Is it cruel?

Question

I heard that that it is cruel to keep goldfish in bowls. Is this true?

Answer 1

Absolutely. Properly housed these intelligent & extremely long lived animals can grow to well over a foot in length. They need large, lidded, well filtered tanks, ideally with others of their own kind & plenty of interesting scenery to explore.

The reason most people have never heard of 20 year old 18" long Goldfish is because most die in bowls at less than 6 months by suffocating on their own waste, They are unable to orientate themselves in a featureless sphere & live very unhappy, short lives.

Just to add after seeing some of the above answers to this question that another popular Goldfish myth is the 3 second memory. Current research suggests they not only have extremely good long term memories they can also recognise other members of their immediate group after being separated & also learn by example from each other & remember those things.

Answer 2

I wouldn't recommend putting goldfish in bowls. They require a good 10 gallons of water per fish if properly taken care of. It is a myth that a fish will only grow to the size of it's surrounding. While it is true that they only grow that big it is because they die of the stress of being in an area that is so confining. It should also be noted that if properly taken care of a goldfish can live up to 50 years. So is it cruel? I would have to say yes.

Answer 3

It is cruel. Goldfish require a larger amount of water to be happy in than most other fish. A short term stay in a bowl by a small fish probably isn't too bad, but it will most likely die and deffinately won't thrive in a bowl... unless of course you can find a 20 gallon fish bowl...

Answer 4

Depends on the care and for how long. The way the typical person that would put a goldfish in a bowl would care for it... yes, very cruel.

A very small goldfish could live in a very large bowl comfortable for a few short period of time, then it would require a larger aquarium with a good filter.

MM

Answer 5

a tank is better, they get bored very easily in a small bowl, they also grow larger in a larger enviroment as someone remarked on my fish 'whoa i've never seen a goldfish that big' because tey live in a huge tank, not some little bowl, a reasonable sized tank with flitration system is really the best thing to go for

Answer 6

Yes it it very cruel. Tanks are way too small for goldfish, who are the messiest fish around. They need a large tank with good filtration and room to grow.

Answer 7

As long as the bowl a 3litre capacity (small goldfish), water filter, small pebbles in the bottom ( they like to roll them around in their mouths ) and something to keep their 3secound memory entertained then I don't see any problems. Caging a bird is cruel.

Answer 8

keeping gold fish in bowls is not cruel because goldfish memory is about 3 seconds long so by the time they circle a bowl once,they think that they are in a different place.

Answer 9

NO i do not think it is cruel to keep goldfish in a bowl. As long as you feed it, and change the water, and do everything it really needs, then its fine. goldfish have a memory of like 2 secs, so they dont know any better, and if u think about it, like every second is like, WOW! this water is so cool! because they forgot about before when they already knew that, if that makes any sence.

Answer 10

In my opinion, yes, it is. But I also think it is cruel to cage a bird. My god... could you imagine having the ability to fly, but you can't because someone wanted to keep you in a cage?

Edit: to the people claiming goldfish have a 3 second memory... HOGWASH! I have a large fish pond with 8 goldfish. They know me and come to me. They will eat food from my hand and let me "pet them." They play with each other, and are curious about new objects in their pond.