I know this thread is getting old now, but I read it all and have tried to remember all the points and situations brought up (despite having just got back from a lock-in down the local and having to read everything twice, sorry if i've forgetten anything due to drunkeness) and want to add my 10 pence worth.
Ang;1968327; said:
Man, this topic got a little heated huh?
i was just going to post and say that those people really seemed to love their catfish. you can hear the lady in the background saying "bye bye baby" .
All debates and laws aside. They obviously thought they were doing the right thing and thought they were doing the best for the fish they seemed to care about.
they may be uninformed, but their hearts seem to be in the right place.
thats just my $0.02
[quote BadFishPa] Yes it actually was a sad video. I had a bunch of Black Pacu a wlile ago in a 300 gallon,thinking it was a huge tank. A few years go by and (WoW) they get huge. My 300 was a joke for them to live in. Guess what (Nobody will take them) Nobody will buy them,there over 2 ft. So you try and try to find homes,no luck. Your LFS tells you to just kill them,you have had them for years and the thought of this this doesnt seem possible..So off to a lake to set them free,its the only thing you can think to do.You go back to see if they lived but there not there, but you think it was better than killing them.. Maby fish stores shouldent sell Monsters daily,make them a special order thing. Im not saying it was the right thing to do,I know better now. I research any fish i buy so not to get in a situation like this again..I guess all im saying is,sometimes you do what you think you have to..Im sure there are MFKrs who drive drunk,speed,use drugs maby even sell them.. Guess what..thats going to kill us and the planet faster then dropping fish in a stream...Again its all wrong to do (But its gonna happen) [end quote]
Out of all of this, the above for me both sum up how unfortunate this situation and others like it have been. People that have been very attached to their fish have, for whatever reason, had to resort to releasing them into an ecosystem that is not native to that species with potentially harmful effects. The only other option available to them has been to kill the fish, and i can fully understand not wanting to to do that when you have owned the animal for long enough that it has become part of the family. I personally ended up being an MFKer because small fish i got from my lfs many years ago without advise turned out not to be small for too long. Unlike others out there that also received no advise from their lfs on their new family addition, or may never have heard of MFK, I had space and was financially able to upgrade my tank to a much large and more suitable home to the monsters I had at the time.
Having spoken to all my lfs since, I know how unwilling they are to take these animals back when they are grown up. Some owners are then unable to keep them in the manner to which they should be and are then faced with no other option than (short of killing them) to release a family pet into the wild. One very large lfs I visited once had almost a 12" Pleco in every single one of their tanks (we're talking about a hundred!), no matter what the tank capacity, as well as many other monsters that i've not seen since, as they would take anything rather than it be released into the wild.
Back on topic, as Ang says, these people were obviously upset at having to leave their pets. Luckily (if you can call it that) the fish probably won't survive in that river as it'll be too cold for them. It appears to be due to large airfares for transporting them back to the US that they're being released, which I can fully appreciate as i'm due to move to Australia from the UK soon and would be in the same situation with my monsters. Luckly a couple of friends and relatives have said they will happily take them from me when I go.
As for the Goldfish shown later in the thread, I don't know what effect they have on US waters, but where they have been released into UK lakes and ponds they have had very little effect other than supprising the occasional angler with a bright orange catch.
Anyway, that's my drunken 10 pence worth, sorry for rambling on but rest assured i'll have a bad hangover in the morning. If the rest of the thread is anything to go by i'll have upset somebody and I expect my roasting soon. I'm fairly new to MFK but had monsters for many years now. Don't know about y'all, but i'm still learning about all the amazing animals available to us in our fascinating hobby.
