Pets to help ASD...

Post Reply New Topic

Fish are wonderful, but GOLDFISH ARE OFTEN RECOMMENDED TO BEGINNERS DESPITE NOT BEING A GOOD BEGINNER FISH. Can you provide 5-10 gallons for the next couple of years, then (depending on breed) possibly upgrade to a 50-gal? (Some of them get to be a foot long and live over twenty years. Fancies are less healthy and bred to be stunted, so they're likely to die young.) And that's being generous and assuming you're providing your goldfish's social life. If not, you'll want goldfish friends, but two will fight and three will lead to two-against-one, so you'll want at least four, at up to 50 gallons per fish... Fast fact: any inch-long year-old goldfish is a baby. Yep. All those goldfish that died after six months were babies.

Test your water. If you have soft, acidic (generally a pH of 6-7) water, look into the hardier small tetras. Some people recommend neons and some don't; there are plenty of colorful alternatives. If your water is more basic and harder (generally a pH of 7-8), then you can consider goldfish, among others. If your water is extremely basic (up to 8.5), the only things I can recommend are water beetles from the family dytiscidae and cichlids from the African Rift Lakes, the former being small and cute (and vicious and capable of flight), the latter being a popular category of fish. Messing with your water parameters is for experts.

Acclimation should be gradual. Depending on species, the requirements can be quite strict. It's possible to acclimate too quickly, but much harder to acclimate too slowly. Float the bag in the tank for fifteen minutes, then add water from the tank to the bag (and take water out of the bag but don't put it into the tank) in increments of 1/4 of the amount of water in the bag every subsequent fifteen minutes till it's mostly tank water. Then net the fish out of the bag and release in the tank. Dispose of the water from the bag. This is the minimal, quick procedure for hardy fish. Want to keep something delicate like cardinal tetras? You're looking at a whole day. At this stage just don't even worry about saltwater. Stick to fresh or brackish.

Unless they've been bred to be round, fish should not have huge bellies. Feed whatever they'll eat quickly without spitting out. Fish can go for a very long time without food. If it's eaten this week and its belly isn't sunken, it's not in immediate danger of starvation. Feed six or seven days a week, depending on the type of fish and the type of food. Feed more than one type of food on a rotating schedule. Goldfish like plant-based foods, but are omnivorous.

One good choice for a beginner is a betta fish. One male in at least a gallon of water, as long as the room never drops much below 70 degrees Farenheit. If it does, though, you'll need a heater, bumping your minimum up to five gallons, more is safer.

Tanks should always be covered, but there should be space beneath the lid for gas exchange and for certain fish (bettas, corydoras, gouramis, etc.) to breathe. (If a goldfish is gulping air that's because it's suffocating.) The tank should have plenty of surface area exposed to air.

But don't get your fish from a pet store. A rule of thumb for small tropical fish is one inch of fish per gallon of water (one inch of goldfish per five gallons is imprecise but yields acceptable results; don't even try this with other fish that grow to anything over half a foot, or fish that like cold water). Note that danios require more because they need at least 30 inches to swim, but you can keep schools. Fish stores are allowed to go to 2-3 times that (they're not meant as a permanent home) as long as the water is clear and the fish have their fins unfurled. The fish should swim around. They should not have open sores. If a fish's color is very impressive and looks very vibrant, go home, research what that species is supposed to look like. Why? It might be dyed. If it is, boycott the store. (Fish that look too good to be true often are. Some, however, are natural, so if you like color, there are good choices: Endler's livebearer, bettas, neon tetras, cardinal tetras, a handful of other tetras whose names I've forgotten, electric blue cichlids, electric yellow cichlids. Fish that have been subjected to cruelty include BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO painted glassfish and purple heart cichlids. I'd explain what happens to these fish, but there might be children reading.) And this is common sense, but go someplace with polite, knowledgeable staff.

I can all but guarantee that the local outlet of any big chain pet store fails at one or more of these. Look for small, independent stores where you can look the owner in the eye. (Unless you're an Aspie. I don't advise you to stare at the white-hot, blindingly-painful awfulness that will be the owner's eyes if it hurts you.)

Fish should never be an impulse buy. Research your species carefully. Cycle your tank. Google is your friend. Books are your friend. Wetwebmedia.com is your friend. Aquariumadvice.com is your friend. The staff at your local store are con artists until proven otherwise. The advice in this post is insufficient. Temperature and pH requirements are rules. Breaking them means death.

This post is not enough. This post barely scratches the surface. For your chosen species, you'll want to know:
pH and temperature requirements
Cover preferences (usually you'll do fine just including a LOT of hiding places everywhere)
Diet
Social behavior (do they school? Do they fight each other?)
Maximum adult size
Compatible tankmates (no fish in your tank should fit in another's mouth)

And have a spare small tank with no decorations, 1-5 gallons, for quarantine. Google it.

And a short list of some but NOT ALL or even most of the things you should avoid:
Feeder goldfish
Feeder any kind of fish you didn't breed and raise yourself
Bowls under 1 gallon (as a beginner just avoid them; after you have some time under your belt, you'll find that they have very limited use in a couple of situations where you're doing daily maintenance)
Chinese algae eater (Siamese algae eater is different and probably okay in some circumstances, but the CAE grows to be huge and likes to kill its tankmates)
"Fancy" goldfish (ryukin, celestial eye, etc.) with regular goldfish (common, comet, shubunkin)

THIS POST IS NOT ENOUGH INFORMATION. If you want to keep fish, do more research. For bettas (my recommendation for a beginner-- colorful, small, cheap), stop by bettatalk.com to read up.

I hear corn snakes and rosie boas make wonderful beginner snakes. Ball/carpet pythons are reccomended but they can get quite big.

I was never crazy about fish because you can't play with them but then I couldn't play with my hermit crabs and I loved them.

What about a rabbit?

Rabbits are up for discussion as are guinea pigs...but I am often allergic to furry animals. Thank you for the smaller snake suggestions: I like the idea of a Ball Python but we don't have much space. We've considered hermit crabs as well, as maybe an interim step.

DS's pair of (plain) goldfish have lived happily in their cheapo simple plastic tank with an air bubbler for a year and a half. We do buy new plants periodically and rearrange them when we change the water; they seem to appreciate new places to play.

Some fish can be played with, for certain definitions of "play" that take into account that rough, dry human skin is a bad thing for them to touch. The very big ones can know who you are, but they're nothing a beginner should be keeping in an indoor tank.

How big is the cheapo plastic tank? They aren't sold in the sizes you'll need if your goldfish live to maturity. We're looking at nano-tanks, five gallons and down, here, unless you meant acrylic, which is what you'll want to upgrade to in the next year or two. Remember, a goldfish shorter than your finger is not fully grown. A year and a half is pretty standard for goldfish kept with good intentions but little knowledge, maybe a little on the long side (congratulations). Are you doing routine water changes? Is there a filter? Do you ever see them gasp for air?

We do have the little five-gallon acrylic tank, and do routine water changes somewhere slightly more than weekly (partial a few times, and then a complete change and scrub-out about every month and a half. They also have quite a small forest of various aquatic plants, so beyond the bubble stone they've got help there with the oxygen.

The fish do interact, they "beg" for food, and will follow your finger if you wiggle it outside the tank. They would probably "kiss" DS, but he's bothered by the sensation. If they need more room I don't mind the upgrade, but they haven't gotten much bigger than they were when we bought them (they're really what you call "feeder fish," the inexpensive, plain kind you buy to feed aquatic snakes.)

I recently heard that guinea pigs are better pets for children (if you plan to get a rodent), as they are much more docile and rarely tend to bite. If you do get a hamster, be very careful about the breed. Teddy Bear hamsters are cute, but they almost always have a bad temperament.

Thought I already replied to this...

"Feeder" goldfish are almost certainly common goldfish, sold, like most goldfish, as juveniles. That they haven't gotten any bigger could indicate, in order of plausibility, that:
1. Their growth is stunted
2. Your definition of "haven't gotten much bigger," taken over only a year and a half, is a normal growth rate and you just need to wait
3. These two are naturally runty
4. You somehow mistook another type of fish for goldfish

And it could probably be something else, too, or a combination of a few factors. I'm not really qualified to opine.

Good for you changing the water. For tropical fish that size in that much space, that would be almost perfect except for one thing I'll get into in a sec, but your goldfish are overcrowded and need a LOT of water changes. Like, daily, for this size of tank. I honestly recommend upgrading now-- even if you've got runts, you're doing a dangerous balancing act. My recommendation would be what's called a twenty-gallon long. That's a tank which, if filled completely with just water, would hold twenty gallons (so, with plants, fish, a gap below the lid, etc., it'll be more like sixteen or less depending on how many plants you're calling a "forest"), and is long. (They sell twenty-gallon tanks that are very tall, but don't get a tall tank. I won't get into why unless you ask.)

And the one thing I said I'd get to? Cycling. How can I explain quickly? Fish produce ammonia (which is toxic to fish). There are some bacteria that convert it to nitrite (also toxic), and then there are still different bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate (safe below 30-40 parts per million, kindasorta toxic at higher levels). If you have to do water changes to get rid of ammonia, you'll be doing them very often and very big. Stressed fish, stressed aquarist. Whereas to keep nitrates down, 25% weekly is a good rule of thumb for average fish in average aquariums. (Individual situations differ.) So you want these bacteria. How do you get them? You introduce ammonia to the tank and wait, basically. (It's way more complicated than that.) Often this is done with fish. It's simple, but risks the fish, and it can take months if you're unlucky, and will take at least a few weeks at best.

Here's some info on cycling: http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php

You can also do a "fishless cycle" (Google it) involving ammonia you can get from a store (just ammonia and water, or just ammonia). This doesn't risk fish. It can be faster, too.

Once your tank is cycled, never change all the water at a time.

Anyway, here's some info on goldfish: http://wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/goldfish101art.htm

What about a "skinny pig". A hairless guinea pig?


If you are in Europe, perhaps a meerkat. Will you invite me over to play with it? They are my number one special intrest. I don't know how they are with children though.

Holy cow weird looking creature! I was going to say it was the weirdest thing I've seen in my life, but that would've been a lie.

I still vote for chinchilla since dog seems out of the question. My best friend has one (they practically have a zoo, I love it there) and he's the cutest thing ever. He's very friendly and never bites.

Corn snakes have been reported to be up to six feet long but those were wild ones. For the most part it appears that domestic, captive bred corn snakes don't get any bigger than two feet long but I am not an expert on snakes. You should talk to Cold Blooded.

If you are concerned about "tickley feet", what about an older lizard? When I first got my bearded dragon, Pippin, as a baby and let her walk on my hands it felt as they were being tickled by a feather. I thought it was cool. As Pippin grew (she's two years old now), she wasn't so tickly. Thankfully she is good about letting someone trim her nails or else she will accidently stratch and draw blood. Even with trimmed nails, she isn't as tickly as she was as a baby. She is so sweet and friendly and even helps with meltdowns.

[img]http://www.deviantart.com/download/188024629/are_you_getting_my_good_side_by_phoenix_kat-d33y0qd.jpg[/img]

If he wants a small furry pet, the last thing I would suggest is a hamster to be perfectly honest. I've owned and/or had experience with most small fuzzy creatures and never had success with hamsters. Gerbils are alright and mice are fun to look at because they have so much energy, but my favorite would have to be rats. They are just a tad bit larger so easier to handle, very intelligent, and can develop a bond with their owners. They are, however, social creatures so you should have at least two. There is also guinea pigs. I've never had one bite (they are quite gentle) but they're very skittish. Some become very attached to their owners though, I hear. A side note...if you see him developing allergies to a small pet, take a look at their bedding. The shavings most people use for small pets contains a lot of dust, so allergies might be fixed with something as simple as switching from shavings to paper bedding.

Here's a couple links:
http://www.goosemoose.com/
http://www.smallanimalchannel.com/

Because of the allergy issues, we are looking into sugar gliders. Anybody with experience?

I haven't had one, but from the people I know with them (I had a friend who had a job caring for them) they aren't the most sociable of animals...they're more for admiring, not touching.

Have you decided on a pet? Before you purchace anything it would be a good idea to see if your son could handle it climbing around on him. Something that helped me with my sensory issues was what my mom called a "sensory wall". A wall or back of a door with diffrent textures and sensations to touch. Whatever you think would be bennefical for him. A whole wall or a space in the hallway or the back of a door (just an idea).

PunkyKat, that's a terrific idea. I have really appreciated all your feedback in this thread!

I don't know about the OP, but we are taking the whole "pet" thing very slowly. I have found a local pet store so we can explore the sugar glider as an option (all reports I've read, including the pet store owner, say that they are very social and bond to their owners more than other little pets do) We are going to let our son meet the owner's adult gliders and see what he thinks, and if he's interested in proceeding, we'll take him there several more times for more exposure - sugar gliders live as long as a dog, so it's a commitment. Fortunately they have an excellent selection of reptiles and birds at this place, too, so if the gliders don't work out we can expose him to other animals. I am hoping because the sugar gliders "grasp" rather than run, he might be OK with their paws. BTW, for folks who have pet allergies - the allergy thing is pretty amazing - I was able to handle one with no ill effects whatsoever. We were going to make a trial run this weekend, but my son is sick.

Target for purchase is sometime after the school year ends.

I am glad so many folks here with AS have pets as their special interest! You all can offer much better information than a petstore or the internet, especially as pertains to our specific circumstances!