Ok, this is probably nothing new to the long-time hobbyists here, but I'm stunned.
I stopped by a fish store in a neighboring town today on the way home. As I was about to leave, I spied an attractive pamphlet on a rack for Eclipse aquariums and hoods. The cover featured a nice photo of a 37 gallon tank with approximately (a VERY rough estimate) 50 inches of fish. Well, that's nothing new... pretty much all aquarium packaging shows photos of waaaayyyy overstocked setups.
Intrigued, I picked it up and began to flip through it. An inside flip-out page showed a 25 high and a 15 high. The 25 had twelve large goldfish in it. Hmmmm. But the 15 had a whopping FIFTY rasboras. There were so many of them, it looked like one of those densely packed feeder goldfish/minnow tanks you see at the LFS.
But wait, there's more!
The next page showed their Eclipse System Three, a tiny 3g tank with TWELVE goldfish swimming in what was undoubtedly a toxic soup of fish waste and ammonia.
Things now improved a bit. The 6g was stocked with "only" five goldfish.
But the last page showed their 12g setup as a reef tank. It was stocked with two Banggai cardinals, two clownfish (I think they were cinnamons), four damsels, and a yellow tang. Simply unbelievable.
I know there's an unending, heated debate over what constitutes an appropriately-sized tank for a tang. Some say a 6ft. tank is the bare minimum, while others say a 55 is fine. But a TWELVE GALLON tank?
Now, before I get too excited here, let me acknowledge that these fish were probably just placed in these tanks for the photo shoot, then returned to larger tanks. However, it is unbelievable that this otherwise well-respected company would choose to send a message that stocking an aquarium like this is standard practice.
Yes, if a potential aquarium buyer does even a modest amount of research, they'll quickly learn that these photos are purely fictional. But, for a moment, put yourself in the shoes of a total newbie who walks into the LFS for the first time to buy an aquarium. He sees all these photos, which give him a certain expectation of what kinds of fish he could house in these various aquariums. I mean, yes, more research would be prudent, but to a newcomer, these photos indicate that 50 fish crammed in a 15 gallon aquarium is fine, and that a 12 gallon saltwater tank can house similarly high levels of fish, including an active fish that, if he somehow managed to live long enough, would only have a about 12 inches of swimming room and barely enough space to turn around.
There's always a chance that an honest LFS would intervene and prevent a this kind of disaster. But regardless, this is nothing short of blatantly false advertising. I work in advertising, so I'm familiar with stretching the truth a bit, and trying to glamorize products. Maybe it's just an honest mistake, a case of the marketing department getting a little carried away. I don't think so. It think it is clearly intentional deception. Of course they know that these aquariums can't support that many fish... but they've gotten away with it for so long, maybe adding another fish or two to their product photos every year or two, and never getting called on it. I've heard stories of the FTC coming down hard on companies for MUCH lesser infractions than this.
I am so disgusted.
--Mike
I stopped by a fish store in a neighboring town today on the way home. As I was about to leave, I spied an attractive pamphlet on a rack for Eclipse aquariums and hoods. The cover featured a nice photo of a 37 gallon tank with approximately (a VERY rough estimate) 50 inches of fish. Well, that's nothing new... pretty much all aquarium packaging shows photos of waaaayyyy overstocked setups.
Intrigued, I picked it up and began to flip through it. An inside flip-out page showed a 25 high and a 15 high. The 25 had twelve large goldfish in it. Hmmmm. But the 15 had a whopping FIFTY rasboras. There were so many of them, it looked like one of those densely packed feeder goldfish/minnow tanks you see at the LFS.
But wait, there's more!
The next page showed their Eclipse System Three, a tiny 3g tank with TWELVE goldfish swimming in what was undoubtedly a toxic soup of fish waste and ammonia.
Things now improved a bit. The 6g was stocked with "only" five goldfish.
But the last page showed their 12g setup as a reef tank. It was stocked with two Banggai cardinals, two clownfish (I think they were cinnamons), four damsels, and a yellow tang. Simply unbelievable.
I know there's an unending, heated debate over what constitutes an appropriately-sized tank for a tang. Some say a 6ft. tank is the bare minimum, while others say a 55 is fine. But a TWELVE GALLON tank?
Now, before I get too excited here, let me acknowledge that these fish were probably just placed in these tanks for the photo shoot, then returned to larger tanks. However, it is unbelievable that this otherwise well-respected company would choose to send a message that stocking an aquarium like this is standard practice.
Yes, if a potential aquarium buyer does even a modest amount of research, they'll quickly learn that these photos are purely fictional. But, for a moment, put yourself in the shoes of a total newbie who walks into the LFS for the first time to buy an aquarium. He sees all these photos, which give him a certain expectation of what kinds of fish he could house in these various aquariums. I mean, yes, more research would be prudent, but to a newcomer, these photos indicate that 50 fish crammed in a 15 gallon aquarium is fine, and that a 12 gallon saltwater tank can house similarly high levels of fish, including an active fish that, if he somehow managed to live long enough, would only have a about 12 inches of swimming room and barely enough space to turn around.
There's always a chance that an honest LFS would intervene and prevent a this kind of disaster. But regardless, this is nothing short of blatantly false advertising. I work in advertising, so I'm familiar with stretching the truth a bit, and trying to glamorize products. Maybe it's just an honest mistake, a case of the marketing department getting a little carried away. I don't think so. It think it is clearly intentional deception. Of course they know that these aquariums can't support that many fish... but they've gotten away with it for so long, maybe adding another fish or two to their product photos every year or two, and never getting called on it. I've heard stories of the FTC coming down hard on companies for MUCH lesser infractions than this.
I am so disgusted.
--Mike
