It's OK big...at least you understand what I was pointing out. The vast majority of RTC's sold in LFS's never even have the sort of accomidations that I'm talking about..let alone the in ground pools most people seem to assume they need for life. Our fish, to us, are no less familly members than our wolves and dogs and we have always and will always do what's necessary to make them happy and confortable for life.
We don't discard familly members because they become inconveniant.
We had a lot of the same flack about a TSN we picked up...It was going to outgrow our 240 gallon tank in three weeks and require a 10' x 6' x 4' tank by the end of the year...yadda yadda yadda.
I've kept fish for slightly over 30 years so I'm far from a beginer in the hobby.
The TSN by the way has been with us about a year now and has grown about 3" to 4" and is still quite comfortable in his original tank along with Lucy...my RTC. Plenty of swimming room, great diet and water conditions ECT.
The pallette tank was a suggestion for an acceptable TEMPORARY housing that wouldnt break the bank and was never intended to be presented as anything else. We have a couple of these as emergancy tanks and plan to get a couple more as transportation tanks when we move.
The information I posted on this thread was only ment as a counterpoint to the normal horror storys, so common on this site about fish growing a foot a month.
Granted people usually buy these types of fish without having a clue as to thier eventual needs but a certian amount of realistic information is necessory.
They CAN in fact be kept in home aquaria for life if the owner is willing to upgrade as necessary. I've personally had fish live in my care for 15...18...and 22 years respectivly. This is far longer than the majority of people here have even been in the hobby.
Additionally I don't find the use of converted kiddy pools to be at all responsable even though they give a lot of swimming room because of the temporary nature of the construction. They present a danger of failure from day one that only increases the longer they are kept in servace.
I didn't respond to this, by the way, in a defencive manor but rather to clear up a few obvious misconceptions about what I posted. I KNOW my fish are well kept...healthy...happy...and set for life no mater what they need.
Outdoor ponds have thier own set of dangers including local wildlife...storms...temperiture control and the possibillity of introduced wind born pesticides. I've delt with this quite a bit in Koi ponds I've set up over the years.
The container tank project is moving along really well and although it still looks to be a good year or so in the future it's growing closer and closer to reality.
