Are we cruel!

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Akira Le

Feeder Fish
Mar 4, 2018
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Ok so are we cruel for keeping fish in a tank.

The fish we keep have a safe home and never have to worry about food, getting killed or anything realy.
some of the fish iv kept were so stupid probably never even noticed they were in a tank
but we all know alot do.
The way they come to the glass when u walk past, when they beg for food and so on.
so is that a fair trade freedom for a life of no worrys?

what do you guys think?
 
Lol, what i think is that its funny how this question seems to pop up around once a year on these boards...

But basically theres two sides to every story...

Yes they dont need to worry about food and predators (given the fish keeper in question knows about and cares for their fish properly)

Yet we also must consider in the wild most of the time they have a very large space to inhabit and roam around in, lots of stimuation and possibly better water conditions that what we can offer...

Then there is the fact if they dont like their current area they live in, nothing is stopping them from moving to better and nicer grounds...

Finally, we must also look at it from the grand scheme of things sometimes and realize a lot of fish end up in less than ideal tanks or conditions probably worse off than in the wild...

So is it cruel, maybe in certain ways but all we can do as a fish keeper is give them the best possible living space we can and not overcrowd them...
 
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Reminds me of a movie I watched last night called Papillon, made in 1973.
Its about this prisoner called Papillon that spent roughly 7 years in solitary confinement for trying to escape on several occasions...He made it eventually, looking rather rough physically for the experience.

I was reading a thread from a member here "thebiggerthebetter". In one of his threads he mentioned a fish that had to learn to swim again as it had been kept in a tank too small prior to that....

I surely am a better fish keeper now but that's on the back of killing many, many fish in my fish keeping career. Some decades ago I started keeping fish in glass jars....Then progressed onto glass aquariums that had no heating, no filtration, lol...
 
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Sometimes I think for the fish it's like being locked in a hotel room for the rest of your life with a cleaner and room service meals once a day. It's not how I'd choose to live but I could tolerate it.
If you imagine a dodgy motel room with a 12 other people you don't like ,crap food thrown through the window once a day and the heater stuck on high with no bathroom it would be terrible. But if it was a beautiful 5 star suite with a "breeding partner" , chef cooked meals delivered and a nice view it might not be too bad.
We can provide something close to the 5 star experience for our fish if we make the effort.
 
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My opinion is that you can’t consider the wild conditions for most of the fish in the hobby. Most of them were bred in captivity. First thing they saw once born was an air tube with an air stone in a tiny breeder tank. First meal they had was delivered by the hand of a human that they learnt to recognize and is why these fish crowd the front glass at pet stores. They have never seen a water body bigger than that of a fish tank. The water conditions they were raised in would be very different from natural. Is the hobby cruel? In my opinion it is the furthest thing from cruel. This hobby is responsible for the creation of all types of hybrids and the constant sustainable breeding of almost all fish in the industry. This hobby could be called playing god. With the exceptions of wild caught species. Even then these species suffer a greater threat to over fishing for food then they do aquaria.
 
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Lepisosteus said:
My opinion is that you can’t consider the wild conditions for most of the fish in the hobby. Most of them were bred in captivity. First thing they saw once born was an air tube with an air stone in a tiny breeder tank. First meal they had was delivered by the hand of a human that they learnt to recognize and is why these fish crowd the front glass at pet stores. They have never seen a water body bigger than that of a fish tank. The water conditions they were raised in would be very different from natural. Is the hobby cruel? In my opinion it is the furthest thing from cruel. This hobby is responsible for the creation of all types of hybrids and the constant sustainable breeding of almost all fish in the industry. This hobby could be called playing god. With the exceptions of wild caught species. Even then these species suffer a greater threat to over fishing for food then they do aquaria.
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True i always forget a lot of fish these days are captive bred rather than wild caught...

Although that probably has to do with me enjoying odd balls and rare fish more than anything else...
 
PYRU said:
When kept in too small of a tank in dirty water. Yeah I would consider that cruel.

Aside from that I don't think it is. Survival rates in the wild are very low.
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What about the fish collected from a stagnant puddle in the amazon, Australia or Africa drying up with little to no oxygen? Almost the same condition as some fish tanks.
 
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PYRU said:
When kept in too small of a tank in dirty water. Yeah I would consider that cruel.

Aside from that I don't think it is
Click to expand...

PYRU said:
Survival rates in the wild are very low
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Hello; Good points.
There is another area not yet mentioned. That is the supply side of the hobby. The breeder practices of some species. The culling that accompanies.it as an example. The Wal-mart bettas. The shipping losses. The wild caught practices.
 
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