Aquarists, stand up for animal rights. Put a stop to fish painting.
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For those of you that don't already know, fish painting is the cruel act of altering a fish's coloring in order to make it more profitable to sell.
Fish with brighter an more striking color sell better and have more buyers and so many modern pet shops stock fish that have been painted so as to improve coloring artificially.
There are several varieties that are frequently subjected to this and are "colored skirts", "painted glass fish". "Painted tiger barbs" and "colored botias". These fish are literally painted through a cruel and debatably painful process.
This removes their essential coating of "slime" that forms a crucial part of their immune system and water protection. After this they are painted and put into an "irritant bath".
Only a small percentage of fish survive this traumatic process and the ones that do lose their coloration within a year. The amount of cheap, painte fish has increased the demand for normal-colored, natural fish and so the majority of pet shops can be found to be stocking these fish.
So what can we do about this?
There are many avenues that you can take. You can boycott the pet shops that choose to sell these horrid products and to spread the word to fellow aquarists. Or you could talk to the owners about the types of fish that they stock and bring to their attention the cruelty in selling dyed fish.
Purchasing these traumatized fish from pet shops will only encourage the shops to re-order more because you are creating a demand. This, therefore, is not the thing to do.
However, any form of campaigning against this would be beneficial. Word of mouth, posters and websites would all help to make sure that other aquarists and members of the public know about the cruelty of painted fish.
Alternatively you can sign an online petition here: http://www.petitiononline.com/fishtank/petition.html
Another thing you can do is to make sure that you DO buy fish supplies from more ethical suppliers who do not deal in dyed fish. One very high quality, ethical fish supply seller online is http://www.desertcoralaquatics.com
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