madasafish
Aquarium Advice Addict
Hey,
So last week, I sauntered into the LFS, thinking I'd have a peek at the FW fish stock in the off chance that I'd find some interesting specimens. Needless to say there weren't any...
So I continued over to the marine fish and feeder fish aisle, and found myself confronted with a horrible site. Of the roughly 150 feeder fish (rosy red minnows) in the FF tank, 90% were dead in a pile in the corner of the tank. So, I've seen 10-20% of a tank's inhabitants dead, but this was gruesome, gruesome, gruesome. I pointed this out to an employee (they just love it when you do that), and he said that such losses were to be expected!!! Actually, he hadn't even noticed... He took out a large fishnet and proceeded to fish the dead minnows out of the tank. He was completely unphased. And all I could think was that even feeder fish deserve a "fat" (not PHAT) existence before they're sent to their deaths--you know, kinda like Vestal Virgins in ancient Babylonian temples. The "eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" idea...
It really got my goat.
--Maudlin about Minnows
So last week, I sauntered into the LFS, thinking I'd have a peek at the FW fish stock in the off chance that I'd find some interesting specimens. Needless to say there weren't any...
So I continued over to the marine fish and feeder fish aisle, and found myself confronted with a horrible site. Of the roughly 150 feeder fish (rosy red minnows) in the FF tank, 90% were dead in a pile in the corner of the tank. So, I've seen 10-20% of a tank's inhabitants dead, but this was gruesome, gruesome, gruesome. I pointed this out to an employee (they just love it when you do that), and he said that such losses were to be expected!!! Actually, he hadn't even noticed... He took out a large fishnet and proceeded to fish the dead minnows out of the tank. He was completely unphased. And all I could think was that even feeder fish deserve a "fat" (not PHAT) existence before they're sent to their deaths--you know, kinda like Vestal Virgins in ancient Babylonian temples. The "eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" idea...
It really got my goat.
--Maudlin about Minnows