hormone injections

Good Morning Prof

What is your opinion regarding hormone injections to fish? I know of a fish farmer who does it to his goldfishes

Thanks

Nick van der Berg

 

Hi Nick,

Which hormones are we talking about?

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Dirk i would have to guess its breeding hormones.

 

For mass producing of fish & to keep your business afloat, I don't see a problem following injecting breeding hormones.

Injecting fish with color/dye however is something I don't subscribe to.

 

Hi prof

I was refering to hormones for breeding purposes.

Thanks

Nick van der Berg

 

If you take care of your fish and make sure that their water condition is precise you will not have to inject your fish with any hormone. In my opinion it's cruel, just like puppy mills to do this?

Inject the fish for your benefit. They will not have a long lifespan if they are only there to produce offspring.

But that is just my opinion.

 

dont you put this stuff in there food??

 

Hi Nick,

Ok, this is my opinion on the matter and you will see that it is not quite in agreement with what solex69 has written.

Many hormones are used in fishkeeping. Steriods are used for sex changes of Malawi cichlids and for induction of brilliant blue colours in young discus. Then gonadotropins are used to induce spawning. These are based on gonadotropin releasing hormone, also know as GnRH, which is a peptide hormone. Finally, there are red colourants added to foods based on the xanthins, cathaxanthin and astaxanthin, which are often confused with hormones, but which are not hormones and do not pose a threat to fishes. I am writing this all just so that this discussion is complete.

Steriods such as testosterone or dihydrotestosterone which is added to food or the water for sex changes of Malawis and for colour formation in discus, has side effects in that the potential breeding of these fishes is permanently negatively influenced. Male discus are sterilized by this treatment and although they will when adult go through the motions of fertilizing they are often permanently infertile. I am against this because this makes the fish that you buy sterile and you are therefore being sold a dud, you could complain about a machine that you buy that does not work, but how can you complain about a fish two years after you have bought him that does not fertilize the eggs? The users of these hormones know this and you are therefore a sitting duck. As a result of this I am opposed to the used of steriods, but I am also in principle opposed to this because it causes damage to the fishes and shortens their lives, that we also know.

On the injection or feeding of GnRH hormones to induce spawning, I am also against this because this is not natural. We do not know if fishes are permanently influenced by this treatment, but in my opinion, I believe that they are. I will never use these hormones on my fishes because the injection causes pain and stress and also the effects can be detrimental. I also believe that the use of these hormones can have permanent effects on the reproductive ability of fishes. I am conservative and believe that you should keep fishes under such good conditions that they will spawn naturally without the addition of hormones, but this is my personal opinion. Some breeders may be forced to use these hormones to induce their fishes to spawn in order to keep their business viable, but that is their decision. Specifically on goldfish my opinion is that goldfish have been so unnaturally bred into the most weird and abnormal shapes and sizes with which I actually also have a serious issue, so whether you breed them with hormones or not most probably does not matter very much any longer, their whole reproduction has been so modified over the years of cultivation that they are totally abnormal in any case. However, if you told me that you wanted to use these hormones on wildcaught fishes, then I would have a problem with that.

So this is my opinion on the matter for what it is worth.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi Prof

Thanks for the info. I breed my fishes under normal conditions and thought that it is cruel to do hormone injections but was not 100% sure about this topic.

Thanks

Nick van der Berg