The Hypocrite thread mbu

[puffykid]

Well to look at the other side, if people stopped buying mbu's then they wouldn't be stocked anymore which means that they wouldn't have to suffer through the being in a lfs in the first place.

 

[eklikewhoa]

Plant refugiums would break down nitrates. I have a friend who uses that coupled with a drip system for his group of rays and his water is pristine

There are old threads somewhere on HFB, I built a mangrove refugium on my old Ilangi tank which housed almost 100 adult tropheus and all their fry and could not get nitrate readings if I wanted to.

The tank was outfitted with 3x250w Halides and 2x Mp40w, tell me that doesn't recreate Lake Tanganyikas surf.

 

[rgonzales]

Also if you have no experience with mbu how do you know it will not do fine in a smaller tank

 

[eklikewhoa]

"As stated, using dogs in your analogy is really flawed IMO since unlike a fish being kept in a glass cage with no means of telling you it hates life other than dieing, dogs will show you when they are unhappy."

Idk if I can fully agree with this statement I feel like more the fish is telling you its not happy but people just can't read the signs.

I feel like a fish that glass surfs a lot or appears lethargic and only moves around when it's feeding time is a clear sign that the fish isn't as happy as it could be.

For example watch a nature show where they show fish, besides fish that are classified as lurkers where have you seen on one of those shows a fish that just sits around?

I couldn't agree more! My main answer for when people ask why their fish jumped is cause they couldn't bear living another day in that person's tank.


You know the majority of the videos I see of MBUs they seem extremely happy, cruising the tank, playing puppy dog to the owner etc.
There are very few that I have seen that show a MBU just sulking in the corner but that could be also due to no one wanting to see that so no vids are taken.

 

[puffykid]

+1 haha could be = D

 

[eklikewhoa]

Well to look at the other side, if people stopped buying mbu's then they wouldn't be stocked anymore which means that they wouldn't have to suffer through the being in a lfs in the first place.

I don't know if this is entirely true... there are a lot of ugly fish that get caught just cause. To stop collection would be to stop collection of anything and everything in the congo area, then to ensure nobody would show interest in a puffer would mean to halt collection of every single puffer there is known to exist.

It's the personable attitude puffers have that draw the attention of the hobbyist. I think if all MBUs sulked in the corner and were not personable then there would be little following for it. This part I will argue to the end. Several times while over looking exporter's list from the lakeside I have seen several species of fish that had very little information or online data or even any mention by any online hobbyist, when speaking with the exporter about it's characteristics and finding pictures of them it was clear, fish with poor characteristic and looks are not sought after.

 

[puffykid]

I do have to say, I think people are pretty set in their ways for fish keeping, and there isn't much I can do to change that. I choose to keep fish in large tanks and I keep the tanks very understocked, but I fully understand that not everyone wants to do that and will choose to put fish into whatever size they want.

I think that part of the reason I keep fish in understocked tanks for ex: I got 1 gsp in a 55g tank is that I've noticed that fish have more of a personality when kept in large tanks and I can say from experience since when I first started I kept a gsp in a 20g tank cause I didn't know any better, that when in a larger tank they interact more and behave more like they would in nature, and to me that is very important. I love that my gsp explores his tank all day and doesn't glass surf almost at all, but some people got into fish keeping for other reasons and I just got to accept that. It is however very interesting reading and debating because I think I learn more then if I just read the posts.

 

[eklikewhoa]

Also if you have no experience with mbu how do you know it will not do fine in a smaller tank

repeating what others have read online and spreading the info of an online database does not qualify you as an "experienced" hobbyist... just clarifying, not naming any names.

I really despise when someone goes on and on about what the "requirements" are based on an online database cause I while researching about the MBU I would say that more than half of the care sheets I found on the MBU state it is a Brackish water puffer and would need salt once it matures.

So as much credit I give those "care sheets" I give the same for those who rant on about the tank size requirement of these puffers without personal experience proving otherwise.

 

[puffykid]

I don't know if this is entirely true... there are a lot of ugly fish that get caught just cause. To stop collection would be to stop collection of anything and everything in the congo area, then to ensure nobody would show interest in a puffer would mean to halt collection of every single puffer there is known to exist.

It's the personable attitude puffers have that draw the attention of the hobbyist. I think if all MBUs sulked in the corner and were not personable then there would be little following for it. This part I will argue to the end. Several times while over looking exporter's list from the lakeside I have seen several species of fish that had very little information or online data or even any mention by any online hobbyist, when speaking with the exporter about it's characteristics and finding pictures of them it was clear, fish with poor characteristic and looks are not sought after.

I think that for a fish like a mbu its a bit different because idk if you've ever seen one in the store but they are expensive fish. The last one I saw in the store went for 200 bucks, if a lfs store were to repeatedly order a probably 100-150 dollar fish that never sold, would they really be able to keep restocking that fish? considering that if no one bought it they would be losing about 100 bucks each time, for most pet stores thats quite a bit of money to be sinking to a fish that wouldn't sell and I think that would cause most places to not carry them anymore.

 

[eklikewhoa]

I do have to say, I think people are pretty set in their ways for fish keeping, and there isn't much I can do to change that. I choose to keep fish in large tanks and I keep the tanks very understocked, but I fully understand that not everyone wants to do that and will choose to put fish into whatever size they want.

I think that part of the reason I keep fish in understocked tanks for ex: I got 1 gsp in a 55g tank is that I've noticed that fish have more of a personality when kept in large tanks and I can say from experience since when I first started I kept a gsp in a 20g tank cause I didn't know any better, that when in a larger tank they interact more and behave more like they would in nature, and to me that is very important. I love that my gsp explores his tank all day and doesn't glass surf almost at all, but some people got into fish keeping for other reasons and I just got to accept that. It is however very interesting reading and debating because I think I learn more then if I just read the posts.

I agree but you can try and help better what they will listen to.

as for the understock/overstocking thing. That goes two ways too... you can't compile all fish into one category cause each individual fish is different and should be approached as so, maybe similar but there's always something.

I overstock my tanks but I keep totally different types of fish and even within the species of fish I overstock beyond what most "care sheets" state. I have been extremely successfu doing so, have never lost fish like the authors of most of the caresheets and the fish are happy to me.