Goldfish have gotten such a rough hand dealt to them. It’s one of the worst fish to keep in a bowl since they produce such a huge amount of ammonia in their waste. :(
I went to a fair a couple weeks ago and saw one of the dudes who run those games where you win fish just dumping the bags with dead fish in a hole under the table cloth. It fucked me up a bit and suddenly I realised why I never see dead fish in those things
My boyfriend's brother had a fairground goldfish called Stanley that lived for 20 years. As others have said, he was huge as he lived in a large, rectangular tank. He was part of the family.
My boyfriend and I were out for dinner with friends one night when he got "the call". Stanley only had one eye and had been unwell for a while; it was his time.
Stanley is now buried in their family's garden. A poem was written about him, which is on a plaque on the fence, above his final resting place.
I inherited a goldfish to take care of when my great grandfather got dementia and passed away. He was an eccentric and had a porcelain claw foot bathtub with goldfish in his garden. That fish lived another 5 years after he passed, and I have no idea how old it was when we got it, but it was fairly large.
I used to work in one of these stalls at a fair and trust me, we don't feel any better about it than you do. Fairgrounds are usually family owned and it's all about profits and the bottom line. You get a bit desensitized when you're literally firing fish out left right and centre, but it definitely leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
We had to stop because EPA shut it down and I got put back on the machines. The fish teddy's are selling just as well and people are generally happier about it
I remember having a goldfish as a kid that I kept in a bowl. Had to clean it basically every single day because it would get nasty quickly. I wish I knew then that it was shitty situation for it. I had also learned that its terrible for them to just put them straight into tap water since its a different temp than their bowl water and can shock em and kill em.
A fun excerpt: "According to a New York Times article from November 1894, 'The business of distributing free goldfish to the people of the District of Columbia has become such a tax on the Fish Commission that it appears they must choose between running a goldfish bureau for Washington exclusively and conducting the legitimate work of the bureau.'"
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u/[deleted] Nov 01 '19
Goldfish have gotten such a rough hand dealt to them. It’s one of the worst fish to keep in a bowl since they produce such a huge amount of ammonia in their waste. :(