Help stop CBS and Tetras irresponcible acts.

[michealprater]

Please view this thread and send emails to the guilty parties.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=201848&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

 

[fishfreek]

I would like to say that I have been trying to get a video of this segment. I for one did not see it and would prefer to see the clip before sending any comment about it.

If what they say is true I am truly appaled at the lack of information provided by Tetra. CBS cant be blamed as they would not be expected to know any intracite details about the needs of a 'nemo' tank but Tetra should.

If/when I get a video I will provide it to anyone who wants to view it.

 

[Guest]

I for one do blame CBS for jumping the gun and allowing such nonsense to be placed on their network. Most magazines do research before the stories get published and I would hope that a major network would do the same. They may not be the ones that are responsible for the statements made by Tetra's Representative, but they did provide the media in which it was broadcast, and that makes them an accomplice. Maybe it will somewhat bring light to them that they should not be so irresponsible.. On a side note, on inhuman treatment, get this.

On our local news, they have an investigative team for civil stuff that viewers are having trouble with and want resolution. They got a call from one of the LFS owners that wanted to get into a closed for good business that had a Fish tank inside... It had been a week and the guy only wanted to get inside to take care of the fish but the owner would not return his calls and the doors were locked with chains. He called 911 and rescue and no-ne deemed it neccessary to aid because it was only fish, not a dog or cat. HMMM Crazy. So, he turned to the TV station to find the owner and get the fish some help. Needless to say, all of the fish were dead from starvation because the local law enforcment deemed fish unworthy of help in crisis...Go figure, your cat gets stuck in a tree and Fireman Fred will get him out of the tree, and your dog falls down the sewage hole and a Police Officer Pete will crawl down there and get him. That was a shocking story to me and the owner felt awful when he finally got the LFS owner in there and found out the concequences of not being prepared when closing his store... Where is Duece Bigalow when you need him... :?

 

[justDIY]

that's terrible

saltwater fish are so colorful and beautiful, why would anyone want to do something so irresponsible with them

it's bad enough selling fish fry in tiny plastic tanks calling them aquababies, or the betta vase, but something exotic like a saltwater fish, mass marketed for soccer moms and workaholic dads (and/or moms) to buy their rotten 6 yo so it will shut up about the d**n disney movie ... bummer

 

[fishfreek]

Ok I have the video file. I am going to be uploading it to my personal webserver.

The file can be downloaded at http://www.vafishfreek.com/tetra.mpg

For anyone who has not seen the clip please feel free to download it from my site.

 

[fishfreek]

Ok. now the video is just over 4min long and is 21MB in size. The image size of the video is a bit small but that was done to get it do a decent size I am sure. I did not make the video nor do I have the origonal so we are kind of stuck with what we have.

After viewing the video this is my take. They used a 5 gal minibowl aquarium with a hang on power filter. There was mention that the tank they where putting together was a saltwater tank but they did not go into any more detail than that. They decorated the tank with plastic plants but made mention that live plants thrive in aquariums. They made mention that all the wildlife they where using where farm rased vs wild caught. They added 1 perc clown and 1 hippo tang. They also added a few seahorse and a brittle star. While on the show they did not show them acclomating they did make mention of the need to acclomate the fish but did not go into detail about the saltinity just the floating procedure. The tank started out a bit low in water and they had the fish and seahorse and starfish in bowls they gently poured them into the tank. It was obvoius that they had been acclomated to some degree before hand since when all the fish and decorations where added the tank was full but not overflowing.

They kept cutting to what appeared to be a 180 gal tank wiith MANY clowns, tangs and other fish.

I did not hear them make mention of getting more information from tetra's website nor did I hear the represenitive mention anything about getting or asking for info from your local aquarium store.

At this point I do not feel like tetra did some great evil but I do feel they could have gone into a little more detail during their 4 min on the 'nemo tank'.

 

[fishfreek]

NOTE: this server is running off a DSL line so the download speeds will not be blazing fast so please be gentle with the number of connections.

http://www.vafishfreek.com/tetra.mpg --> 20MB MPEG file

http://www.vafishfreek.com/tetra.wmv --> 6.9MB Windows Media Player

http://www.vafishfreek.com/tetra1.rm --> 5.9MB RealVideo file

 

[d9hp]

I am not getting sound out of the Windows player.. any ideas?

 

[d9hp]

Did some tinkering and got the sound to work. I watched the video and she stated it was a 5 gallon minibow tank. She said it was saltwater only one time. She said to float the bag on top of the water for only 5-10 minutes and then dump the fish in. She said one inch of fish per gallon. She did a whole lot wrong in the video

 

[hisc1ay]

This is from CBS's website:
"With the success of the Disney's summer blockbuster film, "Finding Nemo," tropical fish are now finding themselves as the hot new pet. Carol Huntley-Weber of Tetra Fish Products visited The Saturday Early Show to show the ease of owning and maintaining an aquarium."
I haven't seen the clip yet (I'm downloading it now), but I was slightly bothered by the word "ease". I know when I first started with my FRESHwater, i thought it was easy, and my fish died all the time. It's easy if you don't want to do it right, but it takes work. You can't buy a dog and let it do whatever you want, you have to work with it. The same thing is here. I agree, it was a little irresponsible. Hopefully when people are flocking to fish stores, the owners will give them accurate info and not just want the money.


-j

 

[hisc1ay]

Ok, after watching the clip, I did like how she talked about acclamating, and some of the mistakes people make, like not using conditioner, overfeeding, or adding too many fish. What she *should* have also pointed out is that tang is probably half grown, and those horses shouldn't have been there. Were there horses in Nemo? IMO, they were unnecessary, and by no means are easy to care for. The star was ok, and with a fully cylced tank the clown, tang, and star probably would have been ok as long as the person who had it knew what they were doing. The tang would have to be moved eventually.

And please, God, don't let "Nemo" become a description for a type of tank. I'll vomit if I walk into a LFS and see "Nemo tank setup" advertised...simply because it's fish exploitation.

-j