It is hard to tell a pet owner what to do with an animal that has outgrown
the home aquarium. Usually, people are intrigued by the "meanness" of the
fish and it is like a status symbol to have one. (As was mentioned, track
snakehead sales in your local pet store these days.) However, many people
are truly misinformed at the point of purchase and don't realize how big
the animal can get. Most people believe that a fish only grows to the size
of the aquarium. Obviously that is not true. Then there are others that
are so attached to their pet that they call up crying and saying how tame
their fish is and that we must have it because "it will let you pet it". I
had one lady call me up in tears saying how her 18 inch pacu couldn't turn
around any more in her 70 gallon tank and if I didn't take it she would let
it go in the Rocky River (small tributary of Lake Erie) in the hopes that
it would find it's way into the Mississippi (wrong direction) and then find
its way into the Amazon (no explaination needed)! How do you tell a person
like that that probably the most humane thing to do would be to euthanize
the animal. I am not for needlessly killing animals by any means but there
is a reality situation to deal with. I don't know if banning these fish
from the trade is the answer, instead I think that there is more argument
for education of animal ethics in keeping and selling animals. That, of
course is like climbing Mount Everest in a wheel chair!
It would be a great idea to try to spin this surprising popularity around
and try to make some good points about how destructive and irresponsible it
is to release exotics into the wild. All we can do at this point, however,
is to nibbles crumbs off the problem by writing responsible articles (such
as Bob did), don't support pet stores which unscrupulously sell animals
which get potentially large, and try to work withing your local aquarium
clubs to get the messages out in your local area. I also believe that it
should be a priority of public institutions to try to educate visitors on
the responsibility of keeping these animals. We do it when the "man eating
piranha" (usually a pacu) gets caught every year. Unfortunately, I am a
small fish in a big pond.
Nick Zarlinga
Aquarium Biologist
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
216-661-6500 ex 4485
"Fish worship... is it wrong??" (Ray Troll)
On Sunday, July 14, 2002 5:58 PM, The Thaumaturgist
[SMTP:asitkghosh_at_yahoo.com] wrote:
> Nick
> Do you know of any aquarium that would take fishes that had
> overgrown their owners' home aquariums ?
>
> On the other hand, what should a pet owner do when the fish had
> outgrown the aquarium ? What had the owners been doing for the
> last so many years ?
>
> May be something positive would come out of this Snakehead
> fiasco; like a national/state repository or something of that
> sort?
>
> Asit K. Ghosh
> Rockledge, Florida
> ================================================================
>
>
> --- "Nicholas J. Zarlinga" <njz_at_clevelandmetroparks.com> wrote:
> > I can tell you that public aquariums would be especially
> > appreciative to
> > have a place to direct caring hobbyists with large fish they can
> > not
> > properly house anymore! If you play your cards right, you might
> > even have
> > aquariums calling you to see what specimens you have. Although
> > large fish
> > are abundant, they are never around when you want them or even if
> > they are
> > too larger for a home tank, they still need to do some growing to
> > be put
> > in with other large fish in larger tanks. I am amazed that no one
> > has
> > really ever latched on to this idea. It has been discussed many
> > times
> > before in the public aquarium circles. There are enough people who
> > care
> > enough for their overgrown pets to drive several hours to give them
> > to
> > someone who can provide them with a good home.
> >
> > Nick Zarlinga
> > Aquarium Biologist
> > Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
> > 216-661-6500 ex 4485
------
> /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
> / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
> / Association"
> / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
Association
> / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the
word
> / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email
to
> / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
> / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
> / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page,
http://www.nanfa.org
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org