what do you do with bad fish

[nalah]

by bad,not just talking of runts here. but the ones the turn out butt-ugly.

for the big breeders,one fish less may not be much,but to a small time hobbiest,its lost money.
you can't kill it caus its sort of a pet now. cant give it away,no one in their right mind would want it.

i have a couple of runts - but as least they're cute. this one discus (should i really be calling it that)is just really ugly.
its like putting brad pitt next to danny devito. (danny is not ugly mind you)
this fish looks like a fat egg with fins....LOL.

please help.

[fcdiscus]

Pascale- If it is a pet now- just keep taking care of it. Easy one, pal. Frank :D

[oodi]

Pascale,

You didn't say how old this fish was. We have one that was nice looking at the lfs... and butt ugly under the lighting in our tank. But guess what... it grew up to be really pretty!!! Or at least I think so. Don't give up on that poor ugly fish just yet! ;)

Judi

[Jeff]

Trade it back to the lfs. They can sell anything.

[nalah]

didn't get him from lfs...
he was about 1.5" when i got him..now,he's about 3" ..grew real fast.

[fcdiscus]

Yeah Pascale- that fish is really ugly. But I ain't no beauty either, and my wife loves me! Frank 8)

[April]

Still.....trade it in at the petshop. either that...or you wont have room for other fish. unless you get that new tank smuggled in!!
if he didnt come from the lfs..where did he come from?

[nalah]

April - new tank is coming in either way...

Frank - you're not much help..LOL

Judi - do you honestly think this ugly duckling will turn into a swan...LOL

the way i'm going,i will need a 100 gal tank just for the rejects...

trade him back to the LFS, just call around, and see who will give you the best price for a _" discus....don't tell them it's ugly, cuz they won't know the difference anyway. They they'll give u store credit and you can get food or something.
Brad

Culls should not be sold or given away. By trading that fish into the pet store you are just passing the buck on to someone else that may not know any better.

Mike

Keep them. they come in handy when you want to try something new. Experiments like meds, food. water parameters. I have one that have survived anything I've tried. Even in Room Temp. at 65 degree at night for a month. She was fine but developed HOLE ON THE HEAD. She finally became the best foster parents and the head of my discus breeding school.An excellent trainer for most of my males. She was able to control their moves at spawning.

Jimmy.

[DarkDiscus]

Pascale,

You could have a "reject tank." Keep your ugly fish, stunted fish and reject fish in there for use later.

It would also be a curiousity piece and should get a laugh or two...

John

[April]

yeah...mikes right....dont trade it back to the lfs. besides..it might not get a home where its looked after anyhow.or..it will and it will get bred..and have manymany more around town looking just like pa.
keep it in a reject tank...and then get a nice new tank for some nice new discus from a breeder. stay away from the lfs...and dont rescue every discus you see. there will be many more that are sick. youve rescued enough.

[keno]

I agree with Mike, dont pass the buc on to someone else, I wouldnt want to be a newbie and buy that fish from a lfs only to learn later that it was a cull, feeling i was ripped off.

Ken

[John_Nicholson]

I agree with Mike. I think you either need to keep it forever or just kill it. Personally I would kill it.

-john

[EthanCote.com]

Killing is sorta cruel won't u say?

If this is a hobby and a labour of love, then I imagine you would want to nurse it and keep it as healthy as possible.

I'm sure you are in it for the hobby and not for the money, if it was for the money, you would have stop spending it on Discus way way long ago (since I know how expensive they can be), so do what your heart say and keep it and give it some TLC.

He is not ugly just has character ;D oh, and a face only a mother could love ;D ;D


Cheers,

Chi.

[roger]

Only 1 thing to say about that fish
:puke:

On the other hand though I think keeping it around is probably a good thing. There is always a need for runts or fish you dont mind loosing. Prime example is having someone to put into the qt tank to make sure the new arivals arent ill.

I think the LFS idea makes sense as far as money goes, but the ethics behind it would make me keep him just to prevent the BFU gene from getting passed on.

[Flexy]

I would feed it to my cat. He he. Joking. I don't have a cat.

[mench]

I can't just throw away the ones that turn out bad....I keep a tank of the so called rejects,runts,guys with missing parts of fins etc....I use them for test fish when ever I get new fish or they go into the new tanks to see if they are ok...in fact I finally got my new room to the point that I filled up four tanks and most likley some of the little guys are going to be moving to the new tanks tomorrow,then I can get the rest of the tanks and fish moved.So keep the ugly ones.....we can't all be movie stars......

Mench

[nalah]

some interesting comments...LOL
just for the record,he comes from an RSG breeder...mmmm! when i got him,he looked normal.he just grew that way.

I started this thread to see what the rest of you do with rejects.... must say... glad I'm not a runt in your tanks...
;)

I have a runt also.
Somehow I like that little guy, find myself sometimes looking out for him a bit more then the others.
For us not breeders I guess it's a pet.
I thought about getting rid of him but had the same thought’s as Mike. Killing him because he is ugly? Boy I could kill all day and never get rid of ugliness in the world.
I just keep the bugger and take care of him.

Ronald

[scottwheels]

Hi Pascale! My stunted runty deformed discus is uglier than yours!!! LOL Our old fuji red is a sorry specimen, but full 'o' character! That fish of yours has got lovely colour and pattering in the pic (Doesn't look like an RSG tho!) I'm still in the newbie stage, and I take the good with the bad. I have a number of "undesirable" discus, but I don't cull them because looking at them reminds me of what not to look for, and of my mistakes in selecting fish. What can I say, Ari and I hand picked all our discus, so I can't blame anyone else! We're newbies, so go easy on yourself (and your fish!!) ;D ;D ;D I agree in principle with what Mike is saying, that bad quality fish shouldn't be traded, and for a breeder, thats the cardinal rule (or was it the neon tetra rule? LOL, fish jokes LOL) Sorry... anyway unless you've got serious tank real estate shortages, what's the harm in keeping him? (Unless you plan to breed them... but most hobbyists don't start out that way). Enjoy your discus!

Cheers, Scott

Give them to a discus newbie that knows they are not good quality fish but who wants some to practice taking care of until they get the hang of it. This way if something goes wrong, as it often will, they won't lose their money in the beginning and just give up on discus forever. That's how I got started....

Good point bradnc

Ronald

[saints27]

Pascale,
When I first started which wasnt that long ago I bought a heap of discus and i thought they were fantastic ,Ive since learnt that some of them are the wrong shape (more like javelins than discus) have half gill plates and so on ,so quite simply I just keep them and wont breed with them.

I decided that I wasnt happy with paying good money for discus that are just other peoples rejects so as a result I will only sell quality fish .Someone said to me just sell them to the LFS or the wholesaler but once again someone else pays good money for my rejects.

just my opinion
Jamie

What we need is some retired rich movie actress that will set up a home for unwanted discus. Get them neutered, then let them live out their days in peace.
We can watch for pictures of our discarded discus when Animal Planet does a special on it. Sharon Stone Discus Rescue.

[nalah]

I'm the one that bought and paid for a discus with a damaged eye...felt sorry for him. so there's no way i could kill this one off.
He's here to stay....

[korbi_doc]

:bounce2: :bounce2: I'm with Bradnc. Great idea!! Wish I had that option when I started. I have several that you would consider stunted, had 2 very small culls, but they gave up, probably had genetic defects. lol Dottie ;D ;D

Do what you got to do. But from my limited experience, runts/culls are nothing but trouble. The reason they are this way is because they are not healthy due to many reasons. They get illnesses much easier and treatment is usualy longer than healthy fish. Why take a chance with a runt/cull to spread or harbor diseases? Why sell it or give it away to spread sickness to others?

"OFF WITH HIS HEAD!"

[BLUEKNIGHT]

I usually give fish like those to my cousin or freinds they are not breeders but keep fish for fun. and to them a fish like that is big. and plus they dont breed it either so i dont have to worry. ;D

[keno]

I have 2 runts now, both have trouble finding food, they have very bad aim when trying to hit the food, so they never got the amount of food the others did, I keep them in the tanks to show off my really big fishes.


Ken