Is anyone else as cheesed off as i am?

karazy · #1 12-06-2008, 11:55 PM

Ok, i was in Big Als today
and to my disgust there was not 1
but 3 black tipped reef sharks in there main display.

yes, i know the tank is big, and the sharks aren't full grown yet, but they look almost too active for the tank already.
i was very mad that they would even consider open water sharks.
im sorry if anyone thinks i'm just crazy or wrong
but i have a passion for sharks and seeing that really ruined my day.

so i ask you,
is anyone else cheesed off about this?

Psyire · #2 12-07-2008, 12:07 AM

Are you implying that they don't have room for 25 feet of shark once they are all full grown?

...

Seriously though.. this is quite sad. One would be bad enough.

superduperwesman · #3 12-07-2008, 12:10 AM

Meh proportions are probably about the same as most of the fish in a lot of tanks??

karazy · #4 12-07-2008, 12:14 AM

you do make a good point wes, but you have to think alot of fish we have in smaller tanks now adays like gobies and such wouldn't cover as much ground as a shark would.

the sharks have only been there like a month or so and they already have a circle route they keep doing. like yeah a tang would go a far ways in the ocean, but the difference between a shark and a tang is the sharks are about 10 pounds of almost pure muscle, and go thousands of miles at a time, while tangs tend to hang around the same large radius

lol, i know there's some kinda stupid points in there but i just really feel for these sharks

Alberta-newb · #5 12-07-2008, 01:17 AM

Yeah I was in there Thursday checking things out. The sharks reminded me of the old old cages at the zoo (I'm really dating myself

!). Seeing the sharks going around and around in the same pattern is like watching a lion or tiger pacing back and forth isn't it?

I'm hoping the deceased fish are out by now? When I was in there were quite a few casualties in both the SW and FW tanks.

karazy · #6 12-07-2008, 01:22 AM

i didn't see any deceased fish today, but god they need better staff.
all it was was teenagers who don't know nothing, and like 1 or 2 older people who were kind of annoying.
some of the fish were looking a bit grim though, and some of their SW tanks were looking overstocked

you are so right, it is like the lions and tigers

Myka · #7 12-07-2008, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by superduperwesman

Meh proportions are probably about the same as most of the fish in a lot of tanks??

Proportions can't be judged when comparing a small fish to a very large fish. You can't even compare proportions when speaking of our tank reefs. A Panda Goby at 1" is quite happy in a 2 gallon tank (twice the size of it's length or 1/2" per gallon), but a 14" Sailfin Tang is NOT happy in a 28 gallon tank (twice the size of it's length or 1/2" per gallon). Proportions can only be used to compare very similar sized fish. In fact, a 14" Sailfin Tang wouldn't be particularly happy in a tank that is any smaller than 240g (some people would argue this), and that is over 17x the length of the fish and 0.05" per gallon.

superduperwesman · #8 12-07-2008, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myka

Proportions can't be judged when comparing a small fish to a very large fish. You can't even compare proportions when speaking of our tank reefs. A Panda Goby at 1" is quite happy in a 2 gallon tank (twice the size of it's length or 1/2" per gallon), but a 14" Sailfin Tang is NOT happy in a 28 gallon tank (twice the size of it's length or 1/2" per gallon). Proportions can only be used to compare very similar sized fish. In fact, a 14" Sailfin Tang wouldn't be particularly happy in a tank that is any smaller than 240g (some people would argue this), and that is over 17x the length of the fish and 0.05" per gallon.

By proportions I meant ideal swimming lengths compared to tank length.... which is not necessarily related to fish size or your 1/2" per gallon relation which is not at all what I meant by "proportions".

But you kind of made my point for me... how much swimming room do tangs ideally need and what size of tanks are they often crammed in? Looks like a lot of people have no problem putting them in a 4' tank from a recent thread

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=47168

but you say ideally some should be in 8' tanks.

So yeah Big Als tank isn't ideal and it would be nice if it was twice as long but at the end of the day they're just doing the same thing that 95% of other people in the hobby are doing.

I'm not saying it's the best thing in the world but it just part of the hobby. You want something but maybe you don't want to have a tank that big.... so you push the limits.

Meh

Tom R · #9 12-07-2008, 04:03 PM

I agree that Big Al's shark feeding frenzy is somewhat unnecessary.

There are a number of people out there that think our whole hobby falls into the same discussion. They believe that all of the creatures we put into our tanks belong in the wild. We are all on a slippery slope and to be highly critical of Big Al's is a bit hypocritical.

It is a shame that Big A's has decided to use sharks as a means to entice customers into their store. I for one think that a tank of that size with hundreds of smaller fish built more like an actual reef is more spectacular. Tangs, Triggers, Angels and Damsels etc small medium and large.

Tom R

Samw · #10 12-07-2008, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by superduperwesman

By proportions I meant ideal swimming lengths compared to tank length.... which is not necessarily related to fish size or your 1/2" per gallon relation which is not at all what I meant by "proportions".

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.