Brad I whole heartedly agree with you. There are fish I will avoid since people did say not to try them. I weigh out the pros and cons, and then I search for the people that have these fish and ask what they did to ensure their survival. I then go ask all the questions I need to ask in PMs and then decide if it is worth my while to try. When I bring in certain fish with low survival rates, it is a huge stress to me. I watch and I wait, I watch some more, do more research, drive myself nuts, and still do more reading and ask more questions. I will only try something once, and so far I have been very lucky. I do believe that most of it is the diversity of the foods I feed my fish. I throw everything in there in small amounts several times a day. I adjust powerheads and see what the results are. I also give new fish three days to settle in and establish a pecking order. Three days seems to be the magic number.
I am not telling people to go out and try stuff because I have done so. I am just saying to do the research and ask member directly on how they succeeded and if the fish are alive to this date. A couple of my fish are a huge PITA!!! They won't eat pellets and I have to trial and error many different foods or make home prepared diets to keep them fat and healthy. The fish I do have that almost never live are not at all easy to keep in the time I have to invest on learning what they want to or will eat. The bioload I put on my tank with learning these things about them was expensive due to the water changes I had to do frequently, and for the food I would have to purchase or make to see if they liked it. I fed several small meals throughout the day, and went through a heck of a lot of food and salt to ensure they were eating and keep the water quality. Now that I do know, I feed twice a day and know what they need or want. A lot of it was research and asking other people, but a lot of it was time, effort and money. All fish are different and some of my fish eat different things then other people's fish of the same species.
All I am saying is that sometime things can be done if you are willing to make the sacrifices and be prepared to not have money to do anything else aside of the tank until you figure things out. I am so glad I am past that point. I don't need fish, corals or any livestock. I just buy food and salt, and I am done. I can finally enjoy my tank, since it was bloody hell for a very long time. I did it to myself but now it is done and I can just sit back and enjoy them all. No more money, or upgrades for now. I discovered I do not need a chiller and that really pleased me. My only issue is we might move out of the province next year, and I don't know how I can move this system. I really want to keep it and my livestock, so I will need to research. However I will not worry about it for now, since it has not happened yet. I already know whom I would offer my favorite fish to, free of charge since I know they would keep them happy. For myb fish it would not be about recouping money, it would be about the people that are best suited for my fish.
I just wanted to speak my peace, since I really did get beat up a lot for asking anything, and felt it was uncalled for. You are right people should count to ten before hitting the submit button, since it does nothing but make people afraid to ask for help when it is needed. My friends call me the reef anarchist, and I guess I had to be one for a long time to get to where I needed to be. Again thanks to those that helped me out in private, they helped me decide if it was worth it to try and what needed to be done to succeed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquattro
Diana, keep in mind that many warnings are given with good intent. I was warned that keeping purple anthias was near impossible. I'm an experienced aquarist with the ability to attempt meeting needs of anything they need. I got 4 dead anthias out of that test. so when someone says that "generally" something will die, it doesnt mean always, it means often enough to not risk killing something. If you're going to do it anyway, and it works, great. If it doesnt work, well, lesson learned, and don't try those again.
So if someone says they want to try a butterfly that 99 out of a 100 die, I think the warnings are warranted. Often the warnings come from those that have previously killed those very fish. I know if you post about wanting purple anthias, I'd warn against it.
Now we hope that the warnings come in a tempered tone, but as you know, people are passionate about things, and that often comes through in a bad tone.
I recall a facebook friend going on about a mistreated rottie, she was very passionate and you could see that in the tone 
Remember, any negative comments are not because people don't like the poster, it's because they love the fish. Yes, they should maybe re-read then count to 10 before hitting submit, but that's in a perfect world.
we were all new once, and we all killed things we we're warned to not attempt, and mostly we try to save others from that sad situation. |
07-17-2009, 03:51 PM
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