Released Fish

[Tyler718]

Some people really can make you so mad. This is one of my major pet peeves.


HONG KONG (AP) -- A teenager found out the hard way that the fish were biting, indeed.

The boy reached into the water of a Hong Kong fountain hoping to scoop up a fish -- then was bitten by what turned out to be a piranha, officials said.

The 14-year-old boy required three stitches to his left index finger but was not seriously injured in the attack early Monday morning, Housing Authority spokeswoman May Tham said.

A cleaning crew drained the fountain and found two piranhas, apparently pets that had been abandoned in the fountain at a public housing project.

Ming Pao Daily News ran a photo of the dead piranhas and one of the boy, with his left hand in a sling and blood on his short pants.

Piranha Story

 

[OrionGirl]

The scary thing--released aquarium fish are showing up in the oceans as well as FW. Angels, butterflies, and tangs that are from the Indian ocean are being spotted regularly in Florida coastal waters--and there's a reasonable concern that they are establishing viable populations.

Never, ever, put anything living from your tank into a waterway--and this includes gutters that don't go through treatment plants. Plants, snails, and fish from aquariums can devastate native habitats. If you can't care for the animal any longer, find it a home or kill it. Killing it should be the last resort--but releasing the animal should not even be an option. As this happens more and more, there will be more and more restrictions on imports--just look at the snakehead issue.

 

[TKOS]

All of my aquarium plant clippings that are no good go right into the compost. Same with dead fish and snails etc...

 

[Lobo.]

can flushing a fish really introduce anything unnatural to the enviornment, i mean the fish is dead and any thing microscopic on it can only get processed at the sewage treatment plant.
dead fish forgotten in the trash or dead fish in the back yard is not a pleasing thought...

 

[Ruben Tolon]

Released exotics is a mjor threat, particularly in places like florida, where I've seen some of the following in the local canal...
oscars, midas cichlids, various tilapia species, jewel cichlids, and there are more, but thats a good cichlid list off the top of my head.

 

[RTR]

You over-estimate the capacity and ability of sewage processing - they do not remove everything by a long shot.

 

[FL Knifemaker]

I've caught Oscars in the canals south of Okeechobee. Then again we were out to catch Peacock Bass, another illegal alien fish. That's one I kind of like having around though. Not much we can do about it now anyway

 

[Max]

Lobo, look at it this way. The waste cleaning process is much easier /less caustic than the cleaning of water. If a fish can live through a cycle it has a good chance of making it through a sewage treatment plant. It's not just animals either non-native plants are taking large amounts of territory and our native animals have a hard time making a living from them. Ask anyone from the south about kudzu.

 

[Timmain42]

<ahem>

I hear fish make great fertilizer for flower beds. If you're going to get rid of the durn thing...

</ahem>

 

[125gJoe]

L.... Ask anyone from the south about kudzu.

And water hyacinths.. Love bugs are another "import".