I am officially BROKE, and ? about ethics in captive fish.

[my2rotties]

You are totally right, now go tell your wife you were actually right about something today... Lately my husband has been right about many things, and I don't know quite what to do about it.

I love the puffer very much even though he is like a kid in school, staring out the window. I know he will see me as the sucker that I am, and know he needs to adjust. My calling in life is to be a "fixer", I always want everybody happy, and go through huge lengths to try to accomplish this. After Ed died on me, I am still raw. I did everything possible and still I could not save him. When bad things happen in my tank I blame myself since it is my JOB to make sure things are always perfect. I still have no clue as to what happened, and cannot learn from it which saddens me. We are supposed to learn from our losses and this will always be a mystery so I am jaded about the new fabulous tank. However I managed to move forward, and have never been a quitter. I just find it takes longer for me to brush myself off and get into the saddle again. I am older and falling on my face hurts more then it used to.

I am sad he did not make it, but now I can try to help other fish have a decent life in captivity. I just do not understand why humans must capture and possess everything. However all of us are here because we love the beauty nature has provided and want to give them the best that we can...

As for the large tang. I am not going to buy him... I don't want to bring home a fish and constantly feel he is not getting everything he needs. Our tanks are works of art and we want them to be positive and joyful. Like someone else said, buying a fish because I feel sorry for it is not the right thing to do. It is not my fault he was caught and laws are not in place to prevent large fish from being captured. To me this fish would not be a showpiece, as he would take up my entire tank and still have no room to swim.

Maybe some day a fellow reefer will need a good home for a big fish and I will help him out. I have more then enough room. Too bad greenspottedpuffer is so far away, or I would have all his fish by now. I know when it is meant to be, it will happen. I just wanted to reward my husband for all the time and money he has set forth in building this tank. I am very proud of him and his efforts.

This forum is the best and I love the people that are members. You are all a great bunch of people.

Originally Posted by Trigger Man

I think the way most of us deal with having our fish is that we believe that we are giving our fish the best that we are able to do, and as long as we've done the research and try as hard as we can that is all that we can do. I think your puffer needs time to get adjusted to it's new surroundings and you need to be able to enjoy your new puffer without thinking about the bad stuff. Remember this hobby is supposed to be enjoyable and even relaxing (as we all know not always the case), so I figure once I make a decision about a purchase that I have researched why not enjoy. There is always a bad side to everything, it's the good that sometimes gets overlooked. From all your concern your puffer is lucky to have someone that discerning to take care of it, now enjoy getting to know your new addition.