A question raised by a recent article by Nathan Hill on PFK in response to the many threads/posts about people buying unsuitable fish - anyone got any views on this?

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=4272

Bring back the dog license first and make it a sensible amount and have it include microchipping.

And third party insurance as part of dog licence.

Start with tank busters perhaps?

Great article, it's nice to hear from the retailer's view point. I agree that a licence to keep fish would be totally impractical and would put off new fishkeepers.

What if shops had to follow certain guidelines like they have to recommend fishless cycling and they are not allowed to sell a fish and tank on the same day? What if they had a traffic light labelling system (like some shops have for community fish) that showed a fish's suitability for beginners?

I was in P@H (yeah, I know) the other week and saw that the sales assistant was filling in a little form with set questions for someone who was buying a fish. Something like that might work if the questions were the right ones and if the sales assistants knew what they were talking about. Also if it was standard practice to fill the form in before any fish were sold then you wouldn't get people giving it the "I've been keeping fish for years and I know what I'm doing" spiel.

The only problem I can see (and it's a biggie) is that people just can't agree on how fish should be kept. Things like tank size, water parameters, compatibility etc etc are so debatable. How would something like that be standardised?

The pets at home questionnaire, asks you how big your tank is, how long it has been set up, what other fish you have and if u have any live plants, also if u have a filter,if it is tropical coldwater etc and when u last added fish.

I agree with FF on this: it's completely unenforceable and similarly if we could get retailers to agree a code of practice with relevent questions, it still wouldn't work. There's the obvious issue of agreement on exactly what is suitable for any given species, but beyond that there's the question of species compatibility. It just wouldn't be practical to get customers to list all current occupants of the tank in question.

We know from bitter experience, too, that some people will adamantly ignore what the fish need and will simply lie to the shop concerned. They always believe they can stretch the rules or bend them so all it does is to some extent get the shops off the hook.

Realistically, how many are going to push this at the risk of reduced sales?

Then there are the eBay and other online sellers, not all of whom are reputable or responsible in terms of fish welfare.

I think the only thing that can be done is basic checking on whether a tank has been cycled and advice on doing so with all new tanks sold, plus guidlines teling new fish keepers to check the requirements of the species they want to keep before buying. That could include a requirement that at the very least the adult size, temperature and hard/soft water requirements are prominently displayed on all fish for sale.

Maybe there needs to be a restriction on the sale of the real tankbusters too? Perhaps some should simply not be available and the others available through licensed specialist suppliers with a legal obligation to check suitability of owners for these fish?

Great topic to discuss.

Impersonally believe all pets should have some kind of lisence, and if the waiting time puts people off then that's great. If people can't be bothered to wait for lisence then they sure as hell aren't gonna walk at dog at 5:30am or test tank water on a regular basis.

The Pets at Home questionnaire does make me laugh. It's easy to lie! I definately think some kind of info on tanks that fish are kept in (maybe even life-size photo to really put things into perspective?) is in order.

And certainly displaying the RSPCA guidelines on tank size?

Does anyone on here work for RSPCA out of interest? Would be interested to know if it is possible to prosecute for fish keeping in unsuitable conditions?