whoa sorry, my bad, hit the wrong key.... hehe
Anyway.... being new here I feel somewhat out of place jumping on my soap box buuuuut have to get this off my chest.
The internet has been a blessing to me, having a very busy work schedule just being able to click "order now" and have the goods sent to my front door is wonderful! I happened to be in a LFS this past weekend (having not been in any for gawd I don't know how long now) and what I saw/heard was almost too much to bear. I watched an employee sell a gentleman a 20 gal tank, sand,heater, filter,salt, ect., ect., then proceed to bag up three fish after telling him how EASY it really all is..... a yellow tang,manderine goby and a royal gramma (all beautiful creatures) Being the big nosey that I am, I said to the man, "Sorry, I was just wondering, are those fish for a tank you already have or the one you are buying?" His answer... "No don't have a tank, just getting started now"
OMG! "Dude, those fish are all gonna be dead before the day is done!!!!!" Before I could finish, I was told to mind my own business by the customer and told to leave the store by the employee. Thus the distressed and dismayed....
I have seen alot of posts on here by people who have apparently jumped or dived as it may be, headlong into a full blown reef set up and it would seem as though they have never even kept so much as a goldfish before.
I just find this disturbing.... I am all for this hobby it is truly wonderful, I wholeheartedly reccomend it to any and everyone. But it is soooo sad to see people bring home such beautiful animals THEN try to figure out how to successfully keep them. Sure I have lost fish and some corals in the past and feel really bad about it to this day... but I thought I was ready, there was soooo much more to know yet.
I have a small reef tank now that I have been maintaining with a few fish, and some killer 'shrooms along with a few other softies... All animals that qualify as reasonably "easy" (useing that term loosely) to keep. I am now in the process of setting up another tank and this time want to get a little more daring... thus the constant researching and reading.... I have decided that I am going to go with all "aqua-farmed" and "tank-raised" rock and critters.... Should I be unsuccessful with anything, I would hate to think that it was plucked from its happy home in the wild only to die at my hands for lack of knowledge on how to keep it happy and healthy. Maybe this isn't the perfect way to go about it but at least it makes me feel better. Make sense?
Should I shut up now?
P.S. I feel better now .... hehe
