Xanax dip in new timid fish ethicality?

[CaC02]

what do you think about dip a new fish in a bucket of dechlorinated water filled with diluted xanax in order to make them negates stress and make them more active and acclimate faster in the new environment?

according to this : https://www.scientificamerican.com/...hed-into-water-may-be-making-fishes-fearless/

maybe a 15 - 30 minute dip in a xanax bucket.
according to the link it should make fish fearless meaning less hiding

 

[GaryE]

For a small fish to be fearless is for it to be stupid. Who wants to watch stupidity in fish? We have people for that.

I'd call this about as unethical a game as can be played. First off, you would need to see the fish as a simple ornament, but not a complex being. In that case, why have live fish?

Put a video screen in a dry tank..

The longterm effects haven't been studied, so we can't comment on that. I'd be confident calling it a shallow approach to fishkeeping. There are a lot of sedatives that work on fish, but it's no interest to me to watch sedated fish.

These drugs are useful used properly for humans, but aggressive fish that don't function as part of their instinctive social structure aren't what I want to watch. Nothing to be learned, and it would get boring fast at a possible cost to the health of the animal.

 

[Seisage]

Agree with everything Gary has said.

But on top of that, I could see this going wrong very, very quickly. There almost certainly aren't any dosing guides for treating fish with Xanax (alprazolam) so you would be shooting in the dark for a safe dosage, and that's a very dangerous game to play. Small fish have small bodies, and so it takes much less to kill them, in terms of toxin concentrations. The difference between a safe dose and a lethal one could be less than a gram, or even just a few milligrams, of medication. That's extraordinarily easy to slip up on, and you could be risking the lives of your fish for a just a chance at making them bolder.

As far as ethics go... I'm of the mind that animals should not be medicated unless there is a reasonable certainty that it would be beneficial for them. There are plenty of calming drugs given to dogs and cats which are extremely beneficial when they have chronic anxiety (or acute anxiety in unavoidable situations like a vet clinic), but fish don't have chronic anxiety unless their environment is stressful in some way. A new fish in a new tank will be able to overcome their initial stress in a day or two just fine on their own, as long as their environment is set up in a way that helps make them comfortable. There's no need to medicate them for stress, and doing so could potentially put your fish under more stress, or kill them.

 

[Lcc86]

Where are people randomly getting all this xanax from?! This is the second thread I've seen on this in recent days! Isn't is a prescription drug?

Outside of that, yes, extremely unethical to do this on purpose and don't really see the need. There was something in the UK a while back about certain waterways (and thereby fish) being full of cocaine, doesn't mean I'm gonna go sprinkling cocaine in the tank any time soon.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Create a safe and natural environment for fish and they won't be so timid in the first place! I'm blown away that some people would even consider this to be an option to be honest your first post had troll vibes and I'm still not convinced you're being serious, if you are.... I'd highly recommend you get more live plants and buy bigger groups of shoaling/schooling fish...leave the xanax in the cupboard please