Ethically Culling Fish

[Dawn T]

Exactly so. Some faults get more prominent as a guinea pig, or fish, ages, while others can resolve themselves and look like they never had it to begin with. It takes experience to learn to recognize which is which. I definitely agree about the extremes. Those seldom work out best for the animal in question, regardless of species or breed.

[ADMWNDSR83]

I don't have a say in this, as the only thing that I have been able to breed as of yet are swordtails that my angels eat in about 10 minutes or less.  I did want to say, however, that this is why I LOVE the Co-op.  All the posts I've seen have been respectful and peaceful, even when people may not agree, and even though many begin the post talking about how this is a touchy subject!  As my Co-op plants continue to fill in the entire bottom of my tank, I hope sooner or later one or two fry may reach adulthood before the angels have snack time.

[gardenman]

There's an odd disconnect in that most of us have no problem condemning thousands of living creatures (brine shrimp, black worms, etc.) to death each day, but when it comes to killing fish we get squeamish. I prefer feeding the culls to other fish. It just seems like the best option to me. It's a fish eat fish world out there, so this is a pretty natural way to handle culling.

[AdamTill]

1 hour ago, gardenman said:

There's an odd disconnect in that most of us have no problem condemning thousands of living creatures (brine shrimp, black worms, etc.) to death each day, but when it comes to killing fish we get squeamish. I prefer feeding the culls to other fish. It just seems like the best option to me. It's a fish eat fish world out there, so this is a pretty natural way to handle culling.

Well, it’s an interesting point, but I’m not sure it’s quite fair.

In terms of being squeamish, believe me that it’s far harder for me personally to carefully watch a batch of perfectly healthy fish die slowly (albeit painlessly) over the course of 10-15 mins using clove oil then to chuck them in a predator tank and walk away.

To use anesthetic responsibly you need to tune the dose to achieve sedation first, and not distress. Once that’s happened, you intentionally overdose. You then need to inspect each fish to make sure it’s dead. With older fish particularly, it’s not a process for the squeamish.

With a predator you are under no responsibility to watch whatsoever, short of making sure the predator is not likely to be harmed.

In terms of why I don’t use predators personally, I have a few reasons other than the potentially anthropomorphic ones relating to fear.

First, I don’t like keeping predators. Their hunting behaviour does not appeal to me, and the “doesn’t play well with others” aspects of most are a drawback as well.

Next, goldfish, even healthy ones, are not good feeders. I can’t remember offhand what the chemical is, but there’s something in their biology that harms most predators in large concentrations.

Last, there’s no need per say to use predators that benefits the fish I want to keep. My fry don’t make good feeders, so I debate the concept of wasted protein for fish at least (not sure if they affect turtles etc the same way). I could potentially compost them, but that risks attracting scavengers to my compost so I avoid animal proteins there.

In terms of live foods, I only likewise use them where there’s no effective substitute.

So for goldfish fry, for example, while you can get most of the same nutrition from golden pearls, steamed eggs, fry starters etc, you don’t get the stimulation that results from movement. Fry don’t really eat much of this food at first because it doesn’t move, and there’s a huge increase in fry mortality and decrease in initial growth when live foods aren’t used.

That all said, I have issues with those that do the reverse of the above.

Edited December 28, 2020 by AdamTill

[Daniel]

Well, it seems like we have pretty much explored that issue.