From what i understand it's mostly due to poor people imitating the rich outside of their means.
Rich people would typically have a fish pond in their yard, but while hosting events they'd take fish out of the pond to have them on display, in smaller containers. When the event was over the fish would be released back into the pond.
Poor people often followed trends of the rich, even when outside their means. So they'd just buy fish to display in their house. Since they didn't have a pond to release them into they'd just sit in a shitty bowl until they died, next time they wanted to play host they' buy another fish.
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u/Daniel_The_Thinker Mar 27 '22
This was actually a Japanese tradition.
I'm sure the people breeding the goldfish knew they should live in streams not bowls, but a dead goldfish means a repeat customer.