advice please, the kids want a goldfish but i HATE square tanks

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

i went to the pet shop today and they said i could get a round bowl and slap a filter onto the side, but cost-wise it seems to come up much the same as a biorb? are biorbs good? any advice?

I'm no expert but I gather (from my BIL) that the round bowl ones are rather difficult to keep, not really a novice thing. They have one of the rounded square ones at DCs nursery (like this) and seem to manage to keep the fish alive with fairly minimal maintenance. Looks nice too.

What's wrong with square tanks BTW?

i do like that one, but am reluctant to spend that much.
re the square tank... the kids would like it in the front room, so a bog standard tank not my thing.

No, biorbs are shit, especially for goldfish. The filters are rubbish, they're not very big, they are a pain in the arse to clean and the tiny surface area means that gas exchange is poor. In fact, any of those 'lifestyle' type of fishtanks are pretty shite, and overpriced. Square or rectangular tanks are the best shape for fish.

If you don't like bog standard tanks and you don't want to spend a lot of money then fishkeeping may not be for you. There is a perception (often pushed by pet shops) that they are cheap and low-maintenance but they are neither.

Also goldfish can live for 20+ years and they do not grow to the size of their tank- you'd be looking at a 4ft tank to house a couple of fancy goldfish. The minimum tank size for other fish like minnows etc would still be around 60 litres.

I don't mean to put you off, just being realistic. If you have another other questions just ask, I'm very geeky about fish

yep, the reviews are AWFUL, aren't they? might be owned by gwyneth paltrow and catherine-zeta jones, but i guess they're not cleaning them.
there's no way i'm getting a four foot tank for a couple of farking goldfish, though.

You'd be better off with something smaller then. If fish are kept in an environment that's too small then it can cause stunting, resulting in multiple organ failure and premature death. And upset children!

Minnows stay very small and don't need a heater, you could house a shoal of 6 happily in a 60 litre tank.

i don't think premature goldfish death would bother me too much if their life expectancy is 20 years, tbh... how big is a 60l tank? i'd be perfectly happy with minnows.

A 60 litre tank is about 2ft. The RSPCA recommends a minimum tank size of 45 litres for any fish. Smaller than that is not worth bothering with at all.

There's quite a lot of sciencey stuff involved with keeping fish, you have to test the water once a week and wait ages for the tank to be ready for fish. How old are your DCs? They make pretty rubbish pets for children but if you're happy to do most of the work then that's OK.

EauRouge will correct me if I am wrong, but 60l is approximately 2 feet wide. It depends on the depth and height in addition to that though, you could have a long and tall tank that isn't as wide or wider and shorter. Tanks come in all shapes and sizes.

Ha, this is what happens when you start writing, go and get a pear ready for your son and don't refresh! Cross-posted with EauRouge :)

Adding my bit to say that Biorbs are shit. Crap to clean and the minimum size for a goldfish should be 60litres. The 30litre ones are really only suitable as Japanese gardens (according to a fish geek friend of mine).

Japanese gardens? Are they as cool as they sound? I think I want one and I don't even know what you mean

60 litres is too small even for one goldfish, there's a rough guide on goldfish tank sizes here

RIGHT we were in the park today and there was loads and loads of frogspawn. what about taddies? have looked it up online and everywhere says it's very easy.

Fish and frogs! The only pets I had growing up...

frogs are easy, and best kept if you have a pond in the garden; you have to make sure there is a shallow surface they can climb onto once they become frogs otherwise they get tired and drown.

digging a basic pond can seem like a task and a half but it's all easily done in half a day (so long as it's small) You'll want mostly still water (a fountain at one end is ok) as there will need to be algae for the tadpoles to eat; also they'll eat any snails or slugs you'd like to drown ;)
You may need some netting to go over the pond if there are wild birds in the area (ie herons) or the neighbours' cat likes to 'play; then depending on the child's age any other safety features you'd prefer. ( I think my parents got me tadpoles when I was about 6 /7, but till the age of 4 we lived on a boat so I was an old hand at water safety).
I'f you're getting the spawn from a local park have the kids harvest it :o

As for fish.. I got tropical fish at the age of 10; at one point we had 21 fish of assorted breeds; they all died off slowly except for one, who did sadly die a month or so ago; 15 years and 3 house-moves later...

I miss my froggies...

so if i say that i don't have a garden?

Then digging a pond may be difficult.....

Sadly frogs are probably off the cards; they like to travel then comeback to their home for breeding/ laying the spawn :(

Is it the corners you dislike on square tanks or do they just not fit with the décor? Bear in mind any thank that has a filter (and they all do / should have one) will be noisy; especially when the water level goes down.

What other pet options do you have? If not fish or frogs...

no, it's okay, i'll just get a square tank and stick it in the girls' room. i don't like the look of them, personally, but they won't care. we had an aquarium when i was a kid, btw, so am not a complete novice, but i don't remember them being an awful lot of fuss. just some black mollies, various tetras, an algae eater, that sort of things. oh, the excitement when the lady guppy gave birth!

You had baby fishies? jealous...
As far as I'm aware the fish shop we got all ours from only had males to simplicity's sake...

it was the 70s... pet shops were more chillaxed about sex in them thair days. we had to have a little floating sub-tank so that the other fish wouldn't just hoover them directly into their mouths. as it was, we did have to remove mommy dearest pretty sharpish.

Things have changed a lot in fish shops. When I got my first fish in 1980-something it was a 4 gallon box with no filter and I had 2 goldfish in there. Poor things never lasted long but the shop didn't tell me that they were supposed to live ages and get massive. In my defence I was only about 7.

Even in the last 5 years things have changed, partly due to new technology and partly because fish are now protected by law.

Don't know anything about tadpoles, I thought it was toads that went back to spawn in the pond they were born in though? We have a pond but the frogs never come back, thanks to my cats.

I was going to suggest a biorb ours is 60litre (i think) its a bit difficult to clean but not that bad......and it looks really nice because it matches the living room (shallow I know) we have a big gold fish a little gold fish and 3tiny little fish in there. Hth

thanks, i appreciate you answering but i think i've been put off the biorb. they do look the nicest, though, no doubt. cheers!