Eating Your Fish

[halfbloodprincess]

on a $20 dare i once drank a glass of milk which had a live platy in it. i kept it down too.

but no i dont normally eat fish.

Okay, seriously why on earth would you do that ! Even if it is a dare, you could just say no. I am sorry but that is just so mean. And gross!

Oh and poor, poor platy!

 

[PlecMama]

Yeah that's pretty gross, but if I couldn't feed my kid and there was no other choice, who knows what I'd do for £20?

I can't imagine one of my pleccies would taste nice though, I reckon it would be like eating an old boot, no offence Malcolm, Nessie, Scott, Bonnie, Clyde, Katherine and Spencer.

 

[MHunt]

on a $20 dare i once drank a glass of milk which had a live platy in it. i kept it down too.

but no i dont normally eat fish.

Why put the platy in milk in the first place?

That's cruel to the fish, at least kill it humanely first before eating it alive!

Wrong very Wrong!!!!!!

 

[csr mel]

at first i tried to swallow it alive in a glass of water but i kept gagging on the fish so i plopped it in a glass of milk because milk more viscous and easier to swallow things like pills and wel, fish.

what can i say, i got $20 out of it.

heres a link to the goldfish trick. http/video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2...eve+o&hl=en

 

[halfbloodprincess]

That is just so cuel!!!!!! You got twenty dollars out of it huh? Wow, great, twenty dollars for killing a living thing! That is just wrong, wrong, wrong!

You know this topic is just wrong!


And again poor poor fish.

 

[MHunt]

at first i tried to swallow it alive in a glass of water but i kept gagging on the fish so i plopped it in a glass of milk because milk more viscous and easier to swallow things like pills and wel, fish.

what can i say, i got $20 out of it.

heres a link to the goldfish trick. http/video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2...eve+o&hl=en

Can i ask, do you actually like keeping fish, or do you just post on this forum for the hell of it.

You are sick man, sick!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

No, but most meds used on fish to cure fish leave trace amounts of chemicals in fishes body and would make you sick if you ate the fish (which is why so many state stuff like "do not use on fish intended for consumption" etc).
Secondly, most fish commonly sold as pets apparently taste pretty aweful- goldfish and koi are oiley and slimey, while pleco's are bitter and tough. Piranha's apparently taste alright though.

A lot of plecs are treated as a food fish in their local origin however.

I've seen people eat other fish in the past, but the question would be why would you? If you kept the fish with the intention of eating it before it died of natural causes, then that would raise questions as to why you're keeping fish anyway. And secondly, if the fish died in aquaria, would you be happy eating something when you were unsure of how it died?

I mentioned the meds/chemicals as some people here may be foolish enough to kill and eat fish that have been medicated at some point in their lives.
Many resturants now days have aquariums where you can select the fish or critters you want to eat. Personally, that sort of thing doesn't massively appeal to me, however i have nothing against eating fish in general (as long as of course the fish or critter in question is not rare or endangered).


But as far as i am concerned, i don't see any types of animals, fish included, superior for being common pet type animals.
I think that all animals are pretty much equal regardless of what they can potentially be used for- although i think it would be cruel to raise an animal as a pet/companion, only then to eat it. A good farmer type relationship is best (i.e. the animal is domesticated so it does not fear people, but not to the point where the animal or owner become emotionally attached to each other like a pet) for raising animals for consumption.

On the other hand, i don't think we should distance ourselves to much from the types of animals we do eat, because if you distance yourself too much from the animals you eat, you lose respect for them i.e. many people couldn't give a crap about what happens to a cow in comparison to what happens to a cat, and will use such excuses like "cows are stupid", when in reality, a cow is more intelligent than a cat etc.

As long as the animal (which should not be rare or endangered) is raised well in a humane manner with care and its basic needs attended to, and is killed in a humane mannor, then that is what matters most as far as i am concerned.

 

[Spinal]

Wow, I am surprised at how closed minded people here are.

While I wouldn't personally eat a fish I kept as a pet, I am really surpised at peoples reactions. I though that "modern" people from the 21st century would be more open minded to other cultures.

It is common in many cultures to eat life food. Let it be fish, monkey brains, insects, or other animals. Secondly, even if the food isn't dead when you eat it, do you ever give a thought to how that cow lived and died to get you that steak? Or how the chicken lived to get you that KFC/nando's/etc? I know I do, but I don't think "omg, that is so wrong".

As I am forced to travel alot, I keep an open mind to food. If there is a culture eating it on this planet, and I visit them, I will not refuse to try a new food. I have tried almost alive fish (live until it hit my plate, where it got skinned and filleted by a waiter); monkey brains (one of the most disturbing things ever!); and a few others. I still find it funny when I talk to people around the world. In USA, people say things like "omg, in china, they eat cats and dogs!" In china, they say "omg, they eat things like snails, rabbits and frogs!" In England (where there is very little edible British food...) they tend to eat just about anything, but stay away from the dogs/cats. A less known fact, in some parts of Italy, we eat cats.

My point? Keep an open mind to other cultures and their culinary traditions. Don't say "This/that is so wrong". I can see why one wouldn't eat their pet fish. Those are pets, they are not raised for the purpose of eating. Some cultures believe that unless a fish is alive until it gets cut, it isn't fresh. Fair enough. They have tanks for fish they plan to eat, and given the chance, I would try it. Ever eaten a lobster? Guess what, it was cooked alive.... boiled alive to be precise... why? because western cultures believe that a lobster poisons its own flesh unless you cook it alive. Whether that is true, I don't know - but if you ever ate a lobster and you call people who eat live fish "cruel"; then either you too are cruel, or more simply, you are a hypocrite.

No personal offence intended to anyone, just a comment in general on stating that someone is cruel or that eating life fish/food is wrong...

Michele

 

[halfbloodprincess]

at first i tried to swallow it alive in a glass of water but i kept gagging on the fish so i plopped it in a glass of milk because milk more viscous and easier to swallow things like pills and wel, fish.

what can i say, i got $20 out of it.

heres a link to the goldfish trick. http/video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2...eve+o&hl=en

Can i ask, do you actually like keeping fish, or do you just post on this forum for the hell of it.

You are sick man, sick!

Yes my thoughts exactly! Do you even care about fish!

Yes, you definatly are a sick, sick man.

 

[Crossfc]

What about setting up a tank just to keep fish alive to eat? Go to your fish monger and buy some live lobsters or fish and put them in your tank in your home. When you want some lobster or seabass just grab it from your own live tank.

This is pretty comon of you've been to a chinese restaurant (not take-out). They usually have salt water tanks to keep live seafood to prepare.

 

[dwarfgourami]

I have no objection to eating tropical fish as such. It's just that it would hardly be a very economical proposition, given my large expensive tank and tiny fish.

As for being fond of your animals and eating them- that is a dilemma that farmers have had to deal with for millennia. And before that hunters often got emotionally involved with animals they were pursuing. It is not just about exotic travel and different culture- there are still farmers in the UK and the US, and some of them probably get quite fond of the piglets they are rearing. People's horrified reactions do seem to me mainly a sign of how far urbanism has been carried these days, to an extent where most of us are happy to eat meat, but relatively few can cope with the idea of animals being killed.

The idea of eating a living animal for a dare seems to me in dubious taste though. I think there is a strong case to be made out for the kind treatment and humane killing of any animal intended for food.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I have no objection to eating tropical fish as such. It's just that it would hardly be a very economical proposition, given my large expensive tank and tiny fish.

As for being fond of your animals and eating them- that is a dilemma that farmers have had to deal with for millennia. And before that hunters often got emotionally involved with animals they were pursuing. It is not just about exotic travel and different culture- there are still farmers in the UK and the US, and some of them probably get quite fond of the piglets they are rearing. People's horrified reactions do seem to me mainly a sign of how far urbanism has been carried these days, to an extent where most of us are happy to eat meat, but relatively few can cope with the idea of animals being killed.

The idea of eating a living animal for a dare seems to me in dubious taste though. I think there is a strong case to be made out for the kind treatment and humane killing of any animal intended for food.

I was raised on a farm, and have both witnessed animals been killed as well as killed them myself, so this is my take on things as far as the farmer and animal relationship goes;

From a young age, i kept miniature bantam chickens as pets- i kept both hens and roosters.
When a hen raises her chicks, and the chicks eventually mature into adults, a lot of the time at least 60% of the chicks mature into males.
This is a problem because roosters can be quite vicious to each other, particularly when there are few hens to go around, the roosters can also be particually aggressive towards the hens as well (like guppys, if there are too many males to the female ratio, male guppys will not only become very agressive towards each other but will also over-harass the females).
The second problem is that you don't want the chickens to inbreed with each other, which they will often do if both brother and sister hens are raised together.
The third problem is that male roosters do not enjoy being on their own or only in the company of other males, they literally become depressed or will even sometimes try to rape each other, so you cannot really keep male roosters in all-male groups or on their own when they are fully mature as they will not be happy this way. It is possible to keep young roosters together, but this is only really a short term solution.

So obviously you have to do something about the male roosters. Like many farmers raising relatively small quantities of chickens, we killed and ate the excess roosters born once they matured.
The system i had was to have 2-3 mature male roosters who were not genetically related to the bulk of the females, and these particular roosters would not be killed/eaten. The male offspring from these male roosters and hens would however be killed to prevent the problems listed above. Hens would never be killed unless there was an extreme excess of them.

It is generally advised to have at least 4-5 females per rooster, although we often had far more than this (usually 10-20 females per male). During much of the year, the roosters spend their time trying to impress females to persuade them to join their group of existing females (they will try to impress females by fighting other roosters, finding good nesting sites or food for the females, or simply by displaying their good looks in front of the females).
Young females in particular will often spend a lot of time going from one males group to another- young males usually don't start building up a decent group of loyal females until they are a couple of years old.

All of the chickens were completely free range- they had a pair of joined ex-cattle stables they lived in, but the stables were always open to the chickens to go in and out of as they wished (the door for the chickens to go in out of opened out into a pen, but the pen fences were designed so that foxs could not get in, but the fences were short enough for the chickens to fly over).
The chickens never strayed from the farm and always came back to the stables on their own accord every night when they choose to, so i am sure they enjoyed living on the farm otherwise they would have simply run away.

We killed the roosters by ringing their necks i.e. by breaking their necks, which is a humane form of euthanasia which kills the chicken pretty much instantly if done correctly.

And like my brother and mother, we ate the chickens that were killed on the farm.

Its difficult to describe what it is like- you see the chicks hatching from their eggs, you see them wander their first days outside, you see them go from the cute fluffy stage to the scruffy-looking teenage stage where their fluff is replaced by feathers, you see them mature into fine adults and court their first partners etc.
But one day you kill them, you see their last breath as their body goes limp, and not long after, they end up nicely cooked on your plate with some vegetables, and you enjoy eating them. You give the leftover bones for the pet cats to eat, or make them into a stock, or simply put the remains onto teh compost heap to be turned into fertile soil etc.

Many people here i am sure could not posibly dream of eating any animal they knew, however i did and i felt no regrets over doing such a thing.
Perhaps it is because you know that the animal led a good life, and was killed humanely, and that its meat was not wasted. You know that it is the cycle of life- you understand that as a human being, it is just as natural for you to eat meat as it is for the chickens to eat caterpillars or worms.
You can appreciate that animals life, and know it lived well in the time it spent on this earth, it never had to fear predators or fear starving to death or dying or horrible deseases etc. Its nothing personal between you and the animal, yet at the same time it is.

... ... ...
Anyways...

I think its a shame how distanced so many people are becomming from their food. Its also because of this distance that people allow (and often don't think of) such farming attrocities as battery, intensive, 0 grazing etc types of farming (which are horribly inhumane and offer the animals a very cruel quality of life, also needless to say, the products produced from these farming methods tend to be of poor quality and not environmentally friendly at all.
Hundreds of good small farm 'farmers commit suicide every year due to the hardships these mass-produced farming method farms impose on them, lowering food prices to levels too low to posibly compete with. The ill animals these immoral farms often produce often spread deseases like cow TB which are becomming all too common for most good farms to cope with.

Perhaps we should get back in touch with our food, and learn what exactly it is and where it comes from, how it lives, how it breeds, and how it dies? I think so. Some children now days do not even know that milk comes from cows, instead they assume it comes from cartons/bottles. The object is not to humanise or de-humanise animals, the object is to appreciate/respect them and what you eat.

And back to the fish eating debate- i don't have a problem with it in general with my other points taken into consideration. However i would advise that if you decide to raise aquarium or pond fish or critters, you should avoid losing compassion for them completely, but at the same time do not allow yourself to become too emotionally attached to them etc.
I would also advise anyone deciding to raise their own food to learn how to humanely kill it- killing an animal humanely often takes at least a certain degree of skill and knowledge. If you cannot bring yourself to chop off or bash in a fishes head, or do not know how to do it efficiently and quickly, then raising animals which you yourself will sooner or later have to kill is probably not for you unless you come to terms and learn these things, or find someone experienced and skilled to do them for you.

 

[Spinal]

Tokis-Phoenix, I fully agree!

 

[dwarfgourami]

Me too. Though not reared on a farm, I come from a country where the majority of the population was rural until well into the 1950's- there was noone in my generation who did not have older relatives still in farming. To us, farming was the centre of life and the natural way of living. I find in the UK, among the urban liberals, there is a very negative attitude towards farmers and their way of life: it is assumed that they are "posh" and don't care about the countryside. All seems very foreign to me. But I am digressing.

 

[MHunt]

Can i add, i have no objection to raising or eating any animal, fish or otherwise for food. But to swallow a live animal, especially for a dare is just wrong.

If I was in the middle of the african jungle and was catching pleco's or tetras from the water as that was the only food i could find, i would eat them.

I eat as a necessity, and normally nice convenient packaged food, because I can.