A new era of leniency toward huge fish in undersized tanks?

[señor_pescados_felices]

First of all let me say I am not trying to start a flame war and if it turns into that then by all means the thread should be closed. I am genuinely curious as to the current views of your average MFK'er.

For the first few years after MFK came out there were not very many araipima, goonch, or wels catfish out there. Arapaimag and Johnptc were some of the few people who had them.

Whenever someone posted a "WTB" thread for a gigas or a "look what I just got for my 125g" thread there would be a plethora of members lining up to sling the old "you better be planning to get a huge tank or a pond".

Then a few years in those fish started becoming more available and people actually started putting them into their 200's and 250's and in some cases the rare 300-500g tanks with the excuse that it was "just for grow-out purposes" and that the fish will eventually "get a much larger tank". By saying the fish would get a much larger tank it avoided the thread being filled with "you better be getting a pond" posts, but some of these people had no intentions of getting a bigger tank.

Now many of those people who purchased the pimas a year or two ago saying that the fish would get a bigger tank have 2-3' pimas in tanks that are 2-400g at best...with still no immediate plans to upgrade. Most of them simply stopped posting pics of their tank.

Furthermore I now see people buying Arapaima and wels catfish and being open about the fact that the fish are not going into a 400g+ tank. I see people buying arapaima whom I have been to their house personally to buy fish and know that the gigas will live the rest of its life in a 300g max.

These days I rarely ever see the classic "you better be getting a huge tank or a pond" comments when somone posts a "WTB arapaima" thread or a "look at my 15inch pima in my 250 that I swear will get a bigger tank someday" threads.

So what I am wondering is why the sudden leniency?

I personally have adopted more or less a "its their fish they do what they want with it" type of stance...has the majority of MFK done so as well?

Are we tired of ranting and raving about the proper care of large fish only to have our words fall on def ears 9 times out of 10? Tired of beating the dead horse?

Or have we become much more open minded in the sense that we see that every arapaima in a 250g+ is one less arapaima in a 55-75g?

Just curious as to the cause of the change. Have people changed their minds or are opinions on the matter just not being voiced so much...

 

[Darth Scohin]

Deaf Ears is my vote, that or the House of Sam might get a few more fishes (lol)

 

[irishfan]

I still see a lot of threads where people recommend needing bigger tanks, but that is more in the realm of stupidity on a small level. Oscars, rd's jags, etc. There are a few I see with huge fish and tanks no where near big enough. I guess, what can you do, as you said they are there fish and do what they want.

 

[TTTT]

Well lots of people who have overstocked tanks have it also overfiltered so the fish isn't sitting in dirty water.

I have noticed that people on here will reccomend a smaller tank/more fish in a tank then on other forums..

But I'd say this is the best one.

 

[Cecropia]

Having an anuerysm over someone 1000 miles away who isn't going to listen because what they're being told isn't what they want to hear isn't high on my priorities list.

more often than not the OP of a thread knows very well they're over stocked or at least fears it and tend to get defensive when their fears are confirmed.

 

[CTU2fan]

There's been an influx of very aggressive overstockers around here. They openly talk about their overstocking, and they're borderline obnoxious about it, they come with the my fish my rules stuff, they brag about their $$$ etc...and show up in buy&sell after 6 months selling everything so they can move on to the next fad. And they develop a little entourage of sheeple who defend them, they come with "you're jealous" or "I bet his params are better than yours" etc etc etc. But the stupidity of it is, your params don't mean a damned thing if you've stuffed a 3' fish in a 18" wide tank. There's a difference between throwing 25 12" fish in a 125, filtering the hell out of it, and having healthy (maybe stressed, but healthy I suppose) fish in it...and sticking 6 3' fish in said tank. All the filtration in the world won't help those fish turn around.

IMO it's actually getting better though, better than say 6 months-a year ago. I guess the richies are moving on to the next fad, and it's not fish keeping. Lucky for the fish, and for us.

 

[Bderick67]

You can only try to educate those who may be naive, and not waste time with the morons. So many morons

 

[gt1009]

I still feel that most threads have a few people posting saying that fish will need a larger tank, but the reality is that the people who buy that pima saying that they have a "big tank", which may be huge for anyone's standards, still will not upgrade to that 10,000 gallon when their pima gets big, and figure that they just grow to 3ft and die in their "huge" 600g.

 

[TwistedPenguin]

The majority of people bragging about one fish or another and overstocking aren't even going to have the same fish in 9 months. So there's seldom any sense in answering their posts, trying to be helpful or offering advice.

 

[Pharaoh]

The reality is that people still post and urge the member to upgrade, but they are expected to do so with respect. It probably seems as though it has died down because the flamers have been reeled in a bit.