armadillo

Hi guys

I think all this fish talk is getting my dad thinking that he'd like fish again but as, when I was little, he was the primary carer to the fish, he's still got a nasty taste (no pun intended) in his mouth. So he just told me that he wanted a goldfish in a bowl. I told him to please not have his goldfish in a bowl and he just won't take no for an answer. He's under the impression that goldfish is really low maintenance - which it kind of is, but you still need to vaccuum and do water changes weekly and you need to use conditionned water and you need a reasonably big tank - none of these things he is ready to do.

Any suggestion for a fish that is really really really low maintenance so I can steer him clear of that goldfish idea?

Chief_waterchanger

Is he on a well or a municipality's water supply?
Is his water naturally hard or soft?
What is his average pH?

When Dino was teaching me about fishkeeping one of the first lessons was about keeping fish that thrive in the water you have normally. It cuts down lots of maintenance, and keeps the water as close to natural as possible. (Not having to pump it with the chemicals.)

Perhaps if we can find fish that thrive in your dad's water perameters, and if he keeps the tank well UNDERstocked with enough plants he might be able to loosen up on the length between water changes.

Lol, try to convince him a heavily planted tank with few fish makes for AWESOME games of hide-and-seek, which the fish love.

Callum The Cat

Wolfman

Three spot gourami they are great fish will eat anything in the tank there water conditions only need to be wet

Tazmiche

why not a female betta? one tank, one fish, she will interact with him( so he will see the point in fish keeping) and not the constant finrot worry!

Wolfgang8810

gouramis are good mine interacts with me and is basicly a tank when it comes to water conditions

Sabi

I'll second that! Even if its not heavily planted, having fish that can live with what type of water he has is a good option and will make maintenance easier.

alan l

white cloud

armadillo

Good questions these, and good points. Never thought of it that way (for low maintenance, look at fish that are real close to your average parameters).

I'll bring my test kit next week to test their tap water.

armadillo

Thanks you guys and gals. All very good suggestions. I'll mull it over and then try to approach him.

COBettaCouple

remember the stuff-a-person-in-a-box technique. or just put 100 people in his living room.

Neville

Low maintenance fish for a fishbowl is deffinitely Guppy.

armadillo

Oh yeah, good one. Doesn't help that my cousin has this really happy 9 yr old goldfish in a tiny fishbowl and I have to admit, he looks happy! Argh!

Kevin

what about a 5 gal. with some ghost shrimp and guppies/female betta ?

COBettaCouple

wave a couple of fish sticks in front of him and wipe that smirk right off his little face!