Hello everyone! I just wanted to share my experience so far versus what I have been told. I already know I will get a lot of hate from this, but oh well. First off, clown tangs. I saw one in the LFS. It was sweeter and more personable than the koles, yellows, and most of the clownfish that they had. I had done research on them and saw that people think/have experience with them being the spawn of satan and that they need huge tanks. I saw quite a few websites that said only 75-100 gallon tanks, I have a 110. The worker mentioned that each fish is different and that this one had been in the 20/30 gallon sale tank for almost a month with zero aggression towards his shrimp and other fish tank mates. I bought him. Later that day I was buying cleaner shrimp from another hobbyist who also happened to have a purple tang for sale. I had seen the same response to these fish online- they can become spawns of satan. I bought him to. The tangs met through the bag, and were eyeballing each other. When I released the purple (clown tang was already in tank) they introduced themselves and have been inseparable ever since.
I was also warned that marine bettas are extremely difficult to get to eat and that small fish/shrimp will become dinner. I bought a 4-5" MB and he eats anything I give him, from frozen brine, frozen mysis, frozen shrimp and krill, to freeze dried krill. He also hasn't touched my sexy shrimp, hermits, or cleaner shrimp. He isn't shy and actually is almost always within sight.
And finally, the valentini puffer and the blue-green chromis. I have 3 chromis, none fight, kill each other, etc that I was warned about on RC. Many people also had bad experiences with the valentini eating CUC and picking at small organisms in Their reefs. Mine has been a model citizen and hasn't even looked at my snails and hermits (some of which are less than 1/4 and inch long.) Honestly, my female clownfish is 100 times more aggressive than the tangs and chromis and my mandarin (who is fat, eating well!!) eyeballs the crabs more than the puffer.
Have I just gotten lucky every single time, or has anyone else had similar experiences? My fish are bot aggressive toward one another at all and are all fat and happy. (Should any mysteriously become aggressive, too big, or distressed in the tank, they will be rehomed to my friends 300 gallon or to the LFS).
I partially agree with you. The fact is that this place is a wealth of knowledge, with so many good ideas and information floating about. It is amazing.
The problem is those knowledge floats amongst ten times more bad or misguided statements. And that is the issue. Go into many threads, and you'd see such varied suggestions that it is confounding how only a few amongst them could be true.
Everybody has their own experiences, everybody has their own beliefs.
The issue is a lot of what is suggested is based on anecdotal ideas, or from websites that may not know what they are talking about, or from wrong conclusions drawn from experience.
That is where the issue lies.
I am siding with you on this one, because whilst most are more so in agreement with stuff like equipments, stock is another thing altogether.
We are keeping live animals, and in the end, so little is truly understood about them. So it could be that whilst everyone believe something, it doesn't have to be true.
So many people told me that different species of Clownfish cannot mix. This is [profanity] of course, because otherwise we wouldn't get all those hybrids. -.- More importantly, I mixed Clownfish anyways, and they are buddies.
Yes, you may only have had these fish for two weeks, but that doesn't discount the fact that they are getting along.
I've also been warned that a Regal Tang is very likely to succumb to ich. And that a Citron Goby is extremely hard to ween on pellets. Neither is true in my case.
So yeah the thing is, just remember it is what it is. Advice is just
advice. They come from people like you and me, who may not see the whole picture. Who probably actually don't, to be honest.
You may be able to keep all those fish together for a year, two years, or more. Then tell others that it can be done.
They try it but they fail, for whatever reason.
They tell someone else it is impossible, and don't listen to lies.
That someone else don't give a crap, and who knows, maybe knows more about the biology and ecology of fish than others, and can make it work - perhaps even better than you did.
And so on and so on.
This hobby is just full of advice from personal experience that got translated into 'this must be done', 'that can't be done', 'you will absolutely fail', 'you are definitely succeed'. Some of those will be true, some won't.
*Shrugs*
Just the way this hobby works.
