I have noticed a few disturbing trends on MASA at the moment and I don’t know if it’s a trend in general or only here on MASA. There are hobbyists keeping bleached anemones in small tanks with inadequate lighting, especially for such species as the Magnifica’s, not only that, they have 2 or 3 different species in less than 200 liters of water. I see comments like “don’t worry I am not new to reefkeeping, I know what I’m doing” Then reading through the thread it becomes clear to the more experienced hobbyists that you are clearly not as experienced as you think or just don’t care about the live stock you are looking after. I see hobbyists trying to keep fish in Reef systems that should only be kept in species specific systems. To top it off they have the attitude of “I don’t expect it to live for long anyway.” Conflict now arises between these reefers and the more experienced hobbyist, where the experienced hobbyist points out the mistake and the less experienced reefer now has a dented ego, so retaliates. This will eventually end up in a forum war because the long term experienced hobbyist is passionate about the animals in our care and understands that it is a privilege to be able to keep these animals, not a right. The inexperienced hobbyist now defends himself with things like MASA is full of negative posts and people are just jealous.
Guys/gals you may be able to impress friends and family in the short term with your new difficult to do hobby and you may have enough money to throw at your system every time something dies, but you cant buy credibility in this hobby, it still has to be earned in the long term. IMHO I believe that you actually don’t have any bragging rights to any animal in your system if it has been in your care for less than 2yrs.
A very small percentage of hobbyists are in this hobby for the long haul, speak to your LFS’s and they will tell you that about 95% of people that start the hobby will drop out before the 2yr mark, the 2 main reasons being, its too expensive and you cant keep stuff alive. For the long time hobbyists they realize that both the above are not true. Granted the initial outlay is expensive, but from there on it becomes as expensive or as difficult as you make it. This all depends on the amount of research you are prepared to do and the type of system you want to keep. So please do the research and enjoy the hobby long term. MASA is here essentially to offer advice, whether you take it or not is up to you. The quality of that advice is a educated guess at best and depends on the amount of information you are able to supply, but please don’t think you blazing any trails in the hobby by keeping 10 tangs and a Magnifica in a nano just because no one else seems to do it. Let’s see the results at the 2yr mark. While on this trail blazing stint, please take stock of the amount of animals you are killing along the way. If the death of these animals doesn’t make you feel remorse and keep motivating you to do even more research, you are in the wrong hobby. Again please do the research and become a long term knowledgeable hobbyist, you will be surprised how relatively affordable and relatively second nature the hobby becomes.
Guys/gals you may be able to impress friends and family in the short term with your new difficult to do hobby and you may have enough money to throw at your system every time something dies, but you cant buy credibility in this hobby, it still has to be earned in the long term. IMHO I believe that you actually don’t have any bragging rights to any animal in your system if it has been in your care for less than 2yrs.
A very small percentage of hobbyists are in this hobby for the long haul, speak to your LFS’s and they will tell you that about 95% of people that start the hobby will drop out before the 2yr mark, the 2 main reasons being, its too expensive and you cant keep stuff alive. For the long time hobbyists they realize that both the above are not true. Granted the initial outlay is expensive, but from there on it becomes as expensive or as difficult as you make it. This all depends on the amount of research you are prepared to do and the type of system you want to keep. So please do the research and enjoy the hobby long term. MASA is here essentially to offer advice, whether you take it or not is up to you. The quality of that advice is a educated guess at best and depends on the amount of information you are able to supply, but please don’t think you blazing any trails in the hobby by keeping 10 tangs and a Magnifica in a nano just because no one else seems to do it. Let’s see the results at the 2yr mark. While on this trail blazing stint, please take stock of the amount of animals you are killing along the way. If the death of these animals doesn’t make you feel remorse and keep motivating you to do even more research, you are in the wrong hobby. Again please do the research and become a long term knowledgeable hobbyist, you will be surprised how relatively affordable and relatively second nature the hobby becomes.
about them after a bout a year and a half as they only live 4-5 years max even shorter for Seahorses and one never knows what age you bought it at?