'Painted' Fish

[Sinking Bubbles]

How many times have we seen a cute little fishy in the pet shop and before researching its habits, requirements etc we just went ahead and bought him / her straight away.

Then a few days later we realize that fishy is not doing so well and well, it’s usually too late.

This happened to my daughter. Bought two of the cutest little pink tailed Albino Corydoras and they went straight to the fish tank in her bedroom. (which daddy has to maintain)

Google’d the ‘Pink Corydoras’ and apart from seeing something that referred to ‘painted fish’ I did not see much else and pressed for time I left it at that.

In the past week I realized that one of the two pink Cory’s was very sluggish yet it did nibble on bits of food.

Over the weekend I checked on him again and found what I thought was a either a dead or ‘sleeping’ Cory. I tried to remove him from the tank but about halfway to the top he ‘woke’ up and swam off again.

This happened quite a few times over the weekend. Alive, dead, alive, dead, alive, dead.

The other Cory’s as well as the 2nd pink Cory are all fine.

I moved it to a separate tank and the strange behavior continued.

Looked on the net but only found that certain Cory’s have exhibited the same behavior but nothing to link it to any specific type of illness.

Then I found this article

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/responsible/paintedfish.php

There are no Pink Corydors out in nature, at least not like the ones various pet shops are currently selling.

Please go and read the article re ‘Painted Fish’

The little pink Cory has survived the ‘painting’ process but is now paying the price….

 

[KcMopar]

Its a shame that places paint and tattoo some fish and then shop owner buy them. There is place (mom and pops pet store) in my area that use to get Platy's that had love and hearts tattooed into the side of the fish. I didnt see these fish until after I had picked out a few SW fish and corals for my newly cycled SW tank a couple years ago. Before going to the register to pay for my SW stuff I decided to look at the African fish section which was next to a tank with tattooed fish, I was horrified!!!!!! I had seen painted fish but never tattooed!!! I went to the register and the owner was there ringing folks up. When it was my turn I told him nicely that I was not interested in buying fish from him because of the tattooed fish I seen him selling. He told me many others have said the same thing and that he was loosing business because of it and this was the only and last time he would buy fish like this again. I told him I would check back with him the next time I was seeking fish but this time I was taking a pass on his live stock and the other stuff I was getting. After a couple months I returned and he didnt have any mutilated fish.

 

[metsrangersfan15]

it is a truly terrible process, but they sell. i realize its hard to sympathize with stores who sell fish like this, but if there are enough people out there who want to buy these fish then it makes sense for a store owner to bring them in.

 

[OrangeCones]

I feel that the deformed and/or hybrids ('Balloon Molly' or the 'Parrot Cichlid' for example) also should not be sold, but its been done for so many years that its hard to get away from it.

If you look at 'wild' caught fish vs. those bred on fishfarms, you will see a far different fish that what is commonly sold. The 'wild' fish, once acclimated properly, live longer than many inbred captive fish farm fish. I have a friend that has two aquariums going, one with wild guppies, one with captive bred guppies. The wild guppies have lived 2x as long as the captive bred ones. Granted, you don't have the bigger and more colorful tails on the males, and the females have virtually NO color, but still nice fish. But which would 'sell'? Likely the 'prettier' ones.

 

[Sinking Bubbles]

Hi OrangeCones

Your and the other replies are much appreciated.

A lady at a nearby pet store went down to the coast recently and together with her kiddies caught some slender little fishies (unidentified) in one of the local lagoons.

This lagoon has a constant feed of freshwater from the inland and on every tidal change as good dose of saltwater from the sea (so a brackish type of environment).

She brought them back to her shop and has acclimatized them to freshwater in one of her display tanks.

At first glance they are fairly dull, slender built fish which causes your eyes to wonder off to the other tropical fish in the tank.

Yet, every time I visit her store I find myself in front of this particular tank first looking at these plain, grey-silver-greenish type of fish.

They do not harass the other fish (might be a very placid type of fish) but get along quite peacefully.

Have we become so dependent on who has the most beautiful colored fish that we have forgotten where they all come from.

Clearly, in the right environment, fed the correct foods and under the ideal lighting these ‘very plain’ as nature intended fishes are quite stunning to look at.

Sure most of us have some type of a bond with our fishes like some have with a cat or a dog. We see and care for them as if they are our own.

We accept (should) our children (human) for whom they are and try to give them the best and I believe we should do that for our fishies as well.

We do not order our children from a catalog or have them genetically engineered. Neither do we have them tattooed or painted to be more appealing to us.

Yes, believe it or not, there are people amongst us who would jump at these opportunities were they readily available.

Let’s just hope they do not keep any pets…

Just hope that more people would have the same approach.