Who Makes Up The Rules?

[mollybabes]

I was wondering after lots of great advice, who makes up the rules of what fish goes in what gallon and what goes with what?
I'm not blaming anyone, but I left this site last year some time because I was getting so paranoid about my fish. The group of 6+ for schooling fish, when my LFS and parents said 4 was fine. (My LFS is family run specialists)
Then there was the too small tank, although they had been fine for ages. I got so paranoid, my parents refused to listen after I said the word fishlore.
I'm not blaming anyone, but who does make the rules?
By the way all my fish are good, even my female rainbow who has the lump. Turned out she got in the way of the males fighting and was a wound. It has now formed a nice scab.

 

[CaptAnnDuchow]

I totally agree. Most of what I "knew" about fish 15 years ago is a huge no no now. Some of it is the same though. I look at it as more research has been done in 15 years to show that by doing things differently maybe the fish have better and longer lives. But I would love to see where the studies are and I meam actual studies with scientific proof on some of this stuff that I see for advice. I'm not an expert by any means what so ever but the ikd ways worked and now I get told that is not the way to do things.

 

[mollybabes]

I was getting ridiculous, looking back on it. My family have kept fish since I was young. Then I come on here and have the cheek to tell them they are going to kill all the fish. Been doing it since 2007 and fish have been fine for their lifespan.

 

[goldface]

People can say must, need, have to, and other absolutes, but the truth is that fishkeeping is not an exact science--no matter how badly someone may want it to be so. There are no rules, only opinion. We are talking about keeping animals inside a small glass box. There are going to be variables. Whether one keeps, say Neon Tetras, in 20 gallon long or 75g, they can still move from one end to the other probably in a 1/3 of a second if they were so inclined. Whenever I see people arguing over a few inches of aquarium length, it just seems silly. If the person isn't keeping their fish in a cup, just let it go--especially if said person haven't had any problems.

 

[mollybabes]

Of course some of it is common sense
(If you happen to have an acf called Blotchie who had a dark tank because the lights blew, don't put two new mollies in the tank)

 

[SRF1957]

I. joined here on Dec 1. have 9 posts . I checked some of the people dispensing advice saw they joined 2 months before me already had close to 2k posts and were acting like experts . They seem to think it some kind of game you are supposed to win .

 

[david1978]

I agree with scarface nothing is truly black and white in this hobby just different shades of grey. As far as temp and tank size type stuff most recommendations are debated hobby wide by both biologists and hobbyists so they become the hobby standards. Now they are only recommendations which if your new to the hobby its better to stay with "best" practices. As you get more experience you learn how far you can bend the "rules".

 

[Skavatar]

the temperature and pH recommendations are based on the areas where the specific fish originated from. if it was from the Amazon, you'll see temp ranges between 70-80'F and low ph, soft water recommendations. the reason for the temp range is because the temps aren't constant, they have a wet season where its a bit cooler, and a dry season where its a bit warmer.

the tank size recommendations are usually based on the fish's max size, which also affects the amount of bioload.

most pet owners care for their pets, and want to give the best advise to others, which sometimes comes out sounding like they're criticizing or bashing others. but on the other hand there are people who just decide they want this pet or that pet and never do any research and then join a pet forum with all sorts of problems which could have been avoid if they had done some research before buying their pets. And what's worse is that some just come asking, when their questions would have easily been answered with a quick search as their problem is very common and there are many articles on it or many threads on the exact same topic.