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

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

And I would welcome the rum and love for my dogface to live with Gtyphon. You are certainly right about puffers becoming pets and having human qualities. They are very curious little guys and can be so much fun. In the long run he will be a very lucky fish!

Originally Posted by my2rotties

I readily agree with you there. When we get young fish, they grow and thrive as captives. I have only been into this hobby for a year now (I often think of all the other cool stuff such as food and toilet paper I could buy instead of tank stuff). It is addictive but I a happy to say my addicition is fish keeping instead of substance abuse. At least I have something to show for, although last week I hit the Jamacian rum pretty hard.

I know Gryphon is an animal and probably does not think too much about a lot of things, but I do think he remembers his old life. Mind you I see he found a little cave and is happily napping in there, which makes me happy. He eats and sleeps which means he is content. When I said he looks like a bored school I was being funny. You are probably right, he was thinking of a big fat shrimp or something. At least he has something to pass his time and entertain him. When my dogs run by outside I see him perk up to see what they are doing. I like the fact that he has brains enough to have interst in our world like we have interest in theirs. I know you love puffers because they have human qualities which turn them into pets. It helps us relate to them as individuals.

I have yet to grow a large tank raised fish myself. I thought to go with a little puffer at Wai's but Gryphon was so awesome, so I will have to grow a different puffer or tang or something. My hubsand is dying for an Archilles tang, and when I learn more, I will get one for him. Wai's wants $450 for one and I have to special order it. I just am leery about that since I want to know the fish will adapt to captive life. I like to watch fish when they come into a store and stay there for a long time. Gryphon has been at the store for a few months, so I can feel safe bringing him home.

I like your choices of a clean up crew and will look into those. I really love gobies and blennies and need a few for the bottom. I have so many possibilities for fish and do want many small ones so long as they do not ge eaten. I lost my mind for the big tang for a bit since I felt sorry for him. If I got that fish I really could not have any more. I would imagine a fish of that size would put a huge bio load on my new system as well. Gryphon is a swine and he is only one fish.

Still wish you lived in Alberta, I would bring the rum over to your house and buy some of your fish.

[my2rotties]

Okay this puffer rocks! I stripped to my shorts so I could rebuild a tunnel for my new little buddy. Of course now I am rescaping everything and trying to catch the evil damsel fish (he was really good until I moved him to the 260, free to good home if you catch him).

I have Gryphon's tunnel set so the open side looks out the window and he has a peep hole on the other side. Well, being soaked to the skin in my skivvies was worth it. He loves it and is watching me do my work and such from his peep hole. I freaked out over $150 for a fish but he was worth every penny. He was in a bare tank for so long you can tell he is enjoying some privacy. I think he enjoys watching the crazy human sliding on the wet tile more then I enjoy him.

So I go back to wading past my armpits in my ocean. I needed to take a breather since I was getting mad trying to stack rock just right.

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

And I would welcome the rum and love for my dogface to live with Gtyphon. You are certainly right about puffers becoming pets and having human qualities. They are very curious little guys and can be so much fun. In the long run he will be a very lucky fish!

[Trigger Man]

good to here that Gryphon is doing better, and if you ever decide to get a achilles do not pay 450 for it, there are many places in Calgary that will get you one for less then half that price, but remember they are one of the tougher fish to keep, so you will need to do a lot of research on them first.

[my2rotties]

Perhaps you can shoot me a PM and let me know where to go...

I think its me who is better to be honest. I think I needed a new larger fish and a rescaping of the tank (took hours), to get my head around this whole thing again.

Thanks for the help.

Originally Posted by Trigger Man

good to here that Gryphon is doing better, and if you ever decide to get a achilles do not pay 450 for it, there are many places in Calgary that will get you one for less then half that price, but remember they are one of the tougher fish to keep, so you will need to do a lot of research on them first.

[my2rotties]

I visited two LFS stores and one of them had large captive fish. I can honestly say these fish looked very happy and well adjusted. This store was so helpful and knowledgeable, and made us happy to spend money. All the fish were social and begging for food readily and the big fish had big tanks to swim freely.

Both stores had people right beside my hubby and I, and I had to ask them help other patient clients while we contemplated livestock. These stores were so helpful, I have no need to shop anywhere else to be honest. I have my one store where I love the owner and he clicks with us so well. Now I have these two others as well.

I am glad I had PMs to check these two other stores out although they were very out of my way to go there. They are well worth the commute.

Although I still feel large fish should be in the wild, I now know some LFSs do care about the fish, and the homes they go to. I feel bad for judging every LFS as being the same now and apoligize for prematurely making statements. I know these stores will not sell me fish if they feel I cannot care for them properly, and that is a very good thing.

My hubby bought one of his "dream" fish, a large Emperor Angel, and I felt comfortable for him to do so. I know my polyps might not have a chnce but we were told this and hubby said he would buy them for "Quinn" to eat if needed. However Quinn eats pellets readily and is so happy in my tank so I have no regrets.

This whole experience does prove to me that fish do care about where they are, and how they are kept. I have never seen such happy fish aside of my own. So I am not totally wrong in some statements, but it does depend on the LFS you shop at.

This hobby has taught me so much about many things, and also that personal issues and feelings are not always warranted. I will not beat myself up over this hobby any longer but I will not shop at stores that make me feel this way.

Please don't beat me up over coming forward and saying I was wrong. I feel I should apologize for judging, and I really am sorry about it. I am very new to this hobby and just feel I should ask questions when I don't really know myself. To some of the other members that bashed me in a different post, please do not reply as it will not be productive in the end.

Sorry to anyone I did offend as it was not trying to flame anyone. I just saw things I did not feel were right, and now I know not every LFS is created equally.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Sometimes I think my fish eat better than I do.

The puffers & now the Niger Trigger (thanks again Justin) eat FD shrimp & krill, as well as tiger prawns, shore crabs, and even blue crabs (my wife just bought some for her Poofy from T&T market). The FD Krill works out to $30-40 a pound I think, which is far more than anything I pay for my own food. We also drive all the way to Tswassesen & other shoreline places to collect little crabs for them to munch on from under the rocks at low tide.

Yes, while these fish would probably prefer to be out in the wild, at least in our tanks, they are usually safe from predators and get breakfast in bed (so to speak).

Anthony