Value of Fish

[gold00mustang]

Over the weekend, my house was broken into and all my stuff was stolen. In addition to this, my aquarium was filled full of fish food. 3 large containers full. Needless to say, my fish did not make it out alive. They were all dead by the time we got home from our trip and found the house. My question is this, I had 4 large (10 inch) Oscars and one large (10 inch long) sucker fish...not sure that name of that one. How much would each fish be valued at? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Zagz]

OMG how horrifying! 8O What is this world coming to that people would stoop so low. So sorry to hear that. I would contact a few lfs's and get prices from each of them if possible.

 

[rich311k]

I am so sorry to here that. When did cruelty become fun?

 

[QTOFFER]

What a hateful, spiteful thing to do to somebody you just robbed! I hope the thieve(s) get a bad case of something that leaves them cramped up and leaking from both ends.

I would go to the lfs where you bought the tank and explain what happened. They will probably happily give you a written estimate of your losses which will go ever better with the insurance company that a guesstimate.

 

[gold00mustang]

Just an update...the thieves were found with our truck and all of my stuff still intact. In fact, one of the thieves (male) was wearing my fiances (female) class ring. The two thieves were 13 and 14 years old and said the fish tank was "just so f@*%ing funny". The police would not let me hit them although I did ask...anyway, thanks for the advice!

 

[Zagz]

Glad that they were caught although it would have been better if they had some conscience about what they did to the fish. Unbelievable how insensitive and ignorant they are!

 

[chiefs101]

Sorry about the incident. Glad they were caught.

 

[malkore]

Well, as they sit in juvenile lock-up, they may start to develop some remorese for their actions.

Sadly at 13 & 14, the book won't be thrown at them unless they've had lots of incidents in the past.

When you do go to the LFS, make sure htey give you estimates on what THEY would sell those fish for, not the amount of credit they would give you.
Also, don't alter what they give you. Just was talking to my LFS owner and he had to do the same thing for discus that were killed by an exterminator spraying for bugs. The owner doubled the price, and of course the insurance adjustor came to the LFS to ask the owner, and of course he quoted the original price he told the customer, so they got a slap on the wrist and a smaller check than they wanted.

 

[macman7010]

[-Originally posted by Malkore] ("Well, as they sit in juvenile lock-up, they may start to develop some remorese for their actions.

Sadly at 13 & 14, the book won't be thrown at them unless they've had lots of incidents in the past.")
____________________________________________________


I dont feel that way at all and being someone who is studying for a master's degree in Juvenile Rehibilitation, Juvenile Justice and Justice Reform I take severe offense to that matter. If you would have studied the U.S. constitution and the many amendmants that have been made over the years you may see why juvenile justice is in tact and how important it is to this country.

If we "threw the book" at every young person who committed a crime we would have a "Prison" based society that accomplished nothing. Before making a statement like that above you may want to educate yourself on American legal princaples and the Juvenile Justice system, its history and the U.S. constitution and criminal law.

As for what they young people did to your home I am sorry to hear that. Although the behavior you described and the comment about the aquarium is very typical of an immature possible Emotionally Disturbed young person who likely has had thier share of severe issues over time.

As for the price of your fish, when my gf's aquarium recently broke we had to get fish costs for All Glass since the water drained out and she lost some animals. We used the costs from Live Aquaria and added the shipping cost on at the end which worked fine since she had acquired her fish from so many different sources.

 

[Drocnoc]

I think you should take your 'severe offense' and put it in your pocket for when your house gets broken into by a 13 and 14 yr old and your fish killed.

I'm just thinking you see a lot more of this from the other side, the trouble youth needing guidance kind of thing but the victims are the real ones with the loss.

I agree sending 13 or 14 yrs old to 'ADMINISTRATIVE EDIT' prison is not the best. I'm not sure what your recommended rehabilitation program is but some consequences have to endured by these teens.

Being severely offended is a bit much for only suggesting the toughest legal penalty for a crime they are admittedly guilty of.

sorry - kind of hijacked the thread.

 

[macman7010]

Well the most severe punishment in the state where I did my intern studies for breaking and entering, robbery possibly armed, theft of a motor vehicle, and destruction of property due to forced entry is likely 6 months to 1 year in a juvenile holding facility until a spot opens up at a juvenile rehab facility - and in juvenile justice everything even prisons for kids are called rehab facilities. The holding facility is an underfunded jail for kids were every grotesque thing you can imagine takes place. Than a possible "until 18" sentence which if you are 14 could be up to 4 years or so. Likely though they would get one year or an indetermanate sentence meaning that whenever the facility thinks they are better they can go.

The sad part is these facilities are terribly underfunded, equipped with untrained staff that often resorts to violence as a control style and in the end makes matters worse in a variety of ways. Luckily with a good defense attorney and working juvenile advocate those kids would not see anything like that.

My response if I were in the field today if the two kids who committed this act were under my supervision would be to suggest an outdoor rehabilitation facility combining several both punitive and rehabilitative techniques.

 

[Crusis]

I am so sorry to here that. When did cruelty become fun?

About 5 million BC. It's been the nature of Man since the beginning. As for the kids punishment, I think Singapore has it right. Cane them. I guarantee they will consider that pain before they act again. Society coddles the lawless, when we should be removing them or making them fear the lawful. Instead, we live the other way around. Cane them, and let poor Gold00Mustang wield the stick should he wish.

Sorry for the hijack, but this citizen is tired of criminal "rights".

 

[Drocnoc]

Does the judge consider the effectiveness of a 'rehab' facility, whether it be a prison or a more interactive juvenile rehab facility?

Also what specifically do you mean by 'outdoor rehabilitation facility combining several both punitive and rehabilitative techniques' and how would it differ from the traditional approach?

You seem passionate about this issue, and the youth is the future so its commendable that you have chosen this profession.

On a somewhat similar note, did you specifically go to school for this? as in you knew the second you stepped on campus you would be pursuing your masters in this field?
Was there something, a certain incident, that made you want to do this schooling?



Ok, getting way of track here, but there is always a lot of want to help (ok overall not a lot but the help that is out there most of it goes this way) the worst off. What about the people that a are just above that. Like the kid that hasn't broken any laws yet but is in a position to be pressured or some other circumstance that is pushing him/her to more illegal or immoral actions. Shouldn't we have champion for these almost bad people so they don't go all the way? This question is not really direct to you macman but the world, lol. Feel free to answer though.

 

[Drocnoc]

I somewhat agree with you Crusis but i think with kids/teens its a differant story.

 

[BillyZ]

I think we need to steer back on topic.

The posed question was that of the value of his fish, not a discussion of crime and punishment.


IMO, the value of your pets are "priceless" however the insurance company won't see that way. How would you mark the value of your dog had it been killed by a burgler? Ask your insurance company and tell them the same thing, these are family pets. You can easily tally up what it would cost to replace everything with new materials/fish but, IMO, there should be punative damages involved as well.

HTH

(lets stay on topic please)

 

[BillyZ]

and as a matter of fact, be sure the police add animal cruelty to the list of charges.

 

[fishfreek]

As has been suggested. Get back on topic. The topic was about how to establish a value for what was lost.

I would suggest calling a LFS and asking them if you where to special order two 10' ocsars and a 10' pleco (name the type if you know) what it would cost you. Often times larger fish are more expensive because there are less of them in the retail side of the hobby.

Clearly you have a value for the lost food that was dumped in. Other things to consiter is the cost of your time to take everything down. Properly clean it. Set it back up. Recycle the tank, etc.

 

[QTOFFER]

and as a matter of fact, be sure the police add animal cruelty to the list of charges.

Good point! If these kids had strung up your cat they would be appropriately charged. Fish are animals and what they did to them was certainly cruel.

 

[macman7010]

honestly Im suprised just dumping the containers of food in there killed them. I watched a wal mart store attendant dump an entire thing of floating pellets into an oscar tank one time and then throw in some flakes. He was laughing the whole time but the fish were still alive a few days later when I was there again too. They outta charge that guy with animal cruelty too ... What kind of filtration did you have on the tank?

As per your question about schooling I started school for Criminal Law and Philosophy and after one year moved into the Juvenile Justice field after working with a camp for youth who had been through the system. I have been in the study of Juvenile Justice and Justice reform for several years now and am working on a more advanced degree in that field of study before looking at working in the field.

 

[Drocnoc]

He said he was on a trip and mutiple containers were dumped in. If a huge amount was in the tank and left even just for 2 days I would wager there was a huge ammonia spike .

Im not sure about you walmart but many large fish stores use one big water system for all freshwater tanks so their biological filtertation should be pretty robust Plus those big places get big shipments of fish and should have some plan for dealing with excess ammonia, either with filter media or some way of keeping bacteria cultures going.