Aquatic World Jones Road

[szidlon]

I finally made it to Aquatic World on Jones Rd last weekend.  They do have a nice selection of tanks, but....
I was there with a friend who lives in the area and she was quite surprised that I couldn't find anything I couldn't live without.  I simply said that even if I did see something I wanted, I wouldn't purchase it there.  When asked why, I took her to the "colored mollies" tank.  I asked her if the colored/painted stripes looked natural or not, to which she said, well no, they looked painted on.  My reply was, exactly, and then we left.  I know there is a maket out there for painted and otherwise artifically colored fishes and I'm certainly not a PETA spokesperson but I do have choices as to where I do and do not purchase my products.  I may be wrong and will stand corrected if so, but I've never seen a molly with pastel stripes in assorted colors.

Okay, off my soapbox now, back in the corner I go.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Aquatic World Jones Road

i have seen some really disgusting crap on fish lately. kinda churns my stomach looking at them for whatever reason.

[geoff_tropheus]

Re: Aquatic World Jones Road

Its like those Parrot fish they are calling Skittles.  They put those fish for months in a vat of food coloring until they reach a certain size.

The food coloring goes away in time, but still totally unnatural, and completely unethical in my opinion to be practicing such business.

[JLawson]

Re: Aquatic World Jones Road

szidlon, I completely agree with you.

As some of you may recall... a couple of my previous posts have conveyed the same message.  As consumers, it is our responsibility to support the businesses that follow ethical and ecologically sound practices.  I admire anyone who will standup and be counted.  It is even more effective if we go a step further and let the businesses that we disagree with know why we won't be giving them our money.  If enough of us do that then these stores may realize they are losing more than they are gaining by selling abused fish.

And when we share our thoughts with friends the message is even stronger.  I appreciate the opportunity that this forum represents to share with our fishkeeping friends worldwide.

Thanks.

[PhishPhreek]

Re: Aquatic World Jones Road

While I agree that you have the right to support the suppliers that cater to your moral convictions, it bothers me that you would try to censor my participation in the hobby by limiting the stock that I have access to.  I have always disliked censorship in any form.  And for the record, I have no desire to keep painted fish and little interest in gene spliced mutations, but where do you draw the line?   Once the censorship starts, I have little doubt that someone will want to tell me what I can or cannot keep.

P.S. when I abuse a fish, I gut it, scale it, cook it and serve it with lemon juice & tartar sauce.

[JLawson]

Re: Aquatic World Jones Road

Yes indeed... finding the "line" has been and will always be an impossibly difficult and exhausting burden for even the most capable among us.  I too abhor censorship just as I disagree with gun control, racial profiling, religious intolerance, social prejudice, economic suppression, and educational inopportunity.  I have originated innumerable letters, emails, and phone calls arguing against these very things.

I would make a distinction between censorship and the effects of "supply and demand."  If, as a business owner, I recognize that a particular product offered in my store is experiencing decreased sales to the point of no longer being profitable to stock, then my wisest choice is to quit stocking that item.  It doesn't really matter to me if the declining sales are due to a shift in technology, a detour in customer interest, or a highly-publicized moral debate.  I will decide whether or not to stock that item based upon reasonable profit and loss information.  A similar business two blocks over may make the opposite decision - that stocking this item is profitable for him.

You see, I'm not advocating legal action.  I am suggesting thoughtful consumerism - something that we all do every day.  One dissatisfied customer may be an aberation, two an irritation, three a red flag, but a dozen... well that may be a trend that deserves closer scrutiny.

[RussGB]

Re: Aquatic World Jones Road

I don't think this is about censorship. I am against censorship completely. This just isn't about censorship. We seem to have an attitude that "if it ain't illegal, it's ok". IMHO practices involving cruelty to animals should be illegal, but sometimes the law stops short. In my mind I can stretch the boundaries a little for testing of life saving drugs. I can't do it for fish keeping. I really don't have a problem with glo-fish since the underlying purpose was for water testing and not sales (and there really isn't any cruelty involved). I am against dipping canaries by the thousand into bright colored dyes, and I am against veal crating.

The boundaries of freedom are set by more than just the law. They are also set by social responsibility. The minimum standards of social responsibility should be higher than those set by the law. The law is there as a safety net to restrict those who demonstrate no social responsibility.  Do you avoid drinking and driving because its illegal or because it is just the wrong thing to do? Me, I know its wrong. I don't the law to tell me so, but others do.

The law does often restrict what we can buy - drugs, kiddie porn, dangerous animals, etc. Its not that we are being censored, it is that we need to stop the trading of stuff like this by people who don't know or don't care that it is wrong.

[PhishPhreek]

Re: Aquatic World Jones Road

This is a fantastic discussion and I would love to sit down with you and expand on it.
But this forum is not the proper place.  Remember, it aint *****ing if you offer a solution.  

[Armadillo_Del_Rio]

Re: Aquatic World Jones Road

Aquatic world is a place of the common consumer (Oscar in a ten gallon tank), But the ethics is of altering a fish, painting and cosmetic surgery, to sell a fish is just wrong. well in my mind it is, but i won't judge you if you want one. It's what you want, fine. But i won't ever get one nor my family (its a good thing my wife doesn't care for fish, aside the edible ones). I mean there are a lot of fish already remarkable in looks and size and shape why alter something nature has already provided.

[PhishPhreek]

Re: Aquatic World Jones Road

To tell the truth, it bothers me much more that breeders should produce offspring with deformend spinal cords, or bubble eyes or deformed mouths on purpose.   But there is no accounting for taste.