How do people do this?

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Snoke FIsh

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 9, 2024
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Was scrolling one instagram and saw these videos. These are like expensive big fish with a big bioload how do they genuinly handle this
 
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To be fair Ive had comments like that on FB but on a feeding video it shows everything in one space at one time then when you look at the tank normally looks like barely any fish
 
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I suppose part of the trick is replacing the sensible part of your brain that says "I should not dunk every monster fish I can get my hands on into my tank just because I can" with "RAAAAAAAAH I am a BIG MACHO MAN with BULGING STRONG MUSCLES and my GIANT FISH prove how TOUGH AND MASCULINE I am".

Even if you could contrive a setup for these fish that won't become an ammonia pit in three days, I wouldn't derive any enjoyment from a ray-datnoid-pbass-RTC-gar-pangasius alphabet soup tank that looks like it came out of a Britains toy box rather than anything natural. And I'm not even a biotope fanatic, it must give duanes physical pain to look at these setups.
 
Hello; This is a variation of an argument ongoing for decades. Essentially at what level does overstocking begin? To some degree it is like the definition of pornography in a court case. The classic answer being even if I cannot define it, I know it when I see it.
One of the mods on this site ( duanes duanes ) has made several posts. He essentially compares our glass boxes to most any natural/wild water native to a species. The answer being our tanks are pitifully small compared to practically all wild habitats of space & gallons. A lone guppy in a 50 gallon tank still falls short of a wild habitat. I agree with such a take.
So, we descend to a secondary level. What level of stocking density can we justify in some way? I knew of a one -inch per gallon rule in my youth. There is a generally accepted standard using the three more commonly tested chemicals in the tank water, Ammonia, nitrite & nitrate. The notion is if your ammonia & nitrite are zero and the nitrate is no more than 20ppm, then you are good.
However there are other thing in tank water I do not think are tested for. Stress, sex and other hormones emitted by the fish. Decay byproducts. Minerals left behind during evaporation and so on. The standard revolves around water changes (WC). The debate ranges around volume (% of a tank) and frequency.

Back to my first concept of comparison to wild water bodies, then the WC will fall very short unless it equals a natural flow. Not impossible but very expensive.

So, it would appear to boil to what we can get away with. Maybe put another way what our sense of right will tolerate if we actually consider the notion at all. Some like to think that lots of power filtration makes a difference. Some have a sump approaching the tank volume.

There are apparently folks who take time from their lives to go around and look for dogs on chains outside or in cages. Or horses. If the conditions do not fit their standards a pet owner can be arrested and the animals seized. I guess we could give up the right to privacy in our homes, and some agent could come in to inspect our tanks. Now if I was such an inspector bear in mind, I now have two 30-gallon tanks. One with four tiger barbs. The other with four rasboras. A 55-gallon tank with maybe ten zebra danios. Do you want my standard of stocking?
 
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JDM style .............



FYI - not difficult to achieve very high-water quality in tanks such as this, if you know what you are doing and willing to spend the money on a drip system etc.
I posted a link to a friend of mines tank several pages in, I believe that he changed out approx 400 gallons every 24 hrs, on his 550-gallon tank.

Not my cup of tea, but in some cases, the tank inhabitants are healthier than a lot of smaller set ups that I have seen over the years.
 
You must have been on different sub -forums or folders, I saw quite the opposite in "the good ol days". lol



BTW - my friend boydo had a JDM style tank back in the day, he was a proud member here, and with his set up water quality was NEVER an issue. His set ups were incredible, from the filtration, to the gas generated heat. The issue was crowding of large fish that in nature are never found in large groups. Confined in a glass box, and forced to be nose to nose often ends up in injury, stress, and the resulting illness. It's typically just a matter of time. Below is one of his past tanks, taken down by myself & Brett years ago. For reference the largest aro in this tank measured 31". (the green)

 
400 gallons every 24 hrs
Hello; that is 12,400 gallons in a month. ( 31 days) I get 2,000 gallons /month for a base price of around $30. I often use less than 1,000 gallons. There is a fee for any water use over 2000 gallons. I do not know what an extra 11,000 gallons would cost.
 
He probably had 20K worth of fish in that tank, the price of water wasn’t an issue. Lol
 
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I remember that JDM thread, totally nuts, lol.

You tend to get a lot of these type of tanks in Asia. The JDM stands for "Japanese Domestic Market" I believe. The live fish markets have tanks stuffed with fish, but it doesn't matter what the stocking levels are because punters are buying fish through the day so the stocking levels are immaterial really in that scenario.

But it would seem a few people....sorry, a lot of people, take that idea to the next level and employ the idea in the domestic hobby!

The obvious stand out hurdle from the get go is water quality but, as mentioned, drip systems deal with that. The water quality in an experienced JDM style keepers tank is probably better than your bog standard hobbyists tank!

The biggest headache for me would be choice of fish. Selecting species which will tolerate one another in such cramped conditions is key.

However, even if you manage to do that you've still got the actual aesthetics issue. I mean, look at some of those tanks. Can anyone honestly say that those tanks are pleasing on the eye. Not for me.
 
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