I’m pet-sitting for my family while they’re out of town. This is a relative’s fish tank. I don’t know the first thing about fish, but this looks to be about 5.5 gallons and inhumane, right? I’m absolutely horrified and cannot stop thinking about it. The tank looks even smaller in person, it’s roughly 12 inches wide.
I have no idea what to do, do I look for local rescues? How can I improve their situation? I am on a low budget but willing to scramble something together. I don’t know if I can talk my relative into helping them or not, but I’ll definitely try. How can I make their situation a bit better in the meantime? Family won’t be back for a week.
Posted by Livid_Improvement709
7 Comments
yes you need to change the size and get a bigger one asap.
That many should be growing out in a small pond. This thing is orders of magnitude too small.
So, I get that it’s bad. It definitely is. But it’s not an *emergency*. The fish are going to survive unhappily at the moment.
If you’re there every day I’d do a 50% water change every day, or maybe over 50%. All the new water should be treated with a water conditioner.
If they don’t have any water conditioner that’s the one thing I would spend money on in this situation.
The best you can do (while being socially acceptable – which is important, because nobody is going to listen to you if you aren’t) is keep the water clean and healthy for the fish.
I would also feed them only every other day, rather than every day, which will support that goal.
They could actually go the whole week without food just fine, but I think feeding them every other day a little bit is okay with the water changes.
Loving that you care for these little guys and want to help them ❤️
Is there a chance you can look into getting a bigger tank for your relative? I found a 135 litre tank on Facebook marketplace for only $75 so maybe there are some decent cheap ones people are looking to get rid of in your area.
Alternatively you can maybe make a post on Facebook (even better if your town has a community page for local news/gossip) and ask if there is anybody with a pond is willing to take in the goldfish and give them a better quality of life.
I would remove that large stone off the bottom to add some swimming room and water.
As it’s an emergent situation, the first and most useful thing you can do is add aeration. Grab a 10g air pump, some airline tubing, and a $1-2 air stone from Walmart or Petco. They are surfacing for air, they need more dissolved o2.
Looks to be a 10g or perhaps a 20g, but either way, it’s far too small for them. I’d inform your relative that they need to upgrade to a larger tank when they get home. Common goldfish of that size would ideally need a 75g+, but a 40 or 55 would be so much better than their current situation. Your relative could alternatively bring the fish to a LFS and keep one or two of them in a larger tank.
If youre going the pond route, avoid a public one as they would be invasive and there’s likely regulations against it. Maybe a garden center that installs outdoor ponds or a local fish store could be interested/know someone.