Tropical Fish Keeping UK

You bring a new fish home, is it safe and healthy to go into your tank? How do you prevent an expensive mistake?

BBC Earths' new video on the Impact of Keeping Exotic Fish, under the Dan O'Neill Investigates banner sets out to make fish keeping sound like a dark web trade that is driving species to extinction. Can you imagine my response, well imagine no longer as here are my thoughts, I got a little angry at the end.

Should we all be buying captive-bred fish, or should we be putting wild caught into our tanks? Are we driving fish to extinction, or is captive farms industrial nightmares for fish? The topic isn't straightforward and it is contentious, and as ever I have my opinions.

Are fish considered lucky? What stories do we tell. I couldn't resist heading towards Loch Ness to discuss the fish of legend.

Sorry for the depressing topic, but a bad news day got me thinking. How many people have a plan in case the worst should happen. What happens to your fish if suddenly you can't be there for them.

It's getting expensive in all walks of life, and fish keeping is no exception, here are 5 areas to look at to save money, avoiding buying things you don't need, and wasting money on false economy.

It's not as easy as buying a pot of flake and sprinkling in as much as they will eat in 3 minutes any more.

But how far will we go in terms of welfare and care, what will we think of our care in another 50 years. A quick look at where fish keeping started, and where we are today.

In 2003 the Tequila Splitfin was extinct in the wild, but since then a team at Michoacán University of Mexico, with brood stock from Chester Zoo, and help from their team, have reintroduced 1500 to springs in the Teuchitlán River in the state of Jalisco in south west Mexico. Against all the odds they seem to be thriving.

Want to support us and keep this podcast going?

https://www.patreon.com/tropicalfishkeepinguk

Every little helps, and I'm starting to up load the real rants over there ;)

Want to support freshwater conservation?

https://www.chesterzoo.org/news/preventing-extinction-in-mexico/

https://shoalconservation.org/

https://freshwaterlifeproject.org/

Neon tetras, evolved to confuse predators with their mirror silver sides, and to show off to others of their own kind with the stunning blue and red stripes. One of the prettiest fish you can imagine, but so often kept in conditions they haven't evolved in.

Normally susceptible to disease if you choose your stock carefully and keep them in the right conditions, you have a great fish.