Originally Posted by iluvswfish
Thanks for the suggestions, please keep the feedback coming. Thanks Fixed and SurfinUSA, those are the types of suggestions I was hoping for. Do we have any idea what the final size is on the Niger though? I really like them but I need to know the final size. Also how quickly will the fish reach adult size with proper feeding and low stress? Would I have 6 months to a year to get the larger tank ready if I got the smallest fish available? Of course the Maroon needs to be the biggest of the 2 or 3 fish.
As I said I am dizzy with reading and have found conflicting facts. I also consider asking people who have actual experience with the fish I'm interested in as research. I've read every issue of Advanced Aquariast, Every Issue of Reefkeeping Online, months of posts here and at Reef Central, plus I checked out over a dozen library books including Tullock's Natural Reefs and Your First Marine Aquarium. Plus I've researched some on wetwebmedia and fishbase as well as some online fish dealers like swf.com, ***********, ***********, Dr.s, hence the confusion. What else would you suggest?
Part of the problem in planning these things, as I have found, is that no sources are complete or perfect, everyone has different experiences, and that's probably because the fish and their conditions are highly variable.
You just can't accurately generalize about some of these fish. Some people might find that a 2" maroon clown lasts for 10 years in with a 6" humu. Go figure. The probabilities might be lower, but it can and does happen. I suppose generalizations and probabilities are about all you can go on, with the understanding up front that if you buck the generalizations and play against the odds, you are more likely to have problems. As someone pointed out, you might be fine for 5 years, then wake up one day and find most of the fish dead. It happens, and it's not predictable.
I'd think that any time we are discussing live organisms there will be a whole lot of variability. Can a pit bull make a good pet for a family with a 2 year old child? I'd bet you could find a thousand people who would say they did and found it to be perfect. Would I do it? Heck no. There, the benefit does not justify the risk, however small the risk might be.
So, in every case, you'll have to do your own benefit vs. risk analysis. There are essentially two kinds of risk involved here -- economic and moral. The economics are fairly straightforward and not that significant. So what if you lose a few $25 fish? Heck, you tried and learned something from it. The moral, however, I think we each have to size up ourselves. Is it immoral to risk the life or happiness of a creature, however inexpensive, unnecessarily? I can't tell you that. I'm sure thousands of marine fish die every day in the wild, during capture and transportation, or even in well-maintained tanks. It happens.
So, I think you do the reading, make your judgments on the benefit/risk analysis, then try to make it work. I would just try to avoid the completely stupid and/or nearly immoral risks, like way overstocking or putting victim fish in with obvious predators. At least stay in the low-risk to gray area.
I find advice here very conservative. If you follow sort of the average of the advice here, you'll likely be well within the low-risk area. If you propose something well beyond the norm, be prepared to be chastized for it. Not many are going to tell you what you want to hear. If you decide to disregard all the good advice, I'd just keep it to myself.
