The freshwater clownfish...

[Anonymous]

Well, the LFS I work at had a local distributor claim to have brackish/freshwater percs, and we got in a pair yesterday. The SG was 1.004, and one clown was dead. The other was not happy at all. Over the course of an hour, I acclimated it to the saltwater tanks in the store (1.022) and as of today it's swimming around happily as if nothing happened. Are these guys scammers or what?

Peace,

Chip

 

[dbman]

Show me a freshwater clownfish and I'll show you a human adapted to breath pure hydrogen sulfide.

 

[Rich-n-poor]

It can be done and i know a LFS who has a show tank with fresh water fish and percs in it

They arent for sale it is one of his personal tanks but i couldnt believe it myself I still look at it everytime i stop by that LFS he has had them for about 3 months so either their lifespan is that long or hes going through alot of similar sized percs

personally if you want saltwater fish then do the work involved in a salt water tank is my opinion I wouldnt recommend it

these are tank raised percs that he acclimated over weeks by steadily dropping salinity in the tank He doesnt sell them just one of his expieremental tanks

Oh yeah this LFS is the source of the light deprivation ick treatment if your wondering

in his defense this guy iis a clown guru ever seen a tank with 5 maroons in it ? he got one and it also contains several other types of clowns He's almost spooky when it comes to clowns

_________________
Honda XL250

 

[Anonymous]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JohnD:
<STRONG>Maybe a better answer it to talk to the distributor and tell him/her that you are not interested in this type of fish. If no other LFS buy these "freshwater clowns" the bozo raising them will stop. After all, money talks and b.....</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Let me clarify the situation. When the two owners of the LFS I work at informed me of this fish being offered, I scoffed at it. They said the guy who runs the distributorship offered to send a pair for free as a trial. This was the pair we got. I told them when the clowns showed up that it probably was a scam anyway. Now that I have more info, I'll be putting the nail in the coffin tonight about the legitimacy of the whole thing. It's an affront to saltwater fish everywhere to subject them to this kind of treatment.

Thanks for the advice.

Peace,

Chip

 

[White-Queen]

You CAN condition salt water fish(es) to live in freshwater just as you can reverse the process to condition FW fish to live in SW. But it must be done very slowly and will result in a shortened life-span becuase of the stress and changes in matebolism it produces in these specimens.

The reason clowns and other damsels are most commonly used is simple....they are hardier then many other species of SW fish. How many times do we have trouble acclimating some of the trickier species? Why would we risk the stress of adapting them to FW when we can osmetimes have trouble adapting them from one SW tank to another.

It is a sick practice in my opinion but it can and does happen.

Hardier fish take it better so they are more commonly used...simple as that.

Angela <><

 

[JennM]

I remember a really long and nasty thread last year on this or another board (?) where some online etailer was selling fw percs. I forget what they were called, but I remember how miffed we all were and we let them know it.

Just shouldn't be done.

Jenn

 

[pupeluv]

Just another scam to take advantage of the idiots who don't do their research before buying. Of course once years ago, I got suckered into buying a figure 8 puffer. The guy swore all I needed to do was put a tablespoon of table salt in my 20 gallon tank and he would be fine. The fish obviously wasn't fine, so he ended up in a very large clear glass cookie jar for a couple of weeks before I could find a home for him. Unfortunately, we didn't have the internet back then and I didn't know how to take care of him. I just put more table salt in the water until he looked ok. I wasn't taking him back to that lfs! The lucky little guy went home with a lady experienced with brackish puffers who had a 50 gallon tank for him.

In the freshwater fish, there are the "painted glass" fish, which are actually hand painted or injected with fluorescent dye. I've also seen "jellybean" parrotfish which are obviously dyed. They look like they must be fed dye or put in colored water, because their whole body is colored. I can't tell you how many times I've stopped people in the fish stores from buying these fish. The people don't believe me at first, it just sounds too ridiculous!

I think most people believe a person who runs a petstore really loves animals, but I've often found the opposite to be true, unfortunately. I'm just so glad we have the internet now so we can educate each other!

 

[Tanu]

url of the fresh water perc-murderer was www.fish-o-rama.com

fish o rama


terrible


Tanu
www.tanu.nl

 

[chris_h]

I would never buy a fresh water clown and i think it is a stupid idea. But all of you guys that like aclimating freshwater fish to salt water are no better. But that is ok since fresh water fish are cheap and we dont care about them!

 

[Anonymous]

Just FYI: most "freshwater" fish that are found in saltwater aquariums are livebearers like mollies, gambusia and a few other related species.

This may come as a surprise to you, but these are not freshwater fish. In nature they primarily dwell in brackish environments, but also in pure, full strength salt water. In nature you'd be a lot more likely to find a sailfin molly in water at 1.021 salinity then 1.004 salinity.

The case can frankly be made that keeping a molly in pure fresh water is far more alien to the fish then keeping it in brackish or salt water.

 

[Anonymous]

Hope you like the smell of sulfer

Clownfish can indeed be adapted to live in pure freshwater; Innes was doing this as far back as 1931. It's not a good thing to do, and it shouldn't be done, but it most certainly can be.

 

[Anonymous]

I thought this was debunked, tho? Didn't most of the marine fish-keeping 'experts' say this couldn't be done?

And if clownfish, why not other saltwater fish, especially other damsels?

Peace,

Chip

 

[liquid]

You may be able to, but how much have you shortened the clown's lifespan to. A couple days to a couple weeks max? This kind of thing pisses me off...if you want saltwater fish, keep a saltwater aquarium. Arg.

liquid

 

[Anonymous]

It's certainly not good for the fish and it results in greatly reduced lifespans, but it works. And yes, you can do it with other damsels... I believe the first time it was done, a blue devil was the fish in question.

Check out an older edition of the Innes' book (I know the printings at least through '55 have a section on this, later ones may as well) for pages of detail.

 

[Anonymous]

You may be able to, but how much have you shortened the clown's lifespan to. A couple days to a couple weeks max?

Not that short. Several months to over a year, that I know of. Still -very- short compared to the natural lifespan, but not as short as that.

This kind of thing pisses me off

No argument. Like I said, it shouldn't be done.

 

[Anonymous]

Going back to the first post for a sec...

Over the course of an hour, I acclimated it to the saltwater tanks in the store (1.022) and as of today it's swimming around happily as if nothing happened

Whoever "converted" the clown to freshwater did a crappy job of it, then. The process should realistically take a couple of weeks. They must have rushed it significantly, otherwise converting the clown back to saltwater in just an hour would have killed it.

 

[JohnD]

Chip,

Maybe a better answer it to talk to the distributor and tell him/her that you are not interested in this type of fish. If no other LFS buy these "freshwater clowns" the bozo raising them will stop. After all, money talks and b.....