Originally Posted by
ophiura
I find these threads extremely frustrating. While it may work for you, in general, it does not work for most people. So I think there needs to be some caution in suggesting this.
Simple fact is that many of these fish - lets take the yellow tang - SHOULD outgrow smaller tanks in time. What exactly is a "happy fish?" I've seen pacing fish that people swore were "happy." I've seen fish with severe HLLE that people thought were "healthy." These are relative terms.
But this is a small volume of water and in the wild they are not found in this density. So why shoe horn them in? Now I know the argument will be "well its not the ocean anyway" but isn't there a line to cross? Is it all about how many fish you can keep ALIVE in a tank? I can keep dozens of cats alive, growing and reproducing in a house...but eventually the ASPCA will show up and take them away, living in their own waste, etc.
You CAN do it, and think the cats are more than happy (they are growing and reproducing after all)...but it is not right to do it.
I'm sorry, IMO, this is just not the best advice. These are closed systems, wastes accumulate, and there are no miracles, IMO, in the hobby. If things were dying during water changes then there was a problem with the water change and how it was done...not that there was a problem with the concept and they should be eliminated for the most part.
I understand there are different philosophies in keeping tanks, and sometimes this does work. But at least as often...if not more often, it leads to unhealthy fish and deaths. Packed tanks, true, are not in any way appealing to me. I will confess that. But I think it is worth saying that this could be a quick way to lose a lot of money. There are dozens of threads where people have clearly overstocked tanks and are losing fish, have bad water quality and can't figure out why.
All JMO tho.
Wow i thought i would never be saying this, but wow i have to agree with this 100 percent