I think with any online public forum, reputation capital is earned with time. Everything else comes with a certain risk factor. Outside of a vetted community, such as we have here, everyone & anyone can become an overnight expert - which IMO is precisely why many people drifted to sites such as facebook and youtube. It's easy to talk smack, when no one can call you out on it in front of the masses.
That is true. I do not consider myself an expert by any means of the imagination, I have not earned that distinction yet. A lot of people say they are an expert because they have been in the fish hobby for X amount of years. But the amount of years, you've kept fish is not what makes an expert. To me, an expert is someone who studies a group of fish for years, goes to the wild and sees the fish in the natural environment. But for the hobby, an expert can be someone who has successful kept and breed many species of fish.
That is not to say that people who have kept fish for years are not knowledgeable. They teach from their experience and often times have some of the best advice you will ever get, a lot of people with experience have helped me become a better fish keeper.
A fish species that I have a lot of experience in is some silverdollar species particularly Myleus and a bit of knowledge on pacu. I have been keeping Myleus for about 10 years or so ever since I was 14. I have read up on them via articles online, read aquarium books, asked other fish keepers, etc but I don't consider myself an expert on them, just someone with a lot of knowledge.
I will be the first to admit, when I was younger and in my teens when I had an account on here, I was a naive jackass who ignored advice and did what I wanted. It led to me being an irresponsible fish keeper. As I grew up, I started to realize that I needed to reconsider my fish keeping and I decided a whole new approach. I decided that I would stick with the ''2' '' or less monsters such as the myleus, oscars, chocolate cichlids, etc because I can maintain and keep them their entire lives. Sure, I may have a monster but I enjoy growing them up and then I found a reasonably sized tank to rehome them. There is a woman up here in Western MA, that has a 800 gallon aquarium ( I think, maybe less) but she often takes in fish. She also has a 300, 220 and a 180 and she takes very good care of her fish. In fact, she got the last of my monsters a few years ago which were a TSN, a show sized gibby pleco, and a Peacock Bass who I had for years who was 18''+.
I often tell people on my show and in various fish posts on Facebook, to keep fish that they enjoy but they need to research up on the fish and be dedicated to that fish, get the biggest tank you can, and make sure you can later on upgrade.
Back, when I was naive, I HATED being called out. But, I deserved being called out at the time because I did not listen to the advice I was given and I was being a jack ass.
Now, I have mixed feelings about being called out. I am a person who doesn't handle criticism well because outside of fish keeping, I used to be criticized for everything I did by my so ''called'' friends at the time. But, I have learned to listen to the good criticism and ignore the bad.
Facebook is a terrible place for Fish keeper's. There are so many cocky, jerk fish keepers who think their **** don't stink. I bet, I can name a few and some MFK members will know who I am talking about, but I don't wanna start trouble. I have left multiple groups due to these people shaming beginners for their mistakes instead of helping and then claimed they are there to promote the fish keeping hobby yet they delete people who promote their youtube videos, they have deleted all my fish keeping shows and I have been booted out of so many groups.... but tell me again how those facebook groups promote the hobby?
I guess I'm one of those.
The one fish I really know my stuff on nobody keeps so that sucks. All of the knifefish section is just CKs everywhere
Which fish is it? I may have kept it...
