A Few of My Aquatic Friends

[Empi]

We've had a couple freshwater stringrays pass through where I work- unfortunently only 1 out of 3 actually lived long enough to get sold to a good home.

I guess the thing that I really dislike about stringrays in the pet business is that most of them (if not all?) are wild caught. Because of their finicky needs in terms of diet and water condition this makes them extra hard to keep in captivity. I cant wrap my mind around the idea of taking something like that out of the wild and expecting it to survive and thrive in an environment that will never come anywhere near to what it is used to.

Having to watch our Florida Blue stringray die at work was one of the worst things Ive ever seen. For a couple months it thrived. It ate like a pig and was doing wonderfully- we even got to the point where she would eat from our hands and come up to the front of the tank to visit whoever was looking at her. Things went downhill rapidly though- soon she began to swim in circles all the time, and her body became covered in sores and ulcers. No amount of water changes or medication could cure this girl. It took everything I had not to break down and cry. After her passing we decided that we would NEVER get another stingray in our store. EVER.

I know many people have "good" luck with their rays...but after seeing what this girl went through, I could never think of having one as a pet.

The fish store in my town has one in there that they have had for a couple years now and it looks pretty good. I have heard a lot of different things about them. I'm starting to think they would be way out of my league as far as keeping the conditions just right. The sad fact though is that most fish in the pet trade are wild caught. And we can't give any of them the homes they deserve. The way I see it. The best I can do is get them out of pet shops where most of them are not getting the proper care. I agree that there are some fish that just don't do well in captivity. That's sad to hear about the sting rays. I hate to hear things like that. They are awesome creatures but it is not worth it to me to test my ability to keep them with ones life. If I had all the facts though and was confident that I could properly care for one I would buy one just to get it out of the pet shop.

 

[PrettyHate]

The thing that I dislike about the pet trade is that in many cases it is a vicious cycle. By the sounds of it you are alot like me! Alot of us will often see animals living in petstores under poor conditions and purchase them knowing we can give them the care they so desperately need and deserve. However, by buying the animal the store is getting the impression that it is something they can make money off of (it did sell after all!) and therefore they continue to "stock" that animal.

Im guilty of doing this- I admit it. I have three hedgehogs instead of just one because I couldnt stand the thought of them living in those conditions another minute! Its just one of those things- damned if you do, damned if you dont.

In a positive light- at least you are making a difference to that one animal

 

[Empi]

The thing that I dislike about the pet trade is that in many cases it is a vicious cycle. By the sounds of it you are alot like me! Alot of us will often see animals living in petstores under poor conditions and purchase them knowing we can give them the care they so desperately need and deserve. However, by buying the animal the store is getting the impression that it is something they can make money off of (it did sell after all!) and therefore they continue to "stock" that animal.

Im guilty of doing this- I admit it. I have three hedgehogs instead of just one because I couldnt stand the thought of them living in those conditions another minute! Its just one of those things- damned if you do, damned if you dont.

In a positive light- at least you are making a difference to that one animal

I agree. It is a vicious cycle. But if I can make a differance in one animals life, that is one animal saved. The ones that get me are the pacus. They get like 36" inches long. They sell them in petsmart and I see little kids buying them and adults and they are picking up a ten gallon tank to keep it in. That is sad because in most cases when it out grows the tank they are going to flush it down the toilet. Not to mention the care they will get until then is normally not good. It makes me sick.. I bought mine just to save it from that fate. Now I'll be building a heated pond next summer for him to live in. That's what I get for saving the little guy.

 

[tarsier]

Love the cories. And the Pim. Fish-keeping was actually my first hobby before getting into scorps and Ts. Really love catfish.

 

[Empi]

I forgot to post a pic of Rockie the red claw crab:

 

[Arashi]

Love Rockie! What a cutie! Does he like to make daring escape attempts from the tank? I know mine does...

 

[Empi]

He has escaped a couple times. I catch him running across the floor. It's a good thing he cant get out of the critter room. But for the most part he likes his tank. He does not try to escape very often.

 

[Wade]

The sad fact though is that most fish in the pet trade are wild caught.

Actaually, this isn't entiely true. Although there certainly are a lot of wild caught fish in stores, most of the popular and inexpensive pet store staples, like tetras, danios, corys, angels etc. are raised on fish farms.

I don't know if rays are ever captive bred, but back when I was seeing them at Wal-Mart, they had lots of them at the same small size, like 2-3".

Wade

 

[Empi]

Actaually, this isn't entiely true. Although there certainly are a lot of wild caught fish in stores, most of the popular and inexpensive pet store staples, like tetras, danios, corys, angels etc. are raised on fish farms.

I don't know if rays are ever captive bred, but back when I was seeing them at Wal-Mart, they had lots of them at the same small size, like 2-3".

Wade

That's true. A lot of the smaller fish species are captive bread. I don't have any fish in my collection that can be bread in captivity. Except foor maybe my plecos. So all mine are wild caught. As are most of the bigger species. It's hard to say anymore if the majority of fish are wild caught or not. I have noticed that all the pet stores are starting to carry alot of big un breedable fish.

 

[fiveohatch]

i really want to get a bunch of betas. all the ones that i see at the local pet stores don't look too good though.

 

[PrettyHate]

i really want to get a bunch of betas. all the ones that i see at the local pet stores don't look too good though.

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