Fish
Vicki Moore did not believe in the general principle of keeping animals as pets, but realised that animals would be and if they were they should be kept in the best way possible.
This is general advice on how to protect your pet from safety or health hazards. For advice on individual species please consult your veterinary or expert books.
Comment
The industry makes us believe that keeping fish as pets is dead easy. Even kids can do it. Movies like “Nemo” planted the desire to keep fish into many kids’ heads. Colourful books targeted at children promote gold fish as a first step towards keeping warm water tanks with colourful tropical fish.
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Many fish are imported from abroad. This means that many regions are over fished and some species have almost become extinct. Depending on the methods applied, fish are injured during capture by the netting, which may cause cuts, bruises and injuries to the gills. Organ damage is caused by dragging them up too fast.
Approximately 60 % of the fish do not make it out of their country of origin. This is due to bad handling and storage in horrendous conditions. Only with the ample use of drugs the rest are kept alive.
In the Philippines and Indonesia highly toxic cyanide is used illegally to catch tropical fish. This method also causes harm to other reef dwellers. It is believed that 90 % of fish caught with cyanide die within the first weeks due to problems with breathing and damage to the liver.
Even though many fish commonly used in beginners’ fish tanks are bread in Europe, they still have to travel long distances, which causes them stress which weakens their immune system. When they arrive in a pet shop, they may be put together with fish from a different origin. This may result in illnesses, especially if the pet shop does use a central filtering system for all tanks. You may buy an ill fish, which does not display symptoms yet.
Why not check the yellow pages or the internet for experienced breeders in YOUR AREA instead? The least you can do is go to a pet shop that specialize in fish. Take a good look around. Do the tanks look clean and healthy or do you dead fish? Dealers who really care for their fish do keep them in a tanks with plants and hiding places.
If you are really determined to buy tropical fish and ornaments you should check out the Marine Aquarium Council’s website to find out about the certification programme and make your choice accordingly.
But even in your home the fish might not be safe. Did you know that 80 % of the deaths in fish tanks are directly related to poor handling? Keeping fish is like playing god. Their fate is absolutely in your hands. You need to learn a lot before you will be able to keep fish properly. It is not true that you can leave a fish tank to its own devices and only throw some food tablets in once in a while. A fish tank is high maintenance. The artificial environment you will create for them in their tank needs a lot a care and technical assistance.
If you are really determined to start a keep fish at home, you should ask yourself the following questions:
- Even though there are small and inexpensive starter kits available, the general rule is, that it is easier to create and maintain a balanced environment in a bigger tank. The bigger the better. Are you willing to spend rather more than less?
- Do you have enough room for the size of your fish tank? Is it sheltered from the sunlight or other sources of heat. Fish tanks tend to heat up if the environmental temperatures rises. This has an impact on the oxygen supply in the water and is harmful to fish and plants.
- Do you have a smoke-free room? Some fish take in air from the environment. Nicotine, as well as fumes from chemicals are harmful to the fish.
- Are you familiar with the chemistry of water? You will have to use several water test kits on a regular basis. You will need to learn about how different landscaping objects and gravels interact with the water parameters. If you want real plants, you will have to learn about their needs too. Plastic plants are much easier for beginners.
- A common mistake is to over-feed. Uneaten food will spoil the water quality and eventually kill the fish. Are you willing to invest more time and feed them small amounts several times a day?
- Are you prepared to do some in-depth research on the species you would like to keep beforehand? A common mistake is to merely go by appearance. However, the various species have their very own needs and you cannot combine them freely. Generally it is better to have fewer fish as an overcrowded aquarium is stressful for the fish.
- Do you have anybody to look after your fish while you are on holiday? Even though there are auto feeding devices available and lights can be connected to a timer too, someone needs to check whether all the equipment is running properly (e.g.
heaters, filters). - Are you prepared for a longer power cut? Do you have a back-up system to help your fish to survive, if heater and filter do no longer work?
- In case that you accidentally turn into a successful breeder, as many of the species most commonly used in a fish tank breed a lot, do you have an idea, what to do with the constant supply of fish?
Accessories to avoid
The pet industry constantly comes up with new ideas for your pets. Mostly they are designed to give you pleasure rather than your fish. Here is a by no means complete list of what accessories to avoid:
Goldfish bowels
Apart from not allowing the fish much room to swim, their size do not allow to achieve proper oxygen levels and stable water parameters. There is no room to install a proper filter system. These days some manufacturers offer goldfish bowels with a build-in filtration system. However, due to the small size there is still no
room to swim and withdraw and orientation is very difficult. This leads to severe stress and may even cause death.
Miniature fish tanks, cylinder shaped fish tanks
These models hould be avoided for the same reasons as the gold fish bowl. Even though they may appear bigger, they still do not allow the fish to exercise their normal behaviour.
Lead-weigthened real plants
The lead weight needs to be taken off immediately and the roots needs to scrubbed carefully but thoroughly under running water, as the lead would poison the water. Ceramic-weighened plants are preferable.
Certain types of gravel and ornaments
The industry comes up with ever new ideas to create an entertaining landscape. However, these ornaments may actually infere with the fish’s needs. Some of the colourful ornaments are actually toxic. Depending on the colouring used coloured gravel may release toxins into the water. Glittering gravel or objects may cause light reflexions which are unpleasant to the fish. Gravel with sharp edges (e.g. from basalt) can lead to injuries for bottom-dwelling fish. Bigger stones, maybe even collected by yourself,
may look nice, but you have to be sure what they are made of as some stones interfere with the water parameters.
Thermometres
Thermometres attached to the outside of the glass are not sufficiently reliable. Buy a floating thermometer which can be read easily at all times. Even smaller cold water tanks without a heater have to be monitored carefully, as the heat up alongside with the room temperature.
A word about gold fish
The industry promotes gold fish as a low maintenance pet for children. However, gold fish are no different from any other fish. They too have specific requirements concerning water parametres and temperature. If not cared for properly they succumb to the same diseases as other species. Buying twin-tailed varieties is not recommendable. They have been bred to an extent, where they can hardly exercise their normal swimming movements any longer. Compared to “normal” gold fish, their bodies appear deformed. They are also more complicated to keep as they are much more susceptible to disease.
A special word about “Nemo”
Nemo the little anemonefish created a boom. Every child wanted one in their bedroom. Newspapers and other media raffled starter kids with the colourful fish in it. However, “Nemo” needs a seawater tank, which is much harder to start and maintain, needs lots more equipment and is definitely not recommendable for beginners. Apart from that, anemonefish have a true symbiosis with anemones, which did not come included in the package. Without the anemone the fish will suffer from stress and die. Keeping anemones adequately in a seawater tank requires a lot of knowledge and proper equipment. For most of the newly acquired “Nemos” moving into people’s rooms must have been a death sentence.
Regarding garden ponds
If you are thinking of creating a pond in your garden, you should ask yourself the same questions beforehand and get advice from experts. You cannot simply dig a whole in the ground, line it with plastic foil and put in some plants and fish. Depending on the climate zone, ponds have different requirements. Climatic changes, e.g. very prolongued hot period, affect the water parametres in garden ponds and thus have a direct impact on fish and plants.