I don't have barbs but I wish I did. We bought 2 Jack Dempsey Cichlids and 2 parrot cichlids. Didn't find out until later that the parrots are brutally and cruelly dyed. The Jack is one Mean (fill in the blank). He killed the other Jack and then, JUMPED a barrier and brutally murdered my Mommy Parrot Cichlid and ate her babies. Big meanie. He's perfect fish-stick size too. You'd think you'd try to lay low when your owner loves fishsticks and you happen to be that size. lol
Oh, boy I'm ever so glad I found you.I love animals of course,I work in a pet shop.I have so many pets fish, frogs,crabs,geckos,dogs and others.Almost every companion of mine came from work.If an animal comes in injured or some one turns in an unwanted pet I get to have them if I want.Space is now very limited I have animals every where even living in my bathroom.I love every one of them and when my basement is finished I will have more.I will post photos as soon as I figure how to use it with my computer.
I'd like you all to meet Fish stick I mean Jack. Jack is about 6 inches long, fin to nose, and really mean. He's also puuuurdy. I was vacuuming his rocks and getting the algae off the glass and he had the audacity to attack me! Me! 6 words for ya buddy, Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You.
And this is little mean Fred, who'd beat up his wife and eat her babies all the time. Until we put his lovely wife (who's no longer with us thanks to Fish Stick over there) in a divided off part of the 29 gallon tank.
Last edited by LandOfOz; Apr 6th, 2007 at 07:28 PM. Reason: put in photo twice, brilliant, huh?
Yup. He is a Jack Dempsey Cichlid. Named after some boxer. Fred is also a cichlid, but an "unnatural" hybrid: parrot cichlid. Fred is also dyed. Poor guy. They strip off their slime coat using a chemical and either inject or dredge the poor fish in an abrasive dye and then toss it into a highly medicated tank. Fred will only be about a quarter to half his natural size, if he hadn't been dyed; it's that stressful/harmful for the fish.
I did not know that parrot cichlid were tormented I will no longer order them for my pet shop.And I will make sure to write my distributer about my objection to cruelty to animals!
I happened to go into a small fish shop yesterday, where I've seen some very nice large parrot fish before. I took a good look at the small sized ones, and was horrified to see that there were BLUE ones in that tank, among the red-orange and yellows. I asked the young kid who was working there about them, and he said the dye usually fades after a few years. I was totally upset about the whole thing, and will never buy anything from that shop - never have before, never will now!
Plants, parrot cichlids are naturally white with a slight pinkish or slight blueish tinge, any other color is dyed. Most are "dipped". Dipped in a solution to take off the slime coat, dipped in dye, then tossed in a medicated tank. Some fish are actually injected with dye with a needle (like neon tetras). This dye is actually known to break-down the cells of the fish and slowly destroy into the digestive tract. For all of these procedures the fish are in no way anesthetic-ized. There are also "tailless" cichlids out there, and they just snip of that back tail fin. Sooo mean. Most "neon" fish (neon tetras, etc) are dyed also. Here is a link that maybe helpful.
Lizard, you can post a pic by opening a photobucket account, and uploading your photos into it. Copy the URL location of the picture you want from photobucket, then when you are typing your reply (on the full reply, not the one at the bottom of this page), there is a button, top row, third from the left, with a little rectangle on it, click on it. Then paste in the URL for your photo. Click on the Preview post to make sure it shows up and you're good to go! I hope I explained that well. It really is terrible what some places do to fish and a lot of vendors don't even know. Thanks for not carrying fish that are so abused!
Ahhhh, he's adorable! Poor little fella. The bottom half of the first pic is greyed out. The pics need to be scaled down to something like 400x600, 'cause it eats up bandwith and all that jazz. Just click on edit on the pic in photobucket and at the top there is a drop-down menu which has sizes for reducing the pics. What is your little fellas name and breed?
You shouldn't need to repost the pic, because the URL you put in for the photo links directly to your photobucket account and any modifications made thereof. Have I confused you yet?
Last edited by LandOfOz; Apr 16th, 2007 at 09:02 PM. Reason: forgot somethin'
He is my name sake little lizard.He is a leopard gecko,fully grown he will be about 10inches.When I got him his condition was poor the vet said his leg had gotten infected,and told me he was going to die!The person or persons who had him left him in the trash out side my store.I could hear him cry(they sound just like babys)if he had not made noise I would have never found him.Very sad.
i apologized for editing this topic, however it had been hijacked into an animal cruelty post. I've removed the "extra" posts and anyone who wants to comment on fish is more than welcome to, and tomorrow i'll post pictures of my fish
the weathers getting nice enough for me to get fish for the pond!! im getting shubkins again!! i think loz got me hooked on those!!lol :) weres your fishy pics jiffy? :)
sherri shubkins [not sure i spelled that right] are like white calico goldfish. their realy neatlookin. heres a pic of fishy and fishy i had gonna clean out the pond abd get more this weekend!
Last edited by sibyl; Apr 27th, 2007 at 07:33 AM. Reason: added pic
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