Month: April 2023

When you think of heaven, you may envision a mountain of gold laden clouds, covered with white pillared buildings. Happily, cherubs dance, intermingling in perfect harmony. Conversely, hell is depicted as a red, burning hole of damnation and despair. Demons dance in the flames, gifting torment and agony to the poor, damned souls. Whatever your beliefs, you’d have to agree with me that the average Petco/PetSmart is the equivalent of hell for any fish unfortunate enough to be trapped in the tanks.

Tanks like this are the problem; look at the reviews for countless cases of fish abuse

Weak and diseased, kept in the same water as all other fish, their survival is far from guaranteed. These fish are grown to die, sold to inexperienced keepers after being raised by inconsiderate employees. Almost every time I’ve visited a Petco/PetSmart, I find fish dead in piles at the bottom of tanks, bacterial blooms spreading to every tank, low water levels or a combination of all three. The only reason stores like Petco are able to keep selling fish is their cheap prices, which are required when the fish they sell keep dying. So where do all these poor fish come from?

A longer video, but a good depiction of fish husbandry

Largely grown in temperate regions near the equator, these tropical fish don’t have great living conditions from birth. Kept in fetid tanks filled with algae and medication, they grow up in some of the most extreme environments of any fish. It’s no wonder the most commonly sold fish are also the hardiest (goldfish, betta fish), able to live in the worst conditions for the longest time. These fish catch tropical diseases and parasites, which go on to cause health problems and premature death. 

This tank isn’t large enough for a single goldfish to live happily

For other species of fish, early tank life isn’t an option. Species like Clown Loaches don’t grow to large enough sizes for some keepers early in their lives, so must be caught in the wild, packaged and shipped overseas. Other notorious tank busters like the Red Tail Catfish don’t breed in captivity, so must be caught when small in the wild and sold to local fish stores. While these fish can thrive under the hand of an experienced aquarist, the majority of these large fish are sold to people with little experience nor an idea on what they’re getting into. While some of these large chain stores have begun to ask people what tank they’re buying the fish for, their level of experience and if they know what they’re getting into, the majority don’t. This is due to a number of factors, but the big one is that the employees don’t care. 

If you buy a fish here, there may be problems down the line

So how does this cycle of suffering end? Unfortunately, the only real way to stop this suffering is to educate the new wave of fish a-fish-ionados on the proper ways of fish care, so that they don’t prolong the suffering of fish. Other methods like greater regulations on imported fish or animal rights mandates will take a while to reach the fish of these stores, if they even come into being.

When I was in high school, I had to make a video for a CSPAN competition. While all my classmates chose more obvious concepts like homelessness, violence and racism, my group focused on invasive fish. Was this a meaningful choice? In comparison to the other issues, not really. But there is a lot of suffering that has been and will be caused by invasive fish in the next few years, and I’m gonna inform you about it.

Lets talk ugly; MOST fish are cute, but there are a couple that will only ever be loved by their mothers. One of these is Asian Carp, a blanket name for a group of carp species brought from (guess where) Asia.

Not a single thought behind those eyes

  These weird looking fish have become a serious problem in the Mississippi river since their introduction in the 1970s. They’ve worked their way all the way to the mouth of the great lakes, and the only thing keeping them from destroying thousands of livelihoods and hundreds of millions of dollars of fishing revenue is an underwater electric gate strong enough to fry a human. 

   So why can’t they be let into the great lakes? Put simply, they’re overpowered. They reproduce incredibly fast, reach sizes of ~60 lbs frequently, eat everything smaller than them and have voracious appetites. They would destroy every native fish species, including the fish that are the livelihood for the fisheries of the lakes.

 

The average Asian carp (lucky angler for scale)

 

   Unfortunately, there isn’t much being done other than the electric gate to combat the rapid spread of these fish. Most anglers think that carp are too easy to catch, or that they taste cheap. Some companies have found success serving carp meat, but not the success needed to drive them into oblivion.

   One of the problems with the campaign against carp is that carp don’t look that scary; a poster with “Beware the Carp” and their image wouldn’t scare even the jumpiest of people. But the Snakehead may. Brought from (you guessed it) Asia, the snakehead is another overpowered fish that our local fauna can’t seem to deal with. They can live in low oxygen, shallow, dirty water, and can even live for hours on land, time that they use to crawl to new water sources once the ponds they live in run out of fish to eat. 

Classic Snakehead

However, unlike the carp, the snakehead isn’t free from the lust of anglers. Prized for their fight, large size, and great taste, the snakehead is slowly becoming a sought after fish. Even in some B.A.S.S. magazines, snakehead fishing is being put forward as a surprisingly fun experience. Couple this with no size or weight limits, rewards for catch and kill, and great taste, and the snakehead has some work cut out for it if it wants to keep living in the USA.

 

I’d be smiling like this if I caught a fish this size