Cyanide collected fish?
- Thread starter Fishfreak2009
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Fishfreak2009
Follow Your Passions!
Honestly how many thousands do wholesalers lose in fish from cyanide? Maybe more of them should test for thiocyanate? Although it won't help in cases like my fish, which shipped directly from the collector in Bali to the LFS where I bought this regal. No middle man...
Looking back at it, $35 is a steal of a deal, and is probably why the LFS used a direct collector to offer those cheap black Friday deals. At least the 6" Maldivian yellow belly male I picked up the same day is doing great! Only eats oyster, clam, and live sponge, but he's fat and pigs out on it.
Looking back at it, $35 is a steal of a deal, and is probably why the LFS used a direct collector to offer those cheap black Friday deals. At least the 6" Maldivian yellow belly male I picked up the same day is doing great! Only eats oyster, clam, and live sponge, but he's fat and pigs out on it.
klp
Active Member
I thought, based on articles years ago, that wholesalers were discontinuing doing business with anyone found guilty of catching fish with cyanide. I guess the catching is not there if you do not look for it... If there were a way to send dead fish back to retailers for examination or wholesalers do random testing for thiocyanate we could stop this. We need someone to lead the charge. Any group stepping forward?
klp
Active Member
Read the article. If the Feds get involved you will see restrictions on types of fish being imported, availability due to bans by the Feds will be the order of the day. Remember there is a ban ANY reef fish or invertebrate movement to save the reefs. It is logical that the EPA will eventually take over and control in a way we don't want. If we do not self police then the fish may hit the fan.
That really needs to take place at the wholesale level, where testing for thiocyanate could be done in the shipping bag water. However, the reality is most of them are just fish flippers so they don't really care. By the time problems arise, the fish has made its way to the LFS or hobbyist.
klp
Active Member
R2R and others could band together publishing which wholesalers test and which don't. Presumably none do today but put them on the list anyway. We can then find out if our source whoever it is buys from there. A move has to start somewhere and what better place to start then here? When retailers start getting requests for information and start losing business as a result it will change. Can do?
Lionfish Lair
Renee
Just to add... They've been testing allicin in the treatment of cyanide poisoning.
Lionfish Lair
Renee
I don't have links, but when I get home I'll send some "stuff" your way. 
It's being looked at in aquaculture, not because of collection practices, but because of pollution in water.
It's being looked at in aquaculture, not because of collection practices, but because of pollution in water.
Lionfish Lair
Renee
The studies I have aren't available online. I have a folder on my computer at home with articles, as I was researching it at one point for our fish business. I'm out of the country until the end of Jan and it seems I messed up my Dropbox
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klp
Active Member
Still working on something or did I miss it?
BTW a symptom we used to believe was cyanide poisoning was that the fish ate at the LFS, seemed normal in every way at home for a short time including eating well and swimming well out in the open. One day soon they stop eating but seem normal other than that. They seem interested in the food but never eat. When they die it's with a concave belly from apparent starvation with no other symptoms present. We always attributed that to cyanide poisoning.
mkutsch
Well-Known Member
It's kinda funny. Yesterday I was in a Petco-I know, taboo, right?-getting some frozen plankton, when I meandered towards the SW live fish. I found two Six Lines with, as klp said, a starved belly, and another one floating at the surface. Conveniently, an employee passed me and I flagged him down, and asked him where they got these fish. His hesitant reply was, "Uh, wild caught...?" followed by, "Wait a sec, captive bred!" Somehow I find myself doubting this. Of course, it doesn't totally mean that the culprit was cyanide capture. I suppose it might possibly, just possibly, have to do with all the other hundreds of problems in such stores with their livestock.
klp
Active Member
Garlic is has been used to remove heavy metals such as lead from the human body using natural methods for years. It might work with fish as well with other poisons such as cyanide IF you can get them eating whatever contains enough garlic to make a difference. I wonder if a little was added to the water could they absorb it through the gills etc. and at what dosage? That leads to the next step of how to take the cyanide out of the tank when excreted. Water changes I would assume but how to know how often and when? Another reason to quarantine with smaller tanks which would lead to less saltwater $$ used to do the changes. A lot of research needs to be done it would seem. It would be easier to test first and refuse to buy from those that used cyanide.
Make sure where your LFS buys their fish. A distributor to watch for is Quality Marine they have their own collectors and do not deal in cyanide fish. Many smaller distributors can not be counted on to not have cyanide fish in their stock as they get from many different sources.
