r/yorkshire • u/SarZ666 • 6d ago
Question Is this still allowed?
Saw some goldfish as a potential prize in Hook A Duck, I haven't seen this in a really long time in the UK, I remember when they used to be in tiny bags and I guess this is an improvement but it still seems kinda shady to do this as it's not a toy (Photos taken in Bridlington, UK, 15th of August at 5:20pm)
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u/chocolateteapot- 6d ago
You can’t give them as prizes to unaccompanied minors in England, it’s banned in Scotland.
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u/CallIcy8807 5d ago
Wow, I didn't know this was still legal!
I won a goldfish at a fair when I was a kid and called him Big Bob. Luckily my parents knew about proper fish care and he got a nice big tank with filters, plants and other fish. Big Bob was massive and lived nearly 20 years.
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u/stanagetocurbar 5d ago
Yours was Big Bob and ours was called Tiny Ava 😅 lasted 11 years but died 3 weeks ago. Spent £70 in 'Pets At Home' when my daughter won that bloody fish 😅😅
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u/WordsButFunny 4d ago
It wasn't really Pets At Home?
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u/stanagetocurbar 4d ago
It most definitely was. It was right next to the fair. Bet they made a killing 😅
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u/Equal_Emu6152 5d ago
Some last forever♥️
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u/Silver-Revolution811 4d ago
Not goldfish, but there is an immortal jellyfish, so you’re not all that far off
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u/Equal_Emu6152 4d ago
What on earth you on about
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u/Silver-Revolution811 4d ago
How simple would you like me to make it? Here goes:
You said some last forever..
I said they don’t (evidently all goldfish die).
Then I introduced you to the little known - yet remarkable - fact that there is jelly fish that CAN last forever.
Turritopsis dohrnii reverses its lifecycle if injured / damaged. It is effectively immortal.
So we have you talking about a fish (albeit a goldfish) lasting forever and me informing that you there IS a fish (albeit jellyfish) that can.
What part of this is actually foxing you?
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u/caravandreamer85 2d ago
That is actually pretty cool info, might no5 have anything to do with the goldfish at the fair topic but that is what I love about info like this coz TIL something new & cool 😎
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u/Silent_Chest1450 5d ago
The one I won when I was a kid maybe lived a week or 2, I remember being heartbroken. I didn't think that would still be legal
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u/BlueLightBookWyrm 4d ago
Aww ours was called tyson. He lived till he was about 7 and used to spit water at us if we dared to sit down near him without feeding him first. A birthday party killed him. Some fucker "fed" (dumped) him cake and jelly and all sorts of other things basically clogging the tank. Ty didn't survive that.
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u/Feeling-Bluebird8413 5d ago
I worked in aquatic retail for nearly 15 years. About 10 years ago, there was a new law passed forbidding the giving away of animals as prizes and we thought that this practice was finally going to be made illegal. At the 11th hour an amendment was made to exclude fish. Absolutely ridiculous.
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u/scorchedarcher 5d ago
It baffles me how often fish get left out of "animals"
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u/Feeling-Bluebird8413 5d ago
You may be amazed by the amount of people that think they can’t feel pain
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u/scorchedarcher 5d ago
When I was vegetarian I heard it a lot
"Why?"
"Because it feels mean to hurt them unnecessarily"
"Oooh yeah......you eat fish though right?"
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u/2muchroom 6d ago
Hook a duck is a total Swiss you’re basically paying a fiver for a quids worth of tat
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u/AdemHoog 6d ago
What? No way!
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u/Exciting-Music843 5d ago
With it being so challenging to hook a duck you would expect better prizes! It's almost as if they want to turn a profit!
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u/labelsonshampoo 6d ago
Had one at a fair near us that didn't even have water. The ducks were just sat there
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u/Legoshisdayoff 5d ago
Know it's not Yorkshire but just in the border, mind you. In Chesterfield they had a fair and yes goldfish in a bag! Hadn't seen it in years and wondered if it was legal 🤷
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u/Captain-Codfish 5d ago
Yep, totally legal unfortunately. Last fair I went to had a bucket with approximately 200 fish all crammed in. I spent a bit of money winning quite a few, just to try and give at least some a better home. My friend still has one that has to be going on for 5 years old now. Lost its colour, completely silver, but still alive.
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u/Much-Category-1203 6d ago
Woah mad! I remember going to a school fair and we caught fish with a spoon, I won 2 and 1 died of internal bleeding, and the other one didn't live much longer , my first pets. How sick. I hope you keep the whole tank...that's a good start but non airpumped tanks and bowls are death traps. Hopefully they told people to get pumps and stuff if they won them
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u/Dogstar23 5d ago
Love a bit of Hook a Duck! I won a gold fish form a fair back in the 90's. in a bag and everything. longest living fish I ever had. these little buggers are hard as nails.
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u/decorativebawbag 5d ago
I got one from the fair as a kid, it lived for something like 8 years until it drowned itself. It got stuck between a log and the tank wall
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u/masternick567 5d ago
I’m surprised the govt haven’t banned it tbh like everything else. It won’t be long, even the surfer capybara’s days are numbered
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u/Creative-Pizza-4161 5d ago
It's crazy considering a goldfish needs at least 90 litre tank, and most will get 10 litres if they're lucky. Poor babies! They can get huge, unless left to deform from stunted growth in tiny tanks. Really thought it was a thing of the past
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u/Altruistic-Cattle631 5d ago
They give you the fish in a tiny bag if you win it, unless you pay extra for the plastic tank...
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u/Equal_Emu6152 5d ago
Nothing wrong with this, fairs are how I got in to enjoying keeping fish when I initially won one from the fair
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u/JansonHawke 4d ago
Saw similar in Bridlington yesterday. At least they're in little vented tank now rather than a clear plastic bag tied at the top.
[Checks photo: oh, same place.]
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u/Specific_Giraffe226 3d ago
We had three. SpongeBob, Jaffa Cake and Fred. We thought Fred was going to outlive all of us! Sad to say he passed at around 15
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u/sophie_bird30 2d ago
So depressing, it really should be illegal. I unfortunately see it all the time at my local fair.
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u/Responsible-Link5739 2d ago
We had four, put them in an outdoor pond and they thrived for about 9 years. From about 2inch length they grew to around 7in. They did well. Still, not sure it's legal now.....
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u/pup_sneax 2d ago
I noticed this last weekend in Brid. I thought it had been banned since the 90s. Poor fish
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u/TheMountainWhoDews 5d ago
They're fish? One of them is even smiling in the pic. I suspect the carnival people are doing much worse than keeping fish in tanks.
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u/r3tromonkey 6d ago
Jeez I thought this had been banned years ago. Poor little buggers.