Why Do We Buy Fish That Grow Bigger Than Our Tank?
- Thread starter Sarcosuchus
- Start date
Because of
1- Uninformed decision
2- Attraction of owning a bigger fish
3- Due to false identification
4- Influenced by River Monster .
I think these are the reasons.
1- Uninformed decision
2- Attraction of owning a bigger fish
3- Due to false identification
4- Influenced by River Monster .
I think these are the reasons.
Some people do it with every intention of getting a large enough tank before it is a problem. After reading this forum for many years, I get the impression that usually doesn't happen. Also I read about people that intentionally do it thinking they can give it to a public aquarium at some point.
Yay another one of these threads. Picture above says it all, though I do think PC Principal would say we have to be accepting of all uninformed/uncaring decision makers.
Like a guy that buys a Wels or Alligator Gar with 4ft tank. I could never understand why. Very few actually upgrade and in some cases there is no sufficient upgrade ie. Acipenser transmontanus (White Sturgeon). Some species are not meant for home aquaria.
Lol.... I bought my first RTC cuz the guy at the LFS said it only got about a foot fully grown. They also had it labelled wrong. Don't remember what it was they called it, but it was completely wrong. :/ I knew something was up when two weeks later it had doubled in size. Did my research. Sent some pics to friends who are a bit more worldly than I. Found out what I really had. Got excited.... Then went "OH!!!!!" when I realized a 125 just wasn't gunna do it. I got on craigslist looking for people getting rid/selling pools or pool liners. Found a gal next town over who had a intex pool free to good home. Picked it up, bought some 2x4s, plywood, and insulation foam. Made a "pond" in my garage and moved him and my Oscars into it ASAP. That lasted for about a year and it was time to upgrade slightly so he could turn round easier. Unfortunately he didn't make it to the next "pond." 
I have mine mainly by accident - I bought a 220 litre aquarium off ebay with the intention of keeping 50 odd white cloud mountain minnows in it by the side of my bed. It was advertised as already having five fish in it, but from the pictures it looked like they were just platies. Fine. whatever.
What it actually came with was three platies (and some of their fry) two danios, and a four inch Leopard bushfish - none of which the owner told me, and I didn't know until I opened the buckets and did a little internet investigation. I evacuated the platies and Danios to my son's tank, bought some silver dollars to keep the leopard company, and started making plans to buy a bigger tank. I had some loose plans to acquire a 700l from ebay, put the leopard and the dollars in there and maybe also buy an African knife fish. I had read about the black ghost, but decided against it.
However, last Friday, I was investigating a fish shop near me - it had been open a couple of months and was operating out of a shipping container (not joking), and I spotted a 10 inch black ghost knife fish. He was attempting to hide behind the filter in a tank 12 inches deep and about 2 ft long - maybe 100 litres tops - and he was sharing the space with a large synodontis and a red snakehead.
I asked the owner about the black ghost, and was told he'd been there about a month and that he'd been eating flake food. So I bought him in the full knowledge that he would probably outgrow my tank fairly soon, because it was better than leaving him where he was.
aqadvisor isn't throwing up any red flags with their current sizes, but it's only a matter of time - especially as he's eating properly now - and I'm making concrete plans to get a 500l - 700l after Christmas.
I've put a video of them on youtube:
What it actually came with was three platies (and some of their fry) two danios, and a four inch Leopard bushfish - none of which the owner told me, and I didn't know until I opened the buckets and did a little internet investigation. I evacuated the platies and Danios to my son's tank, bought some silver dollars to keep the leopard company, and started making plans to buy a bigger tank. I had some loose plans to acquire a 700l from ebay, put the leopard and the dollars in there and maybe also buy an African knife fish. I had read about the black ghost, but decided against it.
However, last Friday, I was investigating a fish shop near me - it had been open a couple of months and was operating out of a shipping container (not joking), and I spotted a 10 inch black ghost knife fish. He was attempting to hide behind the filter in a tank 12 inches deep and about 2 ft long - maybe 100 litres tops - and he was sharing the space with a large synodontis and a red snakehead.
I asked the owner about the black ghost, and was told he'd been there about a month and that he'd been eating flake food. So I bought him in the full knowledge that he would probably outgrow my tank fairly soon, because it was better than leaving him where he was.
aqadvisor isn't throwing up any red flags with their current sizes, but it's only a matter of time - especially as he's eating properly now - and I'm making concrete plans to get a 500l - 700l after Christmas.
I've put a video of them on youtube:
search for my thread about things grinding my gears and that will give you about 1/3 of the reason owners do it.
the other 2/3 are as the above said: misinformed or well-intentioned and never follow through.
the other 2/3 are as the above said: misinformed or well-intentioned and never follow through.
I'm at the maximum number of tanks and size of tanks per policy instituted by my wife and I've managed to get her to amend said policy by buying fish too big for current setups. I simply weed down new fish options to a couple that I would like, let her pick the one she likes which is usually the biggest but she doesn't ask it's size and when things start to get tight she notices I need a bigger tank and I get to upgrade.