dilemma about marine care - input appreciated

[Kristy]

Well, I am still up here working in Kansas and find myself grappling with a dilemma about the appropriate care of some saltwater fish. As I consider my options, I wondered what my brothers and sisters of MAAST would do / have done in similar situations.

There is a HUGE theme restaurant called T-Rex (www.trexcafe.com) at a mall here that is sort of similar to Rain Forest Cafe, but dinosaur themed, and has a bit of a focus on marine life with four (or maybe it was five?) of the largest saltwater systems that I have seen outside of the Georgia State aquarium in Atlanta. I would speculate the largest one at over 2000 gallons with the next two being almost as big, all FO tanks. They had ~ 300+ saltwater fish in these tanks, lots of huge tangs with some lookdowns, some triggers, puffers, a few clowns, etc, etc. The biggest tank was larger than the ones at Kona Grill or Bass Pro Shop in SA.

This place had at least 50, probably more like 75 blue hippo tangs and I think every single one of them had HLLE disease. The yellow and purple tangs also seemed to all be suffering from the same, with one of the purple tangs looking absolutely scary with pockets of flesh missing around its face. It was so alarming and depressing in this absolutely beautiful system. All the many other tangs (vlamingi, sailfin, unicorn, sohal) looked to be in great health.

I asked for the name and number of T-Rex staff person who cares for the tanks and received this info. (He was not there at the time of my visit).

Do you think I should direct a comment to general management, ask some questions / make suggestions / attempt to educate the guy in charge of the tanks, send an email to the website, or what? Even if they just look at it as a financial issue, they should be motivated to correct this because there must be tens of thousands minimum invested in those systems. What approach have you guys taken when you find a situation like this one?

[OrionN]

The only way to improve their care is more water change, better feeding and remove many of them. I think this will need involvement of the management staff, so I would think you should talk to them first. If they are not amenable to take better care of the fish, you may possibly hinting that you may:
-write to the local newspaper
-inform some animal right group
-....

FWIW, even at the Dallas Aquarium, the fish in some of the display tank are sick with deformed fins and HILLE.

[ballardjr2000]

i suggest talking to the care guy like orion mentioned the care of the fish should be important as well better looking tanks more customers more $$$ they can make i would rather go to a theme resturant over and over for awesome looking tanks than sad sick dieing fish.

[JimD]

Unfortunately, theres probably not much you can do.... Most 'public' tanks like the ones in some restaurants are there for the 'wow' factor, Mommy, can we go eat at the place that has the cool fish? Yes darling, you get the idea. They probably pay a minimun for tank upkeep and have no problem simply replacing the fish with another from a wholesaler when it dies. Dont get me wrong, Ive been in eateries and even hotels that sported beutifly kept aquariums. Just not the norm, I say, make every attempt you can to try to educate.. Good luck and let us know how it goes...

[OrionN]

The majority of the people would not know a sick fish from a healthy one. Just blue and yellow fish swimming around. They would not know that the fins rot off with bloody stump is abnormal, just the one that is dead and not moving. They think HILLE is just normal.

[Kristy]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. The idea of mentioning taking it to the press or the animal rights activists had not occurred to me. I would probably try to avoid that tactic, but you never know.

I understand the point that there may be SOME fish with HLLE in a public aquarium, for a variety of reasons, but this one it was truly ALL of them (of the more susceptible species). I was really upset by it and felt I had to get involved. The guy does not work again until Tuesday morning, so I will try to give him a call then.

Anyone ever try to handle anything like this before? Just curious...