I am a freshman in college and it's important to find ways to cope with this stress. While I didn't plan it, one of my ways ended up being fish. Specifically my pet comet goldfish. How I got her is important to the story, as I didn't go out and buy a goldfish that, for those of you who don't know, grow to be quite a large size. Instead, I got her through my zoology class. One of our first labs involved fish and when the lab was over, there were about 30 goldfish in need of re-homing. I wasn't going to get one, I really wasn't...but then I did, which I fully admit was an impulse decision as I hadn't done my research first. Long story short, a single comet goldfish requires a tank size of at least 55 gallons for when they're full size. Campus rules say you can't have an aquarium larger than 10 gallons, so I currently have her in that.

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I did my research after getting her and I'm taking as good of care of her as I can. I have everything except a big enough tank that I would happily purchase if I was allowed to have it. She's healthy and I've owned her for a few months now. The fish and fish care are incredibly stress relieving for me, even the tank cleaning is relaxing. There are days when I come home from a long day of classes and stare at her swimming around for hours to unwind myself. This is where I find myself asking the question, "am I an asshole?"

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I know she will need a bigger aquarium soon. She has plenty of room right now because she's a baby, but she'll grow. Many people on the fish subreddits say to re-home your goldfish if you can't provide the perfect home for them, either to someone else or to a local fish store. However, I do not know anyone who lives off campus who would take a goldfish, and I refuse to leave her at home for my family to take care of, both because I know they won't do as good a job as I do with the cleaning, and because it's not fair to dump that responsibility on them. There is no local fish store where I live, and I have no car to travel to somewhere that does. Even if I did have a store to give her to, she's a 40 cent goldfish, not an exotic fish. They most likely wouldn't take her.

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In my opinion, she's a rescue fish who's getting a better life than she normally would have seeing as she was a disposable "lab rat" fish who would have died otherwise. I really enjoy having her and I plan on buying a 55 gallon as soon as I have my own place, and if she were to die before that, I would not replace her since I now know I can't house one correctly here. That being said, I still want an unbiased opinion from people who aren't me.

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I know this isn't the typical AITA post, and I hope I don't come across as fishing for attention (pun intended). I just want an objective view on my situation/choices.