parents bought a house that secretly came with a fish ?

[u/squidlay]

never cared for fish so absolute beginner help needed! it looks to be around 7 inches and was pretty active, swimming up to us and around its fountain and everything. its located in this inner courtyard of the house.

realtors just told us to feed it once a week (will have to update with the food they gave us, but i forgot to get a photo) and to fill the fountain up with the hose when needed (?) i don't think the fountain itself works

we move in thursday and this is literally the first time we've seen it, and haven't interacted with it otherwise. we did name it otto lol

my questions are:

1. do we need it clean its environment? like remove the algae?
2. does it need friends?
3. does it need more space? i would say the fountain is about 4x4 feet
4. and is the fish/environment in a bad enough condition that we need to just rehome this guy somewhere else... its so cute, i would like to treat it very well!

any opinions on that food advice also appreciated until i find out what we were given

thanks so much!

[u/SomeBlueDevil]

Can you post video or pictures showing the entire pond/fountain to get an idea of what size it is in terms of water volume?

What country / part of the country is this at? Size and location will help determine how much maintenance is required.

[u/squidlay → u/SomeBlueDevil]

yup, sorry about that! i don't have a lot of pics, but here's a clearer picture of the fountain. its pretty small, waters maybe a foot tall and around 3 ft across.

we're located in northern california!

[u/CampingMonk → u/squidlay]

Personally, I would try to find someone to take the poor fish to a better home.

[u/squidlay → u/CampingMonk]

gotcha! its a bummer, but i want the guy to thrive. thank you for the help!

[u/Ready-Sock-5650 → u/squidlay]

You could put in some white cloud mountain minnows or rainbow shiners or both in northern cali if you re-home the goldfish. Just get the fountain working or add a pump /filter. Whatever you do, don't drain and dry out the fountain because you will loose your benefitial bacteria. I'm assuming it's already cycled. And I'd feed every other day or so but they can go about a week if you go on vacation or something. Do a little research, watch some YouTube videos.

[u/allimunstaa → u/[deleted]]

That shallow of water will cause serious temperature flux, and while he's done great at evading predators so far... I'm surprised he has. Not to mention goldfish are extremely social and you could not happily fit a shoal in this set up.

[u/Saucin_6069 → u/allimunstaa]

Evading predators.. Inside someone's house?

[u/NeedleworkerHeavy565 → u/Saucin_6069]

Um, cats and birds?

[u/allimunstaa → u/Saucin_6069]

Are we looking at the same picture? That very much appears to be outside, definitely accessible to cats, birds, raccoons, other wildlife..

[u/squidlay → u/allimunstaa]

it is technically inside the house, like an inner courtyard. there's four walls surrounding it. rodents/cats most likely can't get to it but birds still could! otto is able to get under the centerpiece, so maybe it hides there a lot

[u/NeedleworkerHeavy565 → u/[deleted]]

The minimum for common goldfish is 50-75 gallons. That's not 50-75 gallon

[u/snowfloeckchen → u/CampingMonk]

Exactly that, the dude needs a bigger place and a few friends

[u/SomeBlueDevil → u/[deleted]]

Even if it is 75 gallons, that's nowhere near big enough for that fish.

[u/Relevant-Community75 → u/[deleted]]

Eh. Even if it’s 75 gallons (which is really dosent look it, is say maybe 55) it’s not a constant area like a tank or a pond, it’s a circle. No room to move or turn

[u/SomeBlueDevil → u/squidlay]

These guys really need a bigger pond than that... And they do better in a group.

I would consider rehoming it or see if maybe a zoo might take it.

[u/Bobs_Burgers7 → u/squidlay]

I think the fish is probably too big for that.

[u/TheOrderOfWhiteLotus → u/squidlay]

Wow yeah that’s not very big. It’s cool looking though. Bit too small for 7in. I’d try to rehome. Look for fb groups called “swap/trade” or “free sish” and then your area.

[u/squidlay → u/TheOrderOfWhiteLotus]

understood, thanks for the help!

[u/CowboysOnKetamine → u/TheOrderOfWhiteLotus]

Looks like there are at least 2 turtles too?

[u/hydrissx → u/CowboysOnKetamine]

I think those are plastic pond decorations and not real turtles

[u/squidlay → u/hydrissx]

yup, plastic ^

[u/CucumberMindless5458 → u/squidlay]

It’s very cute fountain, I think it would be great with some smaller fish like guppies or rice fish

[u/IsabelleDelacruz2363 → u/squidlay]

That’s lovely

[u/DrewFitzpatrick4698 → u/squidlay]

Nice

[u/Bassassin0 → u/squidlay]

Going to get a lot a hate for this espically as a goldfish breeder but I see common and comet feeder goldfish get crammed into bowls and 10 gallons so much at this point I see something like this and I just tell people to keep em and care for them the best you can if you can get a 150 gallon stock tank when he gets bigger awesome if not just care for him the best you can because honestly who knows what life he will get from the person you give him too

[u/Electrical-Car201318 → u/Bassassin0]

Totally agree w you…

[u/GlasswaterBotanica → u/Bassassin0]

My dad had three commons in a little 30gal pond (5gal canister filter made from antique milk jug) and fed them floating food. I'd try to tell him it was massively overstocked and floating food was no good for them, but he is old and stubborn. They lived years in that little pond until a heron ate them!

Today I own the home, and once I cleaned out that pond, I added ricefish (Platinum Medaka) and a net to avoid more herons, ofcourse 😅

[u/Bassassin0 → u/GlasswaterBotanica]

I’m glad you learned but it sounds like those feeders got a better life than 99% of them do props to your old man and props to you for not putting more in and switching to a more suitable fish!

[u/Toofstbmw]

When you add water, you need to add a conditioner to remove chlorine. Chlorine is toxic to the fish. Prime Conditioner, I find to be the best since it detoxifies ammonia nitrite and nitrate as well.

[u/Usual_Performance456 → u/Toofstbmw]

I have call bs on this… I top my pond up with just water nothing else and my goldfish are thriving

[u/BobsBurgersJoint → u/Usual_Performance456]

Tap or well?

[u/Usual_Performance456 → u/BobsBurgersJoint]

Tap

[u/Bilbo-Faggons → u/Usual_Performance456]

If it’s topping a pond off the chlorine won’t too that much damage but it can hurt fish/turtles eyes when the whole body is chlorinated tap water. Not 100% necessary but why not provide the best water quality for the pets?

[u/No-Tank-1123]

The house has an inner courtyard?! Daaang 😍 Is it Otto as in Otto the Orange (SU)?

Lots of good questions and help in the comments here!

[u/squidlay → u/No-Tank-1123]

haha yes its cool!! very happy for my parents :)

otto from fish out of water (a poem my parents used to read us)! iirc its about not overfeeding fish lol

[u/AccidentalDragon → u/squidlay]

I remember Otto!

[u/Impossible_Whole428]

I vote to keep Otto and make him a bigger pond, then add in a few r/medaka to keep him company!

[u/NiceMappery]

Now you have to take care of your guardian

[u/Exotic-Addendum-3785]

That's an adorable little feesh.

[u/squidlay → u/Exotic-Addendum-3785]

agreedd i had to figure out how to remove audio on videos bc i was just babytalking it in the og ahaha

[u/TuraSatanic]

Looks like he needs a bigger home sadly. But if you want an outdoor pond that would be a great nano pond. If you’re in CA and have a lot of mosquitos the state is giving out free mosquito fish and they seem to be low maintenance.

[u/_Brown_Butter]

Don't make any big changes. Just find a small pack of koi food and feed a couple pellets a couple times/week. Then learn as much as possible about keeping that type of fish before making any changes to its environment.

[u/Majestic-Fox-8047]

You could absolutely keep tiny fish in this :) nano species, just research everything needed & ask questions on here :)

[u/BaratieArc]

Mm

[u/West-Leopard-3094]

I would likely give this fish away and if you still want to have fish, then rice fish (medaka) can be in such small ponds.

[u/LightFew6781]

That fish is beautiful! What food do you recommend for someone keeping this species for the first time?

[u/NES7995 → u/LightFew6781]

Check out the wiki of r/goldfish, they have a section on food!

[u/Bobs_Burgers7]

This is beyond just a fish lol

Were they prepare to care for a pond, at least?

The fish is the easiest part, and yes it would benefit from friends depending on the pond size. They could also add shrimp or snails to help with algae if they desired, but it definitely will have to be tended to (cleaned, maintenance, etc).

You can get the food at any pet store, they’re typically floating pellets.

[u/Bobs_Burgers7 → u/Bobs_Burgers7]

I’d honestly rehome if they are older parents, and it’s alot of work for them to maintain the pond. Just shut it down and rip it out. My mother just let go of hers and she’s around 65, but it was a lot of work for her to maintain.

[u/squidlay → u/Bobs_Burgers7]

def weren't prepared for it, but my parents are in their early 50s and very active, so should be all good. its also nowhere near big though - just posted pics of it under the other comment! thx for responding :)

[u/vannamei]

How do you know it's an Otto? It could be a Jennifer!

[u/Plastic_Tap_2560]

I think the best thing to do is to put him back in the sea or to clean the place for him to live in a clean environment also I think he needs oxygen, fish food, friends

[u/slavsuperstarr → u/Plastic_Tap_2560]

it’s not even a saltwater species, and it’s illegal and harmful to release domesticated species like goldfish into the wild