Stop the Sales of Painted Glassfish in South Africa

A regular import to pet stores around the country is the Glassfish, a small species of tropical fish from Asia.

Normally, this species is popular in the aquarium trade due to the fact that the body is see-through, allowing one to see the internal structure of the fish. However, some people are using these fish as objects of display, injecting their muscles with dyes to produce a more colourful form of the fish in order to try and boost sales. These are commonly known as 'Disco Fish' or 'Painted Glassfish'.

This is an extremely dangerous procedure for the fish - many die during the process, while others are more susceptible to infection and disease. The colours normally fade after some period of time.

In order to dye the fish, they are first placed in an acid bath in order to remove their protective slime coating, where they are then taken and injected with a fluorescent dye using a hypodermic needle. Due to their very small size, this is a traumatic experience to them. It is said that it can compared to a person sticking a pencil into you. This is obviously animal cruelty.

After this process, as said before, many fish die, otherwise they become likely to fall victim to disease, most commonly lymphocystis, which results in cauliflower-like growths appearing all over the body, and can occur internally as well.

Please sign this petition in order to stop the import of such mistreated glassfish into the country, so that it can be clearly understood that this is an act of animal cruelty, and that nobody is intetested in funding such cruel ventures.