With the UK’s largest aquatic retailer removing them from sale, what does the future hold for the humble goldfish?
RECENTLY I LEARNED that Pets At Home has removed goldfish and fancy goldfish from sale, with one customer telling me the reason was that they “were too messy.” Those who want ‘coldwater’ fish in unheated aquaria can still buy temperate species like zebra danios and White Cloud Mountain minnows, and even feed them now with Tetra Temperate Flake food. Small, hardy species like those are better in many ways for smaller unheated aquaria, but where does that leave the world’s longest domesticated fish? And is it a good or a bad thing that they are now available in 400 fewer aquatic stores than before?
I’ve specialised in many areas of aquatics throughout my life from cichlids and plants, to oddballs, koi and marine, but goldfish have always been there in the background, for all of my 45 years of age. My parents kept goldfish and tropicals in two tanks when I was younger, followed by a goldfish pond, and goldfish were both my first fish 40 years ago as well as now, gracing my pond as I write this today.
To me, goldfish are as normal and everyday as a cup of tea and a slice of toast, fish and chips, or cornflakes. They may be Chinese in origin but they are also somewhat of a British institutional pet, with nearly everyone keeping a goldfish somehow in at least part of their lives. We even give them out at fairs! What other animal is an actual prize? I won’t patronise by talking about how wrong that it is and that it still goes on, but rightly or wrongly, that was many people’s first experience of owning a pet.
With fairs dying out, and thankfully goldfish as prizes, that is one avenue now shutting down to new fishkeepers, but Pets at Home not selling them either represents a paradigm shift in the hobby of goldfish keeping, and one that stretches back hundreds of years.
So, what’s are the problems with goldfish?
The ‘big’ issue
Size is the first problem, as goldfish are, after all, just barbel-less carp, capable of growing to 45cm in length and several kilograms in weight. Goldfish bowls are and never were suitable homes for them, but as the message about size spreads through the internet, it would seem that few average indoor aquaria are suitable for them either.
From experience I’m going to state that most goldfish average a body length of 20cm (not including fins),
