What happens when someone gives you a fish for a gift?

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Matt724

Matt724

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jan 19, 2009
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Los Angeles, CA
Like the title says. What does one do when someone gives them a fish as a gift, but you don't have room or it's not compatible with the system you have running or with the fish in the tank?

Like somone gifting a sunset gourami because they saw it at petco and it looked pretty and the only tank you have running is a 60 gallon gar tank?

OR like when someone gives you just one neon tetra to put in your pirahna tank?

OR like when someone buys a baby arowana for your 10 gallon tank?

This has never happened to me because I told my family not to buy me fish ever, but i was thinking it was bound to happen to someone.
 
It really depends on the thoughtfulness and what kind of fish it was. If it was something amazing or a fish that I found cool I would just set something up temporarily until I get it its own tank or something. If I really couldn't keep it, I would just find it a home. I believe once you take something from a pet store then it is your responsibility.
 
How about the story of a mother buying her kid a snakehead, which then turned out the be a arapaima gigas. Lack of research is a killer, unfortunate for the fish.
 
i got 3 bala sharks that way for a 30 gallon and they all lived nearly 5 years before ich took them out
 
That's why I let them know what fishes I'd like before hand :)

For example, my gf likes to celebrate "year anniversaries" so she said we should get each other somethin and she said how about a fish. I said "fine, get me a couple clown loaches" and she said ok. I know exciting story :P

Really though, I don't think it should be done as a surprise, and should only be done if you ask what kind of fish first. I even told my girlfriend "if you get me a fish, pass it by me first so I can tell you what's ok in my aquarium, what won't get eaten, etc."
 
This just happened to me. I spent a lot of time and effort setting up a pretty sweet 10g hookup for my daughter's first tank as a birthday present. All she wanted was a betta, but it is filtered, heated, and has a ton of live plants with good lighting. Well, she must have mentioned something to one of her friends about wanting a fish, because one showed up to her birthday party with a goldfish in a bowl the size of a softball. I have nowhere else to put it, and I'm not spending the money to set up another tank for it, so I plan on taking it back to the store this week. I don't even care if they give me the money for it. If I can't convince them to take it back, then I'll just have to dump it in their tank myself and run away, ninja-style.

I think it's always a bad idea to buy gift items related to a hobby or activity for a person that's REALLY into that activity. Chances are, they're very picky, and they either already have what you got them, or they think the one you bought sucks. The exceptions are things they specifically asked for, or consumable items that you know they will use eventually, eg. golf balls for a golfer, fish food for a fishkeeper (only if you know what brand they use).
 
Along those same lines, I have received bad advise about which fish would be compatible with what I already have in my tank. I buy something that, "Would be great," with what I already had in the tank. And low and behold, the specimen is gone in 48 hours due to other fish eating it, etc.
 
SO you're saying that someone who would make this kind of mistake
would assume that they knew enough to make this decision and
went out and acted on said impulse yet managed to deliver the fish alive

I would let my tanks eat it
/I don't know anyone who would put me in this situation
 
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