Re: Request for Correction
Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 10:55 am
No, I am not a Wikipedia Warrior. I am a research scientist and lifelong hobbyist who has applied science to his hobby.
No rational hobbyist maintains tanks at pH 6.0 w/o cause, largely because of the difficulty in maintaining biological filters at that level and the general instability of extremely soft acid water and the difficulty and expense of mods required to achieve those levels. Few hobbyists can or would be willing to support flow-through or over 100% daily change systems of such water. That is especially true a it is not at all required for the long-term health of the fish.
Many, many hobbyists maintain Rift Lake inhabitants at normal tank pH levels, which for tap waters in this country tend to run at pH from ~6.5 to 8.0 or a bit more. The fish do not die. They even breed regularly and routinely. Even the blackwater fish with egg membrane sensitivity to the alkali earth metals grow and live perfectly well at normal tank pH levels outside of the period of egg fertilization through hatching. The young and adults are not kept year-round in flood stage water. Captive fish keeping as a hobby is not at all the practice of matching any particular transient level of pH or other parameter equal to the wild conditions. I have no idea where that concept occurred, but it so far from standard practice as to be absurd. No lfs and very few fish hobbyists would have the background or the funds to support water withe seasonal matches to those conditions seen in the wild, even if they had the interest.
Hobby fish properly maintained, which very definitely does not include matching wild conditions, stay healthy and reach or exceed wild size (common among the rift lakes species) and live far longer than their wild counterparts. The majority of the fish in the trade are captive bred (although not always well), and even the "difficult" families such as puffers are beginning to be hobby-bred and one is routinely commercially bred. By the next generation of hobbyists many more will be. Commercial breeding will follow, or may even precede hobby breeding as it has for a number of reef and other marine species.
A scientist expects references. Anyone whop purports to be such and says that this condition or some other is required for captive maintenance would by background and training expect to provide such, or equally would expect to have their suggestions at least questioned if not ignored if references were not offered. Reference to the wild conditions do not per se ever imply that such are required in captivity. That would be a separate study. Do you have such to offer? Such would be preferably for the same fish species cited, as many other natives of that river system are routinely hobby kept in local tap water under hobby tank conditions.
No rational hobbyist maintains tanks at pH 6.0 w/o cause, largely because of the difficulty in maintaining biological filters at that level and the general instability of extremely soft acid water and the difficulty and expense of mods required to achieve those levels. Few hobbyists can or would be willing to support flow-through or over 100% daily change systems of such water. That is especially true a it is not at all required for the long-term health of the fish.
Many, many hobbyists maintain Rift Lake inhabitants at normal tank pH levels, which for tap waters in this country tend to run at pH from ~6.5 to 8.0 or a bit more. The fish do not die. They even breed regularly and routinely. Even the blackwater fish with egg membrane sensitivity to the alkali earth metals grow and live perfectly well at normal tank pH levels outside of the period of egg fertilization through hatching. The young and adults are not kept year-round in flood stage water. Captive fish keeping as a hobby is not at all the practice of matching any particular transient level of pH or other parameter equal to the wild conditions. I have no idea where that concept occurred, but it so far from standard practice as to be absurd. No lfs and very few fish hobbyists would have the background or the funds to support water withe seasonal matches to those conditions seen in the wild, even if they had the interest.
Hobby fish properly maintained, which very definitely does not include matching wild conditions, stay healthy and reach or exceed wild size (common among the rift lakes species) and live far longer than their wild counterparts. The majority of the fish in the trade are captive bred (although not always well), and even the "difficult" families such as puffers are beginning to be hobby-bred and one is routinely commercially bred. By the next generation of hobbyists many more will be. Commercial breeding will follow, or may even precede hobby breeding as it has for a number of reef and other marine species.
A scientist expects references. Anyone whop purports to be such and says that this condition or some other is required for captive maintenance would by background and training expect to provide such, or equally would expect to have their suggestions at least questioned if not ignored if references were not offered. Reference to the wild conditions do not per se ever imply that such are required in captivity. That would be a separate study. Do you have such to offer? Such would be preferably for the same fish species cited, as many other natives of that river system are routinely hobby kept in local tap water under hobby tank conditions.
). i dont mean to sound rude either, but if you value your time so much why were you writing(or finding/copying/pasting) all of that? you could have easily linked any sources you may or may not have written from reliable sites. anywhere you go, not just here, and question a forum that has been well established with experts and scientists for years your going to get questioned if you dont initally post sources. my time is valuable too, but if its a question that i can easily answer and link i will do so and not complain about my time being too valuable. joining a forum you help the community learn, whether it be simple questions people might have or correcting an article/profile on fish or care. you obviously wanted to take your valuable time to correct us, now help us believe it. that is all. the proper people WILL take a look and if it seems legit those same people will correct it if correction was needed. all you would have had to do was mention what needs correction and then link something, not try to break it down for RTR and try to make him seem stupid in a 3 post frenzy. sources is literally all we ask, the rest would be done by the experts
Harsh.
