can someone settle this argument

AMETHYST212

AMETHYST212

AC Members
Mar 2, 2006
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QUEENS, NY
my friend has 2 percula clown fish in a 2.5 GALLON TANK!!
im telling her that is like abuse to a fish. she says that these kind of fish dont take too much space in an aquarium so leaves them in a 2.5.
should i save these animals. like steal them from her and placethem in a better home. please help. i dont know anything about marine but i sure know a 2.5 gallon is small. thanks. by the way the fish are not even an inch big maybe 3/4in.
any help, opinions, or arguments would be appreciated.
 
You might get her a copy of Frank Hoff's " Conditioning, Spawning and Rearing of Fish, with Emphasis on Marine Clownfish." He recommends 15 gallons for small species like percula, but says a 10 would probably be OK. Keep in mind that this is aquaculture, where space & water = money, so he wasn't being too generous.

Or you could steer her to fishbase.org, where she can see that the adult size of a female is about 4". Of course, she won't get that big being stunted in a tiny space like that.

There may be nothing you can do. What is likely to happen is the fish will be chronically stressed, and ultimately succumb to vibrio or some other pathogen that does not normally affect healthy fish. Like so many, she will still say it had nothing to do with the tank size, so the lesson will probably go unlearned.
 
i guess im stealing the fish the night we play poker.LOL. gonna have to get my husband in on it.

thank for the articles.
 
They should be fine for a couple months, but after that, I wouldn't leave them in. they do well and are happy even in small spaces, but after they begin to grow they get stressed about hiding and feeding, so it's a bad idea and cruel to the fish.
 
Hmmmm, stealing the fish? I dont think I would go there myself :)

As Fastbackgly says, they will be fine for a few months at most. It can actually be benificial to the fish when they are that small to have them in a small tank. They can get food much easier and are far less prone to predation. It is common to rear fish in small areas for these reasons. Keep in mind that I am saying "temporary" on the housing. The biggest problem with that size of a tank is keeping it stable, especially if they are not use to keeping marine tanks.
 
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