No. It is not false advertising. They are not advertising or trying to sell fish, they are advertising and trying to sell their tank/equipment. You can't falsely advertise something you are not even advertising. The tank manufacturer doesn't know or care what you are putting in the tank. It could be fish. Or frogs. Or other amphibians. Or crabs. Or shrimp. I admit the pictures often show grossly overstocked tanks, but they are still not selling/advertising fish. It is the responsibility of the consumer to know what to put in their tank, with assistance of pet store employees. A person who either doesn't know or doesn't care about stocking limits is going to overstock anyhow, changing the picture on the tank isn't going to change that. Maybe I give too much credit to the human race, but I think most adults are sophisticated enough to know that pictures on a product box are usually not indicative of the product. Even as a child I knew my GI Joe toy tanks etc didn't really shoot missiles, even though the box had artistic renderings of the toys doing just that.
Anyhow, a likely reason for these pictures is to generate excitement for the product, not to be indicative of what you should do with it. A 1 gallon tank with a picture of a properly stocked 1 gallon tank on the box will not likely generate excitement. The pictures are generally so small that you would not see the inhabitant(s) of the tank.
People need to excute a degree of common sense. Also I think people need to stop looking for the elusive "someone else to blame". Just because a box has a picture of something doesn't mean one should do that. I for one doubt that a picture on a box makes people overstock their tank. The "need" for a vibrant, full tank, bad advise or general ignorance, make people overstock. People buy "plane-jane" fish tanks without pictures and overstock them all the time. You can't blame the box for this. The only people at fault are the people who overstock. They need to take the time to educate themselves on proper fish care.
\Dan
