When you buy new fish to add to your existing aquarium, you really should quarantine the new fish in order to check them out. To add them in directly might contaminate your existing tank and/or make your new fish sick. You would then need to treat all your fish, new and old, to medical treatment and risk the possible loss of existing fish.
Feeder goldfish, after quarantine, make excellent fish. Seen here eating Chinese veggies. Photo by Don Tai
Not having money and wanting to keep fish had me researching all the possibilities. On one hand, I knew nothing about raising fish, so the possibility of killing a few would be a near certainty. On the other hand fish can be $3-4 each. Since I do not like to waste money that I do not have, I turned to feeder goldfish, sold for $0.18CAD each, here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Feeder goldfish, as I read on the internet, are full of diseases and will quickly die, so do not bother. On the other hand there were others who said they raised feeders to become large fish that were strong and healthy. I am decidedly in the latter camp. Feeder goldfish are goldfish, just that they have been badly treated. Overall feeder goldfish can be beautiful, graceful and easy to care for.
H1N1 flu is a highly contagious strain, but not in China
I will declare that I am a Canadian who has spent a couple of years studying Chinese in China. An article in the local Toronto Star titled Canadians Quarantined in China reports that 22 Canadian students will be quarantined for 7 days in a hotel in Chongqing, China. None have fever or flu-like symptoms. I agree with the Chinese position to quarantine these students but the blame cannot be laid on the 22 unfortunate students themselves, but on the Canadian government’s laggard position on the H1N1 flu strain (formerly called swine flu) and the tendency of democratic countries for freedom of movement, irregardless of the consequences.