Do you ever feel sorry for your fish?

stampeder1

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Feb 22, 2005
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Like, when they swim up against the sides and look out. Do you ever feel sorry for your fish begin in a glass cage? Just wondering.
 
stampeder1 said:
Like, when they swim up against the sides and look out. Do you ever feel sorry for your fish begin in a glass cage? Just wondering.
Not really. They eat more often than they would in the wild and I don;t buy fish that are too large for my tank. Plus the water quality is good, the plants are nice and they all seem to like one another.
 
stampeder1 said:
Like, when they swim up against the sides and look out. Do you ever feel sorry for your fish begin in a glass cage? Just wondering.

Just keep in mind that, if they had the chance, they would eat you and reduce you to bare bones in a matter of minutes...particularly the neon tetras...they are the worst...do you still feel sorry for them now?
 
I do, I have an oscar in a 100 gallon tank and he's about 10" long and I feel sorry for him. Now on the other hand, if I had neons in a 100 gallon tank, I wouldnt feel so bad.

Thats why I've decided not to buy large fish any more. My next tank will be a 220 with some angels and congo tetra. I think thats big enough for that size fish.
 
I feel bad for large fish sometimes as well, which is why I don't like keeping them. Angels are as large of a fish as I will buy. My new angel, a veil tail about 2 inches from top to bottom seems to want to swim more than the 10 gallon holding tank will allow. I am itching to get him into the 45 gallon ASAP.

My fish store took in a very large gourami a few weeks back, he's a good 15 inches long. He's in bad shape, his owner kept him in a tank far too small, so they call him "moppy". He's a really sweet guy, and I feel really bad for him, even though now he has a tank of at least 300 gallons in the pet store, shared only with a pelco and a knifefish.
 
I feel bad when they get Ich or get chased around by another fish. My panda cories started to get a lil harrassment but no nipping from the tiger barbs. I do feel bad that the Tiger barbs killed off and ate my neon tetras
 
I've also sworn off aggressive fish. My most aggressive is my pictus cat, and I don't feel he's so happy in my tank. Yesterday I saw a wicked clash beteen my pictus and rainbow shark, it was a territorial issue. All I saw was a flying blur of silver and black. I was really afraid!!! My tank didn't look peaceful to me afterward, and I've considered moving my rainbow, but I can't catch him..
I'll keep trying.
 
I don't normally feel sorry for my own fish, except for that big hybrid african I have in a 75, (he was in a 55, and at 8 inches long it was a bit small) and I don't really feel that bad for him either. He has a tank with only catfish as tankmates, he gets good amounts of food, and he is in a tank he can freely move in, for a hybrid some would have culled at hatching or before, that isn't so bad a life. :rolleyes:

I try to keep to fish 6 inches or smaller, or even better the ones that normally defend small territiories. If you buy a saltwater fish that naturally lives in a burrow, and defends a stretch of sand a foot wide, life in a tank is not that different from home, except with fewer critters trying to eat you.

I do however feel very sorry for certain varieties of salt fish, and fresh. Pretty much anything that maxes out to over 12 inches and swims a lot. Sharks, Rays, Groupers, ID Sharks, Morays, Balas, Tinfoil Barbs, Arowanas, Peacock Bass, Oscars, Red-Tailed Catfish. The things people pick up as cute juvies then return at a foot complaining that they keep trying to jump out of the 100 gallon tank....or maybe their 10 gallon depending on the people... :eek:

I don't even really feel sorry for my cockatiel. Someone dumped her at a local pet store and I adopted her. She was a hand raised bird, and wouldn't have ever really done well in any "free" situation or any only caged situation either. She wants to be with people. Yes, she spends a lot of time in her cage, but she also gets at least an hour a day of free time, which means climbing all over me, the room, the outside of her cage, my desk, and whatever else she can get to. If I was to feel sorry for any of my pets, it would be her. If I had the space i.e. an extra room, I'd set her up in a room of her own, with no space limits besides the walls. If i had the space I'd also liek to do that with an iguana. :D

--Mia
 
I only keep small fish - my biggest is just under 3 inches, I do very frequent water changes and my tanks are well planted (except my QT). I also feed a wide variety of foods. My fish seem quite content, so I don't feel really feel bad for them. I do feel terrible about some of them coming down with ich though - I keep kicking myself for not catching it during quarantine, but there were no visible spots that I could see, and they were QT'd for three weeks. We can only do our best to assure their health/happiness, and even then problems can happen.
 
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