Fish Welfare Society Fish Factsheet

[alisonfishfanatic]

As some of you may remember the new year sees the launch of the FISH WELFARE SOCIETY, a UK based non profit making organization dedicated to educating the uninformed in appropriate fish care.

One of the big things will be the availablity of free FACTSHEETS which LFSs will be encouraged to use and which will be available to download from the website. The website will be divided into 5 sections: News & About, Membership, Education, Factsheets and Volunteers.

Since I know many of you support the use of factsheets your input would be appreciated as to what form they should take and what information you feel is appropriate. Clearly the important point here is that all factsheets adopt the same format for easy comparison and are beginner friendly. Once the information has been decided to include a draft factsheet will be made up and further opportunity
will be available to comment

The proposal for factsheets is as follows:

All factsheets to be limited to one page of A4, double sided.

Side One will be information on suitability and care of the fish:
Skill Level (Novice, Novice-Intermediate, Intermediate, Intermediate-Expert, Expert) (COLOUR CODED?)
Diet
Water Temperature
Preferred Water Conditions
Minimum Aquarium Size
Preferred Tank Setup (eg requires hiding places, needs algae)
When can this fish be added? (eg newly cycled tank setups, min 6 months etc.)
Best Tank Mates
Worst Tank Mates
Sensitivity (eg very sensive to water changes)
Preferred Group Size (eg minimum 3, preferably 5)

Side Two will be the information on the fish itself (deliberately on side 2; the first question to ask is always "Can I look after this fish" hence the care information on side 1):
Scientific Name
Family
Origin
Typical Adult Size
Rate of Growth
Typical Life Span
How to sex the fish
Likelihood of Breeding/Breeding Information
Description
Behaviour


Thank you for your help.


EDIT: "Light level" has been suggested as an additional piece of information; how important is this to the beginner?

 

[erk628]

Wish the United States had something like this.

 

[alisonfishfanatic]

Wish the United States had something like this.

I see no reason why the factsheets cant be downloaded and distributed outside the UK!

 

[erk628]

Wish the United States had something like this.

I see no reason why the factsheets cant be downloaded and distributed outside the UK!

Hmmm very good point. We have two petstores around here no just fish stores. But the petstores sell fish and one of them my wife use to work at. I'll have her talk to the boss there and see if they will accept these factsheets. Maybe I can do my part and make a difference here. Thanks for the info.