Appalling abuse of TV by Tetra

nate-g · 06-23-2003, 01:42 PM

I don't know if anyone saw CBS's The Early Show special on setting up a SW aquarium for Nemo, but aparently it was pretty bad. A TETRA executive "expert" came on and dumped a blue tang, 2 clowns, 2 seahorses and a brittle star into a 5 gallon mini-bow. She said that all that was needed was the Whisper power filter included in the kit and whatever artificial gravel and decorations you liked and that was all there was to it. No mention of a cycle, no mention of SALT (just water and conditioner), no mention of species compatability, proper care of the fish, nothing.

Please check out this thread for the full info on the show. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't plan on buying any more TETRA products. CBS may be partly responsible, but TETRA should know better. In 5 minutes of TV who knows how much damage was done to our hobby.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=201848

Oh, if anyone's interested I can see if I can get a tape of the special and bring it to the next meeting.

Nate

Ray1214 · 06-23-2003, 02:21 PM

Nate,

I have already emailed both Tetra and the CBS Early morning show. I pretty much decided (only for myself) if that Tetra can be that irresponsible, I do not need to use their products. I couldn't really fault CBS since they were going on the advice of an "Expert" but Sales of percula clownfish have went up over 600 percent since Nemo was released, which is a movie I enjoyed. I think that Tetra and fish stores that know better, should really really not worry that much about making the money and considering the ethical side of things. To make matters worse, did you see anyone mix saltwater? My daughter watched it and it appeared to her that idiot of an expert was droping fish into a tank and using a capful of water conditioner after adding each fish.

Ray

Joel · 06-23-2003, 11:18 PM

WOW 31 pages to that thread at RC

JennM · 06-25-2003, 02:57 PM

Yeah. Wish everybody was as p***ed off about about the effects of cyanide use.

Jenn

nate-g · 06-26-2003, 04:31 PM

Yeah, I read the chapter in The Concientious Marine Aquarist about the decimation of Natural Reefs due to cyanide. I wish more fish stores would be more upfront about what locations their fish were collected from so we could avoid fish collected from areas where cyanide use is pervasive (like the phillipines). About the only thing you can do is watch the fish eat and wait a week or two...