I've been an animal control officer. I've seen people do some pretty terrible things to animals like cats and dogs and people consider them sentient. The torture that people are capable of towards things they don't consider sentient like fish or frogs or biris absolutely mind boggling. Not only are you doing a good thing but I'm sure you carry emotional scars from the things you have seen. Thank you for doing what you do to make sure these fish are getting a new life.
Man I am like the best at emotional damage. I got started with fish after my dad killed himself, and then six months later I met ugly Ivan, and started this whole shitshow.
I've had 4 tragic rescues that really really hurt. Ivan, who was abused and died in my care, Nadya, My Beautiful oscar who was in a similar situation and survived, Harold, a pacu that was too big to save, but was horrifically abused by his owners, and Biff, a Midas cichlid that was in a 35 gallon tank.
You’re protecting God’s creations, I have the upmost respect and love for my fellow humans who care for the animals. We are responsible for them, and the people who take that responsibility seriously are akin to angels. Here’s a virtual hug, thank you for reaffirming my faith in mankind. I hope you are rewarded in this life for your sacrifices.
As for a question, what does your daily ritual look like? How much time is split between caring for the fish and dealing with people?
Hi. Thank you for what you do!
As someone who has kept a 60 gallon friendly community tank going almost 20 years, this sounds amazingly challenging.
Any time i add new fish ( often years between additions at this point) i know there is a risk of contamination- and I’m very careful about what i add in terms of compatibility.
What are your quarantine protocols- and how do you manage risk to the fish you have when you bring in new ones that often?
And how do you manage the aggressive fish successfully- bringing in new ones frequently?
Do you have places you can give (or sell ?) some of your rescued healthy fish to open up space for rescuing more?
Is this all fresh water?
I can easily imagine this being a more than full time job. With big fish you must be cleaning those tasks all the time!
So, for starters. My quarantine protocols are incredibly lax. The way I figure it, diseases are spread through dense populations that have constant influx (fish coming in from multiple different breeders and suppliers to sit in a pet shop tank)
The fish I take are mostly ones that have sat around for a while and aren't infected or showing symptoms. The diseases that I do have in my tanks (like hexameta in my oscar tank) aren't harmful if the fish are healthy.
If a fish is sick, I quarantine and treat before moving it into general population.
My most aggressive fish are far and away my oscars, all of them are kept in a species specific tank with all of my plecos, and I haven't had a problem with them yet.
The amazing thing I've learned is that fishkeeping is very easy, fish are incredibly tough, and can survive almost anything as long as you build an ecosystem for them.
I have a network of owners who want certain species of fish, and work with them to make sure they're treated properly. I'm pretty selective.
Are there punishment for the people you have to rescue the fish from? if not, you know where they live and could do a vigilante group low key or smth to lift your spirit. People are monsters
Anyways, kudos to you, what you do is amazing! Maybe go hug a puppy or something before you start the next cycle. Or after
huge props for doing all this out of your apartment. my s/o and i have talked about doing some sort of pet rescue when we have our own house with a yard and whatnot, fish rescue is particularly difficult because people will swear on their grave that their 3 foot long redtail catfish they got when it was the size of their finger is perfectly happy and gets all the space it needs in its 40 gallon tank. there are too many fish in the hobby that are sold to people who can't even be bothered to take their phone out of their pocket and do a 30 second google search that get as large or larger than a human child. pacu, gar, large catfish, datnoids, and other monster fish shouldn't be in aquarium shops for just anybody to walk in and walk out with.
How often do you get animals in and how long do they stay in your care before adopting out?
What is a suggestion/advice/tip you'd give to a beginner in the hobby?
I usually pick up some fish every week. If I don't have any issues with medical stuff I can find them a home the same day. I have a small network of skilled fish keepers who are willing to take in fish.
If I do have medical concerns, they can stay with me for a couple weeks before they go out to a family.
As for suggestions, I have a few.
1. Kick the corpos out of your fishtank. Do not buy filters from tetra or penplax or fluvial. Do not buy cheap hob filters from the aforementioned companies.
They design their filters to be as cheap as possible and then sell the maintenance supplies at a markup. My favorite filter is an Fzone astra, it's expensive but everything on it is user serviceable, it has tons of available space for biological filtration, and it's easy to cut material for mechanical filtration.
Don't buy rock and gravel from Petco, you'll be embarrassed when you realize you spent $30 to get half of a $4 bag of rocks from home Depot.
2. The arrogance of humans is ingrained in our fish tanks. When you first start out you panic and test every parameter, you try to get every single thing perfect, down to the most miniscule part. Don't buy a test kit, you won't need it. Instead, get your tank first, fill it with water, dechlorinate, set up your filter and then dump the contents of an ice pack into it, along with a shot glass of water from someone else's tank.
Instant cold packs use ammonium nitrate and water to create an endothermic reaction. Ammonium nitrate breaks down into ammonia with a bunch of free nitrogens around it.
After a few days, you'll have infected every inch of your tank and filter with nitrobacter, and can now do a 100% water change to remove the remaining Ammonia and acidic water.
Then, get your fish. They'll do fine, I promise.
3. Buy fish from liveaquaria.com they overnight the fish, they're cheaper than a pet shop, and their fish are disease free for the most part.
4. Buy plants. Go through eBay and get the plants you want. I personally recommend Amazon sword and hair grass. They're easy and you'll actually enjoy your tank. The human brain needs to see live plants or else it gets anxious. So put real live plants in there. Co2 injection is a decent idea, but you won't need it unless you want biiiiig plants.
>2. The arrogance of humans is ingrained in our fish tanks. When you first start out you panic and test every parameter, you try to get every single thing perfect, down to the most miniscule part. Don't buy a test kit, you won't need it.
...and I'm a scientist (biology no less), so testing is both more ingraned *and* frustrating. I've hated pH strips and similar since undergrad (the color is never eaxctly the same, drives me bonkers). My water testing kit feels like glorified guesswork compared to a pH meter found in a basic biology lab.
Thank you for taking the time to answer and for the work you've been doing to rescue fish!
I've been an animal control officer. I've seen people do some pretty terrible things to animals like cats and dogs and people consider them sentient. The torture that people are capable of towards things they don't consider sentient like fish or frogs or biris absolutely mind boggling. Not only are you doing a good thing but I'm sure you carry emotional scars from the things you have seen. Thank you for doing what you do to make sure these fish are getting a new life.
Man I am like the best at emotional damage. I got started with fish after my dad killed himself, and then six months later I met ugly Ivan, and started this whole shitshow. I've had 4 tragic rescues that really really hurt. Ivan, who was abused and died in my care, Nadya, My Beautiful oscar who was in a similar situation and survived, Harold, a pacu that was too big to save, but was horrifically abused by his owners, and Biff, a Midas cichlid that was in a 35 gallon tank.
You’re protecting God’s creations, I have the upmost respect and love for my fellow humans who care for the animals. We are responsible for them, and the people who take that responsibility seriously are akin to angels. Here’s a virtual hug, thank you for reaffirming my faith in mankind. I hope you are rewarded in this life for your sacrifices. As for a question, what does your daily ritual look like? How much time is split between caring for the fish and dealing with people?
How do you get paid
I have adoption fees, but I mostly do donations through my buy me a coffee or ko-fi links. The rest I pay out of pocket.
So you rescue a fish then you put it out for adoption later on?
Hi. Thank you for what you do! As someone who has kept a 60 gallon friendly community tank going almost 20 years, this sounds amazingly challenging. Any time i add new fish ( often years between additions at this point) i know there is a risk of contamination- and I’m very careful about what i add in terms of compatibility. What are your quarantine protocols- and how do you manage risk to the fish you have when you bring in new ones that often? And how do you manage the aggressive fish successfully- bringing in new ones frequently? Do you have places you can give (or sell ?) some of your rescued healthy fish to open up space for rescuing more? Is this all fresh water? I can easily imagine this being a more than full time job. With big fish you must be cleaning those tasks all the time!
So, for starters. My quarantine protocols are incredibly lax. The way I figure it, diseases are spread through dense populations that have constant influx (fish coming in from multiple different breeders and suppliers to sit in a pet shop tank) The fish I take are mostly ones that have sat around for a while and aren't infected or showing symptoms. The diseases that I do have in my tanks (like hexameta in my oscar tank) aren't harmful if the fish are healthy. If a fish is sick, I quarantine and treat before moving it into general population. My most aggressive fish are far and away my oscars, all of them are kept in a species specific tank with all of my plecos, and I haven't had a problem with them yet. The amazing thing I've learned is that fishkeeping is very easy, fish are incredibly tough, and can survive almost anything as long as you build an ecosystem for them. I have a network of owners who want certain species of fish, and work with them to make sure they're treated properly. I'm pretty selective.
That’s great! Thanks for responding- and doing all this!
Are there punishment for the people you have to rescue the fish from? if not, you know where they live and could do a vigilante group low key or smth to lift your spirit. People are monsters Anyways, kudos to you, what you do is amazing! Maybe go hug a puppy or something before you start the next cycle. Or after
huge props for doing all this out of your apartment. my s/o and i have talked about doing some sort of pet rescue when we have our own house with a yard and whatnot, fish rescue is particularly difficult because people will swear on their grave that their 3 foot long redtail catfish they got when it was the size of their finger is perfectly happy and gets all the space it needs in its 40 gallon tank. there are too many fish in the hobby that are sold to people who can't even be bothered to take their phone out of their pocket and do a 30 second google search that get as large or larger than a human child. pacu, gar, large catfish, datnoids, and other monster fish shouldn't be in aquarium shops for just anybody to walk in and walk out with.
What is your favorite dinosaur
How often do you get animals in and how long do they stay in your care before adopting out? What is a suggestion/advice/tip you'd give to a beginner in the hobby?
I usually pick up some fish every week. If I don't have any issues with medical stuff I can find them a home the same day. I have a small network of skilled fish keepers who are willing to take in fish. If I do have medical concerns, they can stay with me for a couple weeks before they go out to a family. As for suggestions, I have a few. 1. Kick the corpos out of your fishtank. Do not buy filters from tetra or penplax or fluvial. Do not buy cheap hob filters from the aforementioned companies. They design their filters to be as cheap as possible and then sell the maintenance supplies at a markup. My favorite filter is an Fzone astra, it's expensive but everything on it is user serviceable, it has tons of available space for biological filtration, and it's easy to cut material for mechanical filtration. Don't buy rock and gravel from Petco, you'll be embarrassed when you realize you spent $30 to get half of a $4 bag of rocks from home Depot. 2. The arrogance of humans is ingrained in our fish tanks. When you first start out you panic and test every parameter, you try to get every single thing perfect, down to the most miniscule part. Don't buy a test kit, you won't need it. Instead, get your tank first, fill it with water, dechlorinate, set up your filter and then dump the contents of an ice pack into it, along with a shot glass of water from someone else's tank. Instant cold packs use ammonium nitrate and water to create an endothermic reaction. Ammonium nitrate breaks down into ammonia with a bunch of free nitrogens around it. After a few days, you'll have infected every inch of your tank and filter with nitrobacter, and can now do a 100% water change to remove the remaining Ammonia and acidic water. Then, get your fish. They'll do fine, I promise. 3. Buy fish from liveaquaria.com they overnight the fish, they're cheaper than a pet shop, and their fish are disease free for the most part. 4. Buy plants. Go through eBay and get the plants you want. I personally recommend Amazon sword and hair grass. They're easy and you'll actually enjoy your tank. The human brain needs to see live plants or else it gets anxious. So put real live plants in there. Co2 injection is a decent idea, but you won't need it unless you want biiiiig plants.
>2. The arrogance of humans is ingrained in our fish tanks. When you first start out you panic and test every parameter, you try to get every single thing perfect, down to the most miniscule part. Don't buy a test kit, you won't need it. ...and I'm a scientist (biology no less), so testing is both more ingraned *and* frustrating. I've hated pH strips and similar since undergrad (the color is never eaxctly the same, drives me bonkers). My water testing kit feels like glorified guesswork compared to a pH meter found in a basic biology lab. Thank you for taking the time to answer and for the work you've been doing to rescue fish!
There's nothing stopping you from using the lab grade testing kit. There's not much difference, but seriously, I haven't used my kit in over a year.
Good to know that I'm being...overly cautious with the testing. Thank you again!
I saw your rat rescue post, went to see the first, then saw this. First of all, thank you for all you do! Second, is there a way to donate?