Sponsors query

Do our sponsors agree to not stocking dyed fish?

I was in one of our less active sponsors shop today (outside Dublin), they were selling dyed tetras, the were called \"Colour Tetra\", shaped like a black widow tetra but they were pure white with a dyed green stipe on them, horrible little things.

I approached the girl in the shop and gave her some friendly advice to avoid these fish as they would get a bad reputation. She wasn't too interested.

I do agree, in an ideal world all of our sponsors should agree not to stock dyed fish. However, sometimes they cannot avoid being stuck with dyed fish especially when they get their fish from Singapore and import them directly. I'm talking personal experience here. Usually a LFS would fax/email an order to an exporter. Unfortunately the rule is if an exporter does not have a requested fish in stock they reserve the right to substitute it with another species to justify shipping costs. Why an exporter would stick a dyed fish in as a substitute, I don't know but it happens frequently and none of us would expect the small guy (our LFSs) not to try to sell these fish. What else but flush them down the toilet can they do with it?

All the LFS need to do is add subs. so if the suppliers do not have certain fish they can then add the subs!

If that works with your suppliers I am happy for you. Unfortunately that is not possible with all exporters

What do you mean by a dyed fish?

Cillian wrote:

What do you mean by a dyed fish?

Fish that are injected with dye. It's more widespread than you'd think although I have yet to see it in Ireland (others have though).

Here is a horrible example from Planet Catfish:

www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/image.php?image_id=2127

Ok, but i would not pay for something i didnt order???
And, believe me, if they send unwanted subs...if you refuse to pay for something you didnt order, your suppliers will not make the same mistake twice???!!
TRUST ME ON THAT.

i have to agree with serratus on this i have seen albino corys this has been done to and to say its not cruel well ask anyone with a tattoo at least we a have a choice in the matter. plus how many of these have died because an organ was punctured by the needle. a prime example

www.rte.ie/news/2007/1214/customs.html

it is quite simple when a LPS/LFS places an order they add a special note \"NO dyed or GM fish will be excepted or payed for\" only a fool will then send them and why risk further orders?

A lot of exporters require payment in advance. At least that was the case while I was working in retail

Generally thats only with new customers, like everything you don't just send thousands of euros worth of fish around the world in the hope that you get payment, once a relationship is established, credit is used.

Using exporters as a scapegoat for dyed or GM fish should not be tolerated. Adding a list of subs to an order eliminates this risk, regardless of their policy, they have to adhere to your request.

Using exporters as a scapegoat for dyed or GM fish should not be tolerated

Thats like saying drug dealers are not to be held accountable for the drugs they sell?????

I agree with Chris, high time dyed fish were made illegal

Perhaps I should have phrased myself a little better. Retailers using exporters as a scapegoat for dyed and GM fish should not be tolerated.

There are enough shops out there that either couldn't care or dont know what there buying.

As regards making fish illegal, prime example is weather loach, there illegal but still stocked. What makes you think banning dyed fish will be any different.

I don't suppose you asked the rep that you 'got stuck into' what his view on the whole thing is?

ChrisM wrote:

Using exporters as a scapegoat for dyed or GM fish should not be tolerated

Thats like saying drug dealers are not to be held accountable for the drugs they sell?????

The point I was trying to make is that exporters shouldn't be blamed for dyed fish for sale over here. There on lists because people buy them, people stop buying them(ie shops that stock them) the market slowly grinds to a halt. Exporters after all are there to make money, if theres money in dyed fish(again shops buy them) they'll produce them to supply.

On your point, perhaps if there wasn't so many junkies around, we wouldn't have such a serious drug problem. It's all about supply and demand, eliminate the demand and supply should follow suit.

Dave wrote:

I don't suppose you asked the rep that you 'got stuck into' what his view on the whole thing is?

???? Are you referring to my post in a different thread? FYI that rep. was from a company that produce food and have no connection to the import of live fish. My misgivings were in relation to the protein/fat quotas in fully extrodiated food stuff (i.e granulates) but that's neither here nor there.

Let's cut the nonsense. We all know that a lot of LFSs have no idea or couldn't care less what fish they are selling as long as they are selling them. The first time fishkeeper generally has no idea that these fish are artificially dyed. Yes, we all know they should have read up on fishkeeping before they bought the tank/fish but even if they did an awful lot of beginners' books make no mention of dyed fish.
Ideally the importer or LFS would refuse to buy these fish in the first place but let's be honest a lot of them don't have an idea either.
The Irish public would go mad if this happened to a cute/cuddly animal but who gives a monkey's about fish?
Sad but true. This is why I think that dyed fish should be made illegal on a EU basis. None of our fish come straight to Ireland (as far as I am aware) but are generally shipped through either London, Frankfurt or Amsterdam. We just need to hope that our European neighbours would be more vigilant when these animals first enter the EU. I wouldn't trust the Dept. of Agriculture with the control.
And I would love to see what the gardai would do if you reported an illegaly imported species of fish.

Dave wrote:

I don't suppose you asked the rep that you 'got stuck into' what his view on the whole thing is?

Get your facts straight mate before you start pointing the finger, there are NO dyed fish at Petstop Cork.

Nope there are not. I can vouch for this and never even suggested as much. The Petstore in Cork looks well run.

I never suggested they did, I merely suggested that you may have asked the rep assuming he was from a wholesaler. Back to topic, it's hardly the guards business, however point taken, I feel that species illegaly imported would be of more concern to the Department of Agriculture than the Gardai.

To be quite honest, the department of agriculture are quite strict, when we import there is almost always 90% + of boxes checked. I don't think they are as bad as they are made out.

There will be rules posted up soon regarding sponsor.
I will post them here but a sticky will be posted up as soon as the other Admins agree.

1 Sponsors must give the same discount to all the clubs represented on the forum.
2 They must provide a moderator to look after their section.
3 They cannot place prices of fish or fish products on the forum. Deals like 2 for one, buy 1 get get
1 free or 33% off are allowed.
4 Sponsors who sell dyed fish can and will loose their section. They will be given a chance to
explain why they have dyed fish.

The rules will be posted up soon after they have been finalised.

I just googled it there and its horrible and looks really unnatural, look at these poor what i can only presume were once blood parrots,
www.canadiangoldfish.com/images/parrot.jpg
Im supprised the RSPCA havent done anything about it.

Dave wrote:

I never suggested they did, I merely suggested that you may have asked the rep assuming he was from a wholesaler.

you didn't suggest it, but you linked a comment from a different thread about a conversation Holger had with a REP in PETSTOP, to this topic on DYED fish.

Linked? No, quoted, yes. Again merely a question, No need to abuse the CAPS LOCK button either \"insert roll eyes smiley here\"

ok ... replace 'linked' with 'quoted'... it still reads the same..

you assumed, the dyed fish where in petstop Cork.

you assumed wrong.

Can we leave it there please, so far everyone is in agreement, we do not want dyed fish imported or sold fullstop. How we deal with them when they are is for another time.

The rules Anthony quoted are not finalised and when they are they will be posted.

totally agree with Darragh on this one.
I don't know how Dave jumped the gun that my conversation with a rep was about dyed fish. I never suggested it and I have no idea how Dave could have jumped to the conclusion that I argued about dyed fish. If you want a cheap slagging match, please have it somewhere else. Fair play to Petstop for opening a shop in Cork. Every decent shop is welcome and once the selection of fish grows I am sure to put some business their way. Dave, Aquatic Village 3 in Cork would be nice .

Anyway, this thread is about dyed fish and that they shouldn't be sold. And on that I think we can all agree. The question is how it can be achieved nationwide and any constructive suggestions are welcome.

Holger

apistodiscus wrote:

Dave, Aquatic Village 3 in Cork would be nice .

Time will tell Holger

anyway as you say, back on topic.

Look what i've started........

These rules sound excellent. Great work being done behind the scenes as usual. Good stuff lads.

Dave wrote:

As regards making fish illegal, prime example is weather loach, there illegal but still stocked. What makes you think banning dyed fish will be any different.

Just want to correct this in case anyone is worried that they have illegal fish.
The weather loach which is banned is Misgurnus fossilis. The one that is in most if not all shops is Misgurnus anguillicaudatus which is from China as opposed to Europe and is actually considered a warm water fish.