Finding Nemo in the Pet Store

[vanquish]

Who here agrees with me—every time you’re minding your business eyeing the marine fish at your local fish store (lfs) a little child or pack of children run up to a tank and squeal “Look its Nemo!” Or Dory or any other member of the Finding Nemo gang. Yea, it’s cute the first time or two… But now it really just really irks my nerves. It’s especially bad at places like *****, Petsmart, etc. What happened to Clownfish or Blue Hippo Tang?
Granted, the movie was entertaining (I even own it) but I think it really gives people the wrong impression on marine fish. I have read countless articles by people who went out and bought their own “Nemos” without having a clue of how to care of their recent purchase. One couple I read about released their brand new clown into the bowl with the goldfish, apparently completely unaware “They absolutely had to have saltwater?”
Despite all the negatives, I think it’s great how they finally made a movie which blew the hobby wide open, and now more people than ever are becoming involved and share our interest. But I think a certain charm and uniqueness is lost as well. Keeping marine organisms used to be more of a small cultish hobby, where no one really knew any better than the next guy (remember under-gravel?) but were all fascinated by their limited success. Live rock revolutionized fish keeping, and increased its beauty and potential. It seemed like Finding Nemo was just a step away from giving it the popularity it needed to explode.
And so here we are. More people than ever keep saltwater fish, and more people than ever can name many of the most beautiful creatures in the ocean… I just wish more of them knew their “real names.” Perhaps this recent trivialization is only short-lived; perhaps it’s just a fleeting moment in the larger glorious history of marine aquatics. But, if one day you walk into your pet store looking for “Clownfish” and find only “Nemo” will you pause and wonder—what happened? Or will you just chuckle and move on to the next tank of Dory.
What is your opinion?
Finding Nemo—good thing or bad thing?

 

[mr. guitar]

Vanquish, I agree with everything you said. I'm tired of people callin' Clownfish "Nemo" and Blue Regal Tangs "Dory". Finding Nemo was a good movie and educational to most people about reefs but one of the things I hated about the moive was the tank they put Nemo in. You don't keep puffers with clownfish!!!! In my opinion Finding Nemo is both a good and a bad thing.

 

[seannmelly]

I agree with all of you. I work at a lfs, and I cannot tell you how many times a day I hear "look it's nemo" followed by tapping on the glass!!! The thing that gets on my nerves is when people ask you a question about their fish and they are like, i have "the dora fish" or some other name, they don't even know what kind of fish it is!!

 

[reefeel]

And most of the time they just pick out any blue fish or orange fish and they become Dory and Nemo.

 

[hagfish]

When I see a little kid get really excited and happy about pretty much anything that isn't inherently wrong I think it's a good thing. You people realize that 90% of us use common names to name all of our fish anyway. There's no more relevance to the name "clownfish" than there is to "nemo".
As for tapping on the glass at fish stores, maybe the fish stores should just put up a sign that says not to do that. There's one near me with a sign like that that explains that the tapping is kind of like getting punched in the face. I imagine that's a little extreme, but it gets the point across. And there are signs about every 10 ft. between aquariums. These are little kids we are talking about. They aren't likely to know better.
As for lack of knowledge and putting a SW fish in an innappropriate environment (like fresh water) I think the fish store could help there too. Why don't fish stores type up some basic instructions for SW fish and put them in an obvious place on the counter and give them out for free? They could put a sign up right next to the register with a message to newbie SW fish owners.

 

[jmick]

When I hear a little one say look mommy it's Nemo I think it's cute.
When I hear an adult say what a cute Nemo i wanna punch them in the face.

 

[seannmelly]

Originally Posted by Jmick
When I hear a little one say look mommy it's Nemo I think it's cute.
When I hear an adult say what a cute Nemo i wanna punch them in the face.
ditto.
I mean, when I said that people ask about their fish and say I have that dora fish, these are grown adults, and to me, it shows they don't know much about the fish to begin with. And I don't believe that a hippo is a beginners fish.
We do have signs up in the store, asking parents to control their children and to not touch or tap on the glass....but we still get kids that run laps around the store, and my boss has to tell to stop

 

[crabsrkewl]

In the tank there was also no LR, the shrimp was kept with a pufffer, the angel fish most likrly couldn't survive the scratch, and I could go on and on.

I liked the movie before I was into saltwater tanks ( the movie didn't prusaude or how ever you spell that) but now I'm noticing so many mistakes.

 

[vanquish]

Originally Posted by Jmick
When I hear a little one say look mommy it's Nemo I think it's cute.
When I hear an adult say what a cute Nemo i wanna punch them in the face.
Hahaha you made me bust out laughing in my office! (couldnt explain this one to the co-workers)
But yea, youre right. Keeping it in perspective, kids do ID things based on what they've seen. So yes, it can be cute. It gets old very quickly though, when adults get excited.

 

[threed240]

Its a movie. Not trying to bash, but who cares if a kid calls a clown fish "nemo", adults say it because of there children mostly. Try explaining to your two year old that its a false percula clown. I could see it being a problem if an adult went and bought a gun, and said they were Clint Eastwood, but its a kids movie. Im sure the movie boosted clown fish sales though.

 

[mrdc]

Do you remeber when Nemo came out that a lot of children were flushing their fish down the toilet because they thought it lead to the ocean! :scared:
(well in some states the flushing toilets probably do go to the ocean

)

 

[pat713]

I call a clown 'nemo' b/c my wife is clueless to the hobby. She doesn't know and doesn't care to know about the hobby. She just thinks it looks pretty to have in the living room.
But, since I do most of the research, work, feeding, cleaning, etc. As long as I know it, that's what counts. It's hard to get a person who doesn't know about this hobby to stop calling the Blue Regal Tang "Dory"
So, I think it's a positive thing that this movie is out. Responsible parrents should not buy their kid a clown without doing their own research first.

 

[emmitt2]

I got into this hobby because my daughter was fascinated with Finding Nemo so we got a saltwater tank to put in her room for her. Granted, we definitely went to quick and didn't know what we were doing at first but we learned.
I have a question for you guys who were in the hobby before the movie: are there more lfs and better selections in the lfs since the movie? My guess is yes but dont know since i never looked for any before the movie came out.
Despite getting some people into the hobby who are completely unprepared, i'd have to say that the movie was GREAT for our hobby. It got much more people involved and interested in the hobby than anything the industry could have done to promote the hobby.

 

[pat713]

I've had Freshwater tanks the majority of my life, and I've been wanting a Saltwater tank for the past 10 years. But yes, I've noticed a bigger selection now than before the movie.

 

[jelezoglo]

Originally Posted by Threed240
Its a movie. Not trying to bash, but who cares if a kid calls a clown fish "nemo", adults say it because of there children mostly. Try explaining to your two year old that its a false percula clown. I could see it being a problem if an adult went and bought a gun, and said they were Clint Eastwood, but its a kids movie. Im sure the movie boosted clown fish sales though.

I agree!!! There is no way for me to convince Chris (2), that our Nemo and Marlin are called a perculas. He actually gets upset to the point of crying and tries to tell me that I am wrong. My sisters regal is Dory and there is no way to convince him otherwise, and I don't see any reason to upset him over it. So I end up calling them by the movie names just out of habit. But I did not know that some people were so bothered by it....

 

[triga22]

I think that it helps let people know about the ocean. I also think that it boost up people interested in saltwater. I do also think that people calling a clownfish nemo and a hippo tang dory is very annoying. Yes when the movie came out it was fine. But now its out of hand everytime i go to the fish store people call them nemo. I would love to tell them its a clown but theyd probably think its rude.

 

[vanquish]

Originally Posted by Jelezoglo
I agree!!! There is no way for me to convince Chris (2), that our Nemo and Marlin are called a perculas. He actually gets upset tries to tell me that I am wrong. My sisters regal is Dory and there is no way to convince him otherwise. So I end up calling them by the movie names just out of habit. But I did not know that some people were so bothered by it....

Personally I don’t know… I think you all make excellent points. I think that this movie has done an excellent job of promoting the hobby and has had a larger effect than any advertising scheme by all the major producers of the marine industry could ever pull off combined. More than anything, it made children fall in love with these animals, which encourages their parents to satisfy their desires to have fish of their own—thus increasing the industry as a whole.
Obviously there have been many misconceptions born by inaccuracies and falsehoods from the movie. But at the same time that’s what movies do—use artistic license. The fact more people are making mistakes means that more people are getting involved. Even before the movie, could any of us claim to have not made similar mistakes?
I guess I started this thread to complain about an annoying trend at pet stores which we are all forced to overhear and many of us cringe at. Perhaps though, after reading all your responses, I think it’s worth the price. I didn’t consider that these children and adults may be obnoxious on the surface, but at a deeper level are expressing an interest in a hobby which they are in the process of learning about… Perhaps I, and we, should consider being less critical of this. Maybe one day, after making their mistakes (like we did) they too will generate the same passion and dedication which we have.

 

[lt34]

Its just a movie and wasn't meant to teach people. When I went a saw the movie Backdraft, there was a bunch of fellow Firefighters saying how it wasn't real that it didn't have all the smoke. I told them that if it had all the smoke that would naturally be in the fire, all we would hear is the voices and wouldn't see a thing. All movies will have their good and bad. 101 Dalmations caused overbreeding and put hundreds of Dalmations in dog shelters as everyone wanted one. I in turn loved Finding Nemo and wanted to know what type of fish everything was so it helped me know what Perculas and Hipo's were. Unless it is a teaching video, take it as it just a movie and teach others what is real and what is not.

 

[jam1e]

It was a good movie and all .. but it is very annoying .. I went to the Georgia Aquarium the other day and they had a tank of at least 25 Blue Hippos and all the little boys and girls were yelling "look mommy it's Dori!! .. Where's Nemo?!" .. and it got to me so bad that I could hardly enjoy the tank .

 

[emmitt2]

I'd agree that it is a little annoying when you hear adults without kids calling them dori and nemo. However, how can you get upset because a bunch of little kids are happy about fish?!?! There are other saltwater forums i go on where they will make you out to be a idiot if you call them clowns or hippo's, they want the scientific name.
A movie that got millions of kids interested in our hobby is a VERY, VERY good thing