I’m an “Asian” hobbyist and yes, I see plenty of people in this part of the world do exactly what you mentioned. However, it almost makes me sick to the stomach when I see a clearly undersized tank crammed with every Tang, Butterfly, and large Angel the owner can find. I know a guy who told me “fish are too hard to keep” when he put 4 Tangs (3 of them notorious ich magnets- Powder Brown, Clown, Blue Hippo and the 4th a Yellow) into a 55-gallon.
From what I saw they weren’t small juveniles either (not that such would make me change my mind). Unsurprisingly, he got a major ich outbreak and lost all 4 of them. What did he do next? He went out and bought more Acanthurus Tangs and a juvenile Emperor Angel and….. some time later, the same thing happened. Then he told me “fish are too hard to keep.”
There’s many examples of fish keepers like him in this part of the world, and I don’t think it’s anything one should try to emulate (“other people are doing it”- but may I ask, what is their idea of the long-term?) no matter what part of the world they’re from.
I’d rather under-stock a bigger system than cram a smaller system. Recently I’ve also warmed to the approach of happy fish that are active and demonstrate natural behaviors (especially with regards to pairing / harems) over “collections” of fish and corals where it’s about the volume and variety of species over behavior. Of course, to each their own. If having singles of many a species as possible is someone’s personal preference, that’s fine though IMO not the most interesting. However, I think just because many of my fellow reefers in this part of the world are practicing bad stocking methods, doesn’t mean we should give the green light to them.
Having said this, there’s still a number of people who know their stuff and excel at it. Guys from Japan have collections of deepwater fish that would make us kill. Jimmy Ma from Hong Kong has a whole section of an apartment complex dedicated to his systems, granted they’re FOWLR but he’s a guru when it comes to rare fish (and some of them are like uber rare). Anything that could make their way to the West would probably be sold to high-end fish collectors from Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore before they make it over to North America, Europe, Australia etc. And these collectors have deep pockets and connections.
I’m not so sure about Hong Kong and Singapore, but the Japanese love their Anthias, Basslets, and Butterflies. From what I observed they don’t seem to be as big on Tangs.
