Aquatic Shop Victim of Sabotage - 5/3/10
There’s unsettling news this week about a Canadian LFS that seems to have been a victim of sabotage.
The recently opened Indoor Jungle, located at 1285 Kennedy Road, Scarborough, Ontario, is Canada’s largest exotic fish and reptile store.
The storeowners suspect vandalism after hundreds of fish died after bleach or a bleach like substance was poured into the centralised water system. The first indication that something was wrong was when customers alerted store employees to a strong smell of bleach coming from the tanks but by the time they reached the wall of 70 tanks, hundreds of fish were dead or dying.
Fish including small Bamboo Sharks, Queen Angelfish, and Black Lionfish along with hundreds of rare shrimps were among the 700 animals killed, along with corals imported from Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Caribbean.
Co-owner Adam Gharavi said he’s certain it wasn’t an equipment malfunction and believes that a chemical was poured into the centralised system servicing 400 tanks holding more than 5,000 fish. He said the vandal, who attacked on Wednesday afternoon, went for the store’s most expensive fish and 200 pieces of rare coral.
“We know whoever did this had some knowledge of how fish tanks work and what the fish need to survive,” Gharavi said. The cost of the incident is estimated to be tens of thousands of dollars.
Inland Jungle is one of about a dozen fish stores along Kennedy Rd. between Steeles Ave. E. and Eglinton Ave. E. Stores have happily coexisted here for years in the knowledge that the more different stores you have in the area, the more people come, to everyone’s benefit.
A Toronto police detective has been assigned to investigate the scene, and on Thursday morning, yellow police tape was seen to close off the wall lined with tanks filled with dead fish.
Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
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