Fish.. are they your pets or decoration?

[Mark Goode]

Pets. If I was going to spend this much money on decoration I'd have bought a Rembrandt instead.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I would say pets. We feed them, watch them grow and live in an environment and care for them when something goes wrong with them.

 

[i cant think]

Hi all,

Thinking about the fish I have lost while being in this hobby makes me wonder if we see our fish as pets or 'just' fancy decoration.
To me, they are definitely pets and I feel terrible when they die. But I also read comments that only mention the price of a fish.

What are they to you?
And does it matter what kind of fish we're talking about? Do you feel different about losing a big tang than you would about a small damsel?
Of course I mean feeling bad about about losing a pet. Not about losing more money on a tang vs damsel.

I find them to be my pets and definitely feel bad about losing larger fish compared to the smaller fish. And this doesn’t mean a large tang compared to a small damsel, this means if a damsel is large for its species and I have kept it for years I’d be more upset compared to a damsel that’s small and only been with me for a few months.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Interesting conversation. I tend to say they're both but not primarily either of those options for me. I look at my aquarium as a system...a marine world/habitat that I'm curating. I strive for health and beauty in that order, but I don't tend to get as emotionally invested in individual fish as I do other pets.

 

[Uncle99]

Neither.
I see it as “art”

 

[DIYreefer]

I have fish that I've kept for a long time (more than a decade), they mean a lot to me. I get pretty sad when one dies (which doesn't happen often, fortunately). So at a minimum, they are pets.

 

[billyocean]

My fish are pets because I take care of them. But they aren't the kind of Pet that would upset me like a dog if it died

 

[Turkey head]

Definitely pets. I also see my corals as pets. They are animals after all. I do feel worse when some die than others. It’s a combination of my attachment to their personality and the relative scarcity or captive bred / abundance. I try to buy captive bred or fragged in captivity from older corals. I try to not buy non captive bred but it’s difficult to maintain a variety of utilities that the fish do and the enjoyment buying only captive. I’ve debated not keeping a tank because it’s such a waste when they die, fish, coral, or invert. But I do get a lot of enjoyment and take the best care of them I can. Unfortunately, at the rate we’re going, some of the corals may only survive in captivity due to ocean conditions in the future.