sorry to hear about you losing the signifer. It can be hard to lose a
fish that you've grown to like a lot then put a lot of time into saving
when it gets ill. If this happens often enough, you may decide that it
is not worth keeping fish in tanks any more, as others have done before you.
As to the bare vs planted thing - there are ethical arguments either
way. If fish get bored and/or feel trapped, they are more likely to be
relaxed in a planted tank, and stress reduction is disease reduction. On
the other hand, if there are preventable medical conditions that can be
eased by keeping them in a bare tank, it may be better to keep them in a
bare tank. It is a hard call and one that each individual fish keeper
must decide for themselves. A lot of guys (and gals!) that I have met
have a display tank or two inside the house that is fully decked out
with a variety of coordinated landscaped plant/substrate packages. Out
the back they have a fishroom with a bunch of bare tanks for the fish,
and similar special conditions for plants they are breeding. The bare
tanks are easier to clean, and therefore water quality is easier to
guarantee, and therefore the fish stay healthier longer. Aesthetically,
I am pretty sure that most people would prefer to see their finny
friends in planted tanks with natural looking backgrounds and the whole
box and dice.
Best regards, Andrew
Tom Ray wrote:
>1st: Thank you again to those that tried to offer helpful advice. I
>think it helped my friend regain interest in his water conditions. It
>also led to him giving he his sick male.
>
>2nd: Alas. I am sad to report the male in question died in his
>hospital / hospice tank Tuesday at my place. He did recover much of
>his color and his desire to swim about (with changes in H2O and a
>"trial & error" battery of over-the-counter meds), but he never
>recovered his appetite.
>
>3rd: My thots.
> - a) Prognosis: I am left wondering if he ingested some kind of
>stomach disease agent (like a bacteria / virus, microsporidian
>parasite, etc.) or tape worm. And, my original question remains..."Is
>[this] common?"
> - b) I think that I have learned a lot, but still wish there was
>better diagnostics as well as information available within the hobby
>about over-the-counter medications. ...more photos, charts, etc..
> - c) I am even wondering whether UV purifiers may not be a bad idea
>even though I've heard they wreak havoc on / eliminate the ability to
>have bio-filtration.
>
>I have a different friend (from work) who is originally from Hong
>Kong. He keeps all his fish in sterile, plant-free, substrate-free
>tanks and says he was taught to keep fish that way back in HK. Tanks
>then seem to me to be prisons or cages (or hospital rooms).
>
>Maybe even brining to question (for me) the ethics of the very hobby
>since it brings to mind the Japanese story I read years ago when I
>lived there. It is a story about a crown prince / soon to be emperor
>who asked his Buddhist monk mentor to let him keep song birds in cages
>like many in his realm. The monk (knowing the young man's soul)
>relented, provided he would stay 1 month in his room. The prince
>agreed, but it soon became cherry blossom time and he was sad he'd so
>agreed. At the end of the month, the monk gave the prince a caged
>song bird, and the prince immediately fed it and let it go. The bird
>remained loyal to the prince the rest of his life, singing often when
>he saw the man and making his nest in many of the trees of the
>courtyard ... or something along that lines (it has been so many years
>ago and I was translating the story as part of my
>acculturation/learning nihon-go).
>
>Well, let's not get off onto a disucussion on ethics. HOWEVER, if
>anyone has thoughts as to 3 a), 3 b) or 3 c), I'd love to hear from you.
>
>Again, as always, TIA.
>
>--TommyBoy
>
>
>
>
>
>
-- _________________________________________ Andrew Boyd Business Development Manager Daily Basis P/L Phone 02 6282 9797 or 02 4885 1357 Mobile 0412 641 074 Email andrew at dailybasis.com.au or andrew_db at bigpond.com _________________________________________