iluvswfish
Member
Sorry, but it's not called being out of hand, it's called being responsible with the hobby. There are a lot of times when you'll have a large tank with only 3 fish in it, sometimes only two. It simply depends on what fish they are. The people wanting to heavily stock their tanks are the ones that did little research before starting. They then learn that what they had dreamed of putting in their tank, simply is not possible. Then they become irresponsible and try it anway. Then fish die.
The person who told you one Tang per 100 gallons was not far off. It obviously depends entirely on what else is in the same tank, but most Tangs should have a 100 gallon or more tank. I am far from being a Tang policeman, but when people come here to learn, it's not a good idea to advise stocking a tank "a little heavily."
It is out of hand how nasty people get when they don't agree with someone else's stocking choice. More than one person has been banned from this board for that type of behavior. Just look how quickly the name calling began in this thread (and by the way, I don't agree with the stocking choices of the original poster at all, I just choose to politely disagree rather than being rude). From the flow of the thread, the author may have intended to incite though, lol. I agree that there will be times when you will have only 2 or 3 fish, but I think you are taking this alot further than I meant it. I qualified my statement by saying I did not advocate cramming huge fish in a tiny aquarium and I said a little heavily stocked providing good water quality and the fish not being stressed. By that I meant exactly that - a little. Maybe I should have elaborated. I was mainly responding to what Tang4me posted about tank size recommendations being guidelines, not hard and fast rules as some people have taken them to be. Common sense tells me that an animal has to have a certain amount of territory for well-being. There is a point where the tank simply cannot keep up with the bioload and fish pace/injure themselves because they don't have enough space.
I'm not arguing that a tang doesn't need a 100 gallon tank, I totally agree they do but, there is no reason I can't have 2-3 in my 6', 150 gallon. He was trying to persuade me this isn't doable with an otherwise lightly stocked tank and heavy filtration. That is an opinion not a fact. I am a responsible hobbyist, pet owner, and all around animal lover but, I find these posts where people get so upset that they are practically foaming at the mouth absurd. Just playing devil's advocate here but, I wonder how many of the militant people who get super offended on posts like this eat seafood. Do they care about the fish's stress and death in that case? What's the difference to the fish?
