Check Out Post-Dispatch Life Styles Section

[saltyunderground]

Nice story today (7/14/07) on saltwater tanks and hobby. They did not use pictures from Fade's tank though. I'm disappointed about that.

Just to preempt any comments about my quote on how a blue tang will become a problem in a tank less the 75g and will become stressed and die... I did not say what was printed. I was trying to make a point, that the wrong fish in the wrong sized tank can be a problem.

The writer learned a lot about the hobby in the week she was writing the story. Considering it was only a week of research, I think she did pretty good overall. I also think she will be the proud owner of a saltwater tank very soon.

 

[marino420td]

Nice article!

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/li...424C2878552DA53C8625731500659B24?OpenDocument

 

[Mykayel]

Not a bad article. I just can't believe someone could be so miss-informed and not veryify information.

"Unlike freshwater fish who will stop growing in a small tank (goldfish in bowl vs. koi in pond), saltwater fish grow to size. Put Nemo's friend Dory (a blue tang) in a tank of less than 75 gallons, and she's going to become unruly and nasty or get so stressed she'll die, Brown says. "

Animals are animals, the miss treatment of gold fish is no different than the misstreatment of a tang, you'll stress them and they won't be healthy and grow as quickly if put in to small of a tank, but a goldfish will still grow to its full size. Just because many many people put them in a small tank doesn't mean its right; goldfish actually require a larger than normal tank as they polute the water fairly quickly. Very very sad that someone could make such a missinformed statement.

 

[sirreal63]

It was a decent article for the most part and hopefully will get more people interested in the hobby. I do sometimes worry that the people getting into this are not given good information on how much work goes into it. This of course causes them to fail and livestock to die.

I strongly agree with Mykayel...that part was pure rubbish and is part of the problem. It saddens me to see destructive information published.

 

[saltyunderground]

Figures it's a comment ascribed to me would be the most controversial.

Still, overall it may help encourage people get into the hobby.

 

[sirreal63]

FW fish do not grow to the tank size they are in...the exterior size may be smaller but the internal organs try to grow to normal size. Obviously this is very bad for the fish and results in unhealthy fish with shortened lives. Most people who do this to FW fish do not care because they are mass bred and inexpensive but that doesn't make it right.

I do appreciate the intent of the article and hope the LFS's properly educate their new customers that may come from the article. I do have doubts about that as I still see lots of Seaclones on shelves, wet/dry setups, dry and dead bacteria in a bottle, etc. etc. on shelves locally and when they are sold they are replaced with the same junk.

 

[inwall75]

I'm with Jack on this one. This article, while far from perfect, is good for the hobby as a whole in the greater St. Louis Metropolitan area.

"Unlike freshwater fish who will stop growing in a small tank (goldfish in bowl vs. koi in pond), saltwater fish grow to size. Put Nemo's friend Dory (a blue tang) in a tank of less than 75 gallons, and she's going to become unruly and nasty or get so stressed she'll die, Brown says. "

I don't know what questions everyone was asked so I cannot speak about that. I do know that I was asked this question and I answered that research is necessary in this hobby because this fish that is the size of a quarter now might remain so, or it might be 8 inches long in a couple of years. You need to know the adult size.

 

[danfrith]

I also agree its good for the hobby and will bring alot of people into it. And like I have, they will eventually learn whats write and whats wrong if they do their homework (like the article stated) and ask questions at responsible LFS's.