Overstocking rant

[dmopar74]

maybe someone can clarify the reason for "japanese style fishkeeping"

is it because of the specific appeal of big fish in smallish tanks

or

is it because large tanks are either hard to find over there or are very very expensive..so the average aquarist cannot aquire one as easlily?

thanks.

i call it GREED my man, throwing "japanese style" on a tank doesnt make it right.

 

[12 Volt Man]

exactly.

another thing that really pisses me off is when people see your fish that may not have grown to their maxium 'book value" sizes and they insist that your fish is automatically going to 'live a short life' or "die early" because it did not reach its full maximum potential size..

just because a fish does not reach its maximum size does not mean that it will die early, it does not mean it is sick, it does not mean it is unhealthy, and it does not mean that it is not happy...not all fish in nature reach full size either..but try telling them that...

I have been flamed for this because a lot of my fish in my fishroom are approaching 10 years old (I had a major restocking event when I moved home from university in second year in 98 and most of those fish are still with me today and healthly as can be..such as the clowns, for example) and some of those fish, probably from competition for food, did not reach their full maximum size..

apparently, according to some people (who have probably never even kept a fish alive for more than a year or two, never mind healthy for almost a decade LOL) some of my fish are going to drop dead tomorrow..

 

[courtneem]

That barely makes sense... lol

IMO, put a little fish in a bg tank so you don't have to buy another tank for it. "That would be a waste!"

Not a waste if you started out and already have the smaller tank to outgrow it I like the smaller tanks for various things and larger tanks for the big ones.

 

[Horiyoshi III]

RE: Plecos

"I need one of those Suck Mouth fishes to eat the crap off the bottom"

When I hear that. it makes me want to kill a kitten.

Probably said by the dude in your avatar huh!

 

[loach43]

Probably said by the dude in your avatar huh!

moran plaiko keeper!

 

[ShadowBass]

exactly.

another thing that really pisses me off is when people see your fish that may not have grown to their maxium 'book value" sizes and they insist that your fish is automatically going to 'live a short life' or "die early" because it did not reach its full maximum potential size..

just because a fish does not reach its maximum size does not mean that it will die early, it does not mean it is sick, it does not mean it is unhealthy, and it does not mean that it is not happy...not all fish in nature reach full size either..but try telling them that...

I have been flamed for this because a lot of my fish in my fishroom are approaching 10 years old (I had a major restocking event when I moved home from university in second year in 98 and most of those fish are still with me today and healthly as can be..such as the clowns, for example) and some of those fish, probably from competition for food, did not reach their full maximum size..

apparently, according to some people (who have probably never even kept a fish alive for more than a year or two, never mind healthy for almost a decade LOL) some of my fish are going to drop dead tomorrow..

Never had anyone tell me anything like that, but I must agree that that is definately not true.
In the wild not all fish grow to max size, some even stay very small and it doesn't mean they're stunted, they are usually just eliminated in the wild if they don't grow fast enough because they get eaten.
My rivertank is a pretty good example of what happens in the wild. I started with 5 shadow bass. One of them stayed very small and grew a lot slower than the others (keep in mind none of them are full grown yet anyway). I have a bullhead in there. The other 4 rock bass grew just fine and grew big enough to not get eaten. The small one ended up getting eaten by my bullhead because the bullhead grew fast and he just didn't grow enough to keep from getting eaten. That may seem harsh, but I'm not going to set up a seperate tank to keep one wild fish alive that was not genetically strong enough to grow at the same rate as all the other fish. This had nothing to do with bad water quality or stunting, every single other fish has grown GREAT, and in fact I have a madtom that is about to exceed normal max size.
Some fish just are NOT meant to grow to max size, either because of genetics or poor appetite. These weaker fish are only kept alive in aquariums because there are no predators to take advantage of them.
That's why good breeders cull or don't breed poor specimens. Even in a tank with pristine water quality you will end up with fish from the same batch that don't grow NEAR the size of the other fish or even barely grow at all. Size alone is never a good indicator of water quality, and anyone that uses that as the primary indicator of water quality doesn't know what they are doing.

 

[ShadowBass]

Not a waste if you started out and already have the smaller tank to outgrow it I like the smaller tanks for various things and larger tanks for the big ones.

I agree. When fish outgrow tanks I either put new fish in the smaller tanks or sell the tank. Someone is always looking for a used tank so they're not that hard to get rid of, and selling a tank is not a waste at all IMO.
Plus I can use the money from that tank to partially fund the new tank.

 

[ewurm]

Probably said by the dude in your avatar huh!

Yes, that customer comes in three times a day. Always looks the same, but same old stupid questions.

Customer: I would like a fish that eats algae

Wurm: Try a magnet scraper

Customer: I would rather the fish do the work.

Wurm: ~Headbutt~