Dangerous Sizes
Recently Ive seen quite a few people quote the sizes of fish a few inches too short. You may say, "big deal. whats a few inches?" Well, it is a big deal.
The biggest deal on size is the amount of space needed to swim around comforitably. Image living in a 18'x12'x10' room your whole life as a 6 foot person. Sure, you may think, "What a spacious room!" But its really not. Especially if thats where you live your whole life. For a fish, living in a 10 gallon at 4-6 inches is a scrunch. There are the issues of chemicals getting concentrated in the water, turning space, and a comfort zone or a territory. Most larger fish are somewhat territorial.
The next deal is waste management. Larger fish produce a lot more waste than smaller fish, obviously. So, a large fish would pollute the water considerably more than a small group of smaller fish. This waste is toxic to fish when in certain concentrations.
Large fish in small tanks also make it difficult to keep other fish. They may eat, terrorize, or simply take up too much room for the other fish to be comforitable.
I just dont understand how someone could think that a 6 inch fish looks nice in a 30 gallon tank, let alone several fish of that size.
So, the important things to take in mind when purchasing large fish are:
1. Room (enough room to make territories, hide, and swim freely. More is reccomended)
2. Anger Management. How will you deal with the large fish picking on other fish or fighting with other fish? How will you keep them from eating the other fish?
3. What is the easiest way to ensure the fish wont pollute the water too fast? It is recommended to keep in larger tanks.
4. Is the scrunched look asthetically pleasing? Do they look comforitable?
How to get this info? Research!
Recently Ive seen quite a few people quote the sizes of fish a few inches too short. You may say, "big deal. whats a few inches?" Well, it is a big deal.
The biggest deal on size is the amount of space needed to swim around comforitably. Image living in a 18'x12'x10' room your whole life as a 6 foot person. Sure, you may think, "What a spacious room!" But its really not. Especially if thats where you live your whole life. For a fish, living in a 10 gallon at 4-6 inches is a scrunch. There are the issues of chemicals getting concentrated in the water, turning space, and a comfort zone or a territory. Most larger fish are somewhat territorial.
The next deal is waste management. Larger fish produce a lot more waste than smaller fish, obviously. So, a large fish would pollute the water considerably more than a small group of smaller fish. This waste is toxic to fish when in certain concentrations.
Large fish in small tanks also make it difficult to keep other fish. They may eat, terrorize, or simply take up too much room for the other fish to be comforitable.
I just dont understand how someone could think that a 6 inch fish looks nice in a 30 gallon tank, let alone several fish of that size.
So, the important things to take in mind when purchasing large fish are:
1. Room (enough room to make territories, hide, and swim freely. More is reccomended)
2. Anger Management. How will you deal with the large fish picking on other fish or fighting with other fish? How will you keep them from eating the other fish?
3. What is the easiest way to ensure the fish wont pollute the water too fast? It is recommended to keep in larger tanks.
4. Is the scrunched look asthetically pleasing? Do they look comforitable?
How to get this info? Research!
Gee, neither did the 2 FOOT long specimen in the Not For Sale tank at the lfs that told me that line of BS when I was first starting out...).
