is the term community tank a missnomer?

[Opcn]

Think about it, the word comunity implies a sence of interaction, sometimes helpful and supportive some times obnoxious and obtrusive but thats not something we see alot of in our "comunity tanks", I've never seen a neon stop to give a rasbora some food, or seen a loach swim up and say hello to a BN, I've never seen a sword tail stop to get to know a platy (well in the biblical sence yes but...) and I've never seen a goby taking care of a bettas midden. All I see is a whole lot of pretending the other fish aren't there, sure withing a socialy inclined species you get interactions but not all of these species are considered comunity fish. I say we should call fish like social african cichlids comunity fish, shellys have established comunities, there are chichlids that build fish cities and there are cichlids who will gaurd the young of other cichlid species (I recall JuanValdez talking about it a while back in chat) Salt water fish build comunities too, gaurding there territory agains foes and letting friends pass by.

What do yall think about it?

 

[pica_nuttalli]

i have to say that i agree that the community tank is a misnomer, but i don't think its as much of a stretch as you present. i think we don't call them "community tanks" in the sense that the fish interact well and serve as support for one another. i think we use "community" in the sense that these are different types/groups that are kept in a "common" area. the community species are fish that can share territory, food, water conditions and basically have other things in "common". this idea of commonality is a more basic idea of community and does apply in this situation.

 

[Synirr]

By fish standards, one fish tolerating others in their territory is about as close to a community as it gets!

 

[Opcn]

you have never seen shellys have you synirr.

 

[Fiori]

In human "comunities" these days, you can have lots of people all living near to each other and you'd be lucky if they even exchanged the time of day with you. Modern society!!

 

[The-Wolf]

taken from wilipedia
A community is a set of people (or agents in a more abstract sense) with some shared element — in particular a group of people who live in the same area is a community. The substance of shared element varies widely, from a situation to interest to lives and values. The term is widely used to evoke sense of collectivity.[b/]

I think in this sense of the word; "community" it is appropriate.

http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community

 

[Mr Miagi]

Good point Opcn, but one must remember the word 'community' was based on what we perseave. Not what may or may not actually occur in the environment.


What alternatives would you use to substitute the word 'community' though?

 

[fishwatcher]

How about "Usually Tolerant"

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Depends how you define community and of course context comes into it.

In this case it is different species living in the same area. In people it means different groups and individuals living in the same area (groups may be families)

 

[clutterydrawer]

does it really matter?

 

[OohFeeshy]

LOL, I doubt we have anything better to talk about

 

[Synirr]

you have never seen shellys have you synirr.

Yes.
What I said was in jest, but being a betta keeper, it's primarily true in my tanks

 

[ScoutCarcer]

If the fish act like there the only fish in the tank its more like people. Sometimes its nice to pretend that there is no one else in the world. And as time passes it seem that the world is more like that. So our fish are acting like use

 

[Opcn]

but comunity really implies a sence of oneness, many cities these days are no longer comunities, but this forum is a web comunity.

Cluttery drawer, it matters more than the next gravle to sand question thats going to be asked IMHO anyways.

 

[helpimafish!]

hiya,

here's my penny worth, from point of view of having a job in a fishy shop, the term 'community' aquarium seems to cause a lot of problems for beginners as there are many different kinds of community fish, from small friendly fish to large nasties which you could still have a community of, just not together. some people interpret 'community' as it can all go in a tank together!