Ouch! Are you trying to start something Rhonda?? :-) (just
kidding). I must admit I'm on a bit of the defensive now, but I'll try to
answer your question without slandering my fellow zoo keepers (as well as
start a flame war).
I fully admit, there is a lot about fish keeping I don't know. I've
been doing this on and off professionally for about six years now. My main
training is in Native Fisheries Management (in B.C., Canada), and for a
time I was an enviromental consultant working with habitat preservation.
My "formal" aquarium training is in coastal marine fishes and
invertebrates of B.C., I worked these fish and inverts for around 4 years.
I got into tropical fresh because I couldn't afford to have a chiller at
home and then took them on as part of my work responsibilties (working with
these for 3 years and this is where my interest lays now). Tropical marine
is still a bit fuzzy for me (all those wonderfully tacky colours) and I've
only been doing these fish "professionally" for 6 months!
Now, and I don't want to start something here, just what to get my
point across. If you were going to design a tank on coastal marine fish and
inverts. could you do it?
I realize that you could research and read and ask around to
finally get a display that was accurate, but let's say you were on a time
constraint, budget constraint, space was tight and you've got 12 other
displays that need cleaning, feeding, and medicating. Not to mention the 50
other holding tanks you've got to work with, nor the breeding programs that
you've undertaken, and the fact that your supervisor, and the general
curator, and the park director want you to continually justify the fish you
have and what you are doing to keep them.
(Ok, ok, I'm getting a little carried away here).
I agree with you, if zoos and aquaria are to educate the public,
their displays need to more accuratly represent the natural environment.
But, as I said in an earlier post, not all zoos care about educating the
public (at least not about fish) and to be honest I know plenty of people
that couldn't tell a guppy from a bamboo shark and frankly couldn't care
less. Many, many people come to zoos strictly for entertainment (if I hear
"when are you going to feed the piranhana?" one more time I'm gonna flip!)
and we try to slip some education in with them as they walk by.
You feel strongly about this because your interested in this, and I
agree it is my (and every other zookeepers) job to educate the public on
the plight of nature as professionals. Other people who don't feel the same
way about fish don't care. Unfortunatly many zoo keepers are pressed by
marketing groups, the director, and other factors to keep many unrealted
fish in tanks together becuase either they're big (arapamia and giant
gouramys, dovii cichlids and nile perch) they're scary (all types of
sharks) or neat (octopus, nautilis, etc, etc). These other people don't
know about fish biomes or habitat and their concern is getting people in
the door and financing the institution.
Another point is that with this many tanks to take care of, keepers
get burnt out really quickly. On an average day I care for around 80 tanks,
I'd say maybe 20 are 400+ gallons, but many are much smaller. To properly
check my fish it takes me about an hour, and then to clean the displays
another 30 minutes. I do a morning feed (around 45 minutes) and then water
changes (any where from 30 min. to 4 hours). Afternoon feed around 1.5
hours, etc, etc. I used to have 30 tanks at home, now I have 2 and they're
really shoddy because after 8 hours of fish I don't need another 1-2 hours.
Availability is also a factor. Given zoos can get things that the
average hobbist has trouble with, but many zookeepers are reluctant to go
out of their way to get something. If its close in distance, its close
enough for exhibit. Also, keepers generally think they know it all, and
don't want to talk to the "public" about their profession. I think that is
a shame because the public gets to put a lot of time in with the species
they enjoy. This way they learn a lot more detail and hints to the specific
care of their particular animal. I don't get to do this, I have 4-5 tanks
that contain my "babies" and then run the spectrum from tropical fresh
liverbearers to marine corals and native gars. I wish I knew it all, and I
sign on this lists to learn more.
Finally (I know about time!!) there's the pay. The pay is bad and
there is no two ways about it. At Vancouver (where I worked previously) we
went six years without a raise (not even cost of living). That's six years
making roughly $14.50 an hour Canadian. Here in Denver I make $23,500 a
year to start, maxing out in 15 years at around $33,000. Not many people
will work for this, and those that do aren't always qualified I agree. (And
I'm married to another Zookeeper so I'm definately not in it for the
money!).
I hope I didn't upset anyone and I hope that you'll susgest, in a
nice way, when you see something wrong in a zoo. Take time to vollunter (I
can never spell that word) and offer your expertise to the keepers. I'm
doing my best,as are a lot of keepers, but this zoos as an education
facility has really only caught on in the last few years.
Cheers,
Alex
asaunders at mho.net
Denver Zoo, Denver,CO
Any fish is a good fish
(especially with a little butter)