Aquarium Boxes

[Analog Saint]

Just thought I'd share- A friend bought a 5 gallon hex for an african dwarf frog and a betta... A nice setup- biowheel, we even got a halogen bulb that fits the fixture so they can have live plants. I took a look at the box, and my jaws dropped looking at the pictures... They had several pictures, all which were probably photoshopped... 7 cherry barbs in a 5g... 5 Blue Gouramis in a 5g, all "schooling"... and one of 3 substantial-sized goldfish in the same little hex. My jaw was completely agape at some of the pics on the other boxes as well...

Thanks to experience, I know better than that, but I can just picture people at petsmart:5g tank in arm, picking out their unlucky quintet of very aggressive blue gouramis for their new, uncycled shoebox of a home.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.

 

[Raskolnikov]

Yeah, they have 2.5 gallon plastic "tanks" at Petco specifically advertised as goldfish homes. All that you can really hope for is for as many people to become educated with respect to aquaria as possible in order to deny these manufacturers a viable market.

 

[Harlock]

It's sleazy marketing. A lot of the pet chains don't care either, because they then get to sell a bag full of fish, food, water conditioner and they also get them to buy Melafix, Qu-Ick Cure, mor carbon for their filter, etc. when the people come back and say, "Gee, some of our 12 fish died in that 5 gallon tank you sold us." The mark-up in the "secondary" items people buy is outrageous, and apparently where the money is at.

 

[cohazard]

we even got a halogen bulb that fits the fixture so they can have live plants

Halogen for live plants? Or did you mean flourescent? Halogen bulbs won't work for plant keeping, except maybe the very low light stuff.

You can find small flourescent screw in bulbs though.

 

[Analog Saint]

err whoops, fluorescent- yeah, was kinda tired when I wrote the post.

I think my favourite was at the bottom, they had one pic with four or five clown loaches in the 5g hex. I need to see that "your new aquarium" manual they included... Brownie points for me if I can read the little pamphlet without laughing. I can just imagine what they reccomend putting in that little thing.