Tokis-Phoenix
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LONG PHILOSOPHICAL THREAD WARNING!
Do you think there should be some fish that are known tank busters(or for other reasons) that should be less sold of in certain countrys because they can survive and breed in in its native waters? Or fish simply because they are prone to being dumped or for other reasons?
I was thinking about this recently after i found this news article;
http
/mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/news/...0dm010000c.html
I definatly think there should be less piranhas sold simply because they are prone to being dumped due to their requirements for being looked after; you cannot stock many in a large tank like a 100gallon tank can only safely hold 5 red belly piranhas, they are messy eaters that their high protein foods often mess up water quality and you become limited as to what you can stock with them.
Many piranhas become shy fish that scurry to the back of the tank when you go near it and the high energy violent feeding frenzys that many people expect of piranhas are apparently more than often, disapointing...
So the piranha is already on a losing streak to many fish keepers you buy them- you suddenly realise that the rather expensive large tank you bought for them can only hold a couple of fish, you are constantly doing water changes and other hard tank maintanence work more than you would normally do with most fish and your piranhas are not the people tame fish that you once expected of them and become shy scaredy fish everytime you go near the tank. So you dump them in the local river system where nature will take care of them- either the water is too cold and they die a slow and stressful death or the conditions suit them and you now have a new highly effective predatory fish terorising every other fish in the lake.
I don't alot about flowerhorns, but apparently the problem is the same for them. Everybody wanted one in their tanks at one point and record sales ensued in lfs's as the demand rose as they became a "fashionable fish".
But then people quickly came to the realisation that they were difficult fish to stock with varying agressive personallitys and needed a fair amount of tank space- the lfs's had too many of these fish already so rehoming them became a problem as the novelty soon wore off so people dumped them in the local rivers and lakes;
http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/...em.php?news=682
Large growing plecs, namely sailfin and common plecs are also a problem as they are commanly sold sue their their cheapness and are usually sold as "effective algae eating fish that will grow to the size of your tank". The reality of the situation is that although they do suffer stunted growth to a certain extent and this usually kills them, they more than often grow massive and after a certain size, give up eating algae on a regular basis and sit in the tank hardly moving a fin or just keep out of sight altogether- i often hear things like "my plec does nothing but hide all day since i got it but it seemed to be pretty active in the lfs tank", many people don't realise they are primarily nocturnal fish and you are never going to see them about as much as, say, a guppy for example.
So they get dumped into the wild and often thrive due to their ability to hybridize with each other and tolerate a wide ranger of temperatures.
It is the same story for so many other fish out there, most of it comes down to they are too commanly sold in lfs's- i heard piranhas are easy to come by in america and pretty much anyone can buy them.
In england we don't have a huge problem with non native fish causing havoc in our waters thankfully, the coldwater fish selection are pretty limited over here and most fish can't survive in the low temperatures although koi karp can be a problem. But we do have issues with non native water plants.
I think most of what leads to these issues are these factors;
a. "Fashionable fish"- i do believe fish can become fashionable, like suddenly a new fish becomes widely available on the market and everyone wants one to see what its like to keep or to show it off to there fish buddys or simply because they prefer unusual fish and not the usuall common livebearer, tetra and catfish assortments found in most lfs's.
What happens though when this fish becomes just as common as all the other or people realise issues the fish may have like how hard it is to stock it with other fish- take the flowerhorn for example?
Or when a more desirable fish arrives on the market? At the moment it appears rare L no. plecs and cichlid tanks are all the rage...
b. "Novelty fish"- this ties into the fashionable fish aspect, most fish that tend to be considered novelty fish are hybrid ones, dyed ones or ones that have a certain reputation for being some way- like the piranhas reputation for being agressive and violent, or the many color changing fish available.
Novelty is as novelty does and novelty soon wears off through no fault of the fish.
c. Tank busters- too many tank busting fish are sold in my opinion and i am sure many of you will agree, some have been sold for too long like the many large growing plecs. Tankbusters tend to be cheap to attract unknolegable fish keepers to buy them, all in most cases the owner can't afford, or doesn't have the space, or simply can't bothered to buy a suitable sized tank for the fish. Either the fish gets put down, it dies in its current poor tank set up or the owner releases it into the wild.
An absolutly disgraceful act of selling a particular fish in the aquarium trade is the . Pangasius sanitwongsei, more commanly known as the paroon shark, which should not even appear near a glass box. THESE FISH CAN GROW TO 8FT LONG!! They have a fondness of eating large dogs;
http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/panga...gasiu/268_f.php
d. Agressive fish- recently i found out that a fish called the wallago attu was being sold in the aquarium trade....In their native habitats, the locals are more fearful of these fish than crocodiles- they will eat small children and dogs and bite off your hand given a chance and can grow to a massive 80inchs long;
http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/silur...llago/163_f.php
With such a fish it would be imposible to safely stock anything with it and it would require a hefty and pricey tank to house- i have often noticed people go bored when their tanks can no longer hold anymore fish and few at that- the abilty to stock your tank for a while and have numerous fish seems to keep most people interested in their tanks. It would be a disapointment then if you paid thousands of pounds setting up a huge tank to find out it can only hold one fish that could potentialy bite off your hand when doing a water change- the future suddenly becomes dismal for the fish in question; piranhas also seem to be connected to this factor.
.........
So with these factors taken into consideration- enviroment, fish personality and availability and max size, if there were any fish that should definatly be banned in the aquarium trade or seriously less sold of in your country, what would they be?
I am not talking about fish you don't like because of their looks or because they are simply common or whatever, i am talking about truly unsuitable fish.
All comments/suggestions appreiciated
Do you think there should be some fish that are known tank busters(or for other reasons) that should be less sold of in certain countrys because they can survive and breed in in its native waters? Or fish simply because they are prone to being dumped or for other reasons?
I was thinking about this recently after i found this news article;
http
/mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/news/...0dm010000c.htmlI definatly think there should be less piranhas sold simply because they are prone to being dumped due to their requirements for being looked after; you cannot stock many in a large tank like a 100gallon tank can only safely hold 5 red belly piranhas, they are messy eaters that their high protein foods often mess up water quality and you become limited as to what you can stock with them.
Many piranhas become shy fish that scurry to the back of the tank when you go near it and the high energy violent feeding frenzys that many people expect of piranhas are apparently more than often, disapointing...
So the piranha is already on a losing streak to many fish keepers you buy them- you suddenly realise that the rather expensive large tank you bought for them can only hold a couple of fish, you are constantly doing water changes and other hard tank maintanence work more than you would normally do with most fish and your piranhas are not the people tame fish that you once expected of them and become shy scaredy fish everytime you go near the tank. So you dump them in the local river system where nature will take care of them- either the water is too cold and they die a slow and stressful death or the conditions suit them and you now have a new highly effective predatory fish terorising every other fish in the lake.
I don't alot about flowerhorns, but apparently the problem is the same for them. Everybody wanted one in their tanks at one point and record sales ensued in lfs's as the demand rose as they became a "fashionable fish".
But then people quickly came to the realisation that they were difficult fish to stock with varying agressive personallitys and needed a fair amount of tank space- the lfs's had too many of these fish already so rehoming them became a problem as the novelty soon wore off so people dumped them in the local rivers and lakes;
http
/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/...em.php?news=682Large growing plecs, namely sailfin and common plecs are also a problem as they are commanly sold sue their their cheapness and are usually sold as "effective algae eating fish that will grow to the size of your tank". The reality of the situation is that although they do suffer stunted growth to a certain extent and this usually kills them, they more than often grow massive and after a certain size, give up eating algae on a regular basis and sit in the tank hardly moving a fin or just keep out of sight altogether- i often hear things like "my plec does nothing but hide all day since i got it but it seemed to be pretty active in the lfs tank", many people don't realise they are primarily nocturnal fish and you are never going to see them about as much as, say, a guppy for example.
So they get dumped into the wild and often thrive due to their ability to hybridize with each other and tolerate a wide ranger of temperatures.
It is the same story for so many other fish out there, most of it comes down to they are too commanly sold in lfs's- i heard piranhas are easy to come by in america and pretty much anyone can buy them.
In england we don't have a huge problem with non native fish causing havoc in our waters thankfully, the coldwater fish selection are pretty limited over here and most fish can't survive in the low temperatures although koi karp can be a problem. But we do have issues with non native water plants.
I think most of what leads to these issues are these factors;
a. "Fashionable fish"- i do believe fish can become fashionable, like suddenly a new fish becomes widely available on the market and everyone wants one to see what its like to keep or to show it off to there fish buddys or simply because they prefer unusual fish and not the usuall common livebearer, tetra and catfish assortments found in most lfs's.
What happens though when this fish becomes just as common as all the other or people realise issues the fish may have like how hard it is to stock it with other fish- take the flowerhorn for example?
Or when a more desirable fish arrives on the market? At the moment it appears rare L no. plecs and cichlid tanks are all the rage...
b. "Novelty fish"- this ties into the fashionable fish aspect, most fish that tend to be considered novelty fish are hybrid ones, dyed ones or ones that have a certain reputation for being some way- like the piranhas reputation for being agressive and violent, or the many color changing fish available.
Novelty is as novelty does and novelty soon wears off through no fault of the fish.
c. Tank busters- too many tank busting fish are sold in my opinion and i am sure many of you will agree, some have been sold for too long like the many large growing plecs. Tankbusters tend to be cheap to attract unknolegable fish keepers to buy them, all in most cases the owner can't afford, or doesn't have the space, or simply can't bothered to buy a suitable sized tank for the fish. Either the fish gets put down, it dies in its current poor tank set up or the owner releases it into the wild.
An absolutly disgraceful act of selling a particular fish in the aquarium trade is the . Pangasius sanitwongsei, more commanly known as the paroon shark, which should not even appear near a glass box. THESE FISH CAN GROW TO 8FT LONG!! They have a fondness of eating large dogs;
http
/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/panga...gasiu/268_f.php d. Agressive fish- recently i found out that a fish called the wallago attu was being sold in the aquarium trade....In their native habitats, the locals are more fearful of these fish than crocodiles- they will eat small children and dogs and bite off your hand given a chance and can grow to a massive 80inchs long;
http
/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/silur...llago/163_f.phpWith such a fish it would be imposible to safely stock anything with it and it would require a hefty and pricey tank to house- i have often noticed people go bored when their tanks can no longer hold anymore fish and few at that- the abilty to stock your tank for a while and have numerous fish seems to keep most people interested in their tanks. It would be a disapointment then if you paid thousands of pounds setting up a huge tank to find out it can only hold one fish that could potentialy bite off your hand when doing a water change- the future suddenly becomes dismal for the fish in question; piranhas also seem to be connected to this factor.
.........
So with these factors taken into consideration- enviroment, fish personality and availability and max size, if there were any fish that should definatly be banned in the aquarium trade or seriously less sold of in your country, what would they be?
I am not talking about fish you don't like because of their looks or because they are simply common or whatever, i am talking about truly unsuitable fish.
All comments/suggestions appreiciated
