fish list

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Check out this site:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/powdbluetg.htm

They recommend a 100g min. tank size for a PB.

Of course, bigger is better and much will be determined based on what sort of system you'll have set up for it (ie. sumps/refugiums/etc) to increase water capacity and bioload.

Anthony

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

They recommend a 100g min. tank size for a PB.

Most tangs get pretty large, right? I would think the largest tank you could possibly give them would be better for their overall mental health, especially once they start getting near their mature size.

From the link provided:

This is a wide-ranging, fast-swimming vigorous fish that needs plenty of room. The smallest tank I recommend for their keeping is one hundred gallons. At full potential size of about a foot in length, this would only be six times the length of the fish… not too much to ask for.

For instance, I had (before the recent tragedy in my 120g) a 4" blue sided wrasse (adult size 6") and a 3" chevron butterfly (adult size 5"-6") along with two smaller fish. I could tell that both the wrasse and butterfly would have liked a much bigger tank. They were great swimmers and liked going into and out of the rockwork, but they also spent a lot of time pacing the tank.

After watching them for the time they were with us, I kinda felt bad for them for the pacing. But due to space constraints, I could only provide a 120g. Both fish were still young and had a lot of growing to do. I could only imagine that they felt stuck in this tiny glass box, whereas in their natural environment, they would have had a territory at least the size of our 1500 sq ft condo.

For fish that grow large, the bigger the better. JMO, though.

[Edmonton Eskimo]

I understand where you are coming from Bev but on the other hand from what I have read with most fish they don't reach their max size in a home aquarium. I have always wondered if the fish realize where they came from-the ocean because if they did I wonder if any fish would survive a home aquarium. I have read that fish don't have a very good memory so would they remember being in the ocean and that they are supposed to have all that space. I realise instincts never really go away but memory does. I'm not saying to put a 10" fish in a coffee cup because they don't know any better I'm just playing a little devil's advocate. It's kind of like if I had no memory of living in Canada would I miss it?

[Beverly]

EE,

I don't think fish have memories either. I think it is hardwired into their brains that they require so much room to live comfortably. Call it a range or territory, depending on the species of fish we're talking about.

Imagine that you are somehow locked in a bathroom, or even a one bedroom apartment for your entire life, without ever having been outside the given space. Don't you think you'd have some innate need to be "outside" of this enclosed environment even though you have no memory of ever being "outside"? Would you become stunted as a human being in your restricted space like the fish being stunted by the limitations of living in a small tank?

I know fish are not human, but they have needs that are unique to fish, just like humans have needs unique to humans.

I'm just as guilty of having fish in aquariums that are way smaller than their natural range would be, no doubt about that. It bothers me sometimes, is all. I'm just hoping that by expressing this idea that other people might think about their fishes' environments in a different way.

[Edmonton Eskimo]

I hear ya bev I try to provide the best environment I can afford$$