Live Fish On Stage

[lifeisacabaret]

Hi Guys,

 

I've been asked by a director if we need a license to use live fish onstage during our production. The venue is a brand new university theatre (we are the inaugural production). The situation would be a large perspex fishbowl (also- where might I find one of these!), filled with tropical fish and goldfish.

 

 

Any help you guys can give me would be wonderful.

 

 

Cheers in anticipation!

 

JG

[paulears]

To the best of my knowledge, you only need to licence snakes and monkeys with the local authority. Unless they are a seaside town, they are also very unlikely to be able to tell you which department has responsibility for such a licence, or how much it costs!

[lifeisacabaret]

Do the usual considerations to live animals not apply with such small animals?

[w/robe]

I have a nasty feeling that this is an area where each local authority is pretty much a law unto itself so you are probably going to have to brave the Town Hall. You could also try your local RSPCA for their opinion and also advice on how to keep the fish happy. This then allows you to say to the L.A. 'We have already consulted the RSPCA who advised that we.....'

 

I can also give you the name of a company who would make the large fish bowl if you are interested, but do you have the time and the money to do it this way or have you got to find one.

[Andrew C]

On a practical note, I don't think tropical fish and goldfish will happily co-habit. The water for tropicals needs to be quite warm, and goldfish (I think) need room temp or lower.

[Stutwo]

Andrew is right, Goldfish need the water to be reasonably cool and not heated, whereas the tropical, as the name suggests, need the water warmer than room temperature usually. So just goldfish would be my suggestion, although it isn't going to do the goldfish any good being under the stage lighting. Use slices of carrot;)

[Suzette]

AFAIK - you need a licence for all live animals onstage - inc. fish. Your local environmental health dept. at the council will be able to supply a licence for the fish, inc. any special conditions that they must be kept in to ensure their comfort & safety. As to water temperatures - I bow to those with greater knowledge than me.

[lifeisacabaret]

Have spoken with the local environment office- I dont need a license if the fish are simply going to be part of the set, and not an active part of the performance. Apparently all we need do is to send them a brief notification letter telling them that fish are being used as a part of the set (the fishbowl).

[w/robe]

Apparently all we need do is to send them a brief notification letter telling them that fish are being used as a part of the set (the fishbowl).

 

I bet you would not get that in Westminster or Camden, the vagaries of local government bodies.

[lifeisacabaret]

Apparently all we need do is to send them a brief notification letter telling them that fish are being used as a part of the set (the fishbowl).

 

I bet you would not get that in Westminster or Camden, the vagaries of local government bodies.

 

 

The LA is BaNES (Bath and North East Somerset).

[dwh]

Why does this remind me of a certain Monty Python sketch?

[TAFFY]

do you mean this one?

:)

[paulears]

There is a full discussion on this at the stage website

the article

[Ekij]

AFAIK - you need a licence for all live animals onstage - inc. fish.

Fish are not animals they are .... well ... fish.

(Animals breath air, fish don't)

 

If you were to have any trouble with this I would have thought mechanical fish were the way to go. No one can complain you are mistreating them, you don't have to worry if they die or how to dispose of them after the show.

 

Also fish don't have eyelids and so hide from bright light so when you turn the stage lights on they will probably all swim to the bottom of the bowl, face away from the audience and stop moving. Mechanical fish will continue to do nice little loops round the bowl.

[the kid]

No

fish, limbless aquatic vertebrate animal with fins and internal gills. There are three living classes of fish: the primitive jawless fishes, or Agnatha; the cartilaginous (sharklike) fishes, or Chondrichthyes; and the bony fishes, or Osteichthyes. These groups, although quite different from one another anatomically, have certain common features related to their common evolutionary origins or to their aquatic way of life. Fish were the earliest vertebrates and presumably evolved from a group of aquatic lower chordates (see Chordata); the terrestrial vertebrates evolved from fishes.