Contentious Me?
Myka;41297 said:
Don't get me wrong, those practises are often good, but I think quarantining fish should be at your discretion. I knew I should have taken that sw fish out of the QT earlier. When I found him dead I was actually preparing to move him to the display. Should have done it the day before. Dangit.
So do you think I trimmed my tank ok? Or did I disturb it too much? I think it is going to look a lot better in 2 weeks than it was looking. The rotundifolia will be at the surface by next weekend. I had to do something about that Nanjenshan since the leaves were all decayed for the bottom 2/3. Your idea for the Juncus repens as a foreground plant Biollante, was a great one. I really like how it looks.
Hi Myka,
All practices with your tanks are your discretion. As far as I know, there are no laws or regulations. Bitter experience has brought me to the regimens I use. I am not preaching (well, maybe a little). These practices become a matter of habit.
I am not trying to be contentious (Evil Plant Monster?
). Just a couple of things I want to say, remembering you have no obligation to accept what I say.
First my biggest reason for the quarantine, sanitize or sterilize regimen is simply to limit the variables; I consistently hear people attribute something as the problem without even an outside chance it could ever be proven. Much of what is spouted as causation has as much reason as the guy that won’t change his socks, since the last time he did, he got a parking ticket. Could not have had anything to do with parking in the loading zone, no of course not, it was all because he was not wearing his lucky socks.
Second biggest reason is the investment I have to protect. Quarantine, sanitize or sterilize is a risk management tool, insurance policy if you will. The more you have to lose the greater the need, therefore the higher price you will pay. Risk management with freshwater-planted aquaria is less resource intense, a fancy way of saying “cheaper,” than a reef system. However, since most reef systems require more resources and operate closer to the edge than freshwater-planted aquaria, the expense is accepted.
Either way these are complex closed little systems, not to be pedantic, if the “quarantine” killed the fish, the failure was to provide adequate care while in quarantine, not a problem of “micro-managing” your system.
I am not sure what you based your judgment that the act of quarantining the fish caused its demise as opposed to some pathogen or stress induced trauma associated with capture or shipping or any of a dozen other possibilities.
The general rule is that fish, critters in general, are less stressed in quarantine and given time to adjust and calm down on their own prior to being introduced to a busy tank full of competitive, established critters. While we have a chance to observe and treat our critters, in my case plants as well, as necessary.
Enough of that, I am sure you have developed a feel and strategies that work for you.
I think your trimming looks good and it is important to get any dead, decaying stuff out, as well as open up the light for the lower plants.
Your Rotala rotundifolia is going to end up growing inches per day, so trimming will be a big part of your life, though it rather becomes like feeding the fish.
I may be away for a bit, what I meant when I said I might have to “go dark.” I think it is all good. A real mess is ending.
I’ve had a cable network in filming a lot of “B roll,” they like the tanks and the fish room. I’ve done a couple of interviews, the “star” was okay with doing the main interview in front of a main display tank. There had been some fear the movement in the aquarium would be distracting. The bits I have seen I think look stunning, if I do say so myself.
Don’t pay too much attention to the figure being interviewed that is just some computer generated image, not even realistic looking, some regulation against having Evil Plant Monsters on television, I guess.
One of the ‘newspapers of record’ is doing a major piece; I think they are publishing Thursday.
I’ll try to let you know as soon as I can so you can get a look at some of my tanks, if you wish. Don’t worry about all the rubbish being talked about.
I think we are going on line 1 November, I have some underwater cameras and I’ll also stream data from various tanks. I have some cool stuff, at least I think it is cool.
Biollante