How can I get my toddler to stop trying to take his fish out of the tank? He really thinks he can pet it and take it out to play with it…im at a loss here
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Help a mama out and respond anonymously on our forum. How can I get my toddler to understand he cannot touch his pet fish?
Put them out of his reach.
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Put the tank higher up and out of reach
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Sounds like you should of gotten a hamster lol just kidding. Maybe try telling him we breathe air but the fish breathes in water. Taking him out he can’t breath
Either put it up higher or get h something he can actually touch and play with
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You rehome the real fish and get a training fish he can’t kill??? 
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When my son was younger, I found our fish got handled, dried, then put back in the tank.(his guts were hanging out. All while answering the front door
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I once gave my pet fish a bubble bath. My mom caught my silence just in time. Whatever you decide to do, good luck!!!
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You’ll have to put the fish out of reach.
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He’s a toddler, why is it within his reach? And if it’s not and he keeps asking just tell him how fish will go bye bye forever if he takes it out of water
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Put the fish up in a different room til he gets bigger
You can’t lmao just put the poor fish where he can’t reach it
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Put a cover with a light on the top of the tank
Hide the fish for a day, on a dish, when he asks, where is the fish? Tell him to the doctor, you touched him he got sick 
my fish dyed long time my daughter was 4, she would feed the fish all day, told her that I send the fish to the gym haha to get skinny, dhe fed him to much
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Get him a betta or a gounami I would hand feed them an tap the top of the bowl to show them its time to eat… very smart fish lol they would swim along my finger as well just make sure hands are clean an free of soap
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You can’t lol. Make it impossible for him to touch fish for now
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I would put the tank out of his reach. Maybe get him a hamster or something he can hold and pet.
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Lol my daughter would do the same thing
…. Even fed it French fries 
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I love it. The first week we had ours I came out to see my daughter giving her new fish m&ms. They died a day later. Now she knows just to look. She brings her toys to the tank to show him lol
This is why we got turtles lol. We can’t have cats/dogs and I wanted something I could touch/ “play” with lol. I’m 39… I get it
Get him a fishing pole and take him fishing maybe lol
Put it somewhere u can see it all the time or I second rehoming and getting a practice fish lol my oldest had fish then the second one came along and killed them in new and inventive ways no matter where I put that darn fish tank! When I get prego with the 3rd I was puking all the time one puking later the tank was filled with stuffed animals we didnt get new fish after that.
Some things gotta be learned the hard way. 
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He needs to learn the word no . But , at his age , his curiosity will over rule so put it out of his reach .
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Maybe get a pet he can touch instead of a pet fish.
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You can’t. You put the fish somewhere he can still see it but cannot have access to the tank.
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Put out of reach is what i had to do for my daughter
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Put the fish up high where he can’t reach it
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My son used to empty his diapers in the fish tank. Lesser of the 2 evils. Lmao
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Learning the weight of the word “no” is tough.
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Why can he get to it tho 
the solution seems pretty simple imho
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Let it die on him and he’ll learn. It’s just a fish. Lol. I don’t believe in completely babying kids. I had to learn at 3 that you don’t put dish soap in the fish tank with the fish in it.
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Hahaha at least he’s not trying to give it a bath ! My daughter did that…
She dumped her shampoo in the tank and killed it. Asked her why she said I wanted to give it a bath !
Uhm… move it or protect it… lock it up… do what you need to do to be a fish mom… 
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My kid kept wanting to pet our oscar fish…so I let him 
live and learn…he only did it once
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Show him dead fish out of water
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Put the tank out of reach - depending on how big that tank is, your toddler could get hurt if he pulled the tank over and have it land on top of him or again depending on the size of the tank he could be curious and climb to the top of the tank and fall in head first. Easy solution is to move the tank
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Lord help me,smack his hands and explain to him fish can’t breathe out of water or let him die and flush him
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Personally, I would either get rid of the fish by giving them to someone that will care for them or put the tank out of reach. I personally think a toddler is too young for a pet fish because they don’t understand that it can’t breath out of water or that it’ll die if you do certain things to it.
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Other than putting it where he can’t get to it, I have no advice.
My grandson finally got ahold of his at 2 years old. He was too quiet for too long, his mom went to check on him and there he was sitting quietly watching tv with his (dead) fish sitting in his lap just as happy as can be 
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My son poured an entire cup of milk in his fish tank one night because “they were thirsty” lol we woke up to a cloudy tank with 3 dead fish
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Get a lid for the tank?
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Move it or get rid of it
He will understand after the first few don’t make it 
some kids r hands on n don’t learn until they see for themselves
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We caught my daughter with her entire arm in the tank one time trying to pet her fish when she was little
Awe 
It’s hard for toddlers to understand
sometimes but that is kinda sweet
Moving it where your child can’t reach it
Will help a little bit …but not with the asking to play with it lol
Try explaining that like we breath air but the little fishy needs to stay in water to breathe or it will get a boo boo and …well you know 
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Try to explain to him what will happen and if he keeps it up then his fish will have to go to a new home. Also leopard geckos are literally the best low maintenance starter pets.
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Sometimes we have to be content with waving hello and not touching.
That works well for me and mine.
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Couldn’t break my son of that one so we stopped buying fish:skull:
I would take him fishing. Show him what happens when theyre out of water
Maybe have a stuffy fish by the tank and reinforce to him that he can pet the stuffy when he wants to pet the fish.
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Oooh I am following because!! We had a pet tortoise show up at our house…like literally right outside our door. And I mean, you can play with the turtle kind of…but not really…and my son who is 3 does not understand
Did you tell him the fish will die if he takes it out?
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We have an aggressive tank and when my boys started doing that I told them to go ahead and keep it up because all that’s going to happen is they’re going to get very hurt when the fish bite them, thankfully the thought of being bit by the fish made them knock it off real quick.
Maybe try giving him the responsibility of feeding them. Tell him he can’t touch them, but he can feel them from his hand.
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I’d tell my kid if she pets it or takes it out it’ll die and she won’t have a pet fish anymore 
it’ll go to heaven with all the dogs…(watched all dogs go to heaven after family pets passed away)
It was a bad idea to get a toddler any type of pet like this because they touch everything under the sun!! You need to put the fish out of reach and try and explain why he can’t pet the pet you bought 
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Put the fish tank where he can’t reach it
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Just tell him the fish will die if he takes it out. Just be honest
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Put the tank up higher
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Tell it straight, it will die if you take it out lol
This is a story you’re going to tell him & those close to him in the future a million times LOL
Make sure the lid is locked on tight. Just keep telling him fish need water. They’re for looking at not playing with. Let him feed them & pick out tank decorations.
I pet mine. And played with it. You just gotta let him learn
Put it out of his reach …look with your eyes not your hands Tarnia McCormack still the best line ever
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I’d be honest and straight up say, “if you take him out he will die and he won’t be here to look at anymore.” And honestly if he doesn’t learn, he will one day when you’re not paying attention and he will pull it out and it’ll die. That said, you really ought to make sure there is some kind of lock on that tank. Cause one day he may fall in and drown
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I killed an entire colony of frogs camping once when I was 3 by picking them up and trying to feed them bugs. I remember it too I was just trying to help. I wish an adult like idk stopped me !
I use to tell my daughters We look with our eyes not our hands and it worked
He can pet it, just make sure he knows not to take it out of the water.
I’m in the same boat we had won like 8 fish from the fair had them for like 2 months then they started disappearing from the tank I blamed the cat… well nope my daughter (4) decided she wanted to play with them so now we have no fish anywhere ever 
I’ve tried to explain show her watch videos read books on it everything nothing worked 
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Try moving the fish???
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Well I say u do u and how u should do but…we had fish we trained to swim through our fingers…put hand like ur holding something in the water between ur thumb and rest of ur fingers. And the fish would swim through. We did this b4 feeding them. But ya
Have you tried telling him it will die
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Get a fish tank with a lid
Cover the tank. Get your toddler a book with textured pets that your toddler can pet.
I wouldn’t have your toddler touch any fish unless hands are thoroughly washed and rinsed multiple times. Same for after any touching. There are aquariums in many areas that have areas for little ones to pet the water creatures. You might start there or visit a tide pool. I would still recommend hand washing after touching.
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Lol my toddler killed his fish doing just that
I love toddlers.
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Give him a stuffie that looks like his fish
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My daughter also did that she just stopped one day
Chicken wire or some type of safe screen for the top of the bowl, put the bowl in view but out of reach
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Kids are a lot brighter than most people give them credit for if you are willing to teach them. Explain that the fish will die and that they need the water to breath and explain that if the fish dies then he wont have it anymore.
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Put the bowl out of reach.
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Our 2yr old granddaughter took hers to nap with her… lol
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Give it to him! Buy another
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Put a child lock on the aquarium. The ones with the suction cups like you would use for cupboard doors work great.
Do not allow your child to touch the fish at all. Touching fish damages their slime coat and leaves them vulnerable to illness and disease.
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I have no advice but man this made me giggle 
Put the fish up put of reach get him something he can touch. Get him a stuffed toy fish?
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My toddler fed his fish cereal and orange juice…no it didn’t kill it…amazing enough
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My daughter use to do the same . She thought her fish was jumping on the floor because it was happy to play with her 
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Our goldfish were dead in a day when my kids were young. Wait til they get older
Don’t have children you aren’t willing to supervise
I told mine no and why. I also explained that if they didn’t listen then we definitely would not get another fish. He didn’t listen, the fish died, he is now 16 and we to this day never got another one.
Shannyn Round advice