An MFK-er's dream...

[thebiggerthebetter]

You thought I was gonna have us all drool over another fish or tank or a girl hugging a catfish?

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Here is an example of Wolfgang Ros' write-up on Cephalosilurus fowleri (he has plenty others) http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/shanesworld.php?article_id=379 This is not lasting over years which would be even nicer but having read this, one feels like they got to know this fish pretty good.

If Wolfgang can do it (for fun, I note), we should be able to accomplish something similar, each on their own level. It's not rocket science!

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For years of doing homework in our hobby, I've been gleaning bits and pieces, here and there on MFK especially. This is so time-consuming and often utterly inefficient that, having not learned much or what I needed, I'd quit and often think "What if, in addition to all MFK present wonders, we had more threads lasting for years and years and reporting on raising one particular fish, or a pair, etc., to adulthood and beyond and the issues solved and the lessons learned with it?"

Five-ten quality threads on any given fish, and there could be not much else needed. At least for the 99% of our questions we could all refer to these threads.

We as a community here are doing a pretty poor job, TBH, an astoundingly poor job of informing and educating each other, myself included, of course. The info is scattered, After an OP or a few, a reading-worthy follow-through is rare, I am guessing 5 in 100 (for my purposes of improving myself as a fish keeper, not killer). An account of any significant duration in the keeping of a fish (like a few years at least) is ~ nowhere to find. Exceedingly rare, perhaps 1 in 1000+.

I am not proposing a revolution but thinking how we could better ourselves, if ever...

Sounds naïve, or maybe even silly, but one thing I was conjuring up is qualified MFK-ers having an option of creating a thread dedicated to their particular fish and blogging about this fish there with no input from others. The input, q&a, etc. can be located in a linked sister thread.

This could promote

-- responsibility! as volunteer educators and such special thread starter, there'd be expectation, even if unwritten
-- a field guide of our own! concentration of the much needed knowledge
-- career ! as in healthy and constructive competition / strive for a status between peers
-- recruiting! help newbies quickly tell the expert base (and the rest of us - wannabe's) and want to stay and grow in the hobby.

 

[jwh]

So why don't you start us off...

 

[Lepisosteus]

I'd do a thread on a few. not sure what type of detail you'd expect but I'm sure there are lots of threads that cover this idea. for example, click on ancient fish, gars and bowfin and there is care guides, experiences, and recommendations.

 

[koltsixx]

I think it's a great idea. I had suggested to the other Mods about possibly trying to get members to participate more and helping keep them interested by proposing collaborations between Mods and members in the creation of new stickies and articles. There are some fairly extensive stickies about some fish such as Aro's, Hydrolycus and Hydrocynus, etc. but their is plenty of room for more info. IMO and many species not covered in other sections such as Other Monsters, etc.

For instance Banded Scats recently became available again and finding pertinent info. was tough for me. In the few threads they where featured in their was little info. I had to read every thread to find such things as they can be aggressive to conspecifics and that a group of less then five could spell disaster(Thank you Oddball for that info. as it definitely saved my Scats.). Conspecifics while not necessarily be harmed outright will be chased and stressed and not allowed to eat much possibly causing a slow death. Their are plenty of fish and hobbyist that could benefit from added stickies. Another example would be Sleeper, Water Cows and Marbled Gobies could benefit from a thread. These Gobies aren't exactly rare and show up in LFS from time to time and though they aren't kept by a great deal of hobbyist they are kept often enough that members could really get use of sctickies dedicated to them. The list of species MFK keeps that could use a sticky goes on and on IMO.

I also really like the idea of a personal Blog or Blogs, it's something I hadn't considered. In the past we had member personal albums so why not personal Blogs? The only difference I would propose is that the sticky would be the main thread and the Blog feature would be available to all members. When a member feels they've added a significant or important update that hasn't been encompassed in the main sticky of a species covered in a sticky they would contact the staff to have their Blog reviewed. If after review the Blog is deemed to have a worthwhile update, then the info. would be added to the sticky along with the members name and a link to their Blog would be added to the stickies acknowledgements.

You also suggested 5-10 sources/ authors which IMO would also be great for the info's diversity. Some of us comm our fish, some of us keep bare bottom tanks while other keep very ornamental tanks full of driftwood, rocks and sand. These differences could play a role in how a fish behaves and it would be interesting to see the differences. Will some fish enjoy the bare tank while other species become skittish? Will a fairly peaceful cichlid become hyper aggressive when kept with certain other species of cichlids? For instance I've kept Pearsei and they're fairly peaceful but recently when I added a male Chocolate cichlid my two male Pearsei react as aggressively to the Chocolate as they do toward each other. These two Pearsei in the past ignored other cichlids unless the other cichlids instigated yet here they are making my Chocolate miserable. Is this common when Pearsei and Chocolates are kept together? Is there something else in my tank triggering the behavior? These are just some questions that might be answered by having info. from multiple members that could really take our fishkeeping to the next level IMO.

 

[ragin_cajun]

They have an "Articles" section on this site....just sayin'

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Thank you, fellas, for the input.

Maybe this will explain my thought better. It is important to have threads like we usually have - highly interactive, quick q&a, chatty, encouraging, loose, not very strict to the topic, etc. This is an important part of our communication. It just seems this part is disproportionally large occupying a vast swath, like 80%-90%, of MFK's "hard drive".

What I am saying is that to me it seems misbalanced because, while such threads are important, they are not friendly to homework and research.

Hence, I am thinking how to fill the void. But maybe there is no void? To Kolt and me, it seems there is.

Yes, there are Articles containing 23 entries but my straw man proposal differs substantially from how the Articles section works, esp. in that a single person should be in charge and bear the responsibility for a new type of thread I am proposing. Besides, it seems the number of the Articles speaks for itself.

Also, I've always been a proponent that every sticky should be closed for discussion.

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In other words yet, there are very nice, formal write-ups on MFK and there is an enormous plethora of useful and often much needed info but it's buried.

What I am saying we need something in between. Formal, peer-reviewed articles are a tall order for many. Gleaning nuggets of needed info from vast fields of conversations is too inefficient.

Creating an OP "Hey, look at what I got!", then "Here is what is feeds on, likes, dislikes", "Here is how it almost died", "Here it is 3 months later", "6 months later", "Here is the growth rate", "year later", "2 years later", ... "10 years later" - all this can be done by almost anyone.

And "Here is how stupid me killed it 2 weeks, months, years later" will help tremendously those following in the footsteps.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

So we have two votes for and two look like against and ~100 members have "read" this.

Safe to say this does not strike any chord with 96% of members and with none but one mod?

 

[koltsixx]

I was surprised by the lack of responses but understand why there maybe so few. The few I know who where into doing write ups have become either disheartened by the lack of responses or have lifestyle changes that prohibit them allotting that amount of time and consideration anymore. I imagine that's true for many it's the time aspect that prevents them never mind the fact that many hobbyist love the hobby but aren't big on writing.

Even if there are few who are interested it takes but one to initiate a change. While the info. won't be as comprehensive coming from one source it can still be extremely valuable. There are certain members who rarely leave their preferred sections who haven't seen this so while we may not have many more there are still some who might be potentially interested. I have been frequenting the Pike Forum so I know who maybe interested there but other then there I'm not sure, Modding takes up most of my time on here. If you're interested in pursuing this further personally I'll do what I can to help. Just reach out to me via pm and we can shoot ideas at each other.

 

[Woefulrelic]

I like the idea, I'm just not experienced enough to write for this. I would certainly appreciate the time others took, however.

 

[koltsixx]

That's the beauty you don't need a lot of experience. You still have your Sevs? Pics of them and your personal experience so far would be greatly beneficial considering their collection point and how little there is about them out there.