5 reasons not to use goldfish bowls
Goldfish and bowls go together in the English language, but they shouldn’t in real life. A bowl might seem an ideal home for a goldfish (at least there’s no sharp corners on which it could cut itself!) but in fact they make a terrible home for most kinds of fish.
Here are five reasons why you should avoid using a goldfish bowl:
- Goldfish bowls are too small. Goldfish can easily grow to several inches in length with good care, and monster goldfish of over six inches are not unheard of. Now, imagine living in a room the size of your bed. That’s about the equivalent for a goldfish in a bowl. Not nice.
- They can deprive goldfish of oxygen. Goldfishes need oxygen from the water, just like we need oxygen from the air. Too little oxygen and they become stressed, and may even die. One of the things that affects how much oxygen is in the water is the surface area, which is where the water meets the air. You can think of oxygen crossing over into water like fans at a football game going through a turnstile. A lot of fans and only a few turnstiles is a recipe for slow turnover. Similarly, a small surface area with a bigger volume of water below (caused by the bulging of the bowl) means not enough oxygen is getting through for your pet.
- Goldfish bowls are boring, for your fish and for you. A goldfish bowl is too small to get much decoration into, so the fish is lucky to get some gravel or marbles and a pebble or two. Soon you’ve got a fish too bored to swim and an owner too bored to care. Not a recipe for healthy goldfish.
- Bowls get dirty too quickly. Some new kinds of bowls include filters, but the traditional goldfish bowl isn’t compatible with the technology that can keep an aquarium clean. Result: dirty water and gravel. Admittedly goldfish bowls are quick to clean, but only because they’re so small, and we’ve already discussed why that’s bad.
- You can only keep one goldfish in a bowl. You might get by with a couple of inmates for a while, but sooner or later you’ll forget to do a water change or overfeed the fish and the bowl will pollute too quickly. With just one goldfish in a bowl this problem is somewhat reduced, but goldfish are friendly, naturally shoaling fish that prefer the company of their fellows. It’s cruel to keep them alone.
Sure, some people do keep their goldfish in bowls for years. Whether their pets are happy is a question for philosophers, but they certainly don’t seem as content as fish in aquariums. Meanwhile the small size of the bowl means you’re always one accident or forgetful spell from disaster. Why risk your pet’s life?
Tips if you’ve already got a goldfish bowl:
- Remove some of the water, so there’s more surface area to let oxygen into the bowl.
- That will reduce the volume of water further, so be extra careful not to overfeed your goldfish.
- Change one third of the water very regularly - ideally twice a week, but once a week at a minimum.
- Stick to plastic plants and decorations. Rocks and some gravels leak minerals into the water, which can quickly overwhelm a small bowl.
- If you’ve got more than two goldfish in your bowl, give one away (or better yet buy a new aquarium).
If you’ve already got a goldfish in a bowl, well, we all have to start somewhere. Please do click around the Goldfish Care Guide to learn more about your pets, and hopefully you’ll be inspired to get a small aquarium for your finny friends. An empty bowl makes a great plant pot!
Click here to learn more goldfish secrets!
Filed in: Care, Equipment
Mar 6th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Another reason not to use a bowl - the cats can get in them. Seriously! You can’t really put a lid on a goldfish bowl, which means your goldfish is just sitting there waiting for a hungry kitty to talk by. The good news is I kept mine scared away, but now have a nice Rena 50 tank for my goldfish (now called ‘Lucky’)
Apr 27th, 2008 at 5:22 am
lucky i got an aquarium
May 14th, 2008 at 3:17 am
Pet shops shouldnt be allowed to sell them knowing that they are for goldfish, If they were made to give correct information to people (not everyone has the internet) then people wouldnt be able to house them this way.
Ive only just got the internet , i havent got a bowl but my tanks only a foot long and ive got a comet !! i was misinformed and now thinking “poo”
Aug 26th, 2008 at 8:46 am
[…] literally: goldfish bowls are bad for any fish. I mean do you really need a 200-gallon aquarium, or are you just trying to keep up […]
Sep 8th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
I had my fish for a few days so what if i put that colorful gravel. Would it do anything.
Oct 30th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
They should stop selling “goldfish bowls”. A 10 gallon tank costs about the same price and all one needs is a filter and some decorations for the fish to swim around/through.
Nov 15th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Colorful gravel is okay and just a matter of taste, provided it’s safe for aquarium use, of course. Make sure you get it from a reputable fish store. Some cheap brands may leak toxic dyes or similar into the water…
Dec 5th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I won 2 carnival goldfish and now keep them in a 2 gallon bowl. They are fine and happy so far, im prepared to clean them out and i treat the water with tapsafe to prevent them getting poisoned by clorine and heavy metals.
I used to own a 40 litre fish tank and sold it ages ago. I have become quite knowlagable about goldfish and how to care about them. However when me and my friend won a goldfish at the christmas carnival i became intersted in goldfish again and have now got a bowl for me and my friends fish which contains some green gravel, a fake plant, a rock, some clean water and some oxygenating crystals.
I prefer my bowl to my tank because its traditional globular and nice
Dec 27th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I got a goldfish called Bubbles for Christmas and my parents bought me a starter kit with a plastic bowl, gravel and artificial plant. Im scared now and dont know what to do because i want my goldfish to be happy and dont have enought money to buy a tank. Im 13 and this is my first goldfish. Help!
Jan 1st, 2009 at 10:29 am
Hi Amy
Hey, don’t be scared. Your goldfish will probably be okay in the short-term in that bowl. Just be very sure to keep the water fresh and changed. Also, if you can reduce the water level in the bowl by an inch or two, that will help by increasing the surface area (the top of the water exposed to the air) which will allow more oxygen in.
In the longer-term, look out for a small, cheap aquarium in a yard sale or from a friend whose fish die. You can often pick an old one up for free/pennies.
Jan 7th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Small tanks are equally as bad for goldfish. Goldfish 3 inches and smaller should have 10 gallons (40 liters) PER goldfish with alot of filtration for oxygenation.
Jan 27th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
So, maybe some people like bowls! It may not be too good to keep a goldfish in one, especially a small, unfiltered bowl, but there are other kinds of fish that do well in bowls.
Feb 15th, 2009 at 5:36 am
@ Sharon - Thanks for adding your views. Large tanks are always better than small, but if we can encourage people to move up from bowls to small tanks, that’s a step in the right direction. In general, smaller tanks are better for small tropical fish than coldwater fish.
@Sam - Well, this is a goldfish site.
If you live in a warm climate a Siamese Fighting Fish might be an interesting fish to keep in a bowl. It can breath air if required, so the disadvantages aren’t so apparent.
Feb 16th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I’ve been thinking about keeping some fish for a while now, I never knew that the bowls were bad for allowing less oxugen in, I did know that they would be quite a boring habitat for any animal though. I think awareness needs to be raised about how bad these bowls are.
I was kind of thinking before I visited this siteabout getting some goldfish in a medium sized tank and creating as nice a habitat as I could for them. If they ever out grew it, then I’ve got a big pond for them.
Mar 3rd, 2009 at 6:24 pm
I just wanted to thank you for all this good clear information. We wanted to get a couple goldfish for my neice (who is 1.5 years old and comes to visit us often) so we picked out a couple pretty fan tails and placed them in a nice ‘goldfish’ bowl with some blue gravel and a pretty sculpture of shells in the middle. Well, it’s plain to see that our new friends are not happy so I got on line to try to see why and here I see why. Tomorrow we will be taking another trip in to the pet store equipped with education and ready to prepare an appropriate home for the little fellas. They really are sweet and we’ve (well, me anyway) already gotten very attached. Thanks again! We’ll make em happy!
Mar 6th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
i just bought my goldfish, and have placed him in a ‘bowl’ for the time because i havent got room for a tank in my little room, but i will be buying something bigger ASAP. Poor Billy-Bob didnt look very happy with me tonight when i moved him from the bag to the bowl and wont touch his food.
Mar 16th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
I have a 2 gallon tank with filter. I have one small goldfish that is about an inch. Can I have two small goldfish in the tank or should I just keep it to one because of the size of the tank. Are goldfish alright socially by themselves or do they need to have others to thrive?
Apr 21st, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Hey everyone. I was just checking out some websites trying to identify my 12 goldfish I’ve rescued last year and came across this sit. I have had Gold fish and Tropical fish 13 years. (not all the same fish sad to say) When i first started, I learned my death
Now i know so much. I work at a pet store helping people understand fish, (not the easiest thing)
I have 6 full grown gold fish, a Pearlscale, Black Moore, Vailtail, Oranda, Ryukin and lionhead in one BIG tank. The I have 2 Moores, a Vailtail, 2 Oradnas, and a Blue Oranda in a 30, all babies. Under 1 inch. Soon i will need to upgrade, lol
Recently I was told about a UV Sterilizer. What is that? and Is it a good idea? And what wattage for how many gallons?
Thx so much.
Apr 24th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
i just bought the gold fish yesterday, its my fisrtime to have a pet fish in my life,when i saw the fish in the bowl i saw them floating lifeless, my heart hurts. my sister feed them alot. thats why they die, ho ho ho!!! my goldfish are gone na…. please help me..
goldfish ko.
May 3rd, 2009 at 3:25 am
i have a pair of goldfish in a goldfish bowl.. i get clean the bowl every single day..i wonder if the eggs that the female probably gives are also washed off when i change the water?!
May 12th, 2009 at 8:35 am
I recently bought a fancy goldfish “Ollie” from the local petstore. He is about 1 1/2 inches long.
At first I had him in a betta vase for the first few days until i read up on goldfish and realized that he was too big for the vase…So then I bought him a 2 1/2 gallon bowl. It is pretty large, and I also got an airstone to put on the bottom of his tank. Apperently it is supposed to generate oxygen in the water. there are large rocks in the aquarium because i know that goldfish are scavengers and will eat small pebbles…so I dont have any small rocks.
I feed him peas and goldfish pellets once a day. I also do a 50% water change once a week. I use aquasafe so that he is not affected by the chlorine or any other chemical in the city water, and put a few crystals of aquarium salt in the bowl as well. I read up on aquarium salt and apperantly it is supposed to protect them from disease and make them all around a bit more healthier.
I am reading now that goldfish should be in no smaller than a 10 gallon aquarium…
What should I do? I do not have room for a 10 gallon aquarium, but I do want Ollie to be happy..i woud love it if he lived for a long time! is the 2 1/2 gallon bowl big enough at this time? or do I need to get an even bigger bowl? Maybe a 4-5 gallon bowl? Are the airstones enough? And is there anything else I should be adding to his water?
Jun 12th, 2009 at 7:31 am
I have had my two gold fish for 12 years. They live in a bowl that holds 10l of water, they are fed tetrafin and the water is compleatly changed each week with tap water.
They seem happy to me