Because I live in the northeast corner of town and we have urban mountain that make getting around a bit more difficult, there are a few local fish stores I have not visited. I made my first visit to a pair of them today.
One of the stores, Phoenix Tropical Fish, is in a building in a residential area. It’s a mom-and-pop store and has an earthy feel to it. It’s cramped, it’s humid, and the fish tanks are clean and the livestock is healthy. They have some nice fish, and a lot of different varieties of guppies. Lots of cichlids, including the best prices I have seen in the valley on Julidochromis transcriptus and marliari.
The other store I visited, Fins and Friends, was clean, had a lot of healthy-looking marine fish, and the usual best-selling freshwater fish. On the surface, it seems like a reasonable place to stop if you need some supplies or if you want to stock a tank for a beginner.
Then I saw these.
That is a tattooed fish. Neale Monks, a noted aquarium expert, has this to say about the practice:
The tattooing process is known to be harmful to fish, and certainly not done in a way we’d consider humane.
and this:
Now, as for anything like Jellybean Tetras, Fruit Tetras, Coloured Glassfish and so on, these are 100% unnatural AND 100% cruel. Not only are they tattooed into the muscle — not the skin — without any kind of anaesthesia, the fish themselves are demonstrably weaker afterwards, and scientists have shown they suffer a higher rate of disease.
Neale is a frequent contributor to Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine and a a virtual friend with whom I have worked on a forthcoming article for WetWebMedia magazine, a publication that runs in conjunction with WetWebMedia.com. This website is what I consider the best online resource for any kind of fish problem. Neale, along with Bob Fenner and a number of other vetted folks, share their wealth of knowledge. While I have a depth of knowledge in some areas, the breadth of in-depth knowledge these folks collectively have and share is staggering.
All of them who have commented are aghast at this inhumane way of handling animals for pure profit, and because of that, I cannot bring myself to do business with a company that stocks these fish. If you are ever in a position to influence somebody’s fish-buying decision, please do what you can to steer them away from this sort of vandalized livestock.
I leave you with an image of the most hideous example of tattooing. This is on a hybridized fish that should not even exist, and it is tattooed to the point it looks like a grandmother.
Just awful. Vile. Hideous.