RE: Don't Buy Oscar Fish - 6 Reasons Why
- Thread starter TheReefer
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hello; This is a classic rationalization. Even tho my tank is not good enough it is better than at the fish shop. So I must be doing good to get that fish and save it from a likely slow death in a very miserable existence and put it in a slightly better tank where it will have only a basic miserable existence.
First the shop is by definition a short time home for all the fish and fish shop conditions have been the topic of other long threads.
Second you put an opportunity cost into the situation. While unlikely that being some customer with a big enough tank may have come in after you and taken the fish home.
Third is once the fish is yours then all the good thoughts do not add up to good conditions for the fish. You either have sub optimum conditions or decent conditions. A dog which gets beaten only once a day is better off than one which gets beaten twice a day but neither owner has anything to brag about.
Fourth as already mentioned by a few, if we buy fewer Oscars then they may not show up so much in shops and thus in the long run do better for the species. This concept is also good for a long thread.
I suspect that live fish was a loss, not a gain. I probably saw more dead fish over the years, than live healthy fish.
But some stores use loss leaders just to get people down that aisle. Suddenly $10 in fish turns into $100+ in dry goods sales. I believe that's what George was suggesting.
But some stores use loss leaders just to get people down that aisle. Suddenly $10 in fish turns into $100+ in dry goods sales. I believe that's what George was suggesting.
Fellows, that thing about people buying, based on feelings rather than reason, is ridiculously well-established.
Virtually everybody does it because (once our basic human needs are satisfied) life is all about dealing with our feelings.
The marketing industry has grown up around this fact and we don't even realize it.
Seemingly worse: when confronted with the knowledge, 99% of people cannot accept the reality which feeds multi-billion dollar Mad Ave empires.
YES, that is the entire consumer pet industry, sir, from top to bottom (except only to the very cognoscenti of fishmongers.)
My mom sold fish at Kresge's 5 & 10 (progenitor of Kmart and Sears) and it is likely worse these 70 years hence. Live creatures are very costly to sell, with unbelievable mortality rates. They are the "loss leader" . . . the bait . . . the bright object that allows us to self-hypnotize and buy what we don't need.
We steadily spend minimum 100x the cost of consumer fish on profitable goods to support the fish.
. . . and support the fiction that we are humane creatures.
I did not have a single reason to buy an oscar fish except that I wanted that fish. I was willing to do whatever I needed to do. Over the course of his life, my mother passed and my wife and I both had medical issues. Poor Felix's tank was delayed over and over. Now the fishmonger I was dealing with (Whitie's) has diddled me around for two months over my tank order.
I am ordering from another source now, and the stress will soon abate for me, and for my fish!
And not just Felix. There are 18 growing fish waiting for hand-me-down tanks! I'm changing all their water like a maniac now as well. Plecos, Monos, Peacocks and Haps all want to graduate!
Virtually everybody does it because (once our basic human needs are satisfied) life is all about dealing with our feelings.
The marketing industry has grown up around this fact and we don't even realize it.
Seemingly worse: when confronted with the knowledge, 99% of people cannot accept the reality which feeds multi-billion dollar Mad Ave empires.
YES, that is the entire consumer pet industry, sir, from top to bottom (except only to the very cognoscenti of fishmongers.)
My mom sold fish at Kresge's 5 & 10 (progenitor of Kmart and Sears) and it is likely worse these 70 years hence. Live creatures are very costly to sell, with unbelievable mortality rates. They are the "loss leader" . . . the bait . . . the bright object that allows us to self-hypnotize and buy what we don't need.
We steadily spend minimum 100x the cost of consumer fish on profitable goods to support the fish.
. . . and support the fiction that we are humane creatures.
I did not have a single reason to buy an oscar fish except that I wanted that fish. I was willing to do whatever I needed to do. Over the course of his life, my mother passed and my wife and I both had medical issues. Poor Felix's tank was delayed over and over. Now the fishmonger I was dealing with (Whitie's) has diddled me around for two months over my tank order.
I am ordering from another source now, and the stress will soon abate for me, and for my fish!
And not just Felix. There are 18 growing fish waiting for hand-me-down tanks! I'm changing all their water like a maniac now as well. Plecos, Monos, Peacocks and Haps all want to graduate!
It's kind of a throwback of the old general merchandise stores that we used to have such as Woolworth's,H&L Greene and others many years ago.While they were not nearly as big as Walmart spacewise those stores were a decent size for retail..They tried to sell a little bit of everything including live aquarium fish and other small animals.The pet sections would usually take up a small area in the back of those stores and they'd have a few tanks of hapless goldfish and tetras.
It's pretty ridiculous. They're prisoners in glass boxes. If your moral compass is that righteous shouldn't you just not keep them?
We can all agree a 55 is not good. All this unstable spilling of emotions is crazy. I think some people have missed their calling as a peta paint slinger or Oscar conservationist.
Wow. Really surprised with all the comments. Because these are oscars. A disrespected fish. (cheap, been there done that, everybody has them...)
Big shout out to all the oscar lovers in MFK!
In regards to keeping oscars, small tanks blah blah blah. This goes for any big fish.
I see a lot of care in all these comments because the oscar is a big fish. So that's good.
The biggest negative about oscars? Because they are cheap and disrespected many people don't treat them right. And if you find you cannot keep them due to the size they grow they are difficult to even give them away.
So if this guy's video is intended to prevent that, that is a good thing. I did not look at the video.
Big shout out to all the oscar lovers in MFK!
In regards to keeping oscars, small tanks blah blah blah. This goes for any big fish.
I see a lot of care in all these comments because the oscar is a big fish. So that's good.
The biggest negative about oscars? Because they are cheap and disrespected many people don't treat them right. And if you find you cannot keep them due to the size they grow they are difficult to even give them away.
So if this guy's video is intended to prevent that, that is a good thing. I did not look at the video.
Well, I hadn’t expected this thread to get as much attention as it had while I was away. I had actually mentioned something about the part of the original post about 55 gallon minimum but deleted it since I figured I didn’t have a leg to stand on saying it. Glad someone did though. I’ll put my $0.02 in on it.
I don’t know about yall but before I got my first (and last) oscar I justified the purchase as “they normally grow to 12 inches and in a 18 inch wide tank that’s 6 inches of turning space. That’s plenty.” Now that I have a 6-7 inch severum in a 75 I honestly don’t think anything much bigger would look right. My severum is a mid level active fish and if I was going with a highly active fish then I would put a cap at about 4 inches.
What I’m saying is that through personal experience my views have changed and because of it my opinion has changed from a 55 gallon being ok for an oscar to not keeping another one until I can get a 180.
On a personal note I’d like to thank
Stanzzzz7
as he has helped me with his posts far more than he knows regarding tank sizes.
I don’t know about yall but before I got my first (and last) oscar I justified the purchase as “they normally grow to 12 inches and in a 18 inch wide tank that’s 6 inches of turning space. That’s plenty.” Now that I have a 6-7 inch severum in a 75 I honestly don’t think anything much bigger would look right. My severum is a mid level active fish and if I was going with a highly active fish then I would put a cap at about 4 inches.
What I’m saying is that through personal experience my views have changed and because of it my opinion has changed from a 55 gallon being ok for an oscar to not keeping another one until I can get a 180.
On a personal note I’d like to thank
Stanzzzz7
as he has helped me with his posts far more than he knows regarding tank sizes.I wonder how many stone throwers are keeping fish in less than ideal conditions.
Put the pitch forks away, that is not me condoning keeping a fish in too small of a tank.
Yeah emotions lol especially when they wanna keep the site clean lmao
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