Re: antibiotics -- Raise the Bar and Push the Lever

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

When Robert H mentioned $2 fish in a discussion about
chemical/medical treatment of sick fish, I said:

> wow,
> you can get fish for only $2?  I thought those days were
> gone for good.


Robert replied:
 
> Sure! Plain guppies, platties...whatever! 

I was serious about the $2/fish days being gone.  Fish cost
more than $2 were I live.  I will note that ocassionally,
the local CleverPet (not real store name) will have otos
for $1.99, but the conditions of the tanks in this
particular store, ironically enough for how this thread
started, tend to make me want to add some medical chems if
I add their fish to my tanks.  So I avoid the chems and the
fish from their.

I can see some relatively costly fish being worth the cost
of a vet visit -- for one example, a nice discus, and you
can think of others.  But I wonder if the trip to the vet
might be an additional stress at the worst time for the
sick fish: Vet: "well, what this fish has is called death. 
But it might have survived a mild case of Ich if you had
just left in the tank and improved water conditions."

So, I doubt that requiring prescriptions would be helpful
to aquarists.  But indiscriminate use of meds is hardly
helpful to aquarists and poses real problems for everyone
else.  

I wouldn't mind seeing much higher prices on retail size
packets of fish meds so that hobbyists might be more
discriminating with their use.  Surely it would depress
sales. But I think this would just raise the bar on how
costly a fish must be before you decide to push the toilet
lever rather than buy meds.  Attenuating the problem rather
than really attacking the issues. hmmmmmm . . . .

Perhaps the most wholesome thing that can be done is to
spread the word about how good water conditions promote
good fish health and resistance to disease.

Scott H.

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