3 ms·

I thought this a pretty mature technique? I have seen more than once our local vet using this technique to treat cats with large wounds -- with great results by

by fhe 9mo ago

I thought this a pretty mature technique? I have seen more than once our local vet using this technique to treat cats with large wounds -- with great results by the way. Interestingly, they too used tilapia fish skin, and not any of the more common local fish species. I wonder if there is something special about tilapia fish skin, or it was simply the species on which the technique was developed, and nobody bothered to try using other fish species.

sublinear 9mo ago
What's special is that tilapia is probably cheaper than even the local fish since it's farmed in massive quantities and shipped all over the world as food. If other fish skins were tried it must have been similar results.
- worthless-trash 9mo ago
  Tilapia imports are heavily restricted to Australia, The live fish will not be allowed, they are considered "restricted noxious fish". The rules are: Illegal to Keep: You cannot keep tilapia (dead or alive), sell them, give them away, or use them as bait. Immediate Euthanasia: Humanely kill the fish as soon as you catch it. Disposal: Bury: Bury them deep and well away from the water's edge to prevent scavengers from dragging them back in or floodwaters from releasing eggs. Bin: Place them in a rubbish bin. No Filleting: You cannot take fillets and dispose of the rest; the entire fish must be destroyed. Various state departments have hotlines for reporting tilapia. There are different hotlines per state: Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) (13 25 23) New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (DPI) (1800 675 888) Victoria (VFA) Reporting hotline (13FISH or 13 34 74) Western Australia Dept. of Primary Industries & Regional Development (1800 815 507) I've had rewards for reporting them (fishing reel, free bait, etc).
  - pwagland 9mo ago
    For those that don't know why, and I didn't, the reason for this is that Tilapia are "mouth brooders", that is they keep the fertilised eggs in their mouth. So throwing away a dead female can cause these eggs to hatch, and reinfect the waters with new Tilapia.
  - som 9mo ago
    Where I grew up (in northern Australia) a lot of people targeted and ate tilapia out of local estuaries .. there were a lot of them and they were big.
    - worthless-trash 9mo ago
      Hello cousin (Daintree adjacent here).
  - MisterTea 9mo ago
    I also hear you can dispose of them by placing them in a pan with fresh pulverized tomato, garlic, olive oil, basil, then a little lemon juice, oregano then finally, salt and pepper to taste. Highly effective, efficient and delicious.
MeteorMarc 9mo ago
No need for antibiotics because the fish got ample amounts while growing up in the farm.
guessmyname 9mo ago
> I thought this a pretty mature technique? […] Yes, it is very mature. The article was written in 2017.
interludead 9mo ago
It's probably a mix of "this species happens to be unusually well-suited" and "this is the species people bothered to study rigorously first."
jyounker 9mo ago
Tilapia are cheap and abundant, and the skin is an industrial-scale waste product. They're incredibly hardy, and unlike most other food fish you can easily grow them in simple container setups.
- deadbabe 9mo ago
  Horrible to talk about a living creature this way.
  - mixmastamyk 9mo ago
    "Fish are friends, not food"—Finding Nemo. ;-)
    - csours 9mo ago
      "It's okay to eat fish 'cause they don't have any feelings" - Something in the way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg5behq8PlM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg5behq8PlM
  - fsckboy 9mo ago
    (i pick mackerel at random) A female Atlantic mackerel typically lays between 200,000 and 450,000 eggs during a spawning season. However, larger, healthier individuals can sometimes produce up to a million eggs, often in multiple batches over several weeks. it is the mackerel themselves who consider baby mackerel lives to be industrial in scale. they produce that many in anticipation of consumption. Each foodfish humans consume has already slaughtered untold thousands of other fish to grow themselves to size.
    - deadbabe 9mo ago
      The thrive because all the fish who laid less eggs got eaten out of extinction. They don’t anticipate anything.
betty_staples 9mo ago
>I have seen more than once our local vet using this technique to treat cats with large wounds -- with great results by the way. I'm not surprised, a lot of vets I know from Iraq and Afghanistan had used Tilapias for battlefield dressing. Worst case there was a Tilapia MRE people kept around for this purpose. Honestly it's great to see them taking those skills from war and translating them into helping street animals such as cats.

by fhe 9mo ago

sublinear 9mo ago

What's special is that tilapia is probably cheaper than even the local fish since it's farmed in massive quantities and shipped all over the world as food. If other fish skins were tried it must have been similar results.

worthless-trash 9mo ago
Tilapia imports are heavily restricted to Australia, The live fish will not be allowed, they are considered "restricted noxious fish". The rules are: Illegal to Keep: You cannot keep tilapia (dead or alive), sell them, give them away, or use them as bait. Immediate Euthanasia: Humanely kill the fish as soon as you catch it. Disposal: Bury: Bury them deep and well away from the water's edge to prevent scavengers from dragging them back in or floodwaters from releasing eggs. Bin: Place them in a rubbish bin. No Filleting: You cannot take fillets and dispose of the rest; the entire fish must be destroyed. Various state departments have hotlines for reporting tilapia. There are different hotlines per state: Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) (13 25 23) New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (DPI) (1800 675 888) Victoria (VFA) Reporting hotline (13FISH or 13 34 74) Western Australia Dept. of Primary Industries & Regional Development (1800 815 507) I've had rewards for reporting them (fishing reel, free bait, etc).
- pwagland 9mo ago
  For those that don't know why, and I didn't, the reason for this is that Tilapia are "mouth brooders", that is they keep the fertilised eggs in their mouth. So throwing away a dead female can cause these eggs to hatch, and reinfect the waters with new Tilapia.
- som 9mo ago
  Where I grew up (in northern Australia) a lot of people targeted and ate tilapia out of local estuaries .. there were a lot of them and they were big.
  - worthless-trash 9mo ago
    Hello cousin (Daintree adjacent here).
- MisterTea 9mo ago
  I also hear you can dispose of them by placing them in a pan with fresh pulverized tomato, garlic, olive oil, basil, then a little lemon juice, oregano then finally, salt and pepper to taste. Highly effective, efficient and delicious.

MeteorMarc 9mo ago

No need for antibiotics because the fish got ample amounts while growing up in the farm.

guessmyname 9mo ago

> I thought this a pretty mature technique? […] Yes, it is very mature. The article was written in 2017.

interludead 9mo ago

It's probably a mix of "this species happens to be unusually well-suited" and "this is the species people bothered to study rigorously first."

jyounker 9mo ago

Tilapia are cheap and abundant, and the skin is an industrial-scale waste product. They're incredibly hardy, and unlike most other food fish you can easily grow them in simple container setups.

deadbabe 9mo ago
Horrible to talk about a living creature this way.
- mixmastamyk 9mo ago
  "Fish are friends, not food"—Finding Nemo. ;-)
  - csours 9mo ago
    "It's okay to eat fish 'cause they don't have any feelings" - Something in the way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg5behq8PlM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg5behq8PlM
- fsckboy 9mo ago
  (i pick mackerel at random) A female Atlantic mackerel typically lays between 200,000 and 450,000 eggs during a spawning season. However, larger, healthier individuals can sometimes produce up to a million eggs, often in multiple batches over several weeks. it is the mackerel themselves who consider baby mackerel lives to be industrial in scale. they produce that many in anticipation of consumption. Each foodfish humans consume has already slaughtered untold thousands of other fish to grow themselves to size.
  - deadbabe 9mo ago
    The thrive because all the fish who laid less eggs got eaten out of extinction. They don’t anticipate anything.

betty_staples 9mo ago

>I have seen more than once our local vet using this technique to treat cats with large wounds -- with great results by the way. I'm not surprised, a lot of vets I know from Iraq and Afghanistan had used Tilapias for battlefield dressing. Worst case there was a Tilapia MRE people kept around for this purpose. Honestly it's great to see them taking those skills from war and translating them into helping street animals such as cats.