What To Do About Fish That No One Can House?

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah i've thought this myself and questioned myself sometimes when telling people to take them back to the store.

but although the thought of it makes me quite sad, i reckon a fair number of lfs employee's don't even realise how big some of these monster fish can get, and if they get a few returned on the grounds they get massive then they just might stop ordering them in..... and if the lfs emplyee's get educated and stop selling them then a customer asks for one and they get educated too...... gradually it would spread and the demand for them would start to drop. I know this is a very idealistic way of putting things and in reality it won't happen like that and it's very unlikely demand will completely drop. But every little helps and even if just 1 store stops selling them then i think that's better!

 

[kribensis12]

When iI work for my favorite homeowned lfs I will always ask The tank size and what fish are in there and what size and what tey are feeding them, and what there water stats are and are any of there fish breeding, to make sure that therte new fish has a lovley home with plenty of space to roam around in and that it isnt posioned my nitirites and nitrates.

 

[annka5]

I personally feel that when you buy an animal as a pet you are absolutely 100% duty-bound to do everything you can to look after it.
Rehoming is only an option where it's going to go to a good permanent home - many fish fall into this category, as they are reasonably realistic proposition for someone to take care of appropraitely.
Giant fish etc are not the same. Thay are staggeringly unlikely to find there way to a decent home via an LFS. I'm not saying they NEVER do, just that it isn't likely.
Euthanasia is IMO very rarely acceptable, because in buying an animal as a pet you are taking responsibility for it - not just until it becomes too difficult to do so. However, it would always be better to humanely euthanise rather than keep it in miserable conditions, or go for the easy way out and take it to the LFS to re-sell so you can pretend you're not aware of it being kept in apalling conditions.

 

[StuCarr]

Education for the people buying the fish, I am new to this hobby but am researching all the time, I will check if i'm unsure of something. There is a huge amount of information around so there is no excuse for buying a 'tank buster'.

Proper practices for the LFS, I visited one today, and the amount of sharks was incredible, RTBS, RFBS, silver sharks. Yes they were all labelled up telling customers the adult size, but its like dangling a carrot infront of someone. In all honesty I was tempted to buy a silver shark. IMO they shouldn't be so readily available, If you want one order it in. I dread to think how many sharks have been released into a local stream to die, over the years because they have outgrown there tanks.

Just my thoughts
Stu

 

[andywg]

The problem with some of the fish is that they are farmed. A perfect example of this is the Clarias Catfish which is famred for food and as a result a few make their way into the aquarium trade.

Blanket regualtions are not the best idea. DEFRA has banned all but one cray from being imported into the UK without a license, yet admits on its website that it know many still import - either through ignorance of, or blatent disregard for - the law. You would need the importers, the exporters and the Customs officials to all be able to identify all the fish that grow too large. The only possible way is a blanket ban which would affect a very large amount of smaller species kept perfectly suitably (think of the legislation banning all snakeheads of any type in the US).

 

[annka5]

I actually don't reckon a ban would be good. IMO people need to take responsibility for their actions and their decisions, and deal with the consequences properly.
There should be no need of spending more government funds (i.e. money from my - and your - taxes) to enforce legislation like this - these fish grow big and anyone of normal levels of common sense and fairness should be able to understand that they cannot buy them unless they can home them.
The more legislation there is stopping people from exercising their own judgement and common sense the less people will be willing to take responsibility for themselves.
Aside from which a lot of bans are totally ignored and not enforced at all - as andywg says above.

 

[stackem evs]

It really saddens me when I see any animal, fish included being treated badly, an lets face it a tank too small is mistreatment. I myself have recently fallen victim to buying a fish too big. I was in Maidenhead aquatics of all places looking for some kind of bottom dweller for my 90gal 4x2x1.5 feet.

I think you should phone up, get the manager and have a rant. Maidenhead tries to set a very high standard in staff knowledge and only selling appropriate stock. The Woking and Weybridge ones we use have very good staff (although don't like it when you say have got information from the internet and bulletin boards.....) They have been very helpful to me and other people I know. I would hope they appreciate their error and happily let you return it. Else a very snotty letter to Maidenhead Aquatics HQ at Maidenhead (of all places). Let them know it will be posted on here, and other sites etc.

Be interesting to hear the outcome. By the way which one site did you get it from?

 

[kniesh]

Hi yeah maidenhead are usually very good but to be fair they did only have 2 of these and one they had moved into a show tank. I phoned earlier to explain about it trying to eat my other fish the same size as it and they said they would take it back. However I just hope they dont sell it to someone else, telling them 8" max. I will be telling them the scientific name and size etc.. to try and get them to just try and keep it in one of the massive showtanks with Oscars etc...

 

[SeedCid]

Fish, same as other creatures are created to be eaten, if not, it is created to have a life on the wild. Definitely not to be kept in aquarium, no matter how big is the fish tank!! So if we really want to talk about cruelty on fish then stop eating fishes or keeping them at home. And don't support you local fish shop!! (Being bred and shipped, i dont think that is not cruelty if u really want to define cruelty.)

Some fish in aquarium, (e.g. giant Gourami, pacu, IR shark) are not considered aquarium fish. Back in my home country, they are sold for a mere 2 dollar for a large (yes i mean large ... 40cm+) and are raised for food.

Talking about cruelty to animal especially fish is confusing, especially most of us eat meat and fish.

But I love to keep fish at my home, watching them, definitely not for their (the fish) pleasure, but it is for my pleasure. Otherwise I would have release them to the wild.

 

[kniesh]

It is just as much my fault btw, if not more. I know better than to take a workers word as gospel. I made the decision to listen because it sounded like the perfect fish for the tank. Hopefully it looks like it will turn out ok.

 

[stackem evs]

Talking about cruelty to animal especially fish is confusing, especially most of us eat meat and fish.

Eating meat and fish is not cruelty, its natural and nature for many species. Cruelty is making an animal including a human, or fish suffer while alive, keeping a large fish in a small tank, not taking your dog out for a walk, hitting a child. Or not feeding as required. That is cruelty.

 

[OohFeeshy]

It's impossible to interpret what to do. In the end, it comes down to a case of the best situation out of

1. The impossible situation of finding someone who can house the fish, which isn't a viable option. Or indeed, upgrading to a tank big enough, which isn't viable.
2. Either killing the fish ASAP or when it outgrows the tank.
3. Taking the fish back to where it was bought from where it faces either death or resale to another ignoramus
4. Keeping the fish in the tank and hoping it gets stunted (as opposed to it continuing growing until it can't physically fit).
5. Releasing the fish into the wild- whether a river, lake or ornamental pond.

Obviosly, none are ideal, so it's up to the morals of whoever owns the fish.

 

[SeedCid]

Talking about cruelty to animal especially fish is confusing, especially most of us eat meat and fish.

Eating meat and fish is not cruelty, its natural and nature for many species. Cruelty is making an animal including a human, or fish suffer while alive, keeping a large fish in a small tank, not taking your dog out for a walk, hitting a child. Or not feeding as required. That is cruelty.

Yeah ... eating them is not cruelty, how about u need to kill them before u eat it. Have u ever seen a fish breeding farm that is used for food (which u would say its overcrowded)? Or live seafood in restaurant or local fish market (20 large baramundi / gourami / large fish in a 200 litre tank?) Chicken farm? (they can barely move around in the cage)

Hitting a child if he misbehave, that is normal for most people in the world. I wouldnt consider that cruelty. unless if u hit a child for no reason.

Not feeding as required --> i dont know how many times u fed ur fish, but i am sure ur fish is hungry even if u feed it 3 times a day (where most people suggest me to feed my goldfish only once a day which i dont follow). They are animal, not human.

If u really care about cruelty ... spent ur money on helping the needy (human) rather than animal.

 

[The-Wolf]

one of the wholesalers that I deal with in my job
will take some of these monster species of fish from us (pangasius, RTCs etc), if a customer has brought them into us,
and they will only pass them on to public aquaria or zoos etc.

I do feel that there are certain fish that the general public shouldn't even have access to, but alas
this will never happen in my lifetime. All I can do, as a LFS employee, is to try and discourage customers for buying such fish in the first place.
We had one bloke who wanted a RTC and I did my utmost to disuade him, but he wanted it anyway.
Oh well for every failure there are more sucesses.

Is autopsy even the right word to use for fish?

FYI an autopsy performed on any aminal is known as a “necropsyâ€￾

 

[helenx0x0]

Talking about cruelty to animal especially fish is confusing, especially most of us eat meat and fish.

Eating meat and fish is not cruelty, its natural and nature for many species. Cruelty is making an animal including a human, or fish suffer while alive, keeping a large fish in a small tank, not taking your dog out for a walk, hitting a child. Or not feeding as required. That is cruelty.

Erm, I hate to say it, but eating meat/fish is cruel... just look at the farming practices used these days.

Proud to be a veggie!