So, I got a black moor goldfish about a month back. We named him Denzel. I was keeping him in a 2.5 gallon glass bowl. I bought some nice burgundy beads to go on the bottom--really pretty up against the velvety blackness of the fish--but they were acrylic, so it didn't take very much for them to float to the top. Denzel was entertaining himself by shnuffling through the beads at the bottom to make them float, and then poking them around at the top until they sank back down again.

I watching fish.

After a couple of days, the floating beads were really starting irritate me, so I bought myself three packs of flat glass marbles. They were a mix of red and white, which I didn't want (solid colors are more striking, I think), but I planned to pick out the red ones and just use the white. But there still wasn't enough, so I put in the red ones, too. My brother said the white ones looked like Mentos and the red ones looked like red blood cells.

Curses.

After having kept Denzel in his bowl for a week or so, I decided to clean the thing. I didn't have a net small enough to fit past the opening of the bowl, so I used a smaller bowl to scoop him out. He sat in that bowl for about five minutes, while I changed the water and rinsed out the rocks.

The more research I did on goldfish bowls, the more I read that keeping a goldfish in a bowl is a bad idea--at least, that's what all the pretentious fish people on the internet were saying. The arguments against it are many. A bowl is not filtered, it's too small, and it requires constant cleaning. Most people agreed that a 1 inch goldfish would need at least 10 gallons.

I saw fit to ignore them.

I had planned on cleaning the bowl about once a week. Then I started cleaning it every two or three days. Then every other day. Poor Denzel still couldn't breathe. His fins were clamped at his sides and he spent most of his time gaping at the surface for air. Then his skin started turning a filmy blue color. He threw little tantrums, wriggling all over the place before sinking to the bottom to catch his breath. The water quality was just not livable no matter what I did. The fact that the cat liked to drink out of the bowl probably didn't help any.

I found it interesting, though, that the cat never once bothered the fish. When Denzel went up to the surface to see what all the commotion was about, the cat would recoil as if she'd never seen a fish before. I thought for sure she would've eaten him, but she seemed more interested in the water and the fish food than the fish itself.

The bowl was not a good choice. So, I moved him out into the pond which houses about ten other goldfish. He spent a couple of days exploring his new home and then he started schooling with the other goldfish. The pond is about 800-900 gallons. The biggest fish is a comet about 7-8 inches long. I think he should have plenty of room there.

Oh, and apparently the goldfish in the pond are spawning. There's a slew of little tiny things that flicker past the spotlights at night. There's one little fish in particular (we call him "Freckles" because he has little black spots on his face) that has grown big enough to start schooling with the bigger fish.

Denzel is much happier in the pond. His skin is clearing up and he doesn't throw tantrums anymore. He and Freckles are buddies now.

I'm sure that if you've done any kind of research on goldfish, you've heard that they should never be put in a bowl. It's true, I can tell you from personal experience. I won't be doing that again.

On that note, I have an empty bowl and a bunch 'o rocks lying around. I was thinking of putting something other than a goldfish in the bowl. Something smaller and less messy. I'll look around I guess.