> When you are a hobbyist who is on the end of the chain, you really don't
 > have any say in who your local pet store chooses to purchase their fish
 > stock from. If you happen to live in a small town where there may only be
 > one or two pet stores at best, that limits your selection even further.

Yes, definately true.  In Sasebo we had a choice of fantail or comet
goldfish.  No guppies, nothing else.  Not in walking distance anyways!

They were however, healthy.  Wait, I forgot, they had male betas sometimes
but that's not my style really.

 > Concerning goldfish, they eat a lot, and they crap a lot. While I find some
 > of them pretty and interesting, I am just not a goldfish fan, I guess.

I had a goldfish my mom got me when I was 12.  I gifted her to a friend when
I was 23 and left for the Navy.

I had them again off an on for 15 years then swapped at last to a full
commumity tank (mostly placid sorts).  A goldfish would be fine in the tank
now with the others, but they tend to get rather large and my tank isnt
really optimal for them due to it's odd shape.

It's an older style you don't see much of now.  Earlier use was a saltwater
reef tank.  Type is called a 70'GT' (70G, but taller and less deep from front
to back).  Side to side it's about same as a 110G tank but it's only 10.5
inches front to back.  Those landscape backgrounds arent big enough as it's
too tall to fit the standard ones.

Thank goodness it survived storage while we were in Japan!  It's not a
replacable unit.
    xxcarol
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