Everyone take a look

This is old news over at RC, and RDO. I don't post on RC, but I was made aware of the hoopla by the folks on the industry forum at RDO (the only RDO forum I post in.) First of all, All-Glass, who supplied the tanks, issued an email statement to their retailers after the fact stating that they had no idea that the mini-bow would be used in that way, and were in no way endorsing the application it was used for. They did send out an email before the Nemo debacle, stating that retailer should be duly prepared for an increase in sales. That's fair.

Secondly, and this may come as a surprise to some, but I do not support ANY boycott. I do support emailing and calling those responsible for the clip, however, Tetra doesn't make saltwater products, the only ones of theirs that I carry are a brine net and some dried Krill however, IF I was to boycott their products on the grounds that they were promoting the inhumane treatment of fish, then I'd have to boycott Marineland products too... including Instant Ocean.

:bigeek: What???!!!!

Yep.

Aquaria Group owns Instant Ocean (Aquarium Systems) and Marineland. Ever look at a Marineland box? The box for the 6 g Eclipse has 22 fish (Loaches or barbs?) in the tank pictured on the front of the box. My sales rep showed me a new ad for the 125 package they make, and he was boasting that he put 100 yellow tangs in it I could count about 20.... I told him what I thought of that. Typically at trade shows EVERYBODY sets up a show tank with way too many fish in it, and at the end of the show, whoever has cash in their pocket and a way to get them home, does so (these are not hobbyist shows, these are vendor to retailer shows).

If I were to boycott Tetra because of a 3 minute clip that has long since been forgotten by anybody who is either not a hobbyist, or not "online", I'd be quite a hypocrite if I didn't boycott everybody else who compromised the welfare of fishes -- and that's just about every vendor in the book. I'd be out of business in a heartbeat.

Am I mad about the clip? Yes. Did I write? Yes. Am I boycotting? NO.

And I've not had a single person come in looking to buy a 5 gallon tank and a bunch of Nemos and Dorys.... and even if I did, you all know me well enough to know how I would manage that.... at the most they would leave with a BOOK. (And if they came back we could talk about a suitable sized tank....).

FWIW I haven't had any panicked phone calls from parents whose kids have "flushed Nemo" nor has anybody called because their kid put table salt in the FW tank to "prepare for Nemo" or any of the other horrors that have made the news lately.

HYPE.

Jenn

i now leave the resposnibility up to the lfs to teach that person the rights and wrongs of sw keeping.

Click to expand...

And therein lies another HUGE problem. Every day I read posts all over the Internet about the "stupid LFS" who sold 5 yellow tangs to somebody with a 10 g tank..... Then the LFS gets heck for it. Whatever happened to the end user being responsible?

Not to deviate too far off track (as if I ever do that!) but do you rely on the car salesman to teach you how to drive? Or fix the car? No, of course not. It is the buyer's responsibility to receive proper instruction before he begins.

Yes, the GOOD LFS take the time to ask questions and help guide their clients. Those that try to be good, might give some well-intentioned, but improper advice, and yeah, the lowest common denominator among us just want to sell you something before it croaks in their shop, and devil may care..... but at the end of the day, it's the person who takes it home that is ultimately responsible for their choice.

If the end-user, or hobbyist, or fish-tank-owner is responsible and accountable for their choices, (to bring this back on track...) then all the Tetra clips in the world wouldn't matter, because people would educate themselves and know this was not the right way to proceed. I know - we don't live in a perfect world, or even one that makes sense half of the time....... But still, if accountability is the issue, yeah CBS and Tetra screwed up, and big, but it's what people DO with that information that will make the difference.

Does anybody know if CBS or Tetra did anything to correct the misinformation?

Jenn

I mentioned this in the similar thread in the ARC forum when this CBS / Tetra debacle was brought up there....

I wish everybody got as worked up about cyanide use in the trade, as they did about this 3-minute clip. Cyanide was and is still a huge problem in Indonesia and Philippines, but few people care or are even aware of it. Maybe "Nemo" is farm raised now, but Dory isn't - and in fact Dory is a major cyanide target. Not all blue tangs are caught that way, but many are, as well as many other tangs, groupers, angels and other reef fishes. The problem is in the food fish industry AND the marine ornamentals industry. It kills fish, corals and divers.

If hobbyists got as riled up about that as they did about this television interview, some major changes could be effected in the trade.

I'll get off my soap box now

Jenn

Oh I'm very well aware of that fund, and I contributed to MSI's netting fund. Netting is on its way over to Ferdinand and his crew in PI, and I believe a similar project is in the works for Indonesia. It's not as simple as all that, but getting the fishers the material they need is a good start.

That's a huge issue, for another thread(s), I just find it interesting that so many, esp. over at RC got soooooooo worked up over this 3 minute clip that most people either didn't see, or promptly forgot about, than ever get worked up over the fact that divers are poisoning themselves and their reefs every day. Last time I looked at that thread on RC it was 32 pages long! Never seen a thread go past about 15 pages in another forum, regarding cyanide testing or industry reform.

Of course cyanide is the industry's dirty little secret.... it's not in your face like that clip was.

Trying to reform the industry is a double edged sword. Done right, it can make things better for everyone in the chain of custody. Done wrong, it could mean the end of the industry.

Jenn