Are plants making fish happy???

[Thomas Gerster]

Hello everybody,

The head of the local veterinarian authority inspected our fish facility
this morning. While looking at our tanks he felt pity for our fish
since they have no place to hide and no nice plants to look at!

We tried to convince him that the way we keep our fish is standard
procedure everywhere else and that the presence of plants might even
create stress for the fish because it is then more difficult to catch
them. Nevertheless, he insisted that we prove to him that the way we
treat our fish at present is "natural"!

Therefore, our question to all of you out there: Can anybody provide us
with literature references that might support the claim that the fish
are "happy" if they are kept as they are maintained in all the major
labs? Does anybody have a detailled description about their wild life
habitat in Southeast Asia (since they are supposedly living in
streams with quite a bit of water running we always assumed that
there would not be much plants occuring around them)?

We appreciate all your suggestions and support

Eva Reinhard
Thomas Gerster

Biozentrum der Universitaet Basel
Switzerland

[Teresa Nicolson]

Dear Eva and Thomas,

A sign that the fish are "happy", i.e. that they are well fed, the water

conditions are good, etc. is if they lay eggs (I would cite the
zebrafish
book by M.W.). If fish are stressed or "unhappy" then there is no way
that they would mate and lay eggs, so I think this is proof enough that
they do not deserve anyone's pity. Also, if fish are kept in large
groups then there is no reason to hide, i.e. they will not kill each
other. Otherwise we provide single pairs with green plastic grass.

-Teresa Nicolson

[Mary Hagedorn]

Dear Colleagues,

I agree that fish prefer to have some place to hide, especially in and
around plants. I have gotten around the introduction of pathogens by
using plastic plants. Not nearly as asethetic as real plants, but does
the trick.

Sincerely,
Mary Hagedorn
Smithsonian Institution