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I haven't done this for a while. So, to get back into a good habit, here we go. While I'll be preaching to the converted again in numerous instances, I thought I'd write this.


Editorial

One trend that I have noticed over the years, and one that has been reinforced here at FishProfiles, is that there is a fundamental difference between the stocking approaches of American and European aquarists. While there are exceptions to this trend, the difference is present, and indeed has been remarked upon in that august publication, Tropical Fish Hobbyist. A glance at the January, 1978, editorial column written by Marshall E. Ostrow (page 22) is worth reading:

TFH recently had the esteeemed pleasure of being visited by the man who is probably the world's greatest fish breeder-photographer ... none other thanHans-Joachim Richter! I was delighted to have been able to spend some time chatting with this very modest gentleman. We discussed many facets of the hobby, and would you believe he told me that taking photos to match the quality of his is easy?

One of the subjects that prevailed during our discussion was a comparison of the interests and attitudes of American and European hobbyists. Though Hans Joachim Richter is certainly several cuts above the typical hobbyist anywhere in the world, his thinking definitely reflects European attitudes. One thing we both agreed upon was that most European hobbyists take a much more academic approach to their fish-keeping endeavourss than American hobbyists do.

According to Hans, few Europeans ever talk about a fish using its common name: rather, they prefer the use of scientific names ... and this includes beginning hobbyists too. The marjority of hobbyists (both beginning and advanced) that I've met prefer common names. The majority of Europeans prefer to specialise in just a few species at a time and the large multi-species community tank is not very common in Europe (this may bne due to economic limitations). American hobbyists, on the other hand, seem to prefer the community tank containing pairs or trios of many different species. On the latter point, I personally prefer the "European" approachj, although at times I too have been guilty of engaging in some showmanship with a colourful array of incompatible species in one tank.

One final point of comparison during our discussion dealt with the keeping and breeding of rare fishes: at least fishes that are rarely seen in aquariums. We both agreed that the American attitude that prevails (of course, there are many exceptions) is "Look what I have!". This is another "crime" to which I occasionally plead guilty. Whereas the most common European attitude is "Look what I've done!" The Europeans seem to embrace the breeding and keeping of rare species rather than jsut keeping as so many of us in this country do.

I don't believe that there is an overall right or wrong attitude toward all of this, and if there was I don't know who would be right, the Americans or the Europeans. I do know, however, that if you are interested in rare species for whatever the reason, you can really learn something by befriending some European hobbyists!

Okay, having introduced this editorial piece of my own wtih some past wisdom from an esteemed source, now it's time to put your hands up. How many times has a stocking list been posted here that includes small numbers of five species of Tetra and four different Corys (one or two of each) in a 20 long? Or, how many times recently have the words "centrepiece fish" appeared in posts?

Why have I chosen to alight upon this and pass comment? The reason is simple. Although I've made mistakes in the past (and a teenager keeping fish always makes some mistakes to begin with, even one like me who read and absorbed like a sponge every book he could lay his hands on first), the one mistake I never made was to keep pairs of Tetras or other fishes that should be kept in shoals. I don't think I've ever had an aquarium in my entire life in which a given species of Tetra was present in numbers less than 8 individuals. Admittedly I've had pairs or trios of Corys (usually Peppered and Bronze during my teenage days) but that was in the days when the prevailing wisdom surrounding these fishes hadn't matured to the point where keeping Corys as shoaling fishes had made its mark among the headline names in the fishkeeping world, let alone Mr and Mrs Average Aquarist. Now, of course, we all know better, and there is no way on earth I'd have less than 8 Pandas in one aquarium at any time (my current stock is 12 adults plus a recently appeared baby one!). For that matter, even the humble Bronze Cory deserves the same largesse in my view.

What I'm about to say is going to be controversial. Feel free to throw the odd stone if that is your wont, but ... the thinking that underpins the fishkeeping of some appears to be "what's going to look good together?" Whereas what underpins my fishkeeping at least, is the thought "what will make the fish happy?" I'll leave the more arcane philosophical discussion of 'image versus substance' aside, but it's worth noting that among the threads where someone is asking for help to avert a disaster, the trend seems to be that calamities of one sort or another befall those who 'pick and mix' their fishes with considerably greater frequency than those who concentrate upon keeping a small number of species happy.

Take my Panda Fun Palace. It ran sweet as a nut for years. What was the cause of my calamity when it struck? Excess treatment chemicals from the water company wiping out half my stock - something completely beyond my control. I did have five species in the aquarium, but they were in groups because that's how those fishes live in the wild. Or, rather, they all were until my psychotic male Pencil Fish behaved like a Melanochromis chipokae and systematically exterminated his companions ... I'm still puzzling over that one! That piece of weirdness aside, until October 2005, when the nice water company decided that what I needed was a large dose of aluminium sulphate in my tap water, the rest of the fishes were happy. The Pandas were spawning at least once per week, the Lemons were spawning once a month, I even had a pair of Cardinals spawn in there ... how many times do you hear of Cardinals spawning in a community aquarium? Well, mine did, and what's more, I'm proud of that. If it hadn't been for someone else's incompetence, my Lemons would still be alive and kicking and spawning.

Having gone to a lot of trouble to repair the damage, I'm now back to having a happy tank full of happy fishes. Pandas that frolic like mad and spawn regularly. Cardinals that sparkle and glitter with incandescent hues. Otocinclus that happily graze away on algal chew treats that I pop in now and again, sometimes providing me with some comedy moments along with the Pandas. Would they be as happy if I'd taken the 'pick and mix' approach? I suspect that is something of a rhetorical question ...

Two previous editorial pieces of mine from a past incarnation of the Board are apposite here - one, the piece I wrote in which I asked "What is a community aquarium?" and the now infamous piece An Aquarium Is Not A TV. A community aquarium is, in the broadest sense, what the aquarist makes it - the aquarist's hand is the God-like force governing what goes in and what doesn't, but unlike any genuine deity, the aquarist is subject to constraint. While the idea of seeing a Satanoperca jurupari and a Cyphotilapia frontosa together might seem appealing from a visual standpoint, it just won't work in real life. It's a smoke and mirrors apparition whose chances of success are on a par with that of a man strapping some feathered cardboard to his arms and trying to fly. Even if water chemistry issues were not a factor (and in this example, water chemistry differences put the brakes on the idea very forcefully indeed) there's the matter of temperament, not to mention the vast difference in the nature of the 'furnishings' of the natural habitat of each fish. You'll stand more chance of putting George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton together in a room and get them to like each other, than you will of getting those two fishes to occupy the same aquarium without an expensive disaster descending like the Sword of Damocles upon the setup.

Now, of course, there are mixtures that do work. A surprising number of them. For example, I can safely put 12 Lemon Tetras in with 12 Zebra Danios and a pair of Anomalochromis thomasi Cichlids, and the resulting setup, if it's suitably spacious, will work. But there are reasons why that will work. Reasons that include compatibility with respect to water chemistry, temperament, the kind of environment each fish occupies in the wild and the degree to which the features of those different natural environments overlap allowing that mixture of fishes from three different continents to work. Likewise, I could alight upon several other combinations of fishes that will work together, but the reasons for those combinations working will be the same - overlapping water chemistry requirements, overlapping environmental preferences, and the ability of those fishes to coexist in a socially cohesive fashion. Picking fishes with the same level of forethought as goes into picking Christmas tree decorations, sadly, isn't going to work - an aquarium is a complex dynamic system whose elements require careful balancing, and choosing things to go in just because they look pretty is a recipe for all kinds of less than delightful problems further down the line. The wishful thinking that all the pretty fishes will go together without pausing and asking searching questions about the substance of compatibility will, inevitably, be woefully surprised.

Want to know the secret of making an aquarium look good? Simple, yet not so simple. You make an aquarium look good when you build it around what the fishes want. Dear old William Innes recognised that 70 years ago when he wrote his ground breaking book, a tome that is still good to read today, and when he penned the words on page 52:

In our many fish problems we should try to think like a fish, much like the wise simpleton who found the lost horse when others had failed. Asked how he did it, he answered "I started from the barn and tried to think like a horse".

he was making sense. Learn those words - think like a fish. Put yourself in the place of the fish, and ask yourself, "If I was this fish, what would I want? What would I need?" Do that, and many expensive mistakes are eliminated at source. Do that, and the fishes are happier, more colourful, more likely to continue living, and in many cases likely to reward such care and attention with the patter of tiny fins, which is the ultimate sign that you're doing something right, because fish won't spawn or produce young unless they're in conditions that suit them.

Oh, and while on the subject of 'centrepiece fishes' ... what's the 'centrepiece fish' in my aquarium right now? Simple. They ALL are.

Now I shall sit back and watch the fireworks ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

i dont mean to sound rude calli but do you have a job? how do you find time to write such in depth articles?

in any case i agree with you whole heartedly. start with the fish you want and work you way out from there.

your fish should be your #1 priority. not what your mates think of the way your tank looks. aquariums are not like a tv!

My only comment is you must be feling a lot better after all you problems. I also note a sense of humour there too.

Good fishing there is plenty of bait there.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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Cali,

You don't leave much else to say. I agree with the comments that European tanks are much more "Streamlined" as to the occupants and it always seems that they are more of a biotope type setup than most American tanks. I don't know if it's because of our attitudes of more and bigger is better or what it is.

I myself have a tendency to set up single species type tanks or at best with 2 or 3 different varieties, but I know that is not the norm. But then again I've been keeping fish for many years and have probably gotten a lot of the I want this, and this, and this out of my system.

Anyways, a very thought provoking article.

Jim

---

Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

i dont mean to sound rude calli but do you have a job?

Actually, if one of the aquarium fish magazines wants to hire me, my fees are reasonable ...

I've always had a yearning to write. Helps a lot if I write about something I like and know something about too.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Cali,
another great article.
I too am finding over the years a tendency
to gravitate to providing for specific fishes
needs and often this results in the idea for a species-only or species-limited tank!
Sure I like my community tanks quite a bit...
but over the years their occupants are shrinking,
not so much in numbers, but in types.
I too enjoy writing....some people just like to write!
Thats why I took a degree in English Literature!


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hi calilasseia,

while the content of your editorial is fine by me, i think there may be a few other issues to look at regarding how and why people stock their tanks the way they do.

firstly, few people who grow up in cities have the opportunity to witness nature in her full splendor and appreciate that shoaling/schooling/flocking/herding creatures feel safer, more confident, have better colour and display a wider more interesting range of behaviour if kept in a large group. even if it's only by watching nature docos, people soon realise that "hey, my 5 neons come from schools of thousands...maybe i'll up the number...". i'm pretty sure anyone who has kept a large school of fish will not return to a 'bits and pieces' community tank.

but we are also faced with the problem that hits us at our source: petshops. how many keep species display tanks, or have the room to stock species seperately? as children i think we wandered through petshops amazed by the colour and movement of (in retrospect, horribly kept) aquariums. of course many modern aquarium shops keep their fish in large, mono-species groups, but i'm pretty sure not all of us grew up going to big gorgeous institutions. the local petshop has influenced our aesthetic perceptions. there is also the unscrupulous, material nature of some shops who will sell any fish to anyone regardless of its potential size, its water chemistry requirements, or its compatability.

finally, there is unfortunately a general disregard for life on this planet. as a species we are slowly and surely destroying our genetic hold by disregarding and evolving past concepts such as 'survival of the fittest', we are more intent on molding nature than revering it (hello, balloon rams and mollies - why guild the lily???), and we have an ego-based concept that our own short lives are more important than the other forms through which nature expresses itself. of course people keep fish to 'show off' what they own, and of course people buy pets to suit the decor of their living room. it is what we have become.

and then, there are those who keep their fishies well, look after their interests, spend their time and money and resources in ensuring they are healthy, breeding, living full lives, lives that emulate the patterns from whence the fish came.

until aliens arrive and keep us in badly designed, inadequate zoos, most people will remain blissfully unaware of how inappropriately they keep their pets.

peace,

justin

Nice editorial, it covers a few points of view very nicely. My two bits in (if i didn't miss anything) would be that none of these possibilities are completely exclusive to each other. A community tank can be run with quite a number of fish, remain estheticaly balanced, and keep the fish happy. In fact, happyness and esthetics have a good bit in common.

When I design a fish tank, keeping the fish happy is always high up on my list, but neglecting esthetics for a species-only tank that doesn't look good creates an eye sore. What other reason is there to keep fish outside of research? I've found better companions and smarter creatures (which isn't to say that fish lack personality or any sign of inteligence). So to me, in the end, a good fish tank is about making it look nice. In order to make a tank look nice, the fish need to be happy.

Marvelous position paper, David. However, is it possible that your fish expired due to neglect as you composed that piece?

Richter's point on using scientific names may be valid, but I think that use of scientific names in Europe is due to the number of languages and the misunderstanding that might occur using a colloquial or common name for a fish in English, French, German, Czech, Swiss and on and on... not to mention that a country in Europe still uses Latin as its language!

I will agree that hobbyists in Europe appear much more scholarly than here in the states ("colonies?". Perhaps, we have too many hobbyists! Anyone can buy a tank and generally does on the spur of the moment because they have the disposable income ($) and the space. Two items that I sometimes found at a premium in Europe.

A comment that I heard at the ACA was from a European vendor. He stated that, "Americans want it now for nothing. They have no appreciation of value."

Perhaps we are too easily distracted by glittering objects!



__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

I would love to join in but the teeny, tiny writing is proving too much for me to be able to persevere with *squint*

I am going to take some migraine tablets now...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

Pandas are still frolicking happily Bob, and have had two water changes since I wrote that. In fact, as I type this, they're beetling about the gravel playing 'push hockey' with the algae tablet food, with the Otocinclus just about holding their own.

As for the tiny writing, I happen to like Book Antiqua as a font. Only trouble is, for some reason the Board seems to want to display it at 6 or 8 point size instead of the 14 I usually set it to on my desktop. Believe me, Book Antiqua at 14 points is a very relaxing font to read. Even at 12 it's fairly easy on the eyes, but 8 points is not a happy size for it.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Believe me, Book Antiqua at 14 points is a very relaxing font to read.

Sure it is relaxing at 14 but these boards don't load it at 14 so maybe time to choose a 'similar' font .... just because you put such time into long posts it would be great if we could all get the benefits of all the info....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

It's still easier than some combinations I've seen here though Wish-ga ... there are some combinations I have to copy and paste into Notepad to read properly (dark blue text on a black background being one of them!)

I'll experiment with some fonts ... but I have a sneaking suspicion that they're all sized at 8 points ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Bob, which european countries still speak latin? (as a first language anyway)

I've generally kept a biotype aquarium, at first without meaning to lol

Took me a year or so to actively create an aquarium where all the fish were at least from the same continent.

Only place I know that still uses Latin as an official language is the Vatican City. However, thanks to the vagaries of international treaties etc., the Vatican City counts as a 'nation' in its own right, even though it's land area would be considered a car park in Los Angeles, and its population consists almost entirely of visiting Catholic clergy from around the world ... in fact, the automatic teller machines in the Vatican City deliver their on-screen instructions in Latin! Here is a potted biography of the man who wrote the Latin ATM instructions for the Vatican's ATMs ...

PS ... trying a different font


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002