I don't like painted fish myself. However, to a store, they generate income, is it moral? I'll try to delve into this subject just a little without getting hammered. There is also a similar discussion on the other website, and it has gotten out of hand in my opinion.
We, as Americans, living in the United States, often see things solely from our own perspective, ethnocentric. We justify what we like and condem others for being different.
Like Oddballer stated in another thread, these "dyed" fish, "hybrids" actually provide some basic living for many people in the 3rd, 4th world countries, which live on $1.00 u.s. or less a day wages!!! Take a minute to think about living on that amount of money.
So selling some fish with a "i love you" tatoo, provides some food for a family in thailand, so their daughter doesn't have to be prostituted out at the age of 13. Is that so wrong? Those are human beings we're takling about now. While at the same time, our kids are throwing out food that we don't feel like eating, or doesn't fit our taste. While people are spending money hunting in the woods for trophies to hang on the wall? how about fly fishing, you catch the fish, put them throgh stress, a hole in the mouth, then release them, tricking them into thinking they're getting a meal, but to end up with a wound that might get infected in the mouth, and that's deemed noble in the Western society?
We actually breed small fish to feed to larger fish, keep thousands of feeders in a tiny tank, rarely fed, just all waiting to die, is that more humane than tatooing a fish?
On charter fishing boats, if you've been on one, the fish are gaffed out of water, left to bleed to death in a gunny sack? Our own president, Teddy Rosevelt, went around the world on hunting safaris, posing with lions and buffalos.
Well, with all this said, I still have much more to say, if you have the reading comprehension level and attention span to read the entirety, feel free to comment, please don't take things out of context. All I'm asking is for each to examine themselves, and if they have not guilt, then throw the first stone.
For the people who have the attention span of a 4 year old, and comprehension level of the same, this is for you:
Winning an argument on the internet is like winning the special olympics!
Very well said. While I agree there are much worse things happening, I won't ever think that it's ok to put a fish through that for a buck. If you used the concept of "someone else is doing worse so I'm not that bad" then we would have absolute chaos. That would be like me robbing an innocent person at gunpoint and saying "It's ok, others have murdered for less". Not trying to lessen the integrity of your post or anything, just stating that you can't justify a wrong by quoting other wrongs. BUT, if some guy in a foreign country has a choice to make between injecting fish with paint for a few bucks, or pimping out his young daughter I would rather see more paint injected fish. It is hard to sometimes see it that way when you see those blueberry oscars floating around half dead, laying on their side. While it is sad, there is a lot worse going on in our own backyards. We could sit and debate this point for years though and it won't stop someone from dyeing fish. I simply tell stores that sell the dyed fish that the few bucks they make from those fish is a small profit compared to the thousands upon thousands of dollars myself and others with my views would have spent there over the years had they not stocked them. The guys spending the money there aren't the guys buying the dyed fish, it's people like us on these forums who think it's wrong and will be keeping fish long after the "I <3 U" parrots are dead. Man, I bet I look like a pompous ass when I say stuff like that to store clerks 
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