Given a choice, what would you rather do to your overgrown fish that you cannot keep any more?
Eat it
10%
[ 5 ]
Release it into the wild
4%
[ 2 ]
Kill it "humanely" and dispose it in trash
2%
[ 1 ]
Keep trying to find another hobbyist who can take care of them
79%
[ 39 ]
Sell it on e-bay to the highest bidder
4%
[ 2 ]
Total Votes : 49
Author
Message
deejay Frequent Visitor to IAH
Joined: Jan 21, 2009 Posts: 141
Status: Offline
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:20 am Post subject: What do you do when fish outgrow your tank?
Now this is a dilemma i have been facing for quite sometime. My red belly pacus have grown rapidly over the last few months and one of them has almost reached 15 inches in size. To hold them in a tank as small as mine (2.5 feet approx 100 liters) would be sheer cruelty and cause stunting.
So what does one do when their fish become bigger than their tank? I have been researching on this subject and have come across some pretty interesting options, ranging from practical to completely absurd !!!
Here's what i have found so far (please feel free to add to the list if you can think of something else):
[1] Upgrade to 6' tank: Lack of space in bedroom. Only space available is in my terrace where they will have lots of crows and pigeons for company.
[2] Giveaway to LFS - Tried this and they wont take it back. Reason cited: "We are here to sell fish and not to buy from you"
[3] Giveaway to fellow hobbyist - Posted ad on IAH. Zero responses till now.
[4] Giveaway to community aquariums in Irla or Taraporevala: They don't accept fish from hobbyists and certainly not amateurs like me
[5] Kill them and cook them - An absolutely inhuman thing to do to your own pet. However, i looked this option up as well and experts have warned that eating aquarium fish can cause nervous disorders because of the chemicals we use to treat the water/fish
[6] Kill them humanely by putting them inside a freezer. The drop in temperature will allow them to painlessly stop breathing as their gills become frozen. Mom wont allow "live"stock inside the freezer.
[7] Immerse them in alcohol (yes Vodka!!) to tranquilize them to death. Spirit acts as a natural anesthetic. Don't want to waste a perfectly good bottle of Smirnoff.
[8] Cut their head off with a single chop of the blade - Cited by hobbyists as one of the most humane ways of killing a fish with least amount of pain or suffering. I am neither a chef nor a serial murderer and am not too sure whether i can operate a chopper with such precision to ensure i can dismantle the head of a 15" Pacu that will be wildly flapping around once its out of the water.
[9] Release them into the wild: I hear this is the worst option of the lot as it can introduce several diseases into the natural ecosystem and even endanger local species. Pacus are pretty fierce and competitive; they might just push local species to extinction. Although that's far fetched, its still a possibility. In a majority of cases i hear that aquarium bred fish cannot survive in the wild and die very quickly. Especially considering the amount of mercury and plastic in our local ponds and rivers, i can imagine that my Pacus will float right back on the surface minutes after they have been released.
[10] Feed them to crows: They will need to be dead first before i can pass them along the food chain. I don't have the heart to kill them myself.
[11] Embalm them in Glycerin and hang them on the wall - They will need to be dead first before i can use them as wall hangings. I don't have the heart to kill them myself. The plaque below must read RIP: Died due to natural causes.
[12] Stop feeding them. Tried fasting them for two days but their persistent banging on the glass hood made me change my mind.
[13] Stop filter and aerator and watch them waste away due to rapid breathing No freaking way!! INHUMAN.
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 9:24 am Post subject: Re: What do you do when fish outgrow your tank?
this is the usual way the pacu goes about in this hobby
they grow very fast and grow big
its a little good on your part, i say little good becauseyou should have researched earlier, but i say good as now you are trying what is possible in your hands to relocate the fish to a nice place
the fish might already be stunted it being in a 25g tank, a 15" pacu will surely be 8-10" tall
where do you live
i have a 1000g pond for my RTCs and TSNs in mysore
this pond will be upgraded when necessary, this is off topic
so back on topic, i am ready to take the fish as a rescue,
i have always tried to upgrade to keep my fish as they grow, cause i wouldn't want to give them away to any body nor i usually like to sell(sometimes can't help)
PS: i will not be paying anything for it though :D
heres my number :xxxxxxxxxxxx
Last edited by headbanger_jib on Wed Jun 03, 2009 2:32 pm; edited 1 time in total
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 10:41 am Post subject: Re: What do you do when fish outgrow your tank?
hey Deejay
downsize your list of terms and conditions for giving away the fish and you'll probably have a better chance of someone accepting them for free. i know you care about your fish but not everyone in Bombay has a pond and space for big tanks. Additionally, no LFS is going to buy fish that are cheap and plentiful from a hobbyist, that's for sure. take the Pacu's to Nitish patel, Affable fisheries in Vile Parle west near Mithibai college, he's got huge tanks and will definitely accept them. Don't call and ask, just take them.
Next time buy fish considering the full grown size. I do that and have never faced such problem
Totally agree. Now with all the internet access, I do a thorough research on any fish that fancies me to see if I can provide well for it till it reaches its natural adult death, before I decide to buy it. Really sad to see large fishes in cramped tanks.
Had this conversation with one of my nephews recently (he is in high school), who had three 4-inch sharks in 1ft tank.
me: Hey, that tank is too small for those fishes. You should keep fish in tanks that are really large for their adult size.
him: Oh, thats not a problem. The fish would die before they get any bigger
me:
Next time buy fish considering the full grown size. I do that and have never faced such problem
Thanks Swapnil. That's a good point. I made a big mistake by buying these fish purely out of sympathy. They were crammed into a tank where they couldn't move an inch. The tank was so small that it wasn't even fit for keeping mollies! Seeing their pathetic condition i just bought them out of impulse. BIG mistake.
Hi,
Try giving them to Hotels who keep Aquarums,they usually buy full grown fishes,
Regards
Shishir Kamat
Hmm .... i am wondering how i could get to the right person in charge of maintenance of the aquariums inside hotels and restaurants. Going up to the manager and offering to "donate" two large Pacus would be kind of odd don't you think?
this is the usual way the pacu goes about in this hobby
they grow very fast and grow big
its a little good on your part, i say little good becauseyou should have researched earlier, but i say good as now you are trying what is possible in your hands to relocate the fish to a nice place
the fish might already be stunted it being in a 25g tank, a 15" pacu will surely be 8-10" tall
where do you live
i have a 1000g pond for my RTCs and TSNs in mysore
this pond will be upgraded when necessary, this is off topic
so back on topic, i am ready to take the fish as a rescue,
i have always tried to upgrade to keep my fish as they grow, cause i wouldn't want to give them away to any body nor i usually like to sell(sometimes can't help)
PS: i will not be paying anything for it though :D
heres my number :9886123832
The fish definitely looked stunted when i got them. As soon as they were in a tank where they could "move" it seems as if all their latent growth just exploded. I have never seen fish grow so rapidly in the last 15 years of my fish keeping life. I would have loved to give them away to you for FREE considering you have a pond where they will be presumably well looked after. However, i am in Mumbai and shipping something this large is impossible. Sorry but thanks for responding anyways! All the very best with your pond.
PS: I don't like selling or giving away my fish either. In this situation, i have exhausted all my options so there's no other choice.
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:17 pm Post subject: Re: What do you do when fish outgrow your tank?
Quote:
Only space available is in my terrace where they will have lots of crows and pigeons for company.
You can feed those crows & pigeons to your Pacu in case you plan to upgrade bigger tank on the terrace.
Its bitter feeling to give away your beloved fish you raised from juvenile to adult stage.
Next time buy fish considering the full grown size. I do that and have never faced such problem
Totally agree. Now with all the internet access, I do a thorough research on any fish that fancies me to see if I can provide well for it till it reaches its natural adult death, before I decide to buy it. Really sad to see large fishes in cramped tanks.
Had this conversation with one of my nephews recently (he is in high school), who had three 4-inch sharks in 1ft tank.
me: Hey, that tank is too small for those fishes. You should keep fish in tanks that are really large for their adult size.
him: Oh, thats not a problem. The fish would die before they get any bigger
me:
Education starts at home, and I did what I can.
Again i agree i should have used the Internet to look it up. The LFS owner who sold these fish to me told me out of his sheer ignorance that the smaller one was an RBP and the larger one a Pacu. According to him, Pacus were "Indian" or local Piranhas and hence they could adapt well to our climatic conditions
I should have known better than to trust these LFS guys. Online research would have saved the day!
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:23 pm Post subject: Re: What do you do when fish outgrow your tank?
First of all thanks Deejay for starting a good topic.
I usually opt for the 2nd one , To give away the LFS.
BTW in UK selling Tank Busters is prohibited .
Regards
Kaushik
Only space available is in my terrace where they will have lots of crows and pigeons for company.
You can feed those crows & pigeons to your Pacu in case you plan to upgrade bigger tank on the terrace.
Its bitter feeling to give away your beloved fish you raised from juvenile to adult stage.
Great idea yogoranda
There are dozens of lizards on my terrace as well. I would need to get at least an 8' tank then to keep Pacus being fed on a diet of crows, pigeons and lizards
downsize your list of terms and conditions for giving away the fish and you'll probably have a better chance of someone accepting them for free. i know you care about your fish but not everyone in Bombay has a pond and space for big tanks. Additionally, no LFS is going to buy fish that are cheap and plentiful from a hobbyist, that's for sure. take the Pacu's to Nitish patel, Affable fisheries in Vile Parle west near Mithibai college, he's got huge tanks and will definitely accept them. Don't call and ask, just take them.
Regards Sid.
Hi Sid. Thanks for your suggestion.
I am NOT looking to sell them for money to an LFS. I am down with an exchange with whatever they feel its worth or even giving them away for free (provided they keep them in a BIG tank and don't cram them into a bowl like the last LFS i bought them from had done). I tried both options with an LFS here in Khar and he ranted out of frustration that its both expensive and a bloody pain in the behind to keep fish that large, particularly pacus cause you cant mix the gentler variety with them because of which they would need their own tank and he had no "empty" tank.
So you are proposing i just land up at Affable Fisheries with two giant Pacus in hand? Let me have a think about this option. I was kind of hoping that if i am giving them away for FREE, the least the new owner could do is come with a swimming pool net and fish these monsters out. Doing it alone will be a real pain!!
I agree with you on the space constraints in Mumbai and the fact that very few people would be able to afford ponds or large tanks. But then what is the point of giving them away to someone who is going to cram them into a small tank anyways?
PS: Every city in India has its own pros and cons. If only real estate was cheap in Mumbai, we have the best climate for keeping fish!
All times are UTC + 5.5 Hours Goto page : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6Next
Page 1 of 6
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
Guest(s): 1,909
No freaking way!! INHUMAN.
![[News Feed]](images/powered/feed_20_news.png "News Feed"){kind=small}
![[Forums Feed]](images/powered/feed_20_forums.png "Forums Feed"){kind=small}
![[Downloads Feed]](images/powered/feed_20_down.png "Downloads Feed"){kind=small}
![[Web Links Feed]](images/powered/feed_20_links.png "Web Links Feed"){kind=small}
![[Validate robots.txt]](images/powered/valid-robots.png "Validate robots.txt"){kind=small}