A
Anonymous
Guest
I was just reading a thread that dealt with the keeping of a leopard shark in a 230 gal tank and started to respond. Well by the time I got to the end of what I had to say, I realized that it was a little more far-reaching than just that topic, so I thought I'd cut and paste and put it under a new thread. Hope nobody minds...
(In case you didn't read the thread, someone asked about keeping a leopard shark in a small tank and then got offended when several people bashed the daylights out of him for even considering it.)
It's not so much that you want to ask questions, it's that through blind luck or whatnot, you managed to peg one of the touchiest topics in the aquarium world. The common tenet is that the keeping of sharks (I'm talking true sharks here, not those 'bala sharks' for freshwater that are actually catfish) is a job best left to either mother nature or commercial aquariums, who are able to care for the animal throughout its entire lifespan. The reason, I think, that some 'oldbies' on the boards go overboard on this topic is because it seems like every month or two there comes along a person new to the hobby who has it in his head to jam a pelagic shark into a tank that will meet its needs for at most a couple months. I don't know if any of the following applies to the original poster or not; this is where I veer off-track and start talking more generally. While it's true that there's no way to learn without asking, these people often come to the boards and don't bother to do a speck of research, but blindly jump in with "I've got a xx gal tank and want to keep a yyy shark. That's okay, right?" In too many cases, the person has already purchased said animal.
I think this type of aquarist grates people the wrong way because... (Okay, here comes my philosophy on aquarists, after over a decade of working various aspects of the retail aquarium market.) It seems like there are two types of marine aquarist.
1. The true conservationist/aquarist. These are the people that are constantly trying to learn more about the way nature works, in order that they can better keep their aquarium and its inhabitants happy and healthy. This aquarist rejoices over an ugly brown coral that's in his tank not because of its beauty, but because of its rarity or low hardiness. This aquarist has taped the entire 'Blue Planet' series and watches them over and over.
2. The 'keeping up with the joneses' aquarist. This person wants a saltwater aquarium because they're "cool." They want to show all their buddies a lionfish slurping in a goldfish, and nevermind that goldfish will cause fatty deposits on the liver of the lionfish when damn, ain't that cool how he eats them goldfish?! This aquarist has no compunctions about taking a shark that needs a 5,000 gallon tank and dropping him in a 75 until the poor creature dies from bashing its nose into the glass. If you're looking at the shark in this aquarist's tank and ask what the Ampullae of Lorenzini are, this aquarist will return nothing but a blank stare. Odds are this aquarist has probably bought a porcupine puffer at some point in his career, gleefully poking and prodding it for his friends it so that it will swell, never bothering to research (or pay attention) that this is a disasterously last-resort defense for the puffer, and at the very least causes intense stress, while at the very worst will split the skin of the puffer wide open. This aquarist has probably dumped several anemones into his tank, letting them bask in the glow of his two, count 'em two lightbulbs (and one of em's even that fancy blue bulb!).
It depresses me to even think about it sometimes. And notice that I wrote twice as much about that second type. I didn't realize it at first, but as I was writing I realized that I know much more about that second guy because that's about 80% of the people in this hobby. Until we educate these people and either fix them or weed them out of the hobby, the hobby will continue to get a bad reputation from everyone from the government to the media.
Honestly, I started this post as a reply to a post (and mini-flame-war) about shark-keeping, but I guess I rambled off topic a bit. Sorry about that, but I think amidst our thoughts about lighting, filtration, and mating clownfish, it's important that we realize what those other people are thinking when we're standing there in the LFS.
Happy reefing everyone, I've got to go check on my maroon clowns to see if they've laid another clutch of eggs.
-John
(In case you didn't read the thread, someone asked about keeping a leopard shark in a small tank and then got offended when several people bashed the daylights out of him for even considering it.)
It's not so much that you want to ask questions, it's that through blind luck or whatnot, you managed to peg one of the touchiest topics in the aquarium world. The common tenet is that the keeping of sharks (I'm talking true sharks here, not those 'bala sharks' for freshwater that are actually catfish) is a job best left to either mother nature or commercial aquariums, who are able to care for the animal throughout its entire lifespan. The reason, I think, that some 'oldbies' on the boards go overboard on this topic is because it seems like every month or two there comes along a person new to the hobby who has it in his head to jam a pelagic shark into a tank that will meet its needs for at most a couple months. I don't know if any of the following applies to the original poster or not; this is where I veer off-track and start talking more generally. While it's true that there's no way to learn without asking, these people often come to the boards and don't bother to do a speck of research, but blindly jump in with "I've got a xx gal tank and want to keep a yyy shark. That's okay, right?" In too many cases, the person has already purchased said animal.
I think this type of aquarist grates people the wrong way because... (Okay, here comes my philosophy on aquarists, after over a decade of working various aspects of the retail aquarium market.) It seems like there are two types of marine aquarist.
1. The true conservationist/aquarist. These are the people that are constantly trying to learn more about the way nature works, in order that they can better keep their aquarium and its inhabitants happy and healthy. This aquarist rejoices over an ugly brown coral that's in his tank not because of its beauty, but because of its rarity or low hardiness. This aquarist has taped the entire 'Blue Planet' series and watches them over and over.
2. The 'keeping up with the joneses' aquarist. This person wants a saltwater aquarium because they're "cool." They want to show all their buddies a lionfish slurping in a goldfish, and nevermind that goldfish will cause fatty deposits on the liver of the lionfish when damn, ain't that cool how he eats them goldfish?! This aquarist has no compunctions about taking a shark that needs a 5,000 gallon tank and dropping him in a 75 until the poor creature dies from bashing its nose into the glass. If you're looking at the shark in this aquarist's tank and ask what the Ampullae of Lorenzini are, this aquarist will return nothing but a blank stare. Odds are this aquarist has probably bought a porcupine puffer at some point in his career, gleefully poking and prodding it for his friends it so that it will swell, never bothering to research (or pay attention) that this is a disasterously last-resort defense for the puffer, and at the very least causes intense stress, while at the very worst will split the skin of the puffer wide open. This aquarist has probably dumped several anemones into his tank, letting them bask in the glow of his two, count 'em two lightbulbs (and one of em's even that fancy blue bulb!).
It depresses me to even think about it sometimes. And notice that I wrote twice as much about that second type. I didn't realize it at first, but as I was writing I realized that I know much more about that second guy because that's about 80% of the people in this hobby. Until we educate these people and either fix them or weed them out of the hobby, the hobby will continue to get a bad reputation from everyone from the government to the media.
Honestly, I started this post as a reply to a post (and mini-flame-war) about shark-keeping, but I guess I rambled off topic a bit. Sorry about that, but I think amidst our thoughts about lighting, filtration, and mating clownfish, it's important that we realize what those other people are thinking when we're standing there in the LFS.
Happy reefing everyone, I've got to go check on my maroon clowns to see if they've laid another clutch of eggs.
-John
