i would never own dyed fish nor would i continue to shop somewhere that sold them... it is mean and unneccessary! The glass catfish is a favourite of theirs to dye but i think the thing that makes it naturally cool is the fact it isn't dyed!!! this site had some pretty cool info on the practice-
"When you treat sentient animals like 'goods' it is not surprising that sooner or latter something terrible will happen to them that will be accepted as just another marketing strategy. In recent years, several varieties of fish have been artificially coloured to make them more saleable. Amongst these fish are the coloured skirts, painted glass fish, painted tiger barbs, and coloured botias. They are dipped into a mild acid solution to dissolve their protective 'slime coat', a vital part of their immune system. They are then painted with semi-permanent fluorescent dyes, after which they are placed into an irritant bath so that they will regenerate their slime coat. Of the few fish that survive this process, most will die within the two months following the trauma, and those that still survive will have lost their coloration within six to ten months. Only about 10% of the fish that survive for sale will keep their coloration for any length of time.
Fish suffer through other forms of abuse to satisfy aquarists demands. The lutino and albino morphs of the black skirt tetra (
gymnocorymbus ternetzi) are injected with dyes and fed dye-laced foods as fry to produce other colours. Some skunk botia (
botia morleti) are injected with dyes and painted to produce purple, red, and blue loaches. Painted tinfoil barbs (
barbus schwanefeldi) are available for sale but seem to have difficulty seeing (they can bump into stationary objects in the water) and have drastically reduced lifespans. Red painted tiger barbs and green painted tiger barbs are produced from gold, albino, and red colour morphs of the tiger barb (Barbus Tetrazona) that have been injected with red and green dyes.
Sometimes customers buy these colourful fish without knowing that the colour is artificial. These consumers, which are sometimes convinced that these forms are natural colour morphs, bring them back home, and then wonder why the fish die.
A survey which was carried out in the south of England revealed that over 40% of painted glassfish appeared to be suffering from lymphocystis virus. This disease manifests itself as a small whitish growths on the fish's body and fins. In contrast, less than 10% of the natural (unpainted) glassfish had lymphocystis. Albino versions of Corydoras catfish, such as C. aeneus; Tiger barbs; Albino Epalzeorhynchus such as the Red-finned shark; Black widow tetras; Rams and some Botia species, are all species that are painted or injected and sold in the UK."
source:
http://www.advocatesforanimals.org.uk/campaigns/companion/glassprisons/index.html
