Quote:
Originally Posted by Samw
I think I know what you mean by proportion. If we start with a base that is a one inch fish in 2 gallons of water, the same fish at two inches would be 8 times bigger (8x more volume) because we are talking about 3D space so the fish would be twice as long and twice as wide and twice as deep. Therefore, the space must also be twice as long, twice as wide, and twice as deep or just 8x bigger. So to keep the same proportions as you are talking about, a 2 inch fish would need to be in a 16 gallon tank in order for the proportions to be the same as the environment of the 1" fish in 2 gallons of water.
I also don't like using inch of fish per gallon examples since that is a one dimensional calculation using only length of fish to determine volume (3 dimensional) of water needed.
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I used the inch of fish per gallon "rule" to show how horribly flawed it is. It irks the heck out of me when people use that "rule"...same as the ole watts per gallon. There are way too many factors to take into consideration.
A 14" Sailfin Tang sure needs a whole lot more space than a 14" Snowflake Eel. Heck, a 36" Snowflake Eel needs less space than a 14" Sailfin Tang.
I do agree that most people cram fish that are too big into their tanks which are too small.