Although raising goldfish seems like an effortless hobby to some people, they still require a lot of manpower and time in order to keep healthy, long living fish. Goldfish are considered by many people to be short-lived animals, but they are capable of living for as long as 48 years.
There are a lot of factors involved with keeping them alive for a very long time, and one of these factors is the concept of keeping goldfish in a bowl.
A fish tank and a fish bowl are both made for the sole purpose of providing shelter for your goldfish, but which of these are you going to use? Even if you have just one pet fish, you should still give your goldfish the most comfortable place it can live, and that is a fish tank. Large aquariums can offer high quality of life for fish living in them. It is not that a fish bowl is all bad for the fish, but there are certain disadvantages when using them as fish shelters.
For one, a fish or two, living inside a fish bowl, can outgrow the size of the bowl, over time. Before you know it, you will have to transfer them into a bigger container. It would be more economical to buy a large aquarium at the very beginning.
Also, a fish bowl only offers a limited amount of space. Remember, that it is not only the number and size of the fish to consider when purchasing a home for goldfish. You also need to think about the amount of space allotted for the fish’s swimming, and the space where oxygen can enter from the water’s surface. With a smaller amount of free space in which your goldfish can move, as is the case with fish bowls, the amount of oxygen the fish would be able to intake is also decreased. Your fish won’t be very happy living in such a small and limited space. Also, the small space provided by fish bowls means you need to change the water daily.
Aquariums offer benefits a mere fish bowl cannot, even if you plan on having only one goldfish. In order to offer a sufficient amount of space for your goldfish, you want to consider the size of the tank. For a single fish in a tank, there should be 2030 gallons (75115 liters) of water inside the aquarium as primary shelter for the fish. You should add another 10 gallons (38 liters) for every additional goldfish added to the tank. This way, they have room to grow as much as they can, there is lots of room for them to excrete their waste, and they still have enough space to swim their way to happiness.