Dyed and Hybrid Fish..what we all should know

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thats wrong but i have an albino and it has a slime coat AND it the healthiest fish i ever owned
 
Everyone loves brightly colored fish. Unfortunately many do not come by their brilliant hues naturally. Juicing, or artificially coloring fish using paints and dyes, has become quite widespread in the aquarium trade. Yet most owners are unaware that their fish have been altered. You might be surprised, and appalled, to discover which fish are artificially colored, and how it’s done.

How It’s Done
Several methods are used to alter the color and appearance of tropical fish. Coloring fish stresses them and makes them more susceptible to disease. Young fish that are not fully grown are often stunted by the painting process.

Some methods result in mortality rates as high as 80%. Many of the survivors will have an abbreviated life span. Nine out of ten painted fish will lose their coloration within a matter of months.

Colored Food - Young fish are fed treated foods that will temporarily tint them. Once they are no longer fed the treated food, they eventually lose their color. Unfortunately the dye they consume can negatively affect their growth and development.

Dye Injection - Needles are used to inject dye under the skin. Because only a small area is affected, the fish must be subjected to many punctures to achieve the desired effect. The popular painted glassfish are dyed this way, using florescent colored paints. Fish that are injected often contract infections from the punctures.

Dipping - As barbaric as dye injections seem, this practice is even worse. The fish are first put into a caustic solution that strips off their protective outer slime coating. They are then dipped in dye, or injected with dyes, after which they are dipped in another chemical that irritates the flesh to stimulate re-growth of the slime coat. This method is very stressful, and has a high mortality rate

Which Fish Are Painted
Painted Glassfish – Created by dye injecting the nearly colorless Indian Glassfish (Chanda ranga), these are one of the hottest selling and most brilliantly colored of the juiced fish. Their lack of color makes the fluorescent paint used to color them stand out very clearly. Although the color fades over time, it lasts long enough to catch the eye of unsuspecting customers. A large percentage of glassfish die during the painting process, and those that survive are extremely susceptible to infections.

Fruit Tetras – Created by dipping the White Skirt Tetra, an albino morph of the popular Black Skirt Tetra. They are usually painted pastel colors and given fruit names such as, strawberry tetra, blueberry tetra, grape tetra, or simply mixed fruit. Some marketers have gone so far as painting the fish special colors for holidays. For example, red and blue dye is used to create a patriotic colored fish for the fourth of July. Orange dyed versions are sold with naturally colored black fish during the Halloween season.

Jelly Beans & Bubblegum Parrots – These are painted versions of the Bloody Parrot, a fish that is created by crossbreeding certain species of cichlids. The hybrid fish are dyed bright colors, such as blue, purple, green, and red. Like other dyed fish, many do not survive the process, and those that do have a damaged immune system.

Blueberry Oscars – Albino Oscars are injected with dye to give them a brilliant blue color. Recently additional colors have appeared on the market, similar to the Jelly Bean Parrots.

Painted Corys - To make them more attractive to potential buyers, some corys are now being injected with dyes to color their tail or other parts of their body.

Painted Botias - Even though blue botias exist in nature, dyed specimens are now appearing on the market. They are dye injected to create a more brilliant blue, apparently to enhance their sale.

What can you do about it? Painted fish continue to exist because of demand. Next time you visit a pet shop, think twice about purchasing unusually colored fish.
 
The only reason i posted this is because i have seen alot more posts going around about "there new colored fish" so i feel the need to educate the newbies in the fish world i just hope this works.
In australia we have only painted glass angels and after i seen them i had to leave the shop because he was going to call the cops, but he said "who cares its money in my pocket" and i tryed to punch him out.
So pls people if you know someone who wants one pls let them know what they go through, cause i know for sure i wont acid dip my dog to change it color, why do it to a fish?
 
I've seen very few posts about colored fish on this forum. If fact you'll see a lot of members have Deatbydyeing.com in their signature.
 
Very informative post vip. I was involved in a similar situation a while back. I only recently learned about dyed fish on this forum. I guess it never even occured to me the pretty fish i saw at the lfs was dyed, because like you said I wouldnt think about dyeing my dog or other pets. So after learning about the dying process here, and visiting deathbydying.com, the next time I saw dyed fish in a store I went on a rampage, and started telling all the potential suckers (customers) that were in the store about the dipping process. The store owner was not impressed, because one of the kids was about to convince his mommy to get him the pretty pink one. To make a long story short (Iknow too late) after much fuss I was kicked out of the store.
 
i know its a sad subject, but iv been here for a few months now and im so sick of seeing this post.... (before u say ' WELL DONT READ IT THEN' when u dont mark what the subject is obviously ppl are gonna read it to see what its about, its like stampin 'please ignore' all over a letter :rolleyes: )

even tho u are informing 'newbies' its not gettin to 'joe public' who still intend on buyin gm altered fish and coloured/dyed fish, weather u or i like it or not.
 
hey buddy you know where it says "title" when you are makeing a post hows about next time you acctualy use it to convegy information about your post instead of just trying to trick people into reading it. Thats what its there for otherwise every thread would just be given a number.
 
ok... :dunno:

even if I tried getting one of those dyed suckers, my gf would bite my hand off. they look stupid anyway.
 
I admire what you're trying to do - educate folks about the effects of dying fish. But - I really wish you would have used the title function for this post. :( It'd do a couple of things 1) Make it easier to find if someone would want to share it later and 2) People who don't want to read it aren't tricked into reading it because they think it's something important. :(

Thanks for the info tho.
 
HAHAHA yeah you hear a lot about dyed fish, I saw coloured glass fish. Having never seen it before I couldn't believe that it was actually happening right in front of my eyes.

Not to good for little nemo

Henry
 
Sky042 said:
I've seen very few posts about colored fish on this forum. If fact you'll see a lot of members have Deatbydyeing.com in their signature.
I agree here. Most people post about the ill-effects of dyeing fish. There are quite a few threads around that say the exact same thing that you have just said...I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but it's true... :look: :X
 
Hi Vip :)

This is a very important topic and I'm glad you posted it. There always lots of newbies posting on this forum and plenty of guests passing through. It's good to have this topic active so that they can learn about it, hopefully before they buy their fish. :nod:






________
Mods Note: The name of the topic was effective; it got you to read it and post.

It's unfortunate, but lately there has been a tendency for members to go off topic and spam comments about other member's style or manner of posting. I hope that doesn't happen on this one too. :X
 
Thanks Inchworm for posting that!!!

I feel the same way as you and am sad for the person who took the time to write this!!! :-(

:clap:
Hooray to you VIP!!!

:nod: :thumbs:
 
Nici here.... Firstly i would like to say how glad i am that their are some decent people out their who think traumatising these fish for an unnatrual colour isnt pleasant :thumbs:. Becca I had no idea that education on a true fact was a way of tricking people :teacher: They can easily look away if they dont like what they are reading no one is being forced, im quite sure people would know what the topic is about after a couple of lines werther they would like to continue read it or not is entirely up to them.Saying we are tricking people into reading the information provided, but yet it's ok for the fish owner to try and trick us into buying by those unnatural colours which lead to a short life isnt "important" :unsure: Everyone is so against the Bloodparrot to be an existant because it is a " deformed fish" which clearly isnt their fault! whereas people dont see fish getting dipped into a acid bath imporant?? Hmmmm what is this world comming to :dunno:.
For the people who would like to continue their information go into google.com.au and type " jellybean parrots" into the search engine . ;)

Henry_VCG_ Advertisement says it all :cool:

For all those decent people out their keeping producing we need more people like you out in this world :nod:

NICI......................... :flowers:
 

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