I absolutely LOVE my Oscar Big Boy!!! That guy is an a**hole!!!!
RE: Don't Buy Oscar Fish - 6 Reasons Why
- Thread starter TheReefer
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Hello; I am not sure what this means. I do most of my own DIY house repairs. Depends on a persons skill levels and experience. I guess this is somehow related to fish keeping. I did hire my roof replaced last summer because I do know my personal limits.
Back when I was 11 years old in the late 1950's when I started keeping fish I did not even know about the concept of regular water changes (WC). At some point I cabbaged onto the WC idea. Not sure if I thought of it or got the idea from someone else.
So you kept an Oscar in a 55 gallon in the past and have learned that is a bad idea. Now you will not do that anymore. Progress. I do sort of wish you had not tried to defend how it "worked out" so much. I understand the temptation tho.
You were not a bad person just had not learned yet. I was ignorant about WC and ran tanks poorly until I caught on. I cannot change the past and for several decades now do WC.
Well yeah it's not practical to do that, but in the process I learned how to care for them. We also got in a lot of fish that people couldn't care for so I had experience with them being full grown and I've learned that what they say online usually isn't true regarding the tank sizes they need. People say a 6 inch pike cichlid needs a minimum of 55 gallons, I've had them in 20-29 gallons and they did fine, most cichlids around 6 inches were in 20 gallon tanks, granted I ran all soth/central american and asian fish (that finished quarantine) on a huge sump (It was in a 10'x5'x3' tub that we used to display pond plants so that helped absorb nitrates). We got away with this perfectly fine for years. Was this ideal? No, it wasn't ideal, but could it be done and have the fish remain healthy.
Thank you for understanding, I was just trying to say that it can work, but if you can, you should get a larger tank. As for what that means, it means that you can do something and be able to get away with it, but it's not a good idea. You can get away with duct taping your car together, but it shouldn't be done. By DIY repairs I mean ones that work, but just barely if that makes sense.
Hello; When in a hole stop digging. I get that shops have a lot of stock and pretty much have to keep fish in too crowded conditions. I figure the hope is they move the stock often enough that it is not long term. I also get that WC and large sumps help in a commercial setting so yes it can be gotten by with.
The folks on this forum are the customers who, I am guessing here, want to keep a fish long term. The "you can do something and be able to get away with it" hole has clear flaws. When I was young and uninformed I overstocked, overfed and did not do WC. I have learned better and keep very light stocking, feed sparingly and do WC. While my current practice is so much better for the fish I keep there is a downside.
That downside is that I simply cannot keep the wider variety of and number of fish. My tanks have minimal numbers of fish and not much variety such as I had in the past. I get most of us want, as I did in the past, to have lots of different and interesting fish. Many want the bigger species as well. So the concept of being able to get away with it is appealing. Has more to do with the wants and wishes of the fish keeper than with best care practice. I'll bet there are many who keep wishing for some trick or practice they can find so they can squeeze a few more fish in .
I may be wrong about this but have gotten the impression some feel having massive power filtration is just such a trick. I get this impression from reading threads.
I think what you failed to learn, is that a fishes needs are far greater than simply providing good water quality, or water that is low in nitrates. What you were doing is not exactly something to be boasting about, it sounds like it was far cry from being ideal, for the fish.
I feed my neon tetras bratwursts, but they keep getting stuck halfway down. Then the neon goes cross eyed and starts choking and I have to pull the sausage out. What am doing wrong? Should I start with Vienna cocktail franks and work the way up gradually to the big Bratwurst?
Do you park your car in your garage?
Stack 6 footers 2 high, 8 footers 1 high, run air for sponge filters, bigger sumps etc for the higher loads, build a 4 high cinder block pond in the middle with your bead filter or barrel sump in the crawl space.
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