Breaking the "Rules" - Non-standard and innovative practices...

ejazzle · Jan 13, 2016

PDR said:
I'm sorry but I've heard the "tangs swim MILES a day in the ocean so you better make sure they are in a 6ft tank!" Argument so many times and frankly it just sounds so stupid to me, I mean how on earth is a 6ft tank going to make all the difference (vs 4ft) for a fish that swims "miles"?

Don't get me wrong, I think tangs do need large tanks, but I also think some of the smaller tangs are fine in a 4ft tank if their larger cousins are fine in a 6.

Its ok because swimming back and forth across a 6ft tank only takes 880 laps to go a mile but a 4ft tank takes 1,320 laps. Those extra 440 laps really stress the fish out.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 13, 2016

ejazzle said:
Its ok because swimming back and forth across a 6ft tank only takes 880 laps to go a mile but a 4ft tank takes 1,320 laps. Those extra 440 laps really stress the fish out.

It's not the laps, it's the flip turns that wear them down.

watchguy123 · Jan 13, 2016

I don't have any true idea what size tank is appropriate for most saltwater fish. But it would be nice to understand specific fish longevity to compare ocean vs reef tank longevity. We can then take pride in our tanks or reconsider what we keep.

ejazzle · Jan 13, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
It's not the laps, it's the flip turns that wear them down.

Thank you for the lolz

Naiad · Jan 13, 2016

watchguy123 said:
I don't have any true idea what size tank is appropriate for most saltwater fish. But it would be nice to understand specific fish longevity to compare ocean vs reef tank longevity. We can then take pride in our tanks or reconsider what we keep.

This is very much true. When I worked for a LFS I was amazed at how many people where "proud" they kept their goldfish alive for over a year....
Most goldfish species should live at least 10+ years. Yet these people thought they had lost the fish to old age. Explaining to them that in fact their fish died very young was sometimes difficult.

E048 · Jan 13, 2016

That's why I quit working at a lfs I couldn't put up with all the bs customers told me

"My hippo tang is great in my 14 biocube"

"Oh I want that trigger for my reef"

Etc etc

jetmaker · Jan 13, 2016

Some people here with only 25 yrs experience are preprogramd

mcarroll · Jan 13, 2016

Naiad said:
This is very much true. When I worked for a LFS I was amazed at how many people where "proud" they kept their goldfish alive for over a year....
Most goldfish species should live at least 10+ years. Yet these people thought they had lost the fish to old age. Explaining to them that in fact their fish died very young was sometimes difficult.

E048 said:
That's why I quit working at a lfs I couldn't put up with all the bs customers told me

"My hippo tang is great in my 14 biocube"

"Oh I want that trigger for my reef"

Etc etc

That's only 45,752 laps in a bio cube.

According to our resident clown posse, no worries! Fish can do flip turns!

(At least it's completely obvious why so little progress gets made in the hobby on this front. If or when our hobby does get legislated away, there won't be any room for mystery or moaning.)

jetmaker · Jan 13, 2016

mcarroll said:
That's only 45,752 laps in a bio cube.

According to our resident clown posse, no worries! Fish can do flip turns!

(At least it's completely obvious why so little progress gets made in the hobby on this front. If or when our hobby does get legislated away, there won't be any room for mystery or moaning.)

Better get it while we can

mcarroll · Jan 13, 2016

Seems to be the mode for some (many?) already...cloudy judgement and all.

Naiad · Jan 13, 2016

I can thank my 2 tangs for my jump into a 120 then 220. Other than the tangs I love gobies. Many of which are 1 to 2 in. They may not realize they are out of the ocean in my 220 lol.

E048 · Jan 14, 2016

What do you mean pre programmed?

jetmaker · Jan 14, 2016

E048 said:
What do you mean pre programmed?

People that do it one way because of what they read or been told.

Newb73 · Jan 14, 2016

Told by people like Robert Fenner and our resident Randy Holmes....

...I don't see anything wrong with that.

jetmaker said:
People that do it one way because of what they read or been told.

As far as the flip turns, that's why I went with a width of 27 inches. I was going to do a 30 but getting it through the door was going to be a pita. It's not too hard for a tang to turn in 27 inches of space. I see my 6 inch long trigger and rabbits actually spending a fair amount of time swimming directly front to back on purpose...in fact, my fish are oriented that way (perpendicular to the tank) quite often, its funny looking them right in the face so much, especially the trigger. In my opinion the width front to back was more valuable than getting an 8 foot tank. The front to back swimming room in there is >50% of the LENGHT of a standard 90g. I have a hippo, yello and kole and I rarely see any of them even bother to swim to one end of the tank without first deciding to turn and do something else in the tank. We will see in a year when the hipp gets above the 6 to 8 inch mark if that changes. YMMV

Newb73 · Jan 14, 2016

Also....whats so bad about triggers?

FWIW I didn't have a tank for a while after my divorce but my current oldest fish are a pair of Clowns 4 years, a Lyretail Anthia 3+ Years and a Bicolor Angel 2.5 years.

It is rare that I have a fish die unless I am moving or have a power outage or something...but I struggled corals with the 90g running Kessils and no dosing set up and low grade quality sand and having to carry buckets to do water changes and using jaebo pumps.... (All newb type errors IMO

jetmaker · Jan 14, 2016

Newb73 said:
Told by people like Robert Fenner and our resident Randy Holmes....

...I don't see anything wrong with that.

As far as the flip turns, that's why I went with a width of 27 inches. I was going to do a 30 but getting it through the door was going to be a pita. It's not too hard for a tang to turn in 27 inches of space. I see my 6 inch long trigger and rabbits actually spending a fair amount of time swimming directly front to back on purpose...in fact, my fish are oriented that way (perpendicular to the tank) quite often, its funny looking them right in the face so much, especially the trigger. In my opinion the width front to back was more valuable than getting an 8 foot tank. The front to back swimming room in there is >50% of the LENGHT of a standard 90g. I have a hippo, yello and kole and I rarely see any of them even bother to swim to one end of the tank without first deciding to turn and do something else in the tank. We will see in a year when the hipp gets above the 6 to 8 inch mark if that changes. YMMV

OMG your going to bring out the tang police lol.

Newb73 · Jan 14, 2016

jetmaker said:
OMG your going to bring out the tang police lol.

My tank is 72 inches long x 27 inches wide with a kole, yellow and hippo.

That's within the tang police allowances. I had planned to add a naso blonde before i saw them quibbling over grazing areas...after i get more rock in there i still might.

The meanest by far is the kole. I think he has "little tang syndrome".