#also YES my algae is insane i need to scrub it i KNOW. i just adjusted the light schedule to be a couple hours shorter and ill scrub it

[toytulini]

rock sausage

[maple-writes]

There is such a RANGE of how people treat fish and aquariums its insane and so many people don't know what they don't know when it comes to keeping an aquarium. Even just filters alone. I've known people who otherwise know a decent amount about caring for other kinds of animals have no idea what the filter actually does in an aquarium and think that if the water looks clear that means it's clean and healthy and have no idea about ammonia or the nitrogen cycle as a whole. I distinctly remember at my old job we got an Oscar in (someone couldn't take care of it anymore) while I wasn't there and they set him up in a tank (that was a bit small) with a fresh, "clean" filter and had no idea why I immediately ran and tested the water. Like no wonder he wasn't looking very lively the ammonia and nitrites were incredibly high and he could have died. Luckily we had a lot of other, well established aquariums that I was able to swap some filter media with but damn.

I feel like so many people think of fish as short-lived, almost temporary pets or something that is more of a decoration than a living thing in a tiny ecosystem and that probably lends itself to the over-maintaining of aesthetics over aquarium health. I keep having to explain to people that no, it's not a good idea to scrub everything in the aquarium all at once, no it's not a good idea to be regularly replacing the filter media for a "clean" one, no an algae eating fish like a pleco is not a must-have to "clean the tank" and also they grow longer than this fish tank is anyway, no you don't need to take out 100% of the water every time you do a water change, no an airstore with bubbles does not filter the water, yes you need a filter and so on and so forth. AAAA

Maybe because fish are easy and relatively cheap to buy and people like things that look "clean" and "tidy" and carry that over to their fish tanks without considering what a small, mostly closed system needs to thrive. And I can't even blame them for not knowing all this because fish seem to be the kind of pet that people think they know how to take care of because they're considered easy pets, and both media and some pet stores themselves perpetuate the idea of tiny, often gimmicky aquariums that are nowhere near suitable for a lot of the more popular fish.

Anyway, I'm super into aquariums and fish in general and I could ramble on about this stuff all day so I'll cut myself off here lol.

the aquarium hobby honestly drives me insane sometimes. coming into it as a guy who knows a lot about ecology (even tho i started my first tank less than a year ago), it immediately struck me as odd the sheer amount of cleanliness so many aquarists demand of their tanks. like constantly vaccuuming gravel, or killing snails, or freaking out about "pests" and insisting that everything be quarantined and washed and sterile before throwing it in the tank

like. you're creating a little microhabitat. there has to be a better way than ripping it apart every week because you -checks notes- think bladder snails are ugly