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I think..........Why oh why?
Posted By: Martin Thoene <martin.thoene@lakenheath.af.mil> In Response To: What do you think about Dyed Botia Modestas? (Michael Ophir)
Date: Thursday, 31 December 1998, at 10:27 a.m.
Why some exporters think that injecting innocent fish with dyes to change their appearance, when Mother Nature already did a great job, is morally acceptable, I cannot fathom. It's obviously done because at the retail-end of things there are similarly unscrupulous fish-shop proprieters who are prepared to sell them (in order to turn another buck) to ill-informed fishkeepers who don't have the good-taste or knowledge to realise what the fish must go through in order to appear like this.
Put it this way. I work in the Medical field and would estimate that if you or I wanted to change the colour of our skin we would need about, say 1 pint of dye injected over our bodies in various sites. Do YOU like injections that much........Nah! Maybe Michael Jackson has a better way!
I would doubt that actually dyeing the fish would work, so assume that injection is the method used, requiring numerous injections to acheive uniform coloration, and therefore opening numerous possible sites for secondary infection. Who's to say that the stuff they're injecting is harmless too? I doubt very much that they've carried out any long term tests, and these substances may be carconegenic or whatever. No fair!
I have seen some "Blue" modesta, also Albino Corydoras with an area on the caudal peduncle dyed, red,blue or purple. The first fish to be abused in this way were Glassfish, which are injected with flourescent dyes in loud colours. These look fantastic, I have to admit, and I realise why they sell, but cannot in any way condone the methods used, and also hate Man playing God with Nature's creations.
In Great Britain this year "Practical Fishkeeping" magazine was given a Pet Industry award for it's Dyed Fish Campaign. It campaigned vigourously for shops to pledge not to sell these fish and actively encouraged it's readers to boycott any shop that sold them. It has a large list of pledged shops, but I still know of shops that continue to sell these poor unfortunate fish.
We as responsible people should, I believe boycott these shops and tell them so. If enough people do this, then these money-hungry shopkeepers would realise that rather than increasing sales, they were actually losing potential sales of lovely "as Nature intended" normal fish. Stocking dyed fish would therefore be counter-productive and as demand fuels supply, gradually the practice would (I pray) die out (or maybe DYE out!).If the informed fishkeeper educates the un-informed, they would stop buying these fish, killing the trade.
All the above is IMHO of course.
Can I get off my Soap-Box now please?
Martin.
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