Please help, I cannot decide on my own.

thats the way nature works..

I used to feed my fighting fish some of the neons... I was hesitant till roger told me to go ahead and do it cause I'd get few chances to watch nature in action.

Feed them to the strong ones, put on 'Electric Ladyland' by Hendrix (which I suggested you listen to in another thread), relax, and accept that nature is both beauty and chaos all at once, and that is it's power. :cool:

It certainly is the work of nature, but some people have a hard time with different aspects of it.
Is your partner more of a fish are my personal pets type?
I was very upset with a partner once who bought white mice for the cat to hunt down. I had no problem with the field mice the cat got on its own but, that situation just really bothered me for some reason...I think it was buying them just to terrorize when the cat did fine on its own..I dont know.
I do have to say that even growing up in a home with an aquarium hobbyist (breeder) and seeing pure nature all the time in many shapes and forms, when I finally got fish on my own I had a hard time with the sick and/or dead fish. Sometimes it takes some time to adjust and/or adapt and sometimes its your own personal point of view on the situation.
Have you discussed the points your partner has what seems to be voiced to you about this?
If you cant come to an agreement or neutral ground perhaps you just shouldnt do it when your partner is around but, having discussed both of your opinions on it realizing how you both feel, it should at least be a better situation for both of you.

what, the toilet is better? And you can save money on food that way...

Just make sure the fish is definately on his way to eternal sleep before you throw him into the, er, lionfish den.

Roger said that?

Yup, with witnesses on the Realm while talking about Ronin. I figured if I go to hell for it you'll be there too. plus the requisite animal lovers didn't protest too much so I figured I'd evade the lightning for it.

I took a lot of heat for giving them vodka so I really don't recommend that (I'm actually quite ashamed of it).

Is it altogether wise to feed sick fish to well fish? (To avoid any ethical dilemmas)

If they are too sick the fish won't eat them. Remember teh story about the fish that was shunned by the school? Did I ever tell ya that one? They treated him like a freak just because he was falling apart.

Yes you did - it is now my standard nightmare way of thinking about the shunned and victimized kids I see. Makes my flesh creep.


But - how sick is "too sick"? Or how well is not really sick? I would have thought that, in aquaria, diseases were hard enough to control as is..

Re the ethical thing - I would feel the way your partner feels, Harmonic.

I do not think it is entirely rational - but it is how I would feel.

It is around having taken responsibility for creatures you have bought, or bred, and thus removed from a natural life.

Part of that responsibility seems, to me, to ensure their life is as good and comfortable as it can be. I am wondering how much they would suffer in the hunting? Clearly no more than fish in the wild do - but the rub, for me, is that we have already interfered with their lives - they are NOT in the wild.

The whole toilet thing sucks, though. If they cannot be killed humanely (and I have done this with a fish - it wasn't easy!!!) then I would think being eaten would be superior to the toilet!!!

Because of the symbolism of the toilet?

No! Just imagine being flushed down a toilet?

How long might they live - in filth and crap? Being carried along in a current of it....How would you like to drown in sewage?

Oh, well, if you give them enough vodka first, I'm sure I went for it.

Thing is, when i had to get rid of some fish before moving stateside you were positively furious at me for the way I killed them before flushing.

I admit that it was stupid and 'orrible but the situation is kinda 'orrible.

roger,

Having been stupid enough to give fish vodka I can tell you that it is something that can give you nightmares. I still consider it one of the worst things I have done.

I don't like the toilet idea either. That would be the last way I'd want to go.

You gave fish vodka? Why?

Craven - I was furious about the vodka, yes.

The toilet alone would have been a less cruel option.

Personally, I would have asked vet, or aquarium, advice re killing them painlessly.

The time I killed a fish - I won't say why, it was horrid - I put it in a glass of water, took it outside, prepared a HEAVY thing and whipped it out of the glass and smashed it before it could even wriggle.

I have done this with badly injured baby mice, too, when I was a kid - I couldn't bear them to suffer all the way to the vet's.

There's a little history behind that Montana. I have long maintained that it IS the way I want to go. Long story and I'll tell it one day.



Sigh, I was obscenely stupid. I had to get rid of them and it was during a time in which my buddy and I were drinking a bottle of vodka a day and the idea of putting them to sleep with alcohol came up. For some reason we thought the vodka would simply put the fish to sleep before we sent them on their way but we were very wrong.

Like I said, one of the worst things I have done and really too insipid to accurately explain.