I just went to the Shedd aquarium in chicago, and I was astounded to see the terrible condition of the oscars they had. I couldn't see a single oscar without HITH. Most of the other oscar bore large scars and scraches, and the fact that they were being kept with piranhas probably didn't help. The tanks were, however very large(like 5000) gallons...but they were unbeleivabley dirty. I swear these guys don't give a **** about they flippin' fish!

All of the aquatic centres in the area I live keep their tanks in tip top condition. It only makes sense to make sure that what your customers are looking looks clean and healthy. I certainly wouldn't purchase anything from a tank that wasn't looked after properly.

Regarding the Oscars, unfortunately, many people buy Oscars and don't look after them properly which is why they get hole in the head disease. I don't think it's the fault of the shops, they probably already have the disease when people bring bring them in. I expect that many people buy Oscars when they are very young and then realise they can't cope with them when they grow very big, that's why you see so many of them in the shops.

A friend of mine works in a local fish shop and he says they get people bringing oscars back. They either cant handle them cause they get too big for the tank at home or they get where they cant be bothered with the maintenance. Either way a lot of the times they come back with HITH. I wouldnt blame a LFS for having osacars with HITH but dirty and unclean tanks I would blame them. As for putting oscars with piranas that is madness

The Shedd Aquarium isn't a fish shop. It's the largest public aquarium in the midwest. It's run by serious professionals. maybe their specimens aren't as nice as you could keep in your own home aquarium. I've never been there, always wanted to go though. If I get the chance I'll schmooze my way into talking to some of the pros there to see what's up. I'm going to try to get there for my b-day this september.

A public aquarium that keeps oscars with piranas. Who is running that place!

Sometimes it is shocking the way people treat wonders of the nature - maybe we must start a separate division here where we report places which neglect especially fish - people tend to think "ya well, only fish..." and they don't realise the damage that they do. Its the same with this fish-painting thing - it is shocking, disgusting and totally unacceptable. What about a gap for publishing those names? But regarding the HITH, the oscar I took from the petshop was also brought in by people who just didn't care enough to know what they were doing... I'm considering an "information campaign" at petshops very shortly...

Not trying to play the Devil's Advocate here but...

First, Public Aquariums keep Bull Sharks with shoaling fish all the time will little incident and no one ever bats an eye. When your job is caring for fish you've got a whole other understanding of what's going on than the average fishkeeper. Also, one of the functions of a public aquarium is fish rescue and rehabilitation. So you can't jump to the conclusion the The Shedd does a poor job of maintaining their livestock. They have afterall been doing it at very long time.

Secondly, injecting fish doesn't hurt them. All farm raised food fish in the United States are immunized by injection. They are sedated and shot. This protects you from getting Strep from your fishsticks! They do this early on in the fish's life too. The entire process was on "Dirty Jobs" recently on the Discovery Channel.

Now, I'm not about to say that injecting dye into the fish is ok. The dye itself isn't harmless. Painted fish get fuzzy and live short lives. We can all agrees that this is frivilous and harmful.

Let's just not get to carried away bashing people on here. Take a deep breath and relax. I love this site because of the wealth of information and experience it offers about fishkeeping. Turning it into someone's misinformed soapbox would be an awful shame.