[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Yes, I've known Burgerchow for many years and he has a very beautiful, well-established reef tank. As he states, he may not post much but he knows his stuff.

The way I took his original comment (as he intended) was that if the OP puts in the same care he does in choosing his fish only inhabitants as he presumably does with his reef tank, then there is a whole new "world" of species that are now possible to keep that were not compatible with stocking a reef tank before. He was NOT suggesting the OP go willy-nilly on just picking up any and every fish without doing his research.

By posting his questions in this thread on Canreef, the OP is demonstrating that he is willing to do research prior to acting. That is the assumption Burgerchow (and I) got from reading this thread.

Burgerchow also only mentioned his fishkeeping/reefing history after being chastised by other members who jumped on his case for his original posting. He has never before mentioned how long he has kept fish or corals. He does not "brag" about these things, but in this instance, I believe he is justified in defending himself from people who assume he knows nothing about reefing due to his low post count. And he has never claimed to be an expert or sw guru. Never. Those who have attacked him over his original post are making the assumption that due to his low post count, he must be a sw newbie. Now if you are attacked in that way, would you not also defend yourself and point out that you've been successfully keeping reef tanks and fish only tanks for decades (so you're not just making empty comments but have the hands-on experience to back up your statements)? Could he have stated his comments better? Probably. Is this a reason to tear into him like this? No.

Unlike Burgerchow, I do spend a lot of time on this forum and I've noticed how some members are getting very quick to take offence or to jump on statements made by others. Good way to drive away members (both newbie and old-timers). I've been told by other Canreef oldtimers how this type of aggressive posting by certain members has caused them to stop coming on this forum for a while now. Each time this sort of "let's jump all over someone for a random comment" happens, other members lose more and more interest in posting here. In the end, we are losing lots of good members with lots to contribute and replacing them with people who feel this type of behaviour is fine and dandy. Soon, nobody else will post their answers to questions on here and only come to check the classifieds. Then we all lose.

Well that's my two cents on this unnecessary Canreef drama.