No wendy, i'm not done blogging, i just moved and also didn't find anything quite worth posting for a while .  However, today ended that.  This might not be so shocking for everyone, but being that fishtanks are my livelyhood and passion, this made me (and apparently all those that emailed me) sick.  Tetra (tetra-fin tetra-aqua tetra-health tetra-fauna tetra-tech etc) is one of the leading aquarium supply companies today.  Their foods still haven't been beaten, and their chemicials are the best on the freshwater market.  Marineland has royally kicked their asses in the equipment sector, but good old german imported tetra chemicials still crowd my shelves and are all i trust for the tanks i maintain.  However, tetra has for whatever reason never touched the subject or marine tank care, nor are any of their products designed specificially for saltwater besides their new marine flakes.  Why, then, they would go on to CBS and set up a terrible marine setup i dont know.  My issue is that they, with their amazing reputation for fishkeeping expertise, went on TV and spread bad information to people with little knowledge of aquatics who may find it acceptable simply because, well, tetra did it.

I realise that might sound dumb, but people really assume that because they saw it done somewhere it is ethical.  Case in point, one of my jobs and a little under half of my income comes from working at petsmart, and when i am selling a fish that gets, say, 13 inches long, I tell people that it needs at least a 55 gallon tank.  However, they think it is all fine and well to keep it in a 10 gallon tank because that is the size of the retail display tank they are temporarily located in in the store is.  Oh, i do so love talking to customers, they never seem to listen .

Yeah, so anyway, what inspired tetra to do this setup on CBS is completely beyond me.  Let me list a few of the very fundamental errors they made:

• They added too many fish at once, which would lead to a toxic ammonia spike and kill the fish
• They added seahorses, which need a very different setup from the seven gallon tank (they require a minimum of 30) that was shown
• The tang that was added required a tank much larger than 30 gallons
• The starfish SHOULD NOT have been touched like that, toxins on our hands through hand lotions etc are absorbed through their skins

I'll leave it at that because I could rant on and on about this issue.  Basicially, tetra should be advocating responsible fishkeeping.  Although I will continue to trust tetras products, my respect for them as a company dropped significantly.  Ugh, if i ever handled a tank like that i would loose that client forever haha.

If anyone wants to view the clip, just click here!