Losing Fish

[tetraqueen]

I have been counting the amount of dish I keep and how many I have lost.

Has anyone never lost a fish? i.e still got the originals they started with.

I am thinking now in cost of lives is this really a barbaric hobby or am I just feeling low today ?

 

[Matty P]

I'm sure there are very few people out there that haven't lost a fish.

 

[tetraqueen]

I'm sure there are very few people out there that haven't lost a fish.

Thanks It is good to have ahd a reply. I do realise as I read posts it quite normal but it does seem sad that we can lose so many.

 

[madgap]

I know where your coming from, it is sad. However, if we, the hobbiest use the loss as a lesson and actually learn from whatever mistakes we make, we can improve the lives of the fish that remain. Give them a life that seems natural to them and enhance our own lives with the beauty of the enviroment we create. And the beauty of the fish we keep.

Keep in mind that a fish may have been dying before you bought it.

This might be far fetched, but, by bringing a fish that you did not know is ill into your tank, you may very well be giving it a happy last few days. Just maybe

 

[Bignose]

As many fish die due to hobbyists and the untrained, many, many, many more die in the wild. Most fish that are suitable for aquarium keeping are just feeders in the wild -- they are very low on the food chain. As topsy-turvy as it sounds, the ones that make it to the aquariums may be the lucky ones. Regular meals, no predators, and owners who medicate them when they catch a disease... you don't get any of those things in the wild. Except in cases where the native populations have been decimated -- the red tail black shark is pretty much extinct outside of aquariums today, for one example -- catching and selling wild fish isn't all that terrible. Lots of cardinals are wild caught and sold, for example, and their population levels are fine. And, again, those that are caught and end up in an aquarium are probably the lucky ones. I don't have any hard figures on it, but I'd be very surprised if more than 1 in 1000 fish in the wild live out their entire natural life. It's probably more like 1 in 10 000 or even 100 000.

 

[tetraqueen]

Thanks I don't feel so bad now, and I must admit for all the trouble I have had the pleasure of the ones that have lived have given so much.

 

[CFC]

The more fish you keep the more losses you will face, thats just a sad fact of the hobby. Just as with any animal and even humans some fish will develop problems and die from them at a young age, enviromental problems outside of our control like heatwaves and power cuts are annoying and sad but beyond our control and accidental mistakes can happen to anyone.

I would hate to list all the fish i have lost, some of which i have litterally only had a few days but i also have many fish that i have had for years, some make and some dont but that is the gamble you take when keeping live creatures and this is intensified when the creatures in question are known to be delicate or difficult to keep.