In an effort to re-focus this thread, defend myself, and dial down the tone just a bit, I think maybe I need to explain my motivations a bit more clearly. I have nothing against LA, the fish sales industry, and no financial or business relationship with anyone in the aquaria field other than in my capacity as an ordinary hobbyist. ]My motivation for this thread is exclusively to examine and point out something that troubles me and appears largely unnoticed by many in this hobby. My comments have been directed at LA in large part because I find them to be the most convenient vehicle to make my point and not out of any personal strife. I do not quarel with the belief that LA has done so many great things for the promotion, advancement, and sustainability of this hobby. They further do business in otherwise highly eithical and honest fashion and virtually always go to great lengths to please customers. I love doing business with the company and have been a loyal customer for a number of years and made many and frequent orders from LA. I have never in any way been disatisfied with any transaction I have ever had with the company and feel they sell some of the healthiest and widest variety of livestock available in the hobby.
My sole gripe comes from my belief that LA and many other on-line fish vendors mislead consumers by recommending they purchase fish which are inappropriate. The venom in my tone toward LA comes from my belief that LA surely knows better, and no one complains because they love the company for all the reasons I describe above. I am further greatly bothered by the idea that LA goes to great effort to describe itself and gain a track record as a leading pet educator while at the same time making inappropriate tank size suggestions. I think this situation is very bad for the hobby which is already considered by many to be unethical and too harmful to the environment. It is my belief that by encouraging and creating situations where fish are being housed inappropriate conditions provides strong support for those who oppose the continuation of the hobby. I am further troubled by the notion that many people may conscientously want to keep fish in an appropriately sized system and may be misled into not doing so with otherwise good intentions.
I would also like to add a couple observations I have recently made which I think may help further make my point. I find interesting that with the prolific amount of posts here from those who strongly disagree with my view that no one has posted anything contending that any of the minimum tank sizes for the fish I posted for sale from LA are appropriately sized to maintain the adult fish being offered for sale. The closests post to doing so was Jay's post arguing that it was possible to keep a full grown Volitan Lionfish in a 50 gallon tank without "acute mortality", and therefore, the minimum tank size suggested by LA for this fish was not necessarily inappropriate. In other words, a tank is not too small for a fish as long as it does not cause acute mortality. I just do not find this acceptable.
Moreover, I want to point something out further about my favorite example. With respect to the Volitan Lionfish, I noticed something I should have noticed before about what LA posts about this fish that I think really demonstrates how misleading this can be. In addition to the other information I described LA posted above about this fish, LA also recommends that the fish should be be housed in an aquarium with "numerous hiding places". I think any fair definition of the word numerous has to mean a number greater than 2 or at least 3. So, can someone please explain to me how a 15 inch adult lionfish (LA states to use maximum size of fish when considering tank size) can fit in a 50 gallon standard aquarium that only has a 17 inch internal width when the tank also has 3 seperate hiding areas of sufficient size to provide hiding spaces for the 15 inch fish? I do not see how the math can work, and you can even fit this 15 inch fish in the width of the tank with three hiding spaces because the hiding spaces will greatly reduce the tank's width.
Now, I view it misleading to recommend that it is appropriate to purchase a fish so as to keep it under conditions where the fish, according to the vendor's very own husbandry suggestions and information, does not even fit within the tank. Moreover, a volitan lionfish is not an uncommon species in the hobby and is one of the more popular fish kept in the hobby. I have trouble understanding with the many such lionfish that LA has kept and sold over the years how this could make sense to them. This is just one example.
I would very much like to move beyond trying to demonstrate why this behavior is misleading and perhaps get some thoughtful input on how this situation could be remedied or at least improved. Maybe then somethiong good can possibly come from this discussion. If nothing else, by making this post and explaining myself further maybe some who read this may not think I am as bad a guy or as big of a nut job as some have attempted to paint me in this thread.
P.S. I am doing my best to post this politely and used the "Preview" function to edit my post. I will try not to edit after any subsequent posts, but with the length of this message and the long day at work I have had I do not make any promises.
