Dyed Fish, The Truth about Dyed Fish

Ok, we’ve all seen a couple of posts here and there about dyed fish. Well here’s the skinny on them.

What are dyed fish? Dyed fish (also known as Juiced Fish) are what they sound like. They are fish that have been either dipped in, painted with, or injected with colored dye to make them more colorful which tends to sell better in pet stores. These are NOT the bineign dyes that you would use to treat bacterial infections; these dyes shorten the life-span of the fish greatly. The injection process alone kills 8 out of 10 fish, with 50% of the remaining fish dieing of injection site infections within 2 weeks. Many survivors die very early from Lymphocystis, Ich or Finrot, while the rest die as much as 50% earlier than they would otherwise from kidney failure caused by the dyes used. One study done in 1996 showed that 40% of dyed glassfish suffered from Lymphocystis while less than 10% of non-dyed glassfish suffered it.

Dip dyed fish are first dipped in an acid wash to remove their slimecoat, then dipped in the dye, then put in a chemical solution to cause their slimecoat to regenerate. Injected dyed fish are just what they sound like, the breeders will take a needle with the dye and inject the dye directly into the flesh. Painted fish are basically just like dipped, except instead of swimming around in the dye, the breeder will use a brush to brush it on.

The RSPCA in England already regards the practice as cruel and unnecessary cosmetic mutilation, and a campaign in Australia and the UK has limited the sale of these fish.

There are many different types of dyed fish hiding out in the marketplace and they go by many different names. Often breeders will come up with new names to describe them to mask the fact that they are dyed to unsuspecting pet store owners. Here’s a list of some of their names, and how they are dyed

Gold Dollar - Dipped
Rainbow Ompok - Dipped
Blushing Tinfoil Barb - Dipped
Oriental Tigerfish - Dipped
Rainbotia - Painted
Painted Glassfish - Injected
Disco Fish - Injected
Painted Glass - Injected
Rainforest Ramirezi - Dipped & Injected
Polka-Dot Gourami - Repeatedly Injected
Kiss the Blarney Gouramis - Injected
Colored Suckerfishes - Dipped & Injected
Ice Blue Albinos - Dipped & Injected
Colored Discus - Dipped & Injected
Dinnerplates - Dipped & Injected
Patriotic/Mixcolor Suckerfish - Dipped & Injected
Colored Paradisefish - Dipped & Injected
Colored Yellowtail Botias - Dipped & Injected
Blueberry Honey - Injected
Jellybeans - Dipped, Painted & Injected
Blueberry Tetra - Painted
Strawberry Tetra - Painted
Berry Tetra - Painted
Painted Tetra - Painted
Blueberry Oscar - Dipped
Strawberry Oscar - Dipped
Cotton Candy Parrots - Dipped & Injected
Parrotfish - Dipped & Injected
Gumballs - Injected
Jellybean Parrots - Dipped & Injected
Gold Severums - Dipped & Injected
Colored Nyassae - Repeatedly Injected
Zebra Ice Albinos - Dipped & Injected
Rainbow Filomenae - Dipped & Injected
Rainbow Tiger Botias - Dipped & Injected
Rainbow Goats - Dipped & Injected
Colored Fighters - Dipped & Injected
Rainbow Pompaudorfishes - Dipped & Injected
Sundiscs - Dipped & Injected
Icepops - Dipped, Painted & Injected

If you would like to see the sale of dyed fish in your area stopped, there are a few things you can do. Firstly, you can inform the LFS that you see selling dyed fish about the dyeing process and the problems that occur with dyed fish, then if they still will not cease from selling dyed fish, you can stop shopping there. You can also report stores that sell dyed fish and the manager’s response to your informing him/her about dyed fish, in our store review section. When doing this, it can be helpful to snap a couple of pictures of the store, outside and in before confronting the manager, as most likely they will throw you out of the store if they see you taking pictures afterwards.

I don't like dyed fish. Though GloFish are pretty cool. (I used to have one RIP:()

Glo-fish.... are those the glowing zebra danios?

Yeah they are but for some reason mine was a Leopard Danio!

I didn't realize there were that many ona list of painted fish! or dyed! or dipped! ouch!

I couldn't read the whole thing. Too foul.

Commercialism at its best.

There is one fish on there that isn't always dyed... the parrotfish. However, it's also one of the most commonly dyed fish, also. Natural parrotfish will be red/orange in color, while the dyed ones... well, you can see them in the picture (the one with the severe overstocking, as if being dyed wasn't bad enough).

i feel sorry for them but it would be cool if they really looked like that

The other day I saw the painted glass fish. How the heck do they do that. These fish only had an outside trim in neon colors it was crazy. I guess it looked good enough to attrack the regular noob.

They do it by sticking the needle all the way down it's back and withdrawing it while injecting the dye...

Wow that really sucks

The other day I saw a picture of a blood parrot that had been TATTOO'd with the words 'I Love You' on it's side for Valentines day!!! They we're also 40 dollars! How horrible! I don't recall what store they were at, but I'll try and find out. I was just in shock from the fact that time had been spent to tattoo words on this fish.

i heard about that on oscarfish.com it's crazy

I think that is why we have saltwater fish! They have the vibrant colors we love. I guess they are trying to get the vibrant colors in freshwater fish for the ease of care and color too! It works I guess, they sell them! Poor fishies though!

I think the Valentine fish thing occurred at a Big Al's

dyed fish are cool to look at but remember the fish when you buy one.