldfish may be hardy, they will be happier and healthier in an aquarium that’s properly equipped with a filtration and aeration system—which will keep the water clean and maintain a sufficient amount of oxygen for the fish.
3. Better Growth, Longer Life
While a stimulating environment is necessary for all fish to thrive, it is particularly important to goldfish.
Keeping them in the bare and confined space of a bowl could stunt their growth. On the contrary, if they are provided with adequate space and a proper diet, they grow very well.
To create a stimulating environment, provide them with tank-mates to interact with, objects like plants and rocks to play with, a variety of foods to eat and different places to explore. Rearrange fake plants and ornaments (if any) in the tank periodically to make their surroundings more interesting.
A health goldfish, kept in prime conditions, may have a lifespan of up to 20 years or more!
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Mar 20th 2007
2:40 PM
Nice article! And kudos to the people of Monza! There should a be a strong campaign against keeping gold fishes in glass bowl!
Mar 26th 2007
2:08 AM
Running campaign is expensive and time consuming. Unfortunately, everyone is waiting for that someone to start the ball rolling.
Thanks for dropping by, Samit.
Apr 10th 2007
4:36 PM
Excellent-we at ‘Totally Goldfish’ welcome the end of the fish bowl!
Sep 16th 2007
7:31 AM
Nicely written article. But you could go far deeper and mention Bettas as well. They’re kept in small-sized bowls as well and even they don’t grow as large as Goldfish do, they require space as well.
Also, if the pressure (higher aquarium = more pressure) is high, the fish grows bigger. It’s the same situation like with Freshwater Sharks; If they’re kept in small aquariums, they can’t grow big and they feel stressed usually. As you move them into bigger aquarium, they’ll return you this favour in their behaviour (growth, appetite and so on).
Maybe it could be a good idea to ban all small aquariums at all. I would recommend to buy 35 L fish tank at least.
Jan 28th 2009
12:42 AM
If bowls should be banned, then so should ALL aquariums, regardless of size!
Jul 29th 2009
3:51 PM
a 60x30x30 cm aquarium is NOT suitable for 5 to 6 goldfish. single tailed goldfish can reach up to 12 inches, double tailed, (fancy) gldfish can reach up to 10 inches. An aquarium of that size, approx 58 litres, has no where near enough room for 5 or 6 full grown goldfish, there’s not enough room for one!
Aug 15th 2009
9:14 PM
we have 2 goldfish and now im real scared because we have been keeping them in a glass bowl for 1 day now !
Aug 19th 2009
8:05 AM
My daughter won a “free” goldfish at a fair. We went to the pet store and got a bowl, some gravel, and some food–everyone had warned us that the goldfish would probably die in a couple of days anyway so we were afraid to really splurge. Well… FOUR YEARS LATER our fish is still around. We finally decided to upgrade her to an aquarium (5 gallon) with a built in filtration system. It’s been about 12 hours and I hate to say this, but she seems depressed! We used to call her the “bloopy” fish –when you walked into the room she would go crazy trying to get your attention. She didn’t eat this morning–not typical for her at all. Should I give her a chance to get used to it, or put her back in her old bowl?
Apr 7th 2010
1:16 PM
Um… nice article overall. I am still confused about one thing with regards to goldfish, although I don’t blame you because I ran into this issue before I found your site.
I have raised tropical fish all my life, and bought a couple orandas for a 5 gallon tank (based on a recommendation from a Walmart or Meijers employee and the old idea of bowl goldfish). Now I have a 29 gallon tank. My tank is 75*30*45cm. How big is a 60*30*30cm tank that you recommend for 5-6 goldfish? Um, do the math, Jim.
75*30*45 = 101250 cm cubed div 29 gal = 3491.38 cm3 per gallon. 60*30*30 = 54000 cm3 div 3491.38 cm3 per gal = 15.47 gallons. I’d have guessed 15. Not bad Jim!
Following the 10 gallon per fish rule strictly, you should have a 50-60 gallon tank for 5-6 fancy goldfish (at 10gal per fancy goldfish), not a 15 gallon tank. Yet even the advocates for bigger tanks for goldfish still recommend a lot more goldfish/gallon than the rule they state.
I have 2 calico orandas, 1 red (orange) oranda with a deformed tail, and 1 black moor (4 total) in my 29 gallon tank. It might look a little crowded once all the fish are full grown. Oh yeah, as filtration I’m running 2 Penguin 150 Biowheels containing modified and charcoal-stuffed Whisper Biobag filters front-ended by prefilter ceramic tubes (in both Penguin housings). The guy at the pet store thinks my tank should hold about 7-10 fancy goldfish, but 1 fish per 10 gallons = 3 fish in my 29 gallon tank. Yes, I am confused about this.
Apr 7th 2010
1:40 PM
Wow, quick follow-up. Could you have meant 60*30*30 inches? Don’t know what that’d be in gallon volume off the top of my head… 1 Gallon = 231 cubic inches… 60*30*30 = 54,000 div 231 = 233 gallon tank for 5-6 … well, they’d be REALLY happy goldfish!
No, guess that’s not it either. This isn’t the only place correctly saying that goldfish need space, then still recommending far too little space.
Any follow-up to Amy’s goldfish problem? You know what happened. The fish has been very appreciative of Amy’s obviously-good habits to have kept him alive that long. But he just spent 4 years painfully adjusting to stunted growth. He finally just got comfortable and unconstipated when WHAM, Amy is expecting him to grow again! He’s most displeased! Poor lit’l guy!
Jun 6th 2010
8:23 AM
Do we seriously need to place a ban on the keeping of Goldfish in bowls? Why not just do a bit of non profit activisim to encourage more appropriate housing of gold fish… if at all I give people the benefit of the doubt in saying people are smart enough to house their animals properly.