cjdirri said:
I know all the sizes of these fish but you guys need to look at it this way. Bala sharks are sold everywhere, they for the most part should not be in anything less then a 125 but really few people have those tanks. So really the 55 is not the best but otherwise those two balas are going to sit in a 10 gl tank at walmart,petco,petsmart, etc until they die.
Hey, that's great logic. Adopt a child and put them in a closet while you're at it. You're saving them from that orphanage after all.
He-Who-Knows-All said:
I have been keeping fish for since I was about 10 and I am 25 now, the number of fish that have died to sickness or anything like that zero. I have lost a couple neons or platys due to someone getting big and eating them.
I find that incredibly hard to believe. Even the best fish keeper runs into something now and again. Also, losing fish due to predation is worse than losing fish to disease in my book. Predation is easy to avoid by simply doing research. I guess all those years of experience have taught you... er, well, what was it now?
Defensive why? said:
Most the fish I gave away when I stopped keeping fish due to my job where in the age range of 7 to 10 years old. The tanks will grow as the fish grow.
That's great to hear. A 150 gallon would be an awesome tank and the large fish would look spectacular in it. I am glad at least to hear this part. But why so defensive? We're not trying to be elitist. This isn;t subjective, like musical taste. This is fact, backed by science and most of us really care for fish and would like to see them in the best conditions possible. People were simply trying to explain that to you. If they're wrong, say so. Getting defensive about it raises more eyebrows.
The fish are not in the tanks, my tanks always run for atleast 10 days before anyone goes in there.
So they are actually uncycled tanks? Running for ten days does really... nothing. You aged the water a little is all. The nitrifying bacteria still are not there. I know you care about your fish, or you would never have asked for advice, so let me give you some. If you want to add fish in ten days, buy a pouch of BIO-Spira. It's good stuff, usually, and the only product I know of that works by adding the correct bacteria to your tank. Add it 24 hours before you add your fish. You'll have no new tank syndrome if all goes well. Otherwise, head to the newbie forum and read the sticky thread titled Cycle. It explains the entire process of how these beneficial bacteria come to be in a tank. It explains why the are necessary for your fish's survival. If anything, it's a decent read.
I see this was pointless, it was like walking into a indie record store and asking for a Nickleback record.
See what I said above about this. It's only pointless if you let it be by not taking a moment to ask yourself if any of this advice is helpful to you. If you're honest with yourself I think you'll find that not a single person on this board knows everything there is to know about fish. Don't get all offended by people doing what you asked them to. They gave advice and not to hurt you are make you feel stupid, but with the best intentions of helping you and your fish and avoiding some unpleasant consequences. No one here knows you. No one here is out to belittle you. No one here is selling you anything or stands to make a profit off of you. They are giving honest to goodness advice with the sole reward being your benefit. Think about that a second. No one here gains anything by trynig to help you and you fling it back at them. It's rude. They were only trying to help.
Plus if you really all want your fish to be happy then pack them up and ship them back to the lake they came from.
I'm sure that was just said out of spite. We all know aquariums are unnatural. We make fish our pets for whatever reason. And surely you know that many fish these days are bred in captivity, so there is no lake to ship them to. In the case of Endler's Livebearers there's not even a lake to ship to anymore, as it was dozed over in the sake of expansion. So, obviously the fact that there are none in the wild yet a thriving aquarium trade for them indicates that at least hobbyists are making some difference.
So, I hope you'll stick around a while. You've nothing to lose and only knowledge to gain. Not a bad trade.
