When Freshwater meat Saltwater

[SimonL]

I don't understand why people say things like that. If you think it's bad to own blood parrots, then you must also believe that people shouldn't own dogs or cats. When you stop and think about it, dogs and cats were hybridized for our amusement, and a dog or cat wouldn't live as long in the wild, so would you say that it's wrong to own them?

He's not saying we shouldn't keep them, he's differentiating between keeping animals for the animal's well-being and keeping them for our own pleasure. It is impossible to draw the line where modifying the behaviour/body of an animal is "right or wrong". From an biological/evolutionary perspective, killing marine fish by keeping them in freshwater is no different than keeping them in ideal conditions for their entire lives. both have been prevented from propagating the species.

Regardless of how big your aquarium is, or how well kept your fish are, unless they are breeding you are compromising the fish's health and natural behaviour, for your own amusement.

 

[Pufferpunk]

That makes sense.

 

[fugupuff]

He's not saying we shouldn't keep them, he's differentiating between keeping animals for the animal's well-being and keeping them for our own pleasure. It is impossible to draw the line where modifying the behaviour/body of an animal is "right or wrong". From an biological/evolutionary perspective, killing marine fish by keeping them in freshwater is no different than keeping them in ideal conditions for their entire lives. both have been prevented from propagating the species.

Regardless of how big your aquarium is, or how well kept your fish are, unless they are breeding you are compromising the fish's health and natural behaviour, for your own amusement.

I couldn't have said it better! Thank you for this, and I'll leave it as it is.

 

[niblit]

i think this is awsome,in fact a i have a norwegian forest cat that i tried to acclimate to fresh water but his tail got sucked into the filter and he scratched the heck out of me

 

[festerfish]

i vote to delete this post its been up to long and pissis me off everytime i see it!

 

[Pufferpunk]

ME TOO!!!

 

[badisbadis101]

People hate this thread, it seems, but i think it is extremely interesting in that is discusses the morality and ethics behind keeping fish.

Obviously all aquariums are smaller than the wild.Think about the thousands of bettas sold every year to sit in cramped cups and wait for the ammonia levels to kill them. The vast majority of people who buy them no nothing about water quality or even think twice about keeping a creature in a container it can barely turn around in.

Secondly, how many of us keep our fish in our tap water, instead of water that would replicate their natural environment best? Angelfish and discus at pH of 7 or 8 instead of 4, 5, or 6. African cichlids at 7 instead of 8 or 9. And no one bothers to question this. In fact, so many of our fish are now captive bred that most have never seen the water that their species lives in in nature. We stretch temperature preferences, water hardness, pH, etc to make our fish easier for us to keep.

I do it. And i honeslty beleive my fish are healthy, and reasonably "happy". Many of them spawn. Many of them do not or cannot. Every one of my fish is kept in unmodified tapwater at room temperature, which varies from 70 to 80 throughout the year. My water has a pH of about 8 and moderate hardness, and i keep fish from tetras to rasboras to malawi cichlids to angelfish to livebearers. Honestly, my water probably does not match any of their natural conditions. Am i torturing them? i honestly cannot say.

I will never keep freshwater fish and saltwater fish together, because i prefer "realistic" setups. Even that is a stretch in this hobby. High densities of fish in glass boxes is in no way realistic, but we can pretend.

To me, his hobby is about enjoying the fish, and doing the best we can to keep them healthy. Does that mean providing perfect conditions? normally no

 

[duster1971]

ok the above post is right but can you really enjoy your fish if they have no enjoyment of life them selves a tank is as un natural as it comes any way but to put marine fish int strait fresh out of the tap purified water is just satanic as far as im consurnd and i do agree with the moderator we shuld just let him be and mabe when they die and there is a post about it and how upset he is we can all give one big told u so. and for any body that is thinking of doing this dont unless u just want to throw ur mony away. and as to the op go get a bag put it on ur head and breath deep and see how it feels after a while then u might get an idea on how ur fish feel. and ps no sympathy for stupidity.

 

[Dudzy]

Haters are gonna hate.
Yes in many ways he is doing bad, but hell I would do it.
I love fishing, and I love keeping fish aswell.
So I see both worlds of fish lives- the glass tank life and the brutal real life.

Keep us posted on how they go, hopefully we will see a feeding video next.

 

[badisbadis101]

duster - the question becomes how can you tell if your fish have any enjoyment of life? We really cannot tell. I am all for keeping your fish as happy and healthy as possible, but happiness is something i do not think we are capable of judging.