Hogeeze…We’ve had Shimmer for gosh, has to be more than 10 years now? (The kids think he’s no older than 8, but I KNOW we got him when they were in kindergarten, so…)

I keep expecting him to go belly up any day, and I’m not that good about keeping his water clean (need a better filter, but do I really want to invest more in him?) and yet he hangs in there. Beautiful fins and even follows your finger up and down the glass. I swear he knows when I’m talking to him.

He was just a feeder, but he’s outlived most of my pets of recent years!

Kark? *snicker* You Aussies have some cool slang, I think I’ve got a book around here full of Oz-isms somewhere…. ^_^

I won a goldfish once on the boardwalk (you know those games where you throw a ball in a jar and win a fish) and it was gray. Out of all the goldfish I got a gray one. But I absolutely loved him! Well over the course of a few months the gray started like chipping away and he turned the prettiest orangish-gold color ever!!! He lived for about 4 years I would guess but he was in a tank with a few others also. I always thought those boardwalk fish were lucky if they lived through the walk to the car lol. But lucky me got to enjoy him for a few years

Well in Japan they have a 125 year old koi which is related to a goldfish. He lives in the wild though……Average lifespan of fancy goldfish is 10 years. Feeder gold fish or common live shorter time.

we have a goldfish who is 12 years, we had one who was 14 years old but he died 2 days ago. So you have a while to go yet!

Yes, goldfish will reach 12-24 ” in length and live for over 30 years. As an adult, they need a 55 gallon tank and a very powerful filtration system.

we had 2 goldfish who picked on each other, so we took the one out who was picking on the other and kept him seperate for a week, put him back in and he was fine? weird huh? same fish but now they like each other? lol

hahah K&D my uncle used to tease and joke with me about the memory spans of animals, it was like a contest to see what animals had better memories than him (he calls me by his daughters name… when he remembers it lol and can’t remember anything else but we love him) he used to tell me that gold fish only have a 3 second memory so he would forever be better than a gold fish… your story made me think of that. A week would be like years to a goldfish they probably forgot who each other were! I don’t know how long fish actually remember something… but I litterally did laugh out loud thinking about what they’d say when they re-met… I have no life and now the person beside me at work thinks I’m a little more crazy but it was worth it!

haha aww i guess they wouldnt remember each other!

Fish story. I had a Beta. I changed his water and filled it pretty high. I had not figured out a name for him as I had him 3 days. I had gone out. When I came back he has jumped out of his bowl and died. Darn fish committed suicide. So I named the poor thing Drop Dead Fred. You knwo that movie? Anyway I got another and did not fill the water that high again. He lived 3 years.  That fish did try to jump out on me and I had to let some water out then I learned how high I could go with it. So he couldn’t up and get suicidal on me again.

AS my aunt doodle says her trees she can’t grow nothing they just up and commit suicide on her.

No fish, and I mean no fish, should ever be kept in a tank with no lid. Fish jump. It’s a natural behaviour. Always have some kind of cover on your tank.

Years ago I had an elephant fish jump out of my tank. It had a lid on, with cutout holes for the filter/heater etc. There wasn’t much space where he could jump out but he managed to anyway! Looked all over for him and didn’t find him until we moved and there he was, wedged between the table the tank was on and the piece of furniture next to it.
– Annette

Yes, there are some fish who can get out of the smallest holes…it is quite incredible.

i have a fish tank for my gerbils, which has a big space at the back which is ok for my gerbils because they cant reach that high but for fish i thought ‘how odd to put such a big gap at the back surely a fish could get out there?’ bit silly really

K&D, that big space at the back might be for the filter. There are some filters that are under the gravel type ones, and then some that are like boxes that hang on the outside of the tank. Unless the big space is the entire length of the tank, in which case possibly it’s where the light would go?

We’ve got 2 shubunkins in the tank downstairs, and will be putting guppies in the upstairs tank as soon as I find some I like. Right now it’s filled and running with no occupants!
– Annette

it is the entire length of the tank but its not for the light because the fitting is on the roof of the lid, so dont know what its for, there is a bit at one end which is a larger gap, i assume thats for the filter dont know what the rest is, i would love a big tropical tank!

I also had a beta jump from his bowl while I was at school. I came home to find my little sweetie lying on the floor, dry and stiff. It broke my heart. I asked my dad about it (since he was home all day and would go by my room several times) and he said he had no idea how it happened (because I couldn’t believe he would’ve just jumped to his death without provocation) and he was totally unsympathetic. Cured me of ever wanting a fish again.

So Shims is my son’s fish. But I do all his care. Go figure.