The aquarium Industry has a 90% DEATH rate, standard. That means 90 out of 100 fish brought into captivity DON’T live a month because they fundamentally put them all together and pour chemicals on them that are “NOT SAFE” for humans or animals. There are laws to protect humans and animals, NOT FISH. NO FDA, NO EPA, NO HUMANE SOCIETY, NO HEATH DEPARTMENT, NO RULES, NO REGULATIONS, just free reign to “KILL AT WILL” with what ever they want, “They’re just fish”.
Well “JUST FISH” includes; Seahorses, shrimps, crabs, eels, sharks, giant clams, brain corals, acropora, montipora, live rock, octopus, and ten of thousands of other creatures. Most of which could be aqua cultured anyway. BUT, our best “experts” believe a 90% death rate IS acceptable. 40 years ago someone wrote a book telling everybody to use copper, formaldehyde, methane blue, malachite green, etc. to “cure” fish of the disease of putting them all together (which is what MAKES them all sick), and they still teach out of the same old books. “Well stupid is as stupids taught”. “It’s time to think outside the books”.
Fish and other creatures of the world deserve to be treated the same as the other animals. The FDA should have to check fish products to make sure they “DO WHAT THEY SAY” and are safe for fish, corals, inverts, AND humans! Right now you can put poison in a bottle and sell it as “reef safe” killing the fish and the reef tank, also putting humans at risk of cancer, because these chemicals are NOT SAFE for humans and all the other animals. It says so right on the bottles. But people put their hands into the water with said chemicals I.E. Class B Carcinogens such as formaldehyde which is poison.
The health department should make sure fish are not overcrowded and kept in unsanitary conditions or with inappropriate tank mates. For ex; Pet stores don’t and can’t put hamsters, guinea pigs, and rabbits all in the same pen, nor can they keep 50 mice in a 10 gallon tank, it’s cruel and unsafe to keep them together. Why then, can they put thousands of different fish together in the same water to fight and make each other sick and sell sharks that get 14 feet, 800l lbs, and makes sand?
Aquariums should have to use sustainable collecting practices too. Not the “standard” 90% dead like the rest of the industry. They should set a new standard and be an example of how to REALLY treat animals, instead of being an illusion having to replace fish every month to keep the lie going. It’s really just a business that is NOT held responsible for the life they KILL, just to make money, nothing more than a scam claiming conservation.
It’s time to STOP discriminating against fish and other creatures just because the experts want to live in the past and don’t understand they too have feelings and should not be tortured or treated in an unfair manner any more than the rest of the life on earth.
Aquariums, Pet Stores, Wholesale facilities, Universities and home aquarist all have a responsibility to treat life in general “to the best of their ability”, 90% is far from best. Please help the forgotten fish, they need your help too, it’s only fair!
