Thread: I think my fish is dying

Originally Posted by Cryptic

I'm not a member of PETA. They're extremist motherfuckers that make anyone who supports animal rights look like a raving psycho. I don't think everyone should convert to vegetarianism. I'm not vegan - I eat cheese, eggs, honey, milk, etc. I actually support animal testing as long as it's done ethically with regard to the animal's wellbeing during it's time as a test subject, even if that ends in euthansia, because I understand drugs tested on animals have saved the lives of people I care for. PETA nutbags don't THINK, they just follow. I could care less if people want to eat meat - it's just not right for me. However, I don't think any animal should be needlessly mistreated for any reason. And that includes not knowing how to take care of it. My question to you would then be why did you get the fish if it doesn't have value to you? It must have had SOME value or you wouldn't have purchased it in the first place.

As for "not valuing" fungi or plants, there's the little logistic issue of "I've got to eat something".

I still don't get how you can say he doesn't know how to treat it correctly, what he did seemed common sense to me. If I'm leaving my dog home for a night I give him a bigger feed before we leave, I don't go and research that it's just what I'd do seeming he wouldn't have food over night. Of course it has value to him he said in previous posts that the fish had a wonderful personality and was very active until this happened as soon as he got back and saw what had happened he did what he thought was right by cleaning the bowl etc... if he was not caring for the animal then he would have left it as is and the fish would probably be dead by now. Maybe it was his fault for putting that much food in but at the time that wasn't known and by the sounds of it they're doing all they can to reverse the cause and get him healthy again.

Not everybody is like you and will pay a shit load of money to fix their pet, my Aunty and Uncles dog has a really bad hip problem and the vet said that he'd deteriorate in 1 year and need to be put down unless they pay some rediculous amount like $5000 to have surgery, they don't have $5000 laying around so they've chosen to put him down, does that mean that they don't care or value their dog? before he had his hip problems they walked him every day he has his own kennel and gets fed well and is treated extremely well. I got a kitten fromt he shelter and he had kennel cough and had the best personality I ever had he was so cute when I hung a scrwed up bit of paper from the roof and he speant hours trying to catch it but I still couldn't afford to get the treatment so we decided to get him put down.

Originally Posted by Cryptic

Well I'm not saying Atmosfear intentionally abused his fish and I guess I could have come off as saying that. What I am saying is that if he had read about how to take care of it, or any fish, before he got it he would have known that overfeeding is like a huge no-no as far as fishkeeping is concerned. He didn't set out to do anything malicious, but still didn't care for the fish correctly so the bottom line is ultimately the same.

I see your point with the dog with the hip problem, especially if it's an older dog. I mean if my cat gets cancer at 16 years old I'm not going to put him through expensive and painful chemo to get what? Maybe another 2 years with him? Maybe? That would be senseless of me and cruel to him. Instead I'd just make him comfortable to the point where that would no longer be possible and then I'd put him down.

I don't agree with your choice for your kitten though. My cat only took $600 to cure because he'd had it for about 2 months and it was so entrenched in his lungs and sinuses that he failed 3 antibiotics, so there was no choice but to megadose him IV style at the vets. Your kitten would have likely been cured by a $60 vet visit and $15 or so of antibiotics. I guess I can't know that for sure but it seems to me like he would have been worth $75 or so. Especially since, once cured and barring anything else unexpected, you could have had 15 or so good years with him. That's what I mean in how much or how little you value something.

And believe it or not I do understand the "it's just a $5 fish" argument to a point. Seriously if it gets cancer or something, just get a new fish. I have fish too and I fully realize that while I like my fish and even have a favorite angelfish that I've had for 8 years or so and have gotten pretty attached to, I'm not as attached to my fish as I am to my cat. There are degrees of value, at least to me, I just personally see no reason for not knowing how to care for any living thing and having it pay the consequences in the end.

Their dog is about 2 years old and the breed he is live to about 12 years (their side of the family have a lot of that breed and that's what they've said anyway) so they could have gotten 10 years more life out of him but they just can't afford, they've had fliers up advertising that he can have 10 years left if somebody is willing to pay for his surgery but nobody will come upto the offer because why would one do that when they can go to the shelter and choose a perfectly good dog for free?

I'm not sure exactly how long my kitten had had it for or anything but after having a long talk with the vet he said the best idea (because I was a student at the time I only had an after school job) was to put him down.

This is pretty much a case of what's done is done and we should be more concerned about finding a way to reverse the outcomes, there's no point in arguing wether he treated it correctly or incorrectly because whilse we're arguing we could be searching for something to help his fish.