Whats more important in fish care?

Question

When you are taking care of an closed eco system such as fish are, is it more important to listen to experienced owners of that species of fish, or to read up an internet posting of what someone has studied? What do you feel is more important and why. By choosing one or the other does not diminsh the importance of the other one, but back up your answers balanced between articles and experience. Why would you prefer to listen to one over the other when it comes to making a decision? Example, you can clearly see your fish is distressed by it's behavoir, you know something is wrong, but you don't know what course of action to take, you have someone who's had that species in thier care before, and you have someone who linked you to an article giving advice on what to do, which one do you give more weight to and why? Thre aren't really any wrong answers here, but this is just to get insight to what you think and feel and why.

My personal experience is yes I have gotten mixed input from both the local LFS and research. I tend to trust the LFS more because the ones here at least are not clearly out to just sell thier product. Even if I didn't buy the fish from them, they can explain to you exactly why a certain species behaves the way it does, and what is the best situations for them to be in. Generally they have that specimin in place to observe as well. Owners, ones I can't actually interact with, well you really have to listen close to your advice, and trust builds up faster then just reading an article which doesn't allow you to ask questions back rather then interact with an individual one on one. Plus online sources I don't have full faith in. Some yes, but one of the many things I do in life, I am also a business student at CTU, we are not allowed to use wikipedia as a refrenece for anything as it has been noted as compromised and unreliable.. my .02 cents here

Answer 1

I am a fish breeder and consider myself experienced. Do I know everything? No...but when I dont know something I am more likely to go to someone who has experience in that area and try to talk the problem out with him or her.

If I go to several 'experts' who cant help me or I cant get a hold of any one then I will turn for the printed word. If this happens I will not listen to just one article/source, I have to have this information backed up by several other printed sources before accepting it...where as with someone I will take their experience and go with that.
Thanks for the question...its very good at getting us thinking!

Answer 2

I try to find as much information as I can from a variety of sources then extract the clearest version of the truth from all the info possible. I try and err on the side of caution when dealing with my fish. If one source says a fish needs a 20 gallon tank while another source says it needs a 40 gallon tank, more than likely I'm going to go with the 40 gallon.

I have a couple of good LFS in my area but I don't think they're always correct either. When I was setting up my planted tank, I asked if cories would be fine with a substrate like fluorite since they usually need a fine substrate like sand. He said it would be no problem, they have cories in their tank with fluorite and it's not a problem for their barbels. When I opened the bag of fluorite at home I realized just how sharp the substrate was and thought no way could cories scavenge through this. I went to my favorite forum (www.aquahobby.com) and asked about it. An advisor (who has lots of experience with cories, otos, etc) confirmed my suspicions, saying that I'd have to choose between the fluorite or the cories.

Common sense goes a long way when trying to sort the good information from the bad.

Answer 3

I prefer getting my advice from other fish owners who have experienced the situation personally. Books and articles can give you a general direction but personal experience is a more direct and accurate source of information because it has been tested and proven in a real situation.

EX: In writing different fish may not get along, but with the right environment they will. An example in my life...by text...Leopard Puffers should not be kept in a tank with any other fish because they are highly aggressive and will basically eat any other fish they are sharing the tank with. I had a leopard puffer in a tank with chiclids, loaches, and a CAE for many years (4 give or take 1 year...my memory is terrible) and nobody ever ate anyone else because I fed them small amounts of food several times a day to keep the agressive fish 'full' so they didnt eye each other and see a juicy steak so to speak after not eating for 23 hours (meaning feeding 1 big meal each day). I even managed to breed the Chiclids in these conditions (I did move the babies to another tank with the mother before they hatched to be safe...mouth brooder).

I still have the loaches and CAE but I gave the puffer and chiclids away so I could get the most beautiful algea eater I've ever seen, Royal Farlowella :) I saw it at the pet store and needed to have it but I wasn't willing to test if the puffer and chiclids would eat it or leave it alone so they had to go :( Anyways now I answered your questions and told part of my life story so I'll stop taking up space!

Answer 4

Hi, First off unless you frequent a specialist aquarium store you should treat anything your local pet store tells you with extreme caution! I would suggest the best way to get the right info is to talk to people that know (as several others have said!). Books are ok but isn't it always the case that your particular problem or query doesn't look like anything in the textbooks?

My own preference for sourcing this information is to join one of the many fish keeping forums on the internet. That way you can learn about the possible pitfalls before they happen & also pick the brains of the 'old hands'. It's a fact that people who are good at something love to talk about it so exploit the fact to your own benefit! Several good forums listed below although there are probably hundreds more!! The three I have chosen are typical with both large & small memberships but all 3 forums have members ranging from specialist breeders to ponders & beginners with small tanks to lifelong aquarists with many thousands of gallons in their cellars! Remember, a good forum doesn't regard anyone's questions as too trivial, if they do it's time to move on. My knowledge of fish keeping has increased astronomically since I joined!!

Answer 5

Excellent Question.

To get the best results, my personal experience is you have to get the most out of all sources. This means when you're first starting out to talk to the personal experts, the people who think they know what they're talking about, and the completely clueless. Read every text you can get your hands on, and every on-line source you can find. Once you put it all together you have a pretty good idea what parts you can safely keep and which parts need to be chucked. It also helps determine which sources are reliable and which online sites have been compiled by the completely clueless (you know they're out there).

The main thing is to never stop learning. Always continue researching. Find out what's going on. What's new in the field. If there is a particular species that interests you, find a message board for it and follow it. There is almost definitely one out there for whatever species you're looking for. This is a good way to keep up to date with ideas and resources as they become available.

Also bear in mind that in any field, getting two experts to agree on anything completely is almost unheard of :-)

Answer 6

Hard to give a direct answer here. Talking to experianced fish keepers is definately smart. USUALLY, we know what we are talking about. I have kept fish for over 15 years, and I will admit I do not know everything, and what I DO know, may not apply in every circumstance.

As with online information, there is good and bad. You can find terrific web sites that give great information, where you can learn almost unlimited information. You can also find horrible websites that will lead you in the wrong direction.

Experianced fish keepers can ALSO lead you in a wrong direction. A technique that one person may use could work wonders in their own aquarium with their own fish, where another can do the same thing and it become disastorous.

My best advise is get as much information as you can. Talk to experianced fish keepers, look online, look at books. Most of the time, if multiple sources say the exact same thing, it should be right.

Answer 7

I think you must seek a balance of both. If for no other reason than a fish keeper, no matter how experienced will tell you what worked for them and that may not work well for you. Balance it against published materials. I will usually give far more weight to the experienced keeper / breeder personally, but that's my preference. I would also say the more exotic a fish the more weight I give to the experienced breeder / keeper. The more technical the question, the more I rely on published educational materials or the advice of trained professionals.

MM

Answer 8

a million. 5gal tank bare minimum 2. a filter out for oxygen and to bathe the tank 3. a heater is a could desire to 4. a multiple nutrition ordinary 5. ornament secure for an aquarium 6. maintenance. you're able to desire to be doing 25% water changes as quickly as a week utilising a gravel vac. 7. no longer over feeding a fish. those are the fundamentals yet substantial regulations to protecting this fish healthy and energetic. if any problems upward push up interior the destiny manage ASAP!

Answer 9

Personally, I take the advice of experienced owners. Almost anyone can publish a book and claim encyclopedic knowledge of a species, a situation, or a method. But in conversation, you can quickly determine if you are receiving advice based on real experience or some "textbook" answer that doesn't necessarily fit all of the parameters of your situation.
Particularly in systemic issues (mass die-offs, equipment issues, etc.), this interactivity is important in making the right choices.
Hope that helps.

Answer 10

i don't think there are any perfect answers to anything. we know what we know and all we can know is really theory.

people who own fish learn from observation -- like i have observed what makes bettas tails grow back faster -- stuff like that. i feel reasonably competent to suggest something that will reduce bacteria in the tank if a betta has fin problems.

being trained in a science in a university i learned not to think in fact. in effect all we can know is theory or belief (belief like your religious beliefs that don't require observation). so in taking other peoples theories from all sides and discerning what might be best for me is usually the way i go. i don't think i weigh anyones advise more than anothers based on history or anything -- i am sure there are 16 year olds that know as much about fish as 60 year olds just because they consiously or unconsiously process information similarly.

i have probably learned more about fish keeping from the internet. not everyone has access to lfs gurus. i live in orlando florida now and there aren't any independent stores that carry freshwater fish in any quantity. there are two that stock cichlids and lots of marine -- no live plants, not much of anything of interest to me. so by default i shop at petland and petsmart and petco unless i want to subject a fish to an hour and a half drive. the internet is a great geographic leveler. you can live in the middle of nowhere in wyoming and have access to the same information everyone else does.

I even learn from what isn't said on yahoo answers. for an example i have read people think temperature is more important than water quality in keeping a betta in a couple articles on the internet. if you are here in winter there are at least a dozen sick and dying bettas a night. now you get a couple a day on a bad day. other factors can play a part -- kids are out playing in their yard and don't notice their bettas dying as much -- who knows? but there does seem to be a general noticable trend in bettas dying more frequently in the winter in unheated tanks.

the amount of knowledge to be learned is infintite -- on the grand scale of things we can spend our whole lives learning and not even scratch the surface.