I've been lucky with keeping a few species without the internet but must confess have killed many due to ignorance. I remember my Mother would thoroughly washout our aquariums and refill with tap water no dechlorinator. I've seen many species that are now actually rare to find. I remember having a custom made hood for a Metal Halide bulb and I would always say wow it's like the sun is in the room lol. Fish hobbyist today have no excuse for failure with all of the resources they have now.
To young and old
- Thread starter esoxlucius
- Start date
I'm a fairly new fish keeper compared to you guys. I've started 2014 and I've been going since. Of course we had the generic fish tank that every home has at one point, mostly with inappropriately housed fish and the most common plecos that you can fit (you now the more you have the cleaner your tank will be). No regard to temperature what so ever and the only thing that you would call a "water change" that we did is that we took all the inhabitants out and put them in a bucket while scooping the water with pitchers and scrubbing the glass, and we did that whenever the tank got "dirty". I was a kid at that time so I wasn't involved much so my parents were the one doing it. The fish were not lasting very much so they decided to ditch the idea, but gladly they didn't throw the equipment. Because after X number of years I really got into fishkeeping, mainly because I enjoyed watching cichlidman09 on YT (he's a cool dude and the one who pulled me into fishkeeping). And I'm really great full for the wealth of information that is easily accessible on any platform. I can't imagine the amount of frustration that I avoided by listening to your guys advice on this forum or any other platform and I'm really thankful for that.
You've absolutely nailed it there Tom. No hobbyist should have any excuses whatsoever for failure when you think of the scale of information at their fingertips. But fail they do, as do even more experienced hobbyists from time to time. And that shows you what a staggeringly complex hobby we have chosen. There are so many things that can, and do go wrong.
I'm currently researching the pants of anoxic filtration in the form of biocenosis clarification tubs. Man, my brain is exhausted, but my understanding is improving, i'm getting my head around it slowly. Doing this years and years ago would have been totally impossible without modern day research.
despite what it says on my profile (safety measure of course) im pretty young (15). ive alsways lived in an apartment and fish are the only pets ive been allowed until we recently moved, so ive always had some form of tank. until about 5 or 6 years ago just that inappropriately small goldfish bowl, removing the fish and scrubbing the gravel and glass when it "gets dirty". here in sri lanka koi and goldfish are by far the most popular fish here, but the more exotic fish arent exactly rare. however, just basic fish keeping info is really hard to come across, most people dont even know what cycling is. i was lucky enough to get to know the owner of my lfs pretty well and hes been awesome with helping me out over the past few years, and i have only come across maybe one or two people who were more knowledgable when selling fish (but maybe coz i dont speak the native language too well), unfortunately leading to a good number of mistakes, but u live and u learn right? once i got good access to the internet, ive tried to do things the proper safer way and ive tried helping others to do so as well.
We're well into the 21st century...you have internet access...there is literally no info on any topic that is hard to find. The idea expressed in virtually every post on this thread is the fact that information is free, plentiful and almost instantly available. This is the single biggest difference between then and now.
Of course, today it appears that the limiting factor is time. Many folks lead such stressful and hectic lives that they can't be bothered with things like punctuation, spelling, etc...so how can they do research?
i managed to find my way to the internet, but most people here dont. part of the problem is internet access and another is the guys selling the fish dont know **** so when people buy they dont end up with the questions that need to be asked.
C'mon, spill the beans you grumpy old sod, you can talk to old esox. Who's been neglecting our beautiful english language and has forgot to use a comma, full stop, or capital letter here and there?
C'mon, spill the beans you grumpy old sod, you can talk to old esox. Who's been neglecting our beautiful english language and has forgot to use a comma, full stop, or capital letter here and there?
R u kidding me their everywhere just read almost any thread if u can't find examples i will make u a list b4 turning in tonite
Same for me, the forum has saved me from a lot of dead fish, fighting fish, or scarred fish episodes that could have happened.
