A couple of things that seem obvious to me:
> When we're talking about whether a yellow or Kole tang would be happiest in a 90 gallon or a 150 gallon, I agree we're splitting hairs. The trouble with studies like this is that a newbie to the hobby will see this and figure the LFS was right when they were told they could put a Naso tang in their 20 gallon.
> As for the article, I think a lot of you missed what felt like the most important part to me. Going by Gallons, is like the inch of fish per gallon rule. His example was "My car gets 500 pounds to the Mile", it just doesn't work. What this guy is advocating is a "swiming space" measurement for the simple reason that you could have a 150 gallon "Tall tank" with some crazy measurement like 12long x 12wide x 8 feet tall and it would satisfy the "gallonage" rule but still be a horribly inappropriate for any kind of swimming fish. Likewise you could have a shallow reef that was 5 or 6 feet long, but shallow and not a lot of depth and provide the swimming room appropriate for larger fishes but fall below the "Appropriate Gallon Rule". His other beef is with "Tang Police" not caring about other fish like wrasses who also need a TON of room. Most importantly, he does NOT advocate a lack of standards when it comes to housing fish, just that the gallon rule most frequently used by the TP is not the standard we should be using. Also, worth noting in the scientific study he noted that it was sub-adult parrotfish being studied and not full grown specimens.
Finally, I find the attitude that since you already took it out of it's natural environment and put it in a glass box therefore you have no responsibility to provide an appropriate environment, to be an incredibly ignorant sentiment. If you enjoy steak, does that mean you shouldn't be concerned about whether or not beef cattle are grown appropriately, or be disturbed when you see abuse of animals? If you're driving along on a road, does the fact that the road already destroyed the environment it sits on make it acceptable to throw your garbage out the window?
Our hobby is destructive, there's no if's and's or but's about it, that said it does not absolve us of the responsibility to care for the creatures in our possession and to do what we can to mitigate the negatives by purchasing captive bred when possible, passing on fish that come from areas with shady collection practices when buying wild-caught, buying frags from fellow hobbiests as opposed to wild-harvested from the LFS, etc. Failure to do so will sooner or later attract attention from those who only see the negatives in this hobby and will result in more laws trying to be brought in like the one Vernon BC recently attempted which would restrict our ability to enjoy this hobby.
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01-09-2011, 05:16 AM
- Laurie
Hybrid Mode
