Attn: tang police

[sumpfinfishe]

If you want to do some good- rescue the three tangs covered in ick that are for sale at animal house in Abtsfrd. what a shame! :(

[naesco]

What species and size of tangs are they?

I thought Animal House had a good name.

[AJ_77]

The number of ailing fish, or tangs alone that we see at the local shops is staggering. There is one small reef shop here that kills an amazing number of fish weekly, perhaps half of each shipment. These animals are consumables, and therefore are replenished weekly for sale. I don't know what the average lifespan is once the fish is sold and taken home, but I'm sure it would be disheartening.

The money required to "rescue" all these would be impressive, and I doubt all our tanks would be sufficient to hold them. :(

AJ

[ 28 September 2002, 19:02: Message edited by: AJ_77 ]

[Delphinus]

Which shop do you mean Alan? Just curious (send me a PM or an email if you prefer)

I am personally having a really difficult time wrestling with my conscience of late, owing to stores that I have been visiting as part of my "reef addiction window shopping" ritual. As you may or may not know I am currently in the U.S. for an install. I have been visiting a number of shops down here, in one random North American city, and I have to tell you, it has been a real eye-opening experience .... the hobby has a lot of cleaning up its act to do. To be fair, I have found one shop that I felt was worthy of praise. (And I wish I had brought my camera, Alan, to show you and Bob what this one guy was doing with nanos ... maybe I will go buy a cheapy disposable camera, and go back and snap a few shots for you guys). But the other stores. ... man, oh man. :( I would estimate I have seen one in a hundred, kind of statistical number, of reef-related animals that don't have some kind of uphill battle ahead of them for survival. And, sadly enough, the vast majority of those animals, are tangs. Tangs covered in ick, tangs missing fins, or starving with pinched-in-stomachs. They were taken out of the ocean. For what? How sad.

I saw a tank full of ritteris in one store. These were tiny little anemones (anyone who has seen mine, knows that these are not small animals after a time). But it's not the size that alarmed me (although it probably does mean that they were starving). It was the fact that there were no less than TWELVE in a 30 gallon tank, that was otherwise completely empty except for a very large wad of caulerpa. Some of the anemones were so desperate to find the appropriate subtrate that they had attached themselves to the caulerpa and were floating around in the whirlpool of current on this wad of algae. Why the .... did they have to bring in twelve? They're all doomed when you pile them into a single tank like that. It ought to be a crime. I was so depressed after I saw this.

I don't know what the answer is to these kinds of problems. Perhaps, I should have gone to MACNA instead this weekend, and voiced my disgust at the overall state of affairs. I think, perhaps, to insure sustainability of the hobby, and to have a greener footprint, we do need to bring in some of regulation for the hobby. You want to sell wild-caught ocean livestock? Fine, but you have to have some kind of accrediation. And this accreditation would have to be meaningful -- i.e., if it's found that livestock is living in sub-standard conditions, then that accreditation could be revoked. And we could do our part, as hobbyists, to form bona-fide clubs, that we could then go out and educate the public, about only purchasing from these accredited outfits.

I don't know if this is a good idea, or a practical idea. But, I do see it as one potential way that we could reduce the unnecessary carnage out there.

We definitely need to clean up our act somehow.

[sumpfinfishe]

For Naesco: all three were blue regal tangs, all at about 3" in length, full of ick, and starving as there stomachs were shrunk badly. If I only had a bigger tank-these poor fish were really suffering! :( :eek:

[naesco]

Animal House will take the loss when the tangs die.
Hopefully they will than learn not to replace them as they will sustain further losses.
It could be that they may not be taking care of their tanks, purchased cheap fish from a questionable supplier or just have some bad luck.

As sad as it is, we must not go out an bail out LFS by purchasing dying fish or coral because all it does is encourage them to go out and buy more of them.

[ 29 September 2002, 20:07: Message edited by: naesco ]

[Delphinus]

Exactly, Naesco, exactly right. Rescuing the animals means they can bring them in again to try again. It perpetuates the cycle that must stop.

I would like to go a step further. I think we all need to be a bit more brave, and be more vocal about expressing discontent with conditions.

[Mak]

What SFF says is an understatement. Half or so of there tanks are ICH'ed right out :( . And there were actually 4 3"-3.5" Regal Tangs, 1 large dead Cinnamon Clown and about 4-5 other large Clowns and a number of other Fish covered in Ich :( . Sounds like they need Diver Dan in for Operation:Ich.

However there tanks with Ich are marked Not For Sale and I do not believe that this store will be replenishing any of there tanks until this problem is solved ;) .

[ 29 September 2002, 17:49: Message edited by: MAK ]

[mikeb]

at animal house we do not sell sick fish and will not ever for that matter. Anyone who has ever run a retail business or had a aquarium should know that ich is a common occurence in new systems . That is why we will not and havn't loaded our systems up with tons of fish . We will slowly brake our tanks before doing so . The tangs and any other fish in question are being treated and are not for sale . All of our sytems are completly seperate from one another .There is a total of 14 systems with a total of 28 saltwater tanks all with there own sump ,uv etc. At our stores we do not by cheap livestock of any type.For 14 years i've been a advocate that cheap isn't always better and will be that way at our stores in the future.

[Skimmerking]

This happened about a 1.5 months ago .i usally dont talk what happenes to me ..

THIS MUST BE STOPPED

Sorry to say I know lots of stores that are out for one thing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!MONEY.....
AND THEY KNOW ALL Well it's a load of crap to see this. Thne i don't think that people are making up stories about this fish store, Maybe some one, should think tha ICH in marine live is pretty serious and It doesnt take much to take it under contol. Well I had my run in with the LFS here and Well Let's say I'm not very well liked there and need to say that I'm Not welconed there anymore. It all started with the QT tank that they had there with my buddies 6" puffer ,he was beautiful but he had ick from a bad experience my friend had with his 55 gal tank. :mad: SO i took his puffer to this LFS and told them everythinkg from PH to the ammonia in his tank and the temp to. :mad: So then she she ok and dumped the little guy into the QT tank. and I lost ed it ,I asked here what the
F#$% are you doing you idiot.!! she told me to watch my mouth or i will have to leave. Well me being in the army, [img]tongue.gif[/img] And me having a potty mouth when i loose control.. Lets say the manger came over and ask me what in the hell i was doing. I told him that the girl was a idiot ,He grabbed me Well It was the last time that happened.. LOOL ;) I don't liked to be touched by people for no reason.. Anyway i told him you just dont treat the fish like that. he told me like what, throwing the sick fish in the tank. He tells me that its ok it has maracyn in there .I'm sorry but doesnt matter ita shock to the poor little guy .no wonder ed he died. My
my spec's there's
ph 8.05 ph 8.4
temp 81 temp 77
salinity-1.025 1.022
this is what i mena the knowledge to save on salt is stupid
. sorry so when i here of these stores espically on the coast that are a lack of knmowledge it buggs the hell out of me.

LAST AND FINALLY HOW HARD IS IT TO TREAT ICK, WHEN YOU HAE A STERILIZER COME ON PEOPLE>>>>>>

[ 29 September 2002, 20:35: Message edited by: asmodeus ]