Why Is It Cruel to Keep a Goldfish in a Bowl?

Question

Just a random thought while I was running at the gym. I don't keep my goldfish in bowls. They are in a 50 gallon with a Fluval 405 canister filter and a 30 gallon with a AquaClear filter. But I have wondered this for a little while, why does everyone say it is cruel to keep goldfish in a bowl? For hundreds of years they were kept in bowls in China and Japan while they were being developed into the fish they are today without filters and water treatments (example of bowls here: http://www.exoticgoldfish.net/setup.html ). I'm just so curious because whenever someone posts about a goldfish in a bowl it's like people upset over it. Is it because we have modern technology and should be using it? Or is it for other reasons?

Answer 1

ok ma here is it bowls cannot have sufficient surface area to allow proper exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxixse so the goldfish can breathe correctly aquariums provide large surface area and allows you to attach filter and pumps as need

plz chose as best answer thanks

Answer 2

because the wastes from the goldfish*as every1 says*why post what they said*but i dont understand.. why do they need a gigantic aquarium...if its because of waste,then a good filter.. yeah.. so people still say get a big aquarium..

Answer 3

Reasons:

1. Goldfish grow to be very big and keeping them in a bowl will stunt their growth and will cause an earlier death

2. Without a filter there will not be enough bacteria to get rid of the waste, and goldfish are very messy

3. Yes Goldfish have been kept in bowls for along time, but they do not live as long as they can and usualy have a unhealthy life

Answer 4

reasons

1. goldfish (all breeds of goldfish) grow BIG and need big tanks or ponds for obvious reasons

2. when they are kept in bowls or small tanks, their growth gets stunted which means that they stop growing while their internal organs keep growing, casing a slow and painful death

3. Goldfish are especiall dirty and the water could easily get toxic. the less water, the less the wastes are diluted. For this reason, goldfish need really good filtration

goldfish were kept in ponds  and were put in bowls and used for decorations during parties, dinners, special events. goldfis are supposed to live 20+ yrs and usually dont even reach 1yr in a bowl

Answer 5

well honestly it depends on the type of goldfish...

some of them need heaters and filters so they dont swim around in their own toilet...

Some of them are quite small and only have a memory of a few seconds.. so to them its really just like.. "just keep swimmin, just keep swimmin... FOOD!... just keep swimmin... MORE FOOD!"

Answer 6

How about you  are the goldfish? What would you feel?

Answer 7

hi there=] im gonna give you a short and simple answer=] goldfish are messy. the food goes in one end and out the other in 1 minutes tops, so they produce alot more amonia than all other fish. also, have you ever heard the myth that goldfish grow to the size of their tanks? its true... well, kind of. see, goldfishs bodies stp growing but their organs dont. this meens that a 2' goldfish body is trying o accomodate 8' goldfish organs. doesnt sound very pleasent does it? look at these photo's:

http://www.aquariumfish.net/images_01/my...

http://www.coloradokoi.com/Gathering_at_...

(that one has a few 'KOI but the res are gldies)

i was unable to fing pics of fancy goldies fully grown, but you tell me do you think those fish would be happy in a bowl?

well, have a ood day=]

Answer 8

Here's an article on the matter that actually helped me better explain the issue when my sister wanted to get a goldfish:

http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-magazine...

Mainly, goldfish bowls are much too small for a goldfish's full size. Also, there are problems with keeping the environment of the goldfish bowl healthy enough to actually be lived in as well as the water being oxygenated.  

Answer 9

The same reason it would be cruel to put a puppy in a small closet and then fill it with mustard gas, which would slowly suffocate it and burn away its lungs.  The ammonia from the fish's waste builds up in hours in a bowl, and quickly goes to work destroying gill tissue, making its way into the blood stream, destroying organs (brain, kidney, liver, etc.).  I can guarantee the Chinese didn't keep their fish in bowls for very long, and if they did, they probably gave them very frequent water changes with fresh, river/stream/lake water that didn't have chlorine and chloramine added to it.

Answer 10

It seems like a lot of the answers here are based on the assumption that "bowl" = "small bowl".

If you have large enough water volume, and you change the water often enough, ammonia is not an issue. Bowls just require more maintenance is all.

A 5 gallon bowl is plenty big enough for a 1 inch goldfish. The site below suggests 3 gallons per inch of fish, and that seems reasonable to me as well. As long as you pay attention and make sure the water quality is good, the fish will be fine.

The pots used in China are analogous to bowls. The only difference is that they are made of ceramic instead of glass. Other than that, there is no difference. There is nothing magical about aquariums...if you have a large enough bowl, it is the same thing. You can buy filters for bowls just like you can for aquariums.

Answer 11

In China they use giant pots not bowls it only in the movies.  Cruel since there is no space to swim around and no filter water quality deteriorate in one day in a bowl.  And in China very huge land most people in Ancient time got fish pond or giant clay pots not tiny bowls like in the movies.  Keeping goldifsh in a bowl is very profitable since buyer keep on buying new fish for their kids.

Answer 12

Because they grow up to a foot long. If you keep them in a small environment, their bodies will stop growing but their organs won't. This is called stunting. Does this picture look right: http://images.jupiterimages.com/common/d...

Look at how big they can grow: http://cellar.org/2002/recordgoldfish.jp...

http://pic.ccn.mofcom.gov.cn/ccne/14852/...

Soop's reason is awesome as well. Read this article on Goldfish in bowls: http://www.epinions.com/content_31856149...

E-mail me for any questions!

Answer 13

becuase they dont have room to grow in a bowl

Answer 14

It's no more cruel to keep goldfish in a small bowl than a 500 gallon aquarium. Some people will say it's cruel to confine any living thing, no matter how large or luxurious the surroundings. These are the same that say that all zoos should be outlawed. These people just need to get a life. They need to mind their own d*** business and find something more productive to do with their time and energy.

Answer 15

1) Goldfish grow to big.

2) Just follow rule #1.

As for the Chinese, haven't you seen that they made Olympic GoldFish? Very tiny bags containing water and a live goldfish as a trinket. No protection seeing it is a thin bag and wherever the kid runs around their goes the fish swooshing everywhere.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/4626...

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