When in the quest for new and interesting table decorations for your wedding, you are sure to come across the idea of using goldfish bowls as part of your table centerpiece. In fact, I even bring it up as an option in one of my earlier posts, Wedding Table Decorations. I’ve been to many events where the host or hostess has used goldfish bowls with decorative rocks and mirrors, and it can really be a pretty centerpiece, and quite unique as not many people go this route. However, there are some benefits and downsides to using goldfish bowls that you may want to consider before going out and buying everything you need for this centerpiece.
Why Goldfish Bowls are a Great Idea
There are lots of reasons to choose goldfish bowls while doing your wedding planning for your table centerpieces. The bowls, rocks and fish are relatively inexpensive, and in the end you’ll have a unique living centerpiece. Not only will a goldfish bowl centerpiece be unique to many of the other table centerpieces that your guests have been used to, but having a living goldfish in the bowl will provide your guests with some entertainment watching the fish swim around especially if you have kids at your wedding. But perhaps the best part about using goldfish bowls as table centerpieces it that you can give away the goldfish bowls at the end of the night to your guests. You can put a tag on each goldfish bowl at the table with who the bowl is to go to, or just leave it up to the table about who goes home with the fishbowl. Whatever you choose to do with it, in the end you won’t have a dozen or more goldfish bowls to take care of when you get back.
Why You May Want to Think Twice
When I have been to an event that used goldfish bowls, at times they have been rather disappointing. Goldfish are not typically known to have long lives, and sometimes the goldfish died before the event was over. Call me crazy, but having goldfish floating belly up on your wedding tables could be a bit of a downer. Plus, who wants to take home a dead goldfish? Again, it could just be the goldfish that were bought for the event that I attended, but it is still something to take into consideration when deciding if goldfish bowls are right for your wedding ceremony.
Goldfish bowls can be a charming and unique living centerpiece that your guests will love. Having a table centerpiece that is living can really provide a lot of entertainment for your guests, and is something to consider. If you have any goldfish bowl centerpiece stories, please write and let me know.
Tags: goldfish bowl centerpieces, table centerpieces, Wedding Reception, wedding table decorations
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December 11th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
This sort of thng should be banned. Goldfish are live animals, not decorations. The reason they die in their bowls is because they haven’t got enough oxygen at the surface of the water. Add to this the guests’ contribution of beer slops, crisps and the rest of the bits from a food-table and you have a recipe for certain death. As for giving them to the guests at the end of the event, the chances are that many fish will end up down the toilet. Don’t encourage this kind of “decoration”, it is cruelty, and by advertising in this way, you are perpetuating the cruelty. I have kept goldfish for over forty years, I know what I’m talking about. Chances are you won’t have the nerve to allow this post to go online, but I would seriously advise you to withdraw this kind of article.
December 11th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Chris - Thanks for letting me know how you feel. Why should I not have the ‘nerve’ to post your comment, much less leave a reply? You have your opinion, and I have mine. I do have a few points for my readers to consider before using fish in your weddding table decorations.
1. There are plenty of kinds of fish who will survive in a bowl just fine, such as betas, which are used in many wedding table centerpieces.
2. I am not suggesting being cruel to the fish at the table. If your friends and family are the sort to pour beer and other things into the bowl, then use common sense.
3. You can’t convince me that all goldfish have particularly long life spans. I’ve bought too many fish and had them die in the bag before they crossed my doorstep for me to believe that.
December 13th, 2007 at 12:32 am
This is the cruelest suggestion I have ever heard. Whatever happened to common sense. It seems as if people nowadays need to go one better than everyone else. I agree with Chris (and by the way I don’t know him) in that this should be banned. No living animal should have to be subjected and stressed in this way.
December 13th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
I agree. This is a STUPID suggestion! I was once ignorant and kept my fish in bowls, and I feel horrible to this day about it. NO fish should be kept in bowls, and this INCLUDES bettas. Just because they can survive does not mean the conditions are ideal. Plus, fish are very sensitive to light and noise, as well as jolts. And those will all be quite prevelant at a wedding. Do the fish a favor and care for them as pets and NOT as decorations. I’m with Chris & Rachel. Goldfish need to be taken seriously.
December 17th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Giving away any fish to people who don’t know how to care for them is not a good idea. There’s a lot more to it than putting water in a bowl.
Especially for goldfish since if well cared for they can grow a foot long or more. As you pointed out goldfish are mass produced and not generally in good shape when they reach the store. Giving them to people who don’t know how to care for them makes it almost certain they’ll die.
Bettas can live in uncycled bowls, however, they need to hold at least a gallon and the water needs to be changed to keep ammonia from getting to toxic levels. Heated tanks with good filtration are preferred.
December 24th, 2007 at 8:09 am
Thank you for this article. I am thinking about having a goldfish/beta fish centerpiece at my wedding. I have an empty aquarium which I plan to fill up with these new friends at the end of the event. I think this is a great idea, thank you!
February 15th, 2008 at 9:09 am
I have had several different types of aquariums over the years including fresh and saltwater fish. One of the aquariums I would keep was a pair of Oscars. As some “fish people” will know, Oscars EAT goldfish. These goldfish are even sold as feeders.
We all have different perspectives on how fish should be treated.
BUT……
I’m sure if you could ask some of these “feeder” fish which fate they would prefer…end up in the belly of an Oscar or take a chance on cousin Billy’s bedroom nightstand….I think they would choose the latter.
We’re not talking about Flipper the dolphin here people…keep things in perspective.
February 18th, 2008 at 1:05 am
I am also using fish on some of my tables at my wedding in July and have no problem with it at all. I think the comments about taking fish seriously and etc are a bit overboard… Relax people do you STILL really feel that bad about a fish you put in a bowl 20 years ago??
I love the fish idea I will use them, take them home and remember how great they looked on my wedding night!
February 18th, 2008 at 1:54 am
Thanks James and Stacy for your support.
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I’ve found the comments in this thread interesting, considering I was thinking about using gold fish bowls.
I have heard of a summer wedding where the fish bowls were placed out in the sun on the tables. The water got so hot the fish were jumping out of the bowls and onto the tables. Dead fish at any event would be a turn off for all guests, and an embarrassment to the hosts. Use care with a summer wedding if your tables are in a hot location.
When giving away the fish, to help new pet owners care for their fish, maybe a booklet on the care of gold fish could be given with the gift of the fish. People could read it and then decide if they want the responsibility.
Given the diverse reactions from people on this post, I would hazard a guess that if one were to use gold fish as part of their decor, that a fair portion (maybe even half) of the guests in attendance would feel the same way as some of the people here. In other words, there is a chance that perhaps half your guests would be appalled at your choice of decorations. Food for thought.
February 24th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I think having living, beautiful swimming goldfish as wedding centerpieces is awesome! Our colors are bright pink, yellow and orange. So the orange little fish will coordinate perfectly
There will be A LOT of kids at my wedding in June & they will love them! I’m planning on letting people take them home at the end of the night & including little containers of godfish food for them to take home.
To the people who think it’s cruel… what the hell. Is anyone saying they want to torture them, sacrifice them or in any other way be “mean” to them… no. Get over yourselves. I kept my “feeder” goldfish I won at a fair when I was 7 in a ice cream bucket and it lived for SIX YEARS. Oh and I fed him nerds (the candy)!
March 1st, 2008 at 2:31 am
Does anyone ever think about what flowers go through at a reception? Poor creatures, torn away from their homes and exposed to crowds of people, who might even abuse them. . . no flower should be in a vase.Flowers should not be used for decoration. STOP perpetuating the cruelty!
signed Brooke
President of PETF
People for the Ethical Treatment of Flowers
March 1st, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Chris: I agree totally. With all the things people could use as a centerpiece, I just don’t understand why they would even consider using live animals. Goldfish don’t belong in bowls and they don’t deserve to be sent home with people who don’t know how to care for them. It is animal cruelty.
Also, they need at least 10 gallons of water per goldie and need a filter that moves 10 times the gallons in the tank per hour.
March 1st, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Well, there was no new posting today so I decided to look at some of your archive. I found this article splendid. I hadn’t thought of using Goldfish as a centerpiece but I can now see the appeal. I would be hesitant to have any living creature at my tables. Well to each his own. Great article anyways.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
While I wouldn’t use goldfish at my wedding (as I know someone who had to rush out an hour before his own wedding to but 50 new goldfish) these do make lovely centerpieces and cheap even if you have to buy new fish. As for all of the cruelty comments, unless you are all having 100% vegetarian meals at your weddings, why complain about a few little feeder fish?
March 8th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Maybe treating living things like mere decorations or objects contributes to ther “short” lifespans?? I own over twenty goldfish some well over 10 years old and they still have 20 years left in them. I could NEVER even begin to imagine just tossing them around as “centerpieces” for a day and then forgetting about them completely. This sickens me, to treat another living thing this way(and condone it no less!) with no thought as to their well being at all. At the time slavery was morally accepted as right too!
Another thing, a bowl is in NO WAY a suitable home for a goldfish. You could live in a port a potty your entire life if someone dropped by to give you food once in a while but it would be a short, miserable, tortured life.
Your goldfish could easily outlive 2 or 3 of your dogs so why not invest a little time doing research to learn how to care for him properly instead of falling for cons like this? The fish DIE because this is not a good idea, not because they have a 2 day lifespan. Think about it, how would they ever survive as a species if they all died within days?
March 8th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
[You can’t convince me that all goldfish have particularly long life spans. I’ve bought too many fish and had them die in the bag before they crossed my doorstep for me to believe that.]
wow, that is a astoundingly ignorant statement. Don’t you consider where the fish come from and that they are starved, stressed, and injured nearly 100% of the time, have changed hands 2 or 3 other times and have logged more air time on an airplane then you probably have by the time you see them in the pet store display tanks? All that trauma and only a few weeks old, that would be enough to kill nearly any human baby only a month old.
I have never had a goldfish die younger then ten years on me, I think that speaks volumes about YOU more then it does about the lifespans of the fish.
Also, bettas in bowls? They are tropical fish from the equator and even 3 years in a bowl is a short life. they can easily live 5 to 8 years or more if kept properly.
March 11th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I am a fish lover and have been keeping goldfish for many years. I am being married this summer and plan to purchase one goldfish for each of the 10 tables for the reception. They will be in the large vases for a few hours (max) and then they will be brought to my home and placed into the very large pond in my yard.
I do agree that people need to treat fish as living creatures rather than disposable decorations but I think that some of the posts are a little over the top and judgemental. People need to relax a bit; there are more pressing issues out there.
March 15th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Thats a great idea. I will do it at my wedding too!
March 29th, 2008 at 2:54 am
I really don’t think it’s a problem to have the fish in the vases for the wedding. What alot of people don’t realize is that alot of the fish die in the store as well. So I think why not give them a few more fun hours of life looking at fun human faces through a bowl, instead of a shelf!
April 20th, 2008 at 1:08 am
I am considering using Goldfish in a bowl as a centerpiece. Can I put some flowers in bowl with fish and have a dish that fits loosely on top with a candle? I do not want to harm the fish. This will be used inside not outside.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:12 pm
It is sad and unfortunate that so many people see goldfish as disposable pets or cheap decorations. They are smarter than people give them credit for and can live long lives (20+ years) when properly cared for. Goldfish die in bowls due to lack of aeration and because they constantly produce ammonia, which quickly builds up to a toxic level in such a tiny space. Such a small volume of water is also more vulnerable to temperature fluctuations. As Betty said above, they require at least 10 (preferably 15-20) gallons per fish to even stand a chance. I strongly urge anyone who is considering live fish as decorations to have some compassion and find something else.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I am considering using Goldfish in a bowl as a centerpiece. Can I put some flowers in the bowl with the fish ? If so, what kind?
May 12th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I think you can put a few flowers into the bowl without harming the fish, just be sure not to use a large bouquet so the fish still has room to swim around. Another thought is to get a few blooms and let them float on top of the water.
May 29th, 2008 at 3:17 am
You people are CRAZY! What I don’t understand is that people who use the fish as “centerpieces” are using them because of their beauty. Those of you who are posting saying that this is animal cruelty should get a life! You apparently have nothing else to gripe about. The centerpieces are for decoration and the “awe” factor. Why else would anyone have fish but to enjoy their beauty.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:57 pm
This is a great idea, and I will be doing this at my wedding reception in August!
Some of you people need to settle down and find a REAL issue to get so worked up about! Goldfish will look beautiful as a centerpiece!
July 4th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
WOW! I’m not the type to respond to something like this, but people, there are worse things in this world besides using goldfish for decorations. It’s not like you can cuddle with them or teach them to play fetch or roll over, can’t use them in place of a seeing eye dog. If they are not appropriate for wedding decorations, then WHAT makes them appropriate for HOUSE decorations? I too have owned fish and love to watch them, but was not that overcome with sadness when we lost them. My son is getting married and we plan to use some type of fish for his decorations as he is a very avid outdoorsman. Where I come from we EAT Bambi and Bossie the Cow, and we use small fish for BAIT!! I was quite excited to find this great website for ideas. And by the way, it’s kinda like a TV show, if you don’t like what’s on it - SHUT IT OFF !!