Controls

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

The more I read about diseases, the more I read about "introduced at breeding facility", we have come to accept this as "naturally in your tank".

The diseases only affect fish when they get stressed. Fair enough, but I can guarantee 2 instances of stress on the fish, transportation to the store and transportation to your house, the latter is typically the most stressful since the fish is seperated from a large portion of his/her kind, often to be put in a tank with at most 5 of it's kind.

So, my question, where are the controls? why are fish being fed contaminated food? would you accept it if you had a child at the hospital that was perfectly fine so they injected it with HIV or some other eventually fatal disease? or perhaps they don't inject it, but don't bother to clean the needle first.

Frankly there are better controls for health at a slaughter house, and we know what they are for. How many diseases are contagious, how many people get fish that 2 years later are showing signs of something it couldn't have come in contact with since before it was purchased (Heximita, TB and more)

Why are there more medications for fish then any other controlled enviroment pet?

Sorry, just venting a little. Keep thinking of kids that get fish, think they're great, take great care of them just to find out the fish are dying from something introduced before they got it and the only consolation they get is "it's naturally in that tap water that you drink every day".

feel free to ignore this post as a vent.

 

[dskidmore]

Why are there more medications for fish then any other controlled enviroment pet?

I can't answer the rest, but can you think of an easier small animal to medicate? There's no weighing of the animal, calculating their breed's metabolism, etc. Just 1 tablet per 5 gallons, or whatever the instructions say. Most other captive animals are harder to medicate properly. Even the kittens I had (two brothers) had slightly diffrent weights and therefore diffrent dosages, and they were a bunch larger than most other controlled enviroment pets.

I can sympathize. I adopted these fish who's former owner can't take care of them anymore, and I've had nothing but trouble with them. I can't in good conscience buy any new fish, for fear of them catching one of the pathogens loose in my tank. I just have to wait for survival of the fittest to kick in.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I can think of 3 pets that are similar in many respects, bird, rodent and reptile, while they differ in metabolism, they are very rarely sick, or well on their way when you get them, the level of diseases they have is very low compared to fish.

My rant is mainly over the poor level of care given by the breeders and the responsibility often handed over to the future owner.

Would you buy a bird if you knew 50% of the birds from 50% of the places would have a problem in the near future, it was just waiting for a trigger?

I think one thing we often consider bad is actually good, I've always advised against buying pets from places that have poorly maintained equipment or showrooms, when in reality these places likely have the best stock (medically speaking).

I don't mind treating fish, don't get me wrong, I just hate that there is such a wide variety of diseases out there that are directly linked to their breeders conditions.

I doubt this thread will have anything positive come of it, I just wanted to unload a bit of frustration with the way things are handled. And reading through the "unhealthy fish" forum makes it worse, if it wasn't for people here giving advice on treatments, how many people would be pumping their dollars down the drain treating simple things like ich. or looking at a fish that's in bad shape and getting unqualified LFS answers to what the problem may be, being handed a bottle of stuff they know nothing about just to have the fish die anyways because they were treating for something that wasn't close to what they had.

 

[BillD]

I think most breeders would take offence, at your statement, accusing them of providing poor care. It is far more likely that better care is given by the breeder than a fish's final owner. Breeders go to great pains to ensure high survival and good growth rates. It is their bread and butter. The only way to do this is through providing good water quality and quality food. Breeders who don't this aren't in business for long.

 

[Guest]

I think the main problem is with the retail fish stores themselves who hire ignorant employee's and then fail to teach them.. or simply go by old practices that have long since been disproved. ... it would seem that they would make more money if they took more time with their fish.... accimilating.. maintenance.. and LEARNING.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Bill, Perhaps I could have worded things a little better, I didn't mean poor level of care, rather poor control of disease in that enviroment, and I'm talking disease that is contagious in healthy fish. Sorry, I didn't realize that "poor level of care" was typed, it was rather late. I'm talking more of fish farms, not the person that breeds at home and sells to the store. and fish farms releasing fishes that have been in tanks with a fish that has TB is no less offencive then my comment, or perhaps it would be the food suppliers. Perhaps my comment is offencive (I was pretty sure it was), but can anyone explain how TB or any other disease gets into your tank when it's not something that can be spread any other way then through an initial infection somewhere else or contamination.

Also, if you remember, there was a very bad time to buy Cory's, they were all dropping like flies (about a year ago) regardless of the care given to them.

 

[dskidmore]

I definately agree that the uneducated LFS employee has alot to do with it. Many of the big chains, or department stores with fish sections have massive die-offs, and they don't even remove the dead bodies promptly, likely causing ammonia spikes and more death. If I walk into a store and see a dead fish, I walk out and don't buy any fish that day. One time I went into a chain store, and they were using those weekly feeder blocks. Such overcrowded conditions and bad food, nevermind the rest of thier shoddy care. I hope they at least have someone knowlegable doing the weekly water changes.

 

[BrianNY]

IMO aquarium fish will never get the same kind of attention at the retail level that more typical pets receive. It's not just that we're talking about something that sells for perhaps 99 cents each, but also that people will always view fish as more ornaments than pets. That being the case, the life of a fish is considered much more disposable than say a dog. How many people would take their fish to the fish vet if one even existed?

 

[dskidmore]

Actually, I know who I would take my fish to if I had the money. My dog's old vet used to work at marineland. He has a contract with one of the big circuses to be thier vet when they're in town.

If owners would pony up the cash, someone would open a fish vetinary, but the inexpensiveness of fish A) encourages people to say "I'll just buy a new one" and B) makes the hobby accessable to people who could not afford such services.