Dre

JUNIOR MEMBER
Location
NY/NJ
Rating - 100%
243   0   0
Our hobby is like a tree and we are the leaves on it. Some leaves fall to the ground and in return give the tree nourishment. Hence the tree grows bigger and bigger..When people leave the hobby for whatever reason i think is a good thing. You get a chance to buy their fish, corals and not to mention the equipment that you probably didn't want to buy new because of the cost or probably you wasn't even thinking of buying it to begin with. Secondly weeding out the weak is not a bad thing. The corals need us to be impregnable, unbroken for them to survive. Only the strong will survive in some cases the corals...
 

guarda

Advanced Reefer
Rating - 100%
88   0   0
You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave. I've been out for about 3 years but I've kept in touch with many people I've met here. And now I'm back.

You can reef with a low budget. And people who say they don't have time don't care enough to spend it. Sleep less.

So when's the next frag swap? :)
 

Dre

JUNIOR MEMBER
Location
NY/NJ
Rating - 100%
243   0   0
You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave. I've been out for about 3 years but I've kept in touch with many people I've met here. And now I'm back.

You can reef with a low budget. And people who say they don't have time don't care enough to spend it. Sleep less.

So when's the next frag swap? :)

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum...ew-england-frag-farmers-market-3-11-17-a.htmlhttp://i557.photobucket.com/albums/...6-9f26-4d5e-94d3-6ec4bdf7c302_zpsnazbwtli.jpg
http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum...ew-england-frag-farmers-market-3-11-17-a.html
 
Last edited:
Location
Union Square, NY
Rating - 100%
90   0   0
This is a very hard and somewhat unforgiving hobby. Also it is not like crashing a toy drone, we're dealing with actual living animals and the emotional toll can sometimes be too much for people.

Also, as I have to remind myself almost every day at work, patience is something that is very hard to learn.
 

saltykid85

Advanced Reefer
Location
North Jersey
Rating - 100%
25   0   0
Keeping animals that come from a place that covers 2/3 of the earth (ocean) into man made glass boxes that measure a measley 4*2 on average (8 square feet) is a shame and a crime in humanity. I am parting with my tanks, and will be doing more to persuade people not to take part in it. These shops bring in fish way to big for the largest aquariums, let alone your average tank, is no better than people keeping monkeys in bird cages.

Time will catch up with this hobby, it's just the average person care more about the mammal side
 

rich

Advanced Reefer
Location
Chelsea
Rating - 100%
27   0   0
I dont know. I try to buy my fish from ORA and I think most of us have our fish's well being in mind and keep them alive longer than they do in the wild. Unfortunately, their natural habitat is being destroyed rapidly and maybe in the future we will only have aquariums to see how they lived in the past. It is time consuming and money consuming but most hobbies are not cheap now a days.
 

saltykid85

Advanced Reefer
Location
North Jersey
Rating - 100%
25   0   0
Relatively speaking, the hobby is hyperinflated compared to when I started in the mid 90s. Most coral.To be had were colonies, and ran in the vicinity of 45-50. Now that buys you a cheap fragment.

But as with most things, people are gullible, fall for the hype, and will send thousands on stuff they can't give away at the end.

As far taking from the ocean and putting them in glass, if that helps you sleep at night , that works for you. Being told wild fish hardly ever succomb to parasite such as ich in the wild.is bad enough for me. We all know how that plays out in captivity. Would you dare eat a flounder raised I'm your tank? Think of all those.lovely bacteria and high nitrates you would be getting along with it.

Rather than fix the oceans issues (runoff, over population, over fishing (yes ornamental fish too), we can justify it by saying well the tanks may be the only place for them to live at some point anyway? Like saying SEZ trafficking is fine because the pimps treat them better than these country does anyhow.

And I am sure you have all the right intentions, but how many people at the store truly have a place big enough for nasos, hippos, and acanthurus? How many more thousands of Moorish idols must perish before it's stopped?

For every one thinker like yourself, there is a thousand pet stores or lfs saying yep, save the ocean, buy from me.
Michael Vick served time for dog fighting? When tangs are forced to coexist in small quarters, who serves the time? See where Im going...
 

albano

Saltwater since 1973
Staff member
Rating - 100%
129   0   0
... I think most of us have our fish's well being in mind and keep them alive longer than they do in the wild. Unfortunately, their natural habitat is being destroyed rapidly and maybe in the future we will only have aquariums to see how they lived in the past. It is time consuming and money consuming but most hobbies are not cheap now a days.

I don't believe that the 'average' hobbyist keeps anything alive longer than in the wild...
And by the time their natural habitat is destroyed, there probably won't be any 'legal' private aquariums
 

r_jay

Experienced Reefer
Location
Staten Island
Rating - 100%
6   0   0
All this fish lives matter talk is making me hungry for sushi. Glad to know people are exercising their right to express their opinion but this IS a hobby and as with most things in the world you can't convince someone to believe as you do by belittling them or attacking the things they do that bring them joy, like eating babies. Jk but seriously you could argue that any hobby is ruining earths resources whether it's woodworking, disc golf or shopping at Walmart. Short of living like the Swiss Family Robinson everything we do as humans affects the natural world in more ways than we know. Doesn't mean we should be forced to believe one way or another but in a perfect world people at least think how their actions affect the world around them. This hobby brings me joy, and that's why I do it, not to buy fancy coral or fancy fish but for the peace it gives me when I can sit and marvel at earths creations in my living room. I've tried the screen saver of fish but it's lame.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

ReeferMadness99

Advanced Reefer
Rating - 100%
4   0   0
I'm one who left the hobby for about 2-3 years because of "life"....but we all come back lol. It's in our blood. I think what we have seen a decline in are the debates and huge threads we've seen in the past. I think this is just because there isn't anything new and exciting in the hobby right now. Remember when LEDs came around? Everyone was arguing and debating the merits vs T5 & Halides. So many vendors scrambling to get on board with LEDs. Then there was Bacterial Filtration and the ULNS. People debating and arguing about Vodka dosing, Zeovit and Fauna Marin etc... then Biopellets... Way before all that it was the protein skimmer.

I think we've just a time in the hobby where we are just making more expensive versions of the same technology right now and it's gotten a little boring. There's not a lot of innovation and scientific discovery.
 

saltykid85

Advanced Reefer
Location
North Jersey
Rating - 100%
25   0   0
All this fish lives matter talk is making me hungry for sushi. Glad to know people are exercising their right to express their opinion but this IS a hobby and as with most things in the world you can't convince someone to believe as you do by belittling them or attacking the things they do that bring them joy, like eating babies. Jk but seriously you could argue that any hobby is ruining earths resources whether it's woodworking, disc golf or shopping at Walmart. Short of living like the Swiss Family Robinson everything we do as humans affects the natural world in more ways than we know. Doesn't mean we should be forced to believe one way or another but in a perfect world people at least think how their actions affect the world around them. This hobby brings me joy, and that's why I do it, not to buy fancy coral or fancy fish but for the peace it gives me when I can sit and marvel at earths creations in my living room. I've tried the screen saver of fish but it's lame.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

In essence, fish lives don't matter, the never talked about statistics about how many fish make it versus die, does not matter, and your joy is worth the death of animals, got it.

People find that solace with trying to keep monkeys and tigers. Difference is those you have to smuggle into the county where these you can just walk into any Petco.

Google ornamental fishing , and you will see thousand of pictures of fish who weren't lucky enough to survive shipping. Or was that good.luck, considering the repulsive conditions they were heading too
 

r_jay

Experienced Reefer
Location
Staten Island
Rating - 100%
6   0   0
Like I said you can't convince people to believe the way you do by arguing and in the end you just have upset individuals. I could google all day long pictures of all the dying fish in the world and it would just waste time and not save a single one. If you want to save the oceans then you should do something constructive instead of prowling reef hobbiests forums on the web. http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/habitats/coralreefs/ways-to-help-coral-reefs/


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Sponsor Reefs

We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.

Click here to sponsor $10:


Top