Fish-Keeping Myths?????????

[Ornatapinnis]

Del;

Some fish do "gulp" air at the surface for resporation like anabantoids for example (betta, gourami, etc..) THey have a labrynth organ that absorbs oxygen.


How 'bout the 1" of fish per gallon rule? Or the 2" of fish per gallon for salt water?

Or, evaporation of water is the same as doing a water change.

 

[rallysman]

I was going to mention the 1" rule too......according to that rule i can get a 300" fish!!!!
Man...arapaima come home

I know it has something to do with the girth and not just the length...but its still stupid.

The evaporation thing cracks me up.
I hear that "grow to the size of the tank" crap and i get so pissed. The 16" clown knife i got was in a 29 gallon tank. Yea...that tank sure stopped him from growing. I dont even know how it lived that long.

 

[Gooda]

I was going to mention the 1" rule too......according to that rule i can get a 300" fish!!!!
Man...arapaima come home

I know it has something to do with the girth and not just the length...but its still stupid.

The evaporation thing cracks me up.
I hear that "grow to the size of the tank" crap and i get so pissed. The 16" clown knife i got was in a 29 gallon tank. Yea...that tank sure stopped him from growing. I dont even know how it lived that long.

or the 22'' long pleco in the 20 gallon. where is the ASPCA when you need them?

OH! Heres a good myth. I actually heard this one from a fish store owner... appearantly, all of my brackish water fish, were born in fresh, grow out in brackish and then life their adult life in the ocean... I can just see my archer or violet goby swimming back upstream with the salmon to spawn... I don't shop there any more.

 

[jenBLKAROWANA]

or the 22'' long pleco in the 20 gallon. where is the ASPCA when you need them?

OH! Heres a good myth. I actually heard this one from a fish store owner... appearantly, all of my brackish water fish, were born in fresh, grow out in brackish and then life their adult life in the ocean... I can just see my archer or violet goby swimming back upstream with the salmon to spawn... I don't shop there any more.

Oh....but there are some brackish fish that when they reach adulthood, they do prefere full salt water....Like Scats, and Monos.....But the Archer is a full on brackish fish.....

I too hate the "fish will only grow th the size of the tank you have it in"
I still go round and round with one of the girls I work with....She put 5 Oscars in a 40 gallon tank....Then some died, and she got rid of a couple....She now has only 2 in there, and acording to her, they had stopped growing....I tried to explain to her that they are still growing....they may not be showing it on the outside, but the insides are still growing....She said one had a "broken" back look to it....DUHHHH!!! He is now deformed because of his surroundings.

Ok....Done ranting!!!

Jen

 

[stotty]

How about

1 Catfish will keep your tank clean
2 Algae eaters will keep your tank clean

 

[stotty]

haha, i know, I'm ashamed now. Here's what's worse. I told my students that goldfish have a 3 sec. memory... I should be banned from the forum and my teaching license revoked.

Had to look it up have a look at this then go back to you students and REDEAM YOU SELF

http://www.answerbag.com/a_view.php/16265

 

[astronatus]

I did have a tank busting pike cichlid, it liked rearranging rocks and sometimes got exhuberant, one night it rammed a rock into the end of the tank hard enough to crack it.

Really??? So I guess that one is not a myth after all. People mention it like it happens all the time...I kind of imagine an overgrown red bellied pacu or peacock bass flopping on the wet floor with glass everywhere, but I had never known anyone who had actually seen it happen to them. Interesting...

 

[astronatus]

As for the 3 second memory thing, I cant tell you how many fish I have caught with hooks in their mouths or holes where hooks have been. Im pretty sure I have even caught the same fish twice on the same trip (large shad, I think).

Bullheads are bad about that, as are bluegills, though at least they have the excuse of being in schools where they have to lunge at the food without really evaluating it.

 

[fishnutham]

Really??? So I guess that one is not a myth after all. People mention it like it happens all the time...I kind of imagine an overgrown red bellied pacu or peacock bass flopping on the wet floor with glass everywhere, but I had never known anyone who had actually seen it happen to them. Interesting...

thats the same reason my rocks came out of my oscar tank he was knocking them againest the glass

 

[sandtiger]

As for the 3 second memory thing, I cant tell you how many fish I have caught with hooks in their mouths or holes where hooks have been. Im pretty sure I have even caught the same fish twice on the same trip (large shad, I think).

Bullheads are bad about that, as are bluegills, though at least they have the excuse of being in schools where they have to lunge at the food without really evaluating it.

There is an easy explanation for that. Survival. Wild fish don't have time to sulk around and feel sorry for themselves like humans do, injured or not they have to keep on fighting for survival. So when something comes by that looks like fod, something that looks like a prey animal they have probably eaten thousands of time they cannot stop and think "wait, this animal might be dangerious" because then they would starve. What would happen to a fish that stopped eating something because at one point in it's life it got injured by the same animal?

Some fish do start to recognize lures and such, one reason why large fish such as bass are harder to catch. Bass have been known to avoid eating objects with swivels or other objects that they associate with dangerious prey.
Some fish will often avoid certain wild food items as well.

Studys have shown that largemouths will attempt to eat a toad tadpole (toxic) but after tasting the nasty thing will avoid them further on, but were still able to tell a toad tadpole from a frog tadpole. Another example I know of was with my gf's father's oscar. Apperently this oscar was often fed feeders, until one day it was given some bass fry. The oscar was spiked in the mouth and due to this it took him a long time to ever trust feeders again. An oscar can afford to do this however, because they have plenty of food in other forms and no competition while a wild fish that gets poked really has no choice in the matter.

You have to put yourself in the fish's position, think like a fish. When you do that you will begin to realize that some of the behaviors or actions that seem stupid to us begin to make a lot of sense.