Apparently keeping a nanoreef is cruel, what do you think?
Fellow nanoreefer and friend, OwlBassboy, recently posted on his site about other reefkeepers saying that nanoreefs are cruel. Seems like these people are closed minded…
I personally do not see anything wrong with my stock being kept in a nano, I have 3 fish, a flameback dwarf angel, ocellaris clown and a pyjama cardinal. Would you rather see this or someone keeping a naso vlamingii in a 6×2×2? I know which one sounds cruel to me. – Owlbassboy
Read Nanoreefs=cruel? here and get involved in the conversation.
Looking at the big picture, isn’t it cruel to keep any animal in captivity?
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5 Responses
yes i suppose you are right there mate no aquarium is technically big enough as i suppose fish were created for the ocean. all we can do as hobbyists is make sure our fish look healthy and that they have adequate space…..obviously we can never recreate the ocean exactly, thats just impossble
Anyone who has dived or snorkeled over wild reef knows that many species of coral reef fishes are very site-attached. That is, they are perfectly content to remain in the safety of a small patch of reef. Gobies, blennies, cardinalfishes, small angelfishes, and others come to mind. All of these are highly appropriate for nano aquaria. Putting a fish that naturally needs to roam into the tight confines of a small glass box would be cruel, and I think that good books and sites like this can help steer people toward the right choices of livestock.
My pair of Banggai Cardinals have spawned in a 22-gal (83-L) nano in my office, and I doubt they felt the least bit uncomfortable or ill treated.
I think people get all too hung up in this idea of nano-reefs being too small to maintain anything and fail to take into consideration several key factors. For instance, a juvenile of any of the more sedentary species being kept in multiples in a nano is going to be infinitely better-off than a full-grown Vlamingii in virtually any hobbyist system. Or, any of the Gobidon spp. being kept in a Pico compared to people keeping a full-blown predator setup in a standard 4-footer.
I think if you can tailor your livestock in the types of not only bioload and ultimate size but habits for activity and methods of locomotion you are no more cruel than people shoving 4-5 Tangs in a 4′ tank.
Let’s face it, any tank is cruel. But, I’d much rather be cruel in a manner which takes into account these factors and not one which blindly disregards them and brushes it off as being a non-issue because conventional wisdom says it’s “big enough”…
As above really, my 94 litre has a pair of clowns and some zoas at the minute. i want to get a algae blennie and that may very well be it for fish. we should be using our tanks no matter how large or small to preserve as much as the ocean through aquaculture as possible. There may be one day when we are called upon to help reseed the reefs. In my case that probably won’t happen but those ultra rare corals that are being fragged will be very helpfull.
as long as Nano’s are stocked correctly then can you really complain or argue. Any sensible person knows that you don’t put big fish in small tanks. It does pain me to see it done but with enough education things should (finger crossed) change.
All reef tanks can be classed as ‘nano reefs’ if you consider where the livestock comes from, even the largest of public aquariums.
I dont think it is cruel to keep reef tanks. The fact that things grow and breed within our tanks shows that they are ‘happy’ to some degree.