The perils of children & goldfish!!

W

WeLuvIbiza

Active Member
One of the thengs my little 4yo boy received at Christmas was a little fish tank and all the required accessories (pump, gravel, plastic plants & bridge!).

Having visited the pet shop and being told we had to have the tank setup for one week before they would sell us the fish, we thought this sounded very responsible of them!

We bought two fish and not three weeks later both are about to kick the great goldfish bucket in the sea:eek: We followed the feeding instructions to the letter I might add.

Not sure what to tell him when the inevitable happens, can hardly tell him they have had a long and happy innings!

When buying the tank setup we only thought of the upside ie; teaching him they responsibilty of looking after a pet (of sorts).
 
WeLuvIbiza said:
When buying the tank setup we only thought of the upside ie; teaching him they responsibilty of looking after a pet (of sorts).
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Instead, you've got a golden opportunity to teach him about the circle of life...

(**grabs coat**)
 
Morbyd said:
Instead, you've got a golden opportunity to teach him about the circle of life...

(**grabs coat**)
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lol

He named them after his two favourite action characters, Ben & Gwen (of Ben10 fame). Am thinking of a story that the fish have been claimed by the DNAliens :lol:
 
you've just got to replace them with 2 identical ones, my first goldfish lasted 13 years, he went through a lot of stages and looks (dont we all), but he was the same fish.

(bit like Triggers broom)

Dont subscribe to this "teacH them about death" nonsense, not at 4 years old, plenty of time later on for them to experience heartache and sadness, let them hang on to their innocence as long as practically possible ;)
 
jjinit said:
you've just got to replace them with 2 identical ones, my first goldfish lasted 13 years, he went through a lot of stages and looks (dont we all), but he was the same fish.

(bit like Triggers broom)

Dont subscribe to this "teacH them about death" nonsense, not at 4 years old, plenty of time later on for them to experience heartache and sadness, let them hang on to their innocence as long as practically possible ;)
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Good thinking, never thought of that. He is away at grandparents this weekend, if the fish can hang on until Friday you could have done a right good deed there m8:):):)
 
if he starts misbehaving as he gets older, you could always threaten to, er...

fish_called_wanda.jpg
 
jjinit said:
you've just got to replace them with 2 identical ones
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Thats one of the instructions you find on page 1 of the " How to be a successful parent for Novices" manual.

Be prepared to replace them every 6 months or so depending on your aquatic husbandry skills.

I always maintain that Pet Shops only stock goldfish with short expiry dates so that they can boost turnover. Something like the Man Utd away strip.

Like what the feck does the average Joe know about GoldFish??......
 
Bez said:
Thats one of the instructions you find on page 1 of the " How to be a successful parent for Novices" manual.

Be prepared to replace them every 6 months or so depending on your aquatic husbandry skills.

I always maintain that Pet Shops only stock goldfish with short expiry dates so that they can boost turnover. Something like the Man Utd away strip.

Like what the feck does the average Joe know about GoldFish??......
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As a young lad I had goldfish from the fair that lasted for years.

I believe in the olden days the rag & bone man used to give a goldfish in return for old rags, but even I am not old enough to remember that:lol:
 
WeLuvIbiza said:
As a young lad I had goldfish from the fair that lasted for years.
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Back then they made and sold things differently you didnt have the "Throw away" and get the latest bling model attitude that was prevalent in the last decade.

People just looked after possessions better when I was growing up ...although with the current recession biting, they seem to be returning to that idea again.
 
Showed this to a friend who has a marine tank (posh fcuker)

He says it can be related to the water, if you are in a hard water area or high additive area.

Apparently there is an additive you can put in and it gets the Ph level right.


....or just buy replacement fish ;) :lol:
 
we had a pond in our garden and the storks kept swooping down and eating the frogs (or was it the fish? I can't recall) so my Dad just went out and bought a load of plastic creatures to replace them.

Plastic pets = seriously underrated
 
Olly said:
we had a pond in our garden and the storks kept swooping down and eating the frogs (or was it the fish? I can't recall) so my Dad just went out and bought a load of plastic creatures to replace them.

Plastic pets = seriously underrated
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storks?

where did you grow up? it was pesky herons that used to nick our fish :lol:
 
Jam Man said:
Showed this to a friend who has a marine tank (posh fcuker)

He says it can be related to the water, if you are in a hard water area or high additive area.

Apparently there is an additive you can put in and it gets the Ph level right.


....or just buy replacement fish ;) :lol:
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I must be a bad parent:( I never even looked on the interenet to see if there was any cure, simply accepted that we had been sold two duff fish.

We do live in a very hard water area (a kettle only lasts approx 12 months). We did put some stuff in the water originally but will have a quick read up. I would earn bundles of brownie points from err indoors if I save the fish :):)
 
OKAY! herons, then

*I should've paid more attention to those Attenborough videos our permanently hungover teacher would insist on playing in Biology.
 
Olly said:
OKAY! herons, then

*I should've paid more attention to those Attenborough videos our permanently hungover teacher would insist on playing in Biology.
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to be fair, you have family far and wide, so it could have been somewhere exotic :lol:
 
jjinit said:
to be fair, you have family far and wide, so it could have been somewhere exotic :lol:
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twasn't always thus. My yoot in West London was anything but exotic. The most exotic thing in Chiswick is the park around Chiswick House and that was 'apparently' the regular haunt of a flasher ('the Green Man') never seen but much speculated about by us kiddies from 1979-85.

Nowadays I live on a New Cross estate with a Janet Street-Porter dead ringer. Now that is exotic
 
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