I loved the anecdote about Reagan at the Arms Summit, where they put him in a house vacated by a family with the understanding that the boy’s goldfish would be regularly fed. Reagan forgot, and the fish died. He was so upset about it he had to get two goldfish to replace them for the young boy before he found out. When he did find out, he wrote a nice letter to Reagan saying he understood that these things happen, and goldfish don’t live that long anyway...:)
When I saw that at the end of the Reagan movie, it made me smile!
With proper care, goldfish can live 5-20 yrs. Most ppl don’t want to make the effort to keep them alive, especially since they’re so cheap, although the specialty ones can be quite expensive ($50 per fish!).