Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.

Click here to visit Classifieds
Click for ZooMed
Click for 65% off Shipping with Reptiles 2 You

Tattooed snakes?

STEVES_KIKI Mar 13, 2008 03:12 AM

I was looking through ebay looking at live fish for bid when i came across tattooed fish. these poor things had been tattooed with hearts, spots, stripes, some even saying "I LOVE YOU". This is supposedly not cruelty to animals b/c "they are just fish" and fish have been injected with color dye since the 1980's. But what if it was a snake? Makes me wonder what's next? Tattooed snakes? People just saying "oh, its JUST a snake!". Does anyone see the harm in this other than me? look at the poor thing yourself.... This is not my fish- i just copied from the internet
?

~kin
-----
~Sober Serpents~
Corns, Creamsicles, A Black Rat, Thayeri, Cal Kings, A Jungle Corn(Just A Pet), A Bearded dragon, Leopard Geckos, Green Anoles, a Snapping turtle, and a white cheeked mud turtle

Replies (9)

APLAXAR Mar 13, 2008 08:29 AM

Hey,

I work in the pet indusrty, and those types of fish are one of the stupidest human ideas to ever cross a mind. As a store we take a stand against all tattooed and dyed/injected fish, we wont carry them and we wont special order them for anyone. There are many techniques to dying/injecting fish with color, all of them very cruel.

Tattooing of a fish is self explaining, a machine that sends a needle with ink in and out of the skin a hundreds of times per second, I have plenty of tattoos personally and not a single one felt "good" to get, they all were uncomfortable, and sometimes painful.

Injecting, a needle with ink or dye is injected into the begining of the spine and the tail end of the spine, to create a fish with a shocking streak of color, too bad the color usually wears out in a few months, but that is of course only, if the fish lives through it, injecting weakens any fish subjected to it, good luck having them live more that 6 months.

And then Dying of fish. get a big old bucket of water mixed with dye, and leave the fish in it for alittle while, when they come out they will be green, purple, blue, and Pink. or you can just buy fish with that color naturally.............

There is a new type of fish on the market called GloFish Danios, they are a Zebra Danio that when they are in the egg stage of their lives they are genetically engeniered with jelly fish genetics, and i beleive also some have a type of coral genetic also to get different colors. so far there has been no indication only any cruelty in that practice, and the Zebra danio is one of the hardiest freshwater fish there are. This engenering hasnt seemed to cause them any problems as far as health or longevity. And actually now when bred together their genetics are breeding true. That part i find very interesting.

Any dyed/injected/tattooed fish are just wrong in my book, if people stop buying them people will stop making them, simple as that.
-----
Positive Thoughts Equal Positive Results

sean1976 Mar 13, 2008 11:53 AM

I was wondering when the GloFish would hit the market. I first heard about them about a year or two ago in an article about how they had been engineered for detecting pollutants in water. I believe at the time they were only working with the coral gened danio's but I may be mistaken. The original emngineering was to have a fish that flouresced or changed color in the presence of contaminated water. My understanding from the article was they were already being bred and used for water treatment facilities. Of course even then there was lots of speculation about a jump to the pet trade since they looked interesting and bred true.

Sean.
-----
1.1 BRB
1.1 Triple Het TPRS's
0.1 Silver TPRS
1.1 Amel Bloodred Corns
0.1 Abbott Okeetee Corn
0.1 Blizzard Bloodred Corn
1.1 Thayeri Kingsnakes
0.1 Reeve's Turtle
0.2 Amstaff's
1.0 Pudytat

FunkyRes Mar 13, 2008 08:48 PM

I seem to recall them being banned in California - you have to go to nevada to buy one if you want one.
-----
I decided my old sig was too big.

STEVES_KIKI Mar 13, 2008 11:48 PM

They sell tons at our local Petco in different colors
-Kin
-----
~Sober Serpents~
Corns, Creamsicles, A Black Rat, Thayeri, Cal Kings, A Jungle Corn(Just A Pet), A Bearded dragon, Leopard Geckos, Green Anoles, a Snapping turtle, and a white cheeked mud turtle

goregrind Mar 14, 2008 05:01 AM

i got one for free because it had a kink, i fed it to my garter
-----
jake barney
1.1 ball pythons
0.2 corns
1.0 cal king
0.0.1 wc garter
1.o cb son

Clydesdale Mar 14, 2008 12:01 PM

I've seen those "glofish" in the pet store. In my opinion, they don't glow. They have a tint of orange. Whooptie doo. Make a fish that lights up my room and I'll be impressed.

goregrind Mar 15, 2008 11:13 AM

i think ive seen some in other colors like green and yellow

maybe they could throw in lightning bug dna?
-----
jake barney
1.1 ball pythons
0.2 corns
1.0 cal king
0.0.1 wc garter
1.o cb son

Orocosos Mar 13, 2008 12:07 PM

I've never heard of that before, but I wouldn't do it. I'd be afraid of the potential infections, etc. that might come with it. However, I must admit, I would find it funny to take a black sharpie and draw on my Cal king. Connect the bands. LOL

Rivets55 Mar 13, 2008 02:37 PM

Tattoos are used in agriculture and wildlife research for identification purposes. Horses, cattle and other livestock are routinely tattooed for ID purposes, and to discourage rustling (yes it still happens). Many species of wild large and small mammels are tattooed for research purposes by wildlife biologists. Dogs and cats are tattooed by their owners for similar reasons.

Identification of individual snakes in the field has always been problematic for field researchers...besides the clipping of ventral scales, tattooing has been proposed for permanently marking wild snakes. There is some doubt that tattoos would be permanent on snakes, given their habit of repeatedly shedding! This also tends to repair any clipped scales. The most effective current technique is the implantation of radio tracking devices. What could be more invasive than that?

Identification of captive snakes is just as fraught with pitfalls...hence tha recent move towards "PIT Tagging". This is certainly as invasive as tattooing, but perhaps less painful. I can envision Big Brother requiring tattooing of captive animals, including snakes, as yet another attempt to protect us Sheeple from ourselves.

So, ID tatooing of animals is here to stay. Personaly, I can not envision vanity tattooing of any of my animals. As for my own epidermis, I faint at the sight of blood, so not for me, Thank You.

Regards,

John D

-----
I am so not lesdysxic!

0.1 Creamsicle Cornsake
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake
0.1 Desert Kingsnake
1.1 Eastern Kingsnakes

Site Tools