I Saw The Most..

[Fishkeeper2004]

Gruesome, but it happens. Its just what would happen in the wild.

Were the tanks open top, if so that poses another possibility that the goldfish jumped from one tank to another?

 

[NinjaSmurf]

I've seen tanks in pet stores where they keep guppies or adf's in the tanks as feeders, they just seem to leave it up to the fish on when they want to eat. However, all of these were one bite meals.

 

[thelastbetta]

Personally I think its plain dumb of the shopkeeper to feed their oscars goldfish. But its also possible that a customer put the feeder in the oscar tank, someone did that at the lfs I work at

Doubt it. The fish area is right up were you pay so it's always supervised.

Gruesome, but it happens. Its just what would happen in the wild.

Were the tanks open top, if so that poses another possibility that the goldfish jumped from one tank to another?

No. The oscar tank is about six feet away from the feeder tanks. There was more then one goldfish in there, but all the other ones were dead.

 

[WILDER]

Poor thing i don't no why they bother feeding them goldifsh, there isn't alot of good in then for diet, plus they can be deseased, i would of said something, as i wouldn't of wanted to see it never mind a child.

 

[fish_keeper2]

It is illegal in the UK to feed a live vertebrate to another creature. I expect it is done but if it was seen the person could be reported, and would be if I saw it.

Actually here in the UK it is legal to feed a live vertebrate to any other vertebrate or invertebrate unless unnecessary suffering and pain can be proved to have been caused. Since the fish appeared to be swimming about and totally normal until the person saw the other side of it's face, to be honest that would imply that it was unaware of the damage.

Prosecutions for this kind of thing are entirely dependent upon you being able to prove to the legal bodies involved that the animal being eaten was definitely suffering and in pain.

It is however completely illegal to feed a live vertebrate to any other organism at a time or place where it may be viewed by the public so you'd have them on that one anyway

so if you had a whole bunch of livebearer fry and no where to raise them and make sure they live and be happy and healthy and you decided to put them in a tank of oscars or pirhannas or some other carnivours fish to feed them that would be illegal in the uk?

 

[Lynden]

I personally dont think its that big of a deal for goldfish to be fed and be eaten in one or two bites. However, if they get slowly tortured, thats not good. Although, most of the time they are actually unaware of any damage, and I have had goldfish, who were just beaten to a pulp, accept food.

What i do think is cruel is when someone will feed a large cyprinid or cichlid to other fish. at my LFS, this guy bought a pair of convicts who were at the time raising a batch of fry. I started talking to him, and he stated that the convicts were a snack for his tiger shovelnose.

-Lynden

 

[WILDER]

No offense, but what's the difference between a cyprinid and a goldfish, they are both fish so don't get why it's ok to feed goldfish but not a cyprinid, as though goldfish are worthless.

 

[spAcE mOnkEy]

What i do think is cruel is when someone will feed a large cyprinid or cichlid to other fish. at my LFS, this guy bought a pair of convicts who were at the time raising a batch of fry. I started talking to him, and he stated that the convicts were a snack for his tiger shovelnose.

Convicts are actually one of the best feeder fish to use. They are very hardy, and breed like crazy. I think what most of you dont understand is that fish dont have the same thinking capability as humans. So alot of the time they dont even know they are going to die, and fish really arent smart enough to think as we do. What im trying to say is that fish are pretty stupid compared to humans, and they dont really think too much, they just act upon their instincts.

 

[Weaver]

It was both cruel and unnecessary.The goldfish should either have been smaller or even dead first
Saying that its the real world or food chain does not cut any ice
If I decided to keep 2 goldfish in a bowl and stated"They dont know any better" or put 4 or 5 male bettas in the same tank saying"If they kill each other,well,thats nature" Id be hounded off this forum and rightly so.
Seems all fish are equal but some are more equal than others

 

[Lucas]

I think chestnutmoray ment, like a iridescent shark. You have to admit that there worth a little more than a goldfish but I also agree with the fact that they should not be slowly tortured.

-Lucas

 

[WILDER]

Hi lucas welcome to the board.

 

[sylvia]

Goldfish ARE cyprinids, they grow as large as many of the larger cyprinids and some of the rarer varieties sell for a lot more than many of your typical tropical cyprinids. It's no argument saying 'goldfish aer worthless and therefore are ok to use as feeders'. That's like saying mixbreed dogs are worthless so it's fine to abandon them or, I'm sure, you could think of several ways of applying that to the human world and racial discrimination.

Anyway, that's not why I posted. I want to point out two things - firstly, it's not a good idea to feed live feeders to any fish. Not for moral reasons or because it's unsightly, but because it's not good for the predatory fish. And I don't mean the issues with goldfish in particular that were listed earlier int eh thread - I mean the chance of introducing disease that comes with feeding any live fish - regardless of species.

But tha main thing I wanted to say is - this was in NO way like anything that would happen in the wild. Besides the fact that goldfish and oscars don't co-exist in the wild, you'd never have a fish being eaten bit by bit in the wild. Prey species have room to get away and, if they aren't eaten all at once or immobilised, will generaly not get bitten a second time. Also, for this very reason, fish that do co-exist in the wild have evolved so that the prey species have a fighting chance of getting away from the predatory species or, at least, have some kind of adaptation to avoid being eaten (eg: schooling or camouflage).

There is absolutely nothing natural about an oscar eating a goldfish within the confines of a fish tank and the goldfish has no chance whatsoever of escaping and the oscar is not having it's nutritional requirements met either.

Having said that, I have nothing against feeding feeders to fish that NEED them but see no reason for giving them to other species - particularly considering the health risks - and I take no enjoyment from watching a fish slowly consumed and unable to get away and have no idea why anyone else would (watching a fish stalk and kill quickly I do understand as you get to see some natural behaviours you wouldn't otherwise - though I wouldn't enjoy watching the fish die under those circumstances either).

 

[thelastbetta]

Wow. I didn't realize how many opinions people had about this sort of thing.

It's good to see that at least some people care.

 

[Ethos]

as though goldfish are worthless.

I like goldfish. If I ever get my hands on a 30G I'd make it a coldwater goldfish tank...

Sorry if this is alittle off topic.
But here, let me put my 2 cents in...

As long as the fish is dead quickly, I don't see much of a problem if its for a large carnivore.
But if the goldfish is half dead, its not ok.
Although there's a fine difference between humans and fish, so who really knows how much fish feel at all.

 

[thelastbetta]

Fish have pain receptors like us.

Says it all here, http/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2983045.stm