Finding 'Nemo' easier than caring for clownfish
By Will Evans -- Sacramento Bee Staff Writer
June 25, 2003
Clownfish are scooped in a net to be shipped to pet stores. Business has been booming since the release of the movie "Finding Nemo." Photo: Associated Press/Jill Barton
Good thing for Willy that kids can't take home pet whales.
Just look at how kids are clamoring for the latest sea star: Nemo, the orange-and-white-striped clownfish who is captured and plopped in a fish tank in the animated movie "Finding Nemo," now playing in Sacramento theaters.
The movie follows Nemo's dad, Marlin, and his travel companion, Dory, on their adventurous rescue of the little fish. The movie is a hit, taking in $228.5 million since it opened May 30, but the public doesn't seem to be getting the whole Nemo-wants-to-go-home message.
Petco stores around the country are seeing bubbling interest in the fish as a pet, says spokesman Don Cowan. In the Sacramento region, people are buying more clownfish at the Aqua Life Aquarium Inc. in Rocklin, are asking for them every day at the O Street Aquarium in midtown and are coming in just to see them in the tank at Exotic Aquarium on Florin Road.
Ditzy Dory is making the expensive regal blue tang popular, too.
"It's starting to get big," says Andrew Jimenez, an Elk Grove resident and president of the Sacramento Aquarium Society. "Kids see that and say 'Oh, Dad and Mom, can we get a tank like that?'" And "kids" can mean 5 years old or, say, 20 years old, like Jimenez's daughter, Krystal, who's seen the movie twice. He's getting a clownfish at her request, but she's going to have to take care of it -- and that's no easy thing.
Local stores say that many parents have second thoughts when they find out the amount of care and money that a clownfish requires.
Nemo is no common goldfish.
Clownfish, which cost $10-$15, are salt water fish -- as are blue tangs, which can fetch up to $60 -- so they don't go in bowls just filled with tap water. Plus, clownfish hang out in anemones, so add one of those sea plants to the cart.
The aquarium set-up itself can cost $200-$300. It often requires a 30-to 40-gallon tank with a filtration system, heater, thermometer and salt. The fish itself can start at 2 inches and can double or triple in size.
Salt water fish are more delicate than fresh water ones, Jimenez says, and they can die on you quickly if you don't get the temperature and pH balance of the water right.
"You can fry your fish," he says earnestly. "You can fry the gills, putting in too much chemicals, putting in too much salt. You have to be very careful."
Petco's Cowan, speaking from San Diego, says the company doesn't want to see a repeat of the Dalmatian problem, when fans of the film "101 Dalmatians" bought the high-maintainance dogs and then got rid of them when they became too much trouble.
"In some places, we're actually talking people out of buying (the fish)," he says.
But at Weideman Professional Dental, a pediatric dentistry in Citrus Heights, the clownfish is a hit.
"(Since) the movie came out, there have been more children coming in and screaming at the top of their lungs and coming over and putting their noses to the tank and saying, 'Mommy, look: Nemo! Nemo!'" says Deen MacDonald, a receptionist there.
Yep, that's Nemo all right, because the animated fish himself was plunked into a dentist's office aquarium. And, like Nemo, many of the clownfish in private tanks and fish stores come from the wild (all blue tangs are caught wild). Most are imported from Asia.
The Marine Aquarium Council, a conservation-oriented organization based in Hawaii, teamed up with Alexander Gould, the actor who voices Nemo, to spread awareness about protecting coral reefs and buying fish that have been caught in environmentally sustainable ways.
Bells Lyerson, a Citrus Heights resident who has several clownfish, advocates buying fish that were bred in captivity rather than from the ocean.
But clownfish that are already caught, and used to chilling out in a tank, would probably die if they were sent back to sea, Jimenez cautions.
So should kids have a change of heart once they bring their clown fish home, they shouldn't try to "Free Nemo."
By Will Evans -- Sacramento Bee Staff Writer
June 25, 2003
Clownfish are scooped in a net to be shipped to pet stores. Business has been booming since the release of the movie "Finding Nemo." Photo: Associated Press/Jill Barton
Good thing for Willy that kids can't take home pet whales.
Just look at how kids are clamoring for the latest sea star: Nemo, the orange-and-white-striped clownfish who is captured and plopped in a fish tank in the animated movie "Finding Nemo," now playing in Sacramento theaters.
The movie follows Nemo's dad, Marlin, and his travel companion, Dory, on their adventurous rescue of the little fish. The movie is a hit, taking in $228.5 million since it opened May 30, but the public doesn't seem to be getting the whole Nemo-wants-to-go-home message.
Petco stores around the country are seeing bubbling interest in the fish as a pet, says spokesman Don Cowan. In the Sacramento region, people are buying more clownfish at the Aqua Life Aquarium Inc. in Rocklin, are asking for them every day at the O Street Aquarium in midtown and are coming in just to see them in the tank at Exotic Aquarium on Florin Road.
Ditzy Dory is making the expensive regal blue tang popular, too.
"It's starting to get big," says Andrew Jimenez, an Elk Grove resident and president of the Sacramento Aquarium Society. "Kids see that and say 'Oh, Dad and Mom, can we get a tank like that?'" And "kids" can mean 5 years old or, say, 20 years old, like Jimenez's daughter, Krystal, who's seen the movie twice. He's getting a clownfish at her request, but she's going to have to take care of it -- and that's no easy thing.
Local stores say that many parents have second thoughts when they find out the amount of care and money that a clownfish requires.
Nemo is no common goldfish.
Clownfish, which cost $10-$15, are salt water fish -- as are blue tangs, which can fetch up to $60 -- so they don't go in bowls just filled with tap water. Plus, clownfish hang out in anemones, so add one of those sea plants to the cart.
The aquarium set-up itself can cost $200-$300. It often requires a 30-to 40-gallon tank with a filtration system, heater, thermometer and salt. The fish itself can start at 2 inches and can double or triple in size.
Salt water fish are more delicate than fresh water ones, Jimenez says, and they can die on you quickly if you don't get the temperature and pH balance of the water right.
"You can fry your fish," he says earnestly. "You can fry the gills, putting in too much chemicals, putting in too much salt. You have to be very careful."
Petco's Cowan, speaking from San Diego, says the company doesn't want to see a repeat of the Dalmatian problem, when fans of the film "101 Dalmatians" bought the high-maintainance dogs and then got rid of them when they became too much trouble.
"In some places, we're actually talking people out of buying (the fish)," he says.
But at Weideman Professional Dental, a pediatric dentistry in Citrus Heights, the clownfish is a hit.
"(Since) the movie came out, there have been more children coming in and screaming at the top of their lungs and coming over and putting their noses to the tank and saying, 'Mommy, look: Nemo! Nemo!'" says Deen MacDonald, a receptionist there.
Yep, that's Nemo all right, because the animated fish himself was plunked into a dentist's office aquarium. And, like Nemo, many of the clownfish in private tanks and fish stores come from the wild (all blue tangs are caught wild). Most are imported from Asia.
The Marine Aquarium Council, a conservation-oriented organization based in Hawaii, teamed up with Alexander Gould, the actor who voices Nemo, to spread awareness about protecting coral reefs and buying fish that have been caught in environmentally sustainable ways.
Bells Lyerson, a Citrus Heights resident who has several clownfish, advocates buying fish that were bred in captivity rather than from the ocean.
But clownfish that are already caught, and used to chilling out in a tank, would probably die if they were sent back to sea, Jimenez cautions.
So should kids have a change of heart once they bring their clown fish home, they shouldn't try to "Free Nemo."
