Trust Your Extinct

[garrym1983]

We all come on sites and forums like these looking for answers as if these things have some sort of fish "Guru" or genius waiting to pass us wisdom. More accurate and far more realistic we will find at best a voice of experience. Theres nothing wrong with that, but you will quickly find that ones experienced opinion will be followed by another that completley contradicts the other leaving you back at the begining, no clearer and if anything more confused, and in some cases more paranoid that what you are doing is wrong.

So if i could offer one piece of advice, TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS!! If you have done the research and are confident and determined enough to have set up an aquarium and put live creatures into it, then the least you owe yourself is to trust your judgement. Im not saying discard advice but at the same time dont live and die by it. Im a week into my first ever tropical fish aquarium, ive taken little snippets here and there from the outside, but ultimately the only credit or failings ill accept will be my own.

One thing i will say, to those of you who frown at those who add fish to an uncycled tank, im afraid your out of order, and in the UK theres a phrase that goes a little like this "The Pot calling the Kettle black" Regardless of what method a tank is cycled, tropical fish were never intended to be surrounded by panes of glass, false lighting, strategicly positioned plants and food that comes in tub!!

 

[Twinklecaz]

Ah yeah, I was like you when I first joined here. I remember telling people that it was a useful site but I wasn't going to take it as seriously as "some of that lot do with all that cycling scientific rubbish".

I learnt, as will you.

 

[snake007]

Ah yeah, I was like you when I first joined here. I remember telling people that it was a useful site but I wasn't going to take it as seriously as "some of that lot do with all that cycling scientific rubbish".

I learnt, as will you.

I was also like this but I also learnt.

 

[Lufbramatt]

One thing i will say, to those of you who frown at those who add fish to an uncycled tank, im afraid your out of order, and in the UK theres a phrase that goes a little like this "The Pot calling the Kettle black" Regardless of what method a tank is cycled, tropical fish were never intended to be surrounded by panes of glass, false lighting, strategicly positioned plants and food that comes in tub!!

point taken that the fish shouldnt be in a big glass box, but at least with a bit of knowledge they don't have to face potential risk of gill damage by being exposed to high ammonia and nitrite levels. Fish-in cycles can be successful but invariably people don't keep on top of the huge water changes needed to keep the levels under control. for the sake of a few weeks of looking at an empty tank and a £1.60 bottle of household ammonia its hardly a high price to pay is it? Lots less effort in the long run too. I don't understand why anyone sees a fishless cycle as the "hard" option when in reality its much easier and has the bonus of not putting the fish in harms way?

 

[AbbeysDad]

We all come on sites and forums like these looking for answers as if these things have some sort of fish "Guru" or genius waiting to pass us wisdom. More accurate and far more realistic we will find at best a voice of experience. Theres nothing wrong with that, but you will quickly find that ones experienced opinion will be followed by another that completley contradicts the other leaving you back at the begining, no clearer and if anything more confused, and in some cases more paranoid that what you are doing is wrong.

'The more you learn, the more you realize that there is much more to learn'...AND there are often others that know more than you. But all advice is just another person's opinion, based both on what they know and what they believe. Not all beliefs are facts, so there's always a grain of salt.

One thing i will say, to those of you who frown at those who add fish to an uncycled tank, im afraid your out of order, and in the UK theres a phrase that goes a little like this "The Pot calling the Kettle black" Regardless of what method a tank is cycled, tropical fish were never intended to be surrounded by panes of glass, false lighting, strategicly positioned plants and food that comes in tub!!

I guess we could say the same thing about all animals we deem as 'pets'. On the flip side, many, if not most, of the fish we buy have been bred and raised in tanks and never saw the amazon river (which btw is a very murky place).
Interesting too that back in the days of my youth 40 years ago, the day of bubble-up and UGF filter, we didn't have bio-media or paid much attention to tank cycling...but somehow managed to breed and raise fish just fine - go figure.

Footnote: My parents and grandparents were very fond of 'that's like the pot calling the kettle black' so it's not exclusive to the UK. My grandmother was also fond of 'Oh that's horse manure!' - lol ;-)

 

[Twinklecaz]

It's fear I think. You like the idea of fish keeping, assuming it's as simple as buying the equipment and putting the fish in and then you have a load of people telling you that you actually have a lot of work to do before you can sit back and enjoy (and even then, still have weekly work to do). You don't want to believe it and if you're like me, don't understand a lot of it either at first. So it's easier to just think to yourself "Woahhh OTT much people".

 

[Akasha72]

I tend to trust my instincts if I'm honest but if I'm not certain of the action to take I'll ask a question and listen to the advice ... within reason.
At the end of the day, my animals (the fish and the dog!) are my responsability. I've taken lots of advice from other dog owners over the years and I've picked out the best bits and ignored some of the more exaggerated ones.
ie: I was told to chastise my dog as a puppy with a rolled up newspaper ... I instantly dismissed this as I didn't get an animal to beat it up with a newspaper. I was told to give her love and encouragement when she did something right and ignore her when she misbehaved - I ran with that one and I've got a well rounded, well behaved dog.

I've been told here to cycle my tank by replacing large amounts of water daily and to some degree it helped to get the ammonia problem under control but it got too much and I couldn't continue with it so I tried something else. I was lucky, the something else worked but if it hadn't and the fish had died there was no-one else to blame but myself.

In my opinion there's nothing better than a dose of common sense.

People come here looking for help and advice. The advice is given freely and it is up to the individual person whether they take the advice given or do something different and learn from it.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

One thing i will say, to those of you who frown at those who add fish to an uncycled tank, im afraid your out of order, and in the UK theres a phrase that goes a little like this "The Pot calling the Kettle black" Regardless of what method a tank is cycled, tropical fish were never intended to be surrounded by panes of glass, false lighting, strategicly positioned plants and food that comes in tub!!

I hope that you feel better having let that out. But, putting a fish into an uncycled tank (where the fish is often slowly poisoned, or at least exposed to higher level of poison than would be necessary if properly cycled) is very different than properly caring for your fish in a tank, where you keep them FROM poison, provide them with proper nutrition, and proper living conditions.


The key thing that this forum provides is a place for folks who have NOT done the research and find themselves in a fish-in cycle, with fish dying and have no clue as to why. They followed the "advice" from the LFS and found themselves with all kinds of problems. Obviously different people are going to have slightly different experience with different fish. They are after all living creatures (that lends one level of variablity), then they are kept in different water conditions, in different sized tanks, with different tankmates, different decor, different substrates, different filters.... (do you get the point?)


Ultimately, everyone does need to find what works for them and their fish, but your attitude implies that a beginner already has all the intuition and insight into fishkeeping, just because they took the time to set up a fish tank. That is ludicrous. Truly, what "determination" does it take, as you call it? Keeping a goldfish in a tiny glass bowl doesn't really take determination, unless you mean by trying to win that goldfish at the ping pong ball toss game at the carnival. I think your point is heading in the right direction, but I think you got off the freeway a few exits too soon. Yes, fishkeepers need to find their own niche, but part of the research that needs to be done regarding fishkeeping involves talking with other fishkeepers about what they do and how it works for them. That's why forums like this exist. It isn't just a bunch of bored people who want to point their fingers at newbies and tell them all the things that they are doing is wrong. It is about helping folks learn what does and doesn't help keep fish "happy" and healthy. The "experts" on this forum also tend to share experiences they have had freely and openly. You can take the advice or not. It is free. Sometimes free advice is worthless, other times it is priceless.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I'm sorry ... trust your extinct??

Just struck me funny!

 

[nurglespuss]

Is the title of this post a clever play on words 'Trust - you're Extinct!' ?

LOL I fear not.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

One thing i will say, to those of you who frown at those who add fish to an uncycled tank, im afraid your out of order, and in the UK theres a phrase that goes a little like this "The Pot calling the Kettle black" Regardless of what method a tank is cycled, tropical fish were never intended to be surrounded by panes of glass, false lighting, strategicly positioned plants and food that comes in tub!!

So because it is unnatural for fish to be housed in tanks, that makes it fine to add them to a tank where the filter has no bacteria colonies to deal with the extremely toxic waste that fish naturally produce, rather than responsibly preparing the tank and filter by "fishless cycling" in advance of the first fish additions? Yeah, OK!

If you are going to float the phrase "the pot calling the kettle black" about, at least use it in the correct context, whereby you offer advice that is different to what you do personally (so in this case, telling everyone to "fishless cycle" when you "fish-in cycle" your own fish).

The internet has given a lot more people of the world the opportunity to voice their opinions, anybody can write anything, the key is taking information from various sources to see what appears to be the overwhelming voice of reason...

 

[garrym1983]

So are we saying that because we dont live in Terra Nova that we should all stop reproducing because there are nasties in the air??

 

[eaglesaquarium]

So are we saying that because we dont live in Terra Nova that we should all stop reproducing because there are nasties in the air??

 

[Louiseness]

One thing i will say, to those of you who frown at those who add fish to an uncycled tank, im afraid your out of order, and in the UK theres a phrase that goes a little like this "The Pot calling the Kettle black"

That doesn't even make any sense. It would only be 'pot calling the kettle black' if someone did something like not cycling their tank then telling others they're bad fishkeepers for not cycling theirs.

All pets are unnatural, but that's like saying someone who keeps a pet dog is the same as an animal abuser

 

[Lufbramatt]

So are we saying that because we dont live in Terra Nova that we should all stop reproducing because there are nasties in the air??

i have no idea what that means.