armadillo

I was just going off-topic with BettaCouple (again), but I think this one's worth a thread of its own. What would you do for your fish if you had endless amounts of money? My ideas so far:

- tanks no less than 100G per betta
- individual betta-sitter with no less than a pHD in labyrinth fish + a fully valid veterinary degree
- custom-made tanks would allow for lots of tunnels and enooormous space

Oh, and I'd be really influencial and I'd pass laws on animal cruelty (outlawing sick betta fight vids on youtube). I'd also protect the pet shop profession and make it require a degree in animal husbandry, specialised to each animal you are selling. I'd also make people have a permit to keep fish, and there'd be fish social services to check for neglect or abuse.

COBettaCouple

i'd have a house constructed with 'behind-the-scenes' passageways for maintenance and wall to wall tanks of varying sizes at eye level featuring all kinds of fish, i'd also have tubes running all over the house filled with schooling fish and powered by a central system that would filter the water and a system to keep the flow going at an even rate throughout the house. betta tanks would be everywhere, especially in the betta rooms.. each betta room would be for a betta species and there'd be rooms for male and female pet splendens with a large projector screen continously displaying movies/images/color patterns that would entertain the bettas and music for them.. also some staff to maintain everything and a 2nd set of staff to talk to every one of the pet bettas individually every day.

armadillo

Ooooh, behind the scenes maintenance. Good thinking, good thinking.

One room per betta species + betta entertainment system. Excellent!

Oh, here's another one. I'd build a design/R&D company whose sole purpose would be to design/develop food/medication/utensils/toys/housing for pet fish.

I'd definitely patent the sunset-imitator dimmer switch!

COBettaCouple

i'd have the entire house and tanks all done with natural sunlight bandwidth lighting that would work on automatic timers using those dimmers your company made and have a master control board to control that lighting and the nighttime moonglow lighting for when i wanted to use it.

armadillo

Ooooh, ooooh, oooh, and I'd have sprinklers and heaters set automatically to emulate the raining season regularly.

armadillo

And I would pay a team of 100 full-time scientists from all over the world to study communication in all fish species I am interested in. They could publish a dictionary and we'd know exactly what they're saying. We could understand things like: 'My belly hurts. Started yesterday since I ate that shrimp. It's a sharp pain on my left side' and 'Oh noooo. Not that horrible red flake food again. I HATE the stuff. Why can't they give me good ole cucumber?'.

hamstermann

I can think of a lot more urgent needs than fish to spend $1M on, but if it HAD to be fish:


I like the ideas of the tanks with the behind the scenes maintenance, but I think I'd go more along the lines of full-wall tanks. Floor to ceiling and corner-to corner. And I'd put in the sprinkler rain system and have it set up to change the water automatically. Then if there was any money left, I'd pay T. Amano to come aquascape it for me.

or I'd just donate it to local scientific aquariums or sea world or something like that to further marine science.

armadillo

Oh, but you'd have unlimited amounts, so you could donate it for research + could keep it for your pet fish.

Yep, must be spent on fish. Loads of more worthy causes definitely, but this one is fish-only money fantasy

Mmmmh, floor to ceiling aquariums. I was thinking even floors! Transparent tiles! Throughout the house!

COBettaCouple

yea, i like the plexiglass flooring.. over a 'river-system tank' that would flow around the house and be setup just like an actual freshwater river.

armadillo

Yeah, that's what I meant. And they'd be on your bathroom wall, and watch you take your shower and bath and stuff.

hamstermann

I dunno, there are some things even fish shouldn't have to see.

I'd stick to walls. and the walls couldn't be completely see-through either. Talk about living in a glass house! Each side of the wall or each room would have to be its own tank. I kind of like the idea of a swimming pool filled with baby pirhanas for people I don't like, though.

COBettaCouple

i'm with hamstermann.. no tanks in the bathrooms.. i'd wonder if the frequent temp. changes, etc would weaken or stress the tanks facing the bathroom anyway.. the walls wouldn't be see through since they'd have hallways behind them for the maint. crews.. probably those hallways would have tanks on both sides and the house would be designed to maximize space efficiency while allowing easy access to tanks and no seeing between rooms, except in places where i wanted that.

armadillo

OK, OK, no tanks in the bathroom.

hamstermann

yeah, Like seeing through the kitchen to the dining room would be okay. Or maybe even have a bar that separates the kitchen fromt he dining room and have that bar be an aquarium with a counter top for a lid.

COBettaCouple

i think there would be a see thru wall between the kitchen area and other rooms, to allow heat to escape well without tank damage and to give the kitchen a great feel to it.. very open and colorful.

COBettaCouple

lol.. great minds think alike.

armadillo

One of our members has something like that. An aquarium that divides two rooms. One room has a bar on the wall where the aquarium is. It looks soooooo cool. I think he's got discus in it.

Neville

if i were a multi-millionaire i would have made the biggest tank in the world and kept 2 whale sharks and manta rays in that tank. u know whale sharks r the biggest fish on earth......realx, they r peaceful.