Do TV series like "Tanked" have a responsibility?

I'm certain that many using these forums have, over the years, seen many changes in fishkeeping. Not least, for those of us who have done it for decades, the increased reliance on a variety of additives and chemicals.

There is also well documented cases on this forum and else where of how bad advice can be when first getting into the fishkeeping pastime. And this is not only from the shops.

I shall use the TV series "Tanked" as an example. Its a very popular series, opens up fishkeeping in all its glory. But does that same popularity also cause problems for new fishkeepers?

You see Wayde & Brett visit the client, measure up the aquarium, have the aquarium built, installed and packed with fish...not just saltwater but freshwater too...immediately. Now those of us who have been fishkeeping for several years knows and understands there is an awful lot tween installing an aquarium and actually putting the fish in it.

But that is never made clear. It looks easy, fast and everything goes perfectly everytime.

I have yet to see an episode where they deal with algae blooms, dead or dying fish, fish disease, cycling, stocking appropriate fish species mixing...on one episode they had a freshwater aquarium in a vetinarian's office that mixed Barbs with Axolotl which is so wrong...but they did it.

I am interested in your opinions on this cos it really annoys me that programmes like "Tanked" that could so easily be more towards teaching how to do things right and to be more explanitory are, infact, adding to the bad advice often given by the shops.

TV series like this have such a huge audience and many first time fishkeepers see those beautiful aquariums, see how easy it looks, try to copy it and then fall over in the early stages with cycle issues, fish dying, wrongly mixed species etc

So...do TV programmes about fishkeeping have as much responsibility as the shops in giving poor or misleading advice to new fishkeepers?

 

The only thing i have learned from watching animal planet is that a) most people who get cats MUST think they are like dogs(which, honestly, is the main issues Jackson Galaxy has to fix with almost everyone on the show) and b) i hate pitbull owners. Since 98% of the animals on rescue shows tend to be pitbulls...

 

Their website literally says this:

“Aqua Rentals’ knowledge and experience of aquatic displays has allowed us to rent our fish tanks and aquariums to a diverse range of UK organisations to suit various environments.”

Knowledge would tell not to keep goldfish in that setup.

My dentist (in North Yorkshire) has litreally one of these, with 3 or 5 goldfish in it, don't remember now witch. It's been there for years, and as far as I remember, it's always been well maintained, fish active and curious, but I've never really thought if they change the fish often. I have to ask next time... I'm due for check up anyway. I'll update you later of this.

 

I spose the biggest issue I have with Tanked is that they don't explain enough about the setting up and the maintenance afterwards of any aquarium.

Each programme shows an external company, obviously local to the client, that is contracted to do the "aftershow" maintenance and care for as long as the aquarium is in place, but this arrangement is never actually confirmed or denied. I also wonder if indeed the aquariums are actually bought by the clients or if they are rented with the local firm's care package - here in the UK it is very common for companies and individuals to rent aquariums that include the full care and maintenance for a set amount of time. It is not made clear what happens once the cameras are all put away.

Case in point with the aquarium mentioned by bcsay720 ...what happened to the aquarium and fish? It would be good to know that everything was rehomed safely.

I guess the way that these aquariums are built, installed and filled just makes it look so easy...too easy...along with ill informed shop staff at the big chains, people see Tanked, love the look of an aquarium, decide to go buy one at their local chain store along with lots of different fish, chuck it all together....just as they have seen countless times on Tanked....and then it all goes horribly wrong. Maybe Tanked should do a few pitfalls and basic set up type programmes so that people realise that it isn't as easy or troublefree as they make it look.

Whenever something goes wrong, it's a person getting hurt. Never the animals. They refuse to show something going wrong that way, which is definitely problematic.

 

There is a show called "Fish Tank Kings" that is waaaaaaay better than Tanked. I think it was on Netflix for a time but may be harder to find now. It doesn't have the silly acting, it's more like a documentary.

 

There is a show called "Fish Tank Kings" that is waaaaaaay better than Tanked. I think it was on Netflix for a time but may be harder to find now. It doesn't have the silly acting, it's more like a documentary.

Ah, that one ran on National Geographic. They also did mistakes a lot, but at least they explained what went wrong, unlike the other one. Interestingly most mistakes were done by the guy who was responsible for stocking.

 

Tanked is entertainment! The day of the educational show is over. Have you watched any of the cars shows?? What used to be educational has long ago changed to stupid! More actors than mechanics. Same thing with the home improvement shows! Long way away from THIS OLD HOUSE!! Where you actually learned useful stuff and they spent a whole season working on one house. Yes tanked is a half hour show? You’ll never get anything useful out of it. Why do you think they do celebrities. Just weren’t making it doing tanks! It’s funny but people don’t want to be educated! They want to be entertained and told what to do!

 

Tanked is entertainment! The day of the educational show is over. Have you watched any of the cars shows?? What used to be educational has long ago changed to stupid! More actors than mechanics. Same thing with the home improvement shows! Long way away from THIS OLD HOUSE!! Where you actually learned useful stuff and they spent a whole season working on one house. Yes tanked is a half hour show? You’ll never get anything useful out of it. Why do you think they do celebrities. Just weren’t making it doing tanks! It’s funny but people don’t want to be educated! They want to be entertained and told what to do!

All makes sense, but when you do a home improvement or a car show no possibly endangered species are hurt for the show itself and neither will animals have to suffer when people try what they do on those shows.

Nobody is questioning it's "just" for entertainment, but this is not what enterntainment should do and no excuse for the responsibility the producers (let alone protagonists) of that show ignored to take.

 

Mac you are 100% right! But in America fish keeping isn’t even recognized! We think there’s a lot of us but there really isn’t. Yes covid has opened it up for many but only time will tell for how long. In Germany and Europe you actually have laws in place for pet stores. Nothing like that here. Any fly by night can open a store. If there are regulators there are not enough. Off topic here but in the US there’s only 900 OSHA safety inspectors for construction in the country. 900! If they don’t care about construction you know they don’t care about fish!! Tanked offers nothing about the fish. It’s pretty much telling you if you’ve got a lot of money to waste you can do this!

 

But in America fish keeping isn’t even recognized!

I know and it makes me furious!

And the other things you mention are among the things I hear from so many expats. My partner critisizes this, many others do, too. I have to admit: There are days when I really don't get the general american mentality. While I'm aware of a lot, sometimes information I get tops my most boldest fantasies.

Off topic here but in the US there’s only 900 OSHA safety inspectors for construction in the country. 900!

My uncle was a construction safety inspector. Here people are not even allowed to build anything without a permit and now the kicker: If they do, they have to demolish and start again. Provided they still get the permit, because: If the building is more than 25% done when the inspector finds any irregularities they have to pay a hefty fine and the things not warranted by the permit have to be changed. If things were not warranted in a completed building they still get fined and have to make the appropriate changes.

Many people are angry about too much regulation, but honestly... a certain degree of regulation combined with sufficient information gathered by those whom it concernes saves all of us so much energy and time, I think it's worth it.

 

Well what it comes down to is there’s much more profit without regulation!! Hey want a 2000g tank shaped like a VW bus . Yep well even put fish in it . Stay tuned!!

 

Well what it comes down to is there’s much more profit without regulation!! Hey want a 2000g tank shaped like a VW bus . Yep well even put fish in it . Stay tuned!!

Capitalism. Root and solution to all problems in life. xD

 

Like most reality television shows there is nothing "real" about them. They should give a disclaimer at the beginning "this is purely for entertainment purposes, please don't try this at home." Personally I think animal care ought to be a required subject at school. 10 weeks each for fin, fur and feather and the final term should be rotation at rescue shelters caring for them.

YES! YES! YES! As a responsible, very knowledgeable cat and dog owner, I have to shout out my agreement with this post! Too many people, even well-meaning people, know next to nothing or are sadly misinformed about how to care for cats and dogs (and probably other fin, fur and feather pets!) It really should be a required subject at school or else a required course of training before someone is allowed to acquire a pet. (Can you tell I'm passionate about this?)

 

I live in a town near one place tanked made a tank for. It was the wine bottle saltwater tank.

1st of all, they installed a WORKING wine tap into the tank for AUTHENTICITY. The woman key thing to keep a kid from releasing the water from the tank is a sign that says yes this works, please don’t touch. It’s also in a liquor store. Since that tank was out in, the store got a ton of business and lots of people went to that store. Which leads me to my next point.

2nd the owner totally embraced it as a business opportunity and so much is wrong with this. He got more tanks, tons and tons and tons of fish tanks packed into the little liquor store. I don’t keep saltwater, but even I am pretty sure that those tanks are NOT properly maintained. I have a great LFS, but I guess they must not get help from them anymore. Almost all of the tanks are overrun by algae and ditritus. Outside of the tanks they have a picture and name of the different species of fish in them. In some of the tanks I couldn’t locate all of the species. One had a big puffer and banana wrasse, and I could only find the puffer. That tank only had fish and live rock in it, nothing else. Other than the disgusting algae and slime and ditritus in it. I think it is so awful what people will do for money.The owner has since packed the store with SOOO many fish tanks, a koi pond, and an enclosure for 2 bearded dragons which is set up wrong. It definitely looks like it was set up for an arboreal lizard, and there is minimal floor space, nowhere for the to just lay. They also have a black lab who limps around and lays on the ground getting touched by tons of different people and it makes me feel bad for him. The store is full of poorly kept tanks and it makes me so sad. Especially considering that most likely all of the saltwater fish were wild caught, and now have been shoved into these tiny inadequate tanks that are definitely not healthy.The wine bottle tank is also super tall, with no access, so there must be an opening on the other side of the wall it is against for feeding. The tank is shaped in a way that proper maintenance can’t be done, the corals and bottom can’t be reached, and it definitely shows. I feel so bad for the poor fish. Tanked IMO is just another way for people to get their own little bit of fame, or celebrities to get a lot more. It is just for the money, and no one thinks or cares about the well-being of the animals. I don’t have experience with any of the fish in their store, mostly because they went for the most exotic flashy stuff they could find, and I can still tell that they are not doing well. It bothers me that Tanked doesn’t make sure the animals are taken care of, and forget about them once they move on to their next build. It disgusts me what people will do to animals to gain fame and business.

 

YES! YES! YES! As a responsible, very knowledgeable cat and dog owner, I have to shout out my agreement with this post! Too many people, even well-meaning people, know next to nothing or are sadly misinformed about how to care for cats and dogs (and probably other fin, fur and feather pets!) It really should be a required subject at school or else a required course of training before someone is allowed to acquire a pet. (Can you tell I'm passionate about this?)

This is a problem with more than just pets. Today it seems everything is replaceable. Even pets, it's sad, but it's true. When a pet is hard, or not what was expected, they get tossed into shelters, or worse. Same thing applies to just about anything. It's easier to buy new than to fix something broken. Just general society now. So when a show like this happens, it just shows how far we've gone downhill. It's only entertainment to non fish people. Those of us here, with tanks of our own, cringe at this show because we know the behind the scenes. And 99% of what we do is not entertaining to most.