43 Gallon Desk Tank

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Myka

Doesn't make it ok imo. What do you do when they outgrow the tank? The Hippo will outgrow the tank in a matter of months. They might just get stressed out and die though, so that would fix the problem I suppose.

Sorry, but I don't understand the point of planning to keep a fish in an unsuitable environment. I reeeeeeeeeeeeeally want a Moorish Idol, a Copperband Butterfly, and a Queen Trigger. But I won't put them in my tank because it is unsuitable for them. I think it's obvious that I don't want them that bad otherwise I would setup a tank to house them.

I think we need to be careful with how we define an unsuitable environment, I always get a little annoyed when people seem to think they provide better conditions because they have a slightly bigger tank. Sorry but I don't buy into a lot of these minimum tank sizes as a hippo tang for example will outgrow a 230 gallon tank just like it will in a 43 gallon. Sure it will out grow a smaller tank faster but what does that matter. In comparison to the natural habitat of many fish the difference between a small tank and large tank is literally a tiny fraction of a percent, hardly justifiable in my mind.

Tangs will do fine in that tank but some will outgrow it quickly so provided you're OK with that go nuts. I'm sure you could even work out an exchange policy with a LFS where you purchase small fish and then 6 months down the road trade them in for the same fish but smaller Nothing wrong with that.