Now as for what you are saying Cephdoc, I don't really agree with that many triggers (especially the Niger Trigger which gets a good two feet long) in that small of an aquarium. Even if you purchased them small and got rid of them as they grew, I still find this irresponsible because IMO if you buy an animal, you should be prepared and willing to care for it through its entire natural life. Animals are not something we keep for our pleasure or amusement or to be traded and tossed aside as we see fit. I understand that we get pleasure and amusement from this, but they are living breathing creatures just like everybody else and deserve our admiration, love, care, and respect. As for the corals with coral eating fish, no matter how much you feed the fish, they will still predate on corals. It’s instinctive for them to do this. In the wild that is their natural diet and some fish eat only that. To place an animal in an aquarium with its main natural food source and feed it something else in hopes that it will not eat its natural food source is naive. I'm not trying to be mean; I am just putting my opinion out there. Like you said, they still ate some corals. D is right about home aquariums being a stress free environment in trade for us keeping them in captivity. I would like to add that what I did was just an experiment not only to see if I could sustain that sort of environment but to observe Bubbles' behavior as well as how each animal interacted with each other. It was not a long term experiment, and in the end I reverted back to a species only tank for her. I can tell you that there are drastic changes in behavior, some good and some bad, but over all stress wise I believe that a species specific tank is best for the animal. This is especially true if you are looking to have daily interaction with this animal other than just feeding it.
As for this, I appreciate the opinion as always, but reading this entire journal of yours seemed very hypocritical, and contradicting of you as to what you are saying now. It took in upwards of months and 20 some pages of input and advise for you to realize what you were doing was not the best for the animal as you see fit now. I never said anything about keeping an octopus in an environment like you did. And you mention about being well prepared and being able to take care of and love for these animals you get, yet you kept her in a box for how long? And also had a Eel in your tank that you were reluctant to get rid of? I believe everyone is irresponsible in some way or another. We all do things we shouldn't. I never had to take any of my fish out because they couldnt be housed with one another, i took the chance and knew of most of the risks. What i did was different than knowing the natural predation of a eel and octopus, and still going forward with your "experiment". If im not mistaken, without the constant pressure form the Tonmo members, you were probably going to keep that Eel in there? This would have surely ended in a needless and arbitrary death of a octopus. I am very in-tune to the advice i get from this forum, and take it with the utmost respect and appreciation.
With all this said, anyone reading this, and especially skywindsurfer, i mean ABSOLUTELY NO DISRESPECT AND I AM NOT OUT LOOKING FOR AN ARGUEMENT...PLEASE NOTE! I just thought i would share my thoughts and or comments after reading this journal, and i see its been taken alittle too far IMO. I was just trying to share similar personal experiences. I guess what i did with my Trigger tank was wrong in many ways, but it was successful, and was alot of fun. Alot of people would call it "irresponsible" or "inhumane", but the full story behind the tank goes deeper than just housing a bunch of Triggers for the "Hell" of it. The well being of all the species in the tank were never in jeopardy. I kept the tank well maintanined and maintained good health of them to the best of my ability.
Once again i want to emphasis that i apologize for coming off like i have, i mean nothing by it. I felt like i was being attacked for no valid reason. You originally post all these ideals and "experiments", and preached for months the success of the tank, and now after all of that you preach that you FINALLY realize the best thing for some things like Octopus is a species only tank... I never thought it would take so much to finally realize this and come to terms with it. But i do admire the admiration you had at the beginning. I was just dumbfounded at how little you payed attention to the advice besides the Eel being taken out of there, and in turn now preach that what you are doing now is the best. I know this, and this is currently what im setting up for with my system. Ive been in the hobby for 6 years now, and i am just finally getting a ceph tanks started. I have always been interested in them, but i knew it took a special set-up, and finally my time has come. The dream is coming true.
Please do not be mad, or upset with me over this long message back, i might have overreacted and some of this might be taken wrong because its impossible to understand my tone of direction of and lack there of a human to human interaction/conversation for us to really be on the same page. So once again my you have my apologies.
