Northern Flame Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 Hi everyone, I have been reading this forum for quite a while but have never posted. I have learned a lot while visiting here. Now I have a question, and thought maybe someone here could answer this for me. I am making centerpieces for a friends wedding. She had an idea; I think it would be lovely, but I need some advise. She wants to use fishbowls for the centerpiece. The idea is to put some sparkeling colored glass pieces in the bottom, add a live goldfish and float a couple of candles on top. My question is do floating candles and fish mix . I have never made floating candles before. I am in the process of picking out my molds and getting ready to experiment. I have 6 months to make and test my floaters before I need them. I am not sure if they warm the water to much to put a fish in. I have never had a goldfish that jumped, so I don't think there is much danger of them getting into the flame. I am just not sure what effect the candles have on the water itself. A bunch of dead goldfish floating upside down would not make a very pretty centerpiece, not to mention the fact that I don't want to buy and torture a bunch of fish. I am hoping someone can help me because the molds I purchase will depend on the answer to this question. If this is not a possibility she wants to go with 3 tiered cylinder like vases with a floater in each one. The size and shape of the molds I will need is completely different for this. Thanks for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classy_crafter Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 Hi Northern, Im new to the forums as well to candle making but one thing I do know for sure is fish, having grown up in my dads fish store. I absolutely would not put candles in fish bowls with live fish. The FOs and dyes would contaminate the water and kill the fish.What you could do is maybe get some sort of hurricane or glass tube to go into the center of the bowl secured with aquarium safe silicon adhesive and put a LED candle in the center (if the candle glow is all you're going for) and then pour the water and fish in the bowl so it surrounds the glass tube. (hope that makes sense)Another idea would be to put a smaller bowl with the fish into a larger bowl upside down so it looks like the fish is in a bubble (make sure there is some air at the top of the "bubble") and then float your candles in the bowl. However, I think the first idea with the LED is probably safer for the fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Flame Posted March 27, 2009 Author Share Posted March 27, 2009 Wow, what a great idea. Thank you very much. She is really set on floating candles, so I just posed 2 options to her. The first is your upside down bowl in a bowl idea, the other I thought of is to put a cylinder slightly taller than the bowl, inside the bowl with a single floating candle and put a fish and some water plants inside the fish bowl. I think I am going to buy one of each of the molds I would need and experiment. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classy_crafter Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 Thats a good idea as well. As long as the fish and candles do not come in contact with each other, it should be ok. There is nothing worse than the smell of decomposing fish Good luck!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debratant Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 Those all sound like neat ideas! I guess I'll be the first to ask though, what happens to the goldfish after the wedding? Who gets those? Or maybe a better question is...who is going to want them? I have a fish tank, 30 gallons...so I like fish, but fish are not for everyone...especially gold fish as their bowl needs to be cleaned out weekly.It is a very unique centerpiece idea. How many do you have to make? That's alot of fish LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Flame Posted March 27, 2009 Author Share Posted March 27, 2009 We have already thought about what to do with the fish after. There are only going to be 10 or 12 tables. We are going to be giving the centerpieces, fish in all away at the end of the reception. There will be quite a few children there and we are going to send emails to the parents asking them to reserve their fish. We have an adopt a fish plan. We haven't sent any emails yet and we already know where 4 are going to end up. Thanks for pointing that out. You do need an end game plan if you are dealing with living centerpieces. It wouldn't be a good idea for 50 or so tables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elapid Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 You might want to see if any of the party has a fish pond. Goldfish do well in outside ponds and they don't have to be cleaned all the time like a fishbowl would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beekeeper_sd Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 I love this idea. I think it would be so beautiful. I don't really see any reason why this wouldn't work. I would suggest that you don't use FO at all which, whenever I make wedding centerpiece candles I suggest not using anyway since 10-12 scented candles burning in one room at the same time could get overwhelming. And, not be be biased in any way, I would suggest using a natural way like beeswax. I know that beeswax is the only kind of candle you are suppose to burn if you have birds so it might stand to reason that the same might be true for fish???!!? Get a fish bowl, a goldfish, make a candle and try it! If you do, please post your results. GOOD LUCK!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.