Tanked

[Taiken5968]

A "good investigative reporting" is just that, my Friend, unbiased and showing ALL the facts, letting the public to decide whether it s good or bad. I do not know one personally but there are many people on this forum. Someone out there may have just the right person.

There are just not many of those these days. People that will report both sides. Almost every news station had an agenda.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I sure don't want to harm their business of building tanks, I would just like them to project a more responsible attitude towards the live stock. They need a biologist on board that they listen to.

 

[meegosh]

I'm torn on this show... obviously I enjoy watching the tanks and the builds. Then you see some of the stock. I realize they are in the business to make money. They probably overstock the FW tanks to account for deaths during acclimation, spikes, etc. I do like that they use a lot of captive bred species, not that it makes it that much better than wilds dying.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I'm torn on this show... obviously I enjoy watching the tanks and the builds. Then you see some of the stock. I realize they are in the business to make money. They probably overstock the FW tanks to account for deaths during acclimation, spikes, etc. I do like that they use a lot of captive bred species, not that it makes it that much better than wilds dying.

All those tangs, angelfish and box fish weren't raised. I also find it entertaining, but sends a bad message IMO.

 

[Chris J]

I regularly watch both Tanked and Fish Tank Kings. I feel that there is more beneficial information on Fish Tank Kings but you still have to listen carefully to catch it. I personally like River Monsters as my "Fish Show". I know the vast majority of the fish on the show are completely impossible to keep in any tank short of a public aquarium and its solely freshwater but there is SO much more information about the ecology of the fish and about some of the environments that some of the fish we ARE able to keep at home come from, that I prefer it over either of the Fish Tank shows. I like some of the acrylic work and tank designs that the other shows have but I just can't take the stupidity and irresponsibility that they show when stocking a tank. It's absurd, sickening, stupefying and is nothing less than an atrocity to just write off the lives of so many species that are continually disappearing from our oceans. I'm far from being an environmentalist but I also believe that purchasing fish is the same as purchasing any animal, in that the purchaser is taking on the responsibility of providing the best possible care they are able to provide to the animal. That means they should be educated in the needs and requirements for owning said animal. Purchasing fish that the person doesn't have a large enough aquarium for is the same as buying a dog and locking it in a closet. Since they aren't cuddly, people forget they are living things with personalities and feelings. I just needed to vent and state my piece on this topic in a place where I know there are like minded folk. I personally educate both my Fiancée and mother on what and why the things on tanked are so wrong.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Well said. I can tell you that diving for years has made me very aware of where those fish at the LFS came from, well at least the majority. Clown fish seem to be an exception as the market has swayed to tank raised varieties.

I have lived with parrots most of my life, guess fish people are bird people as well sometimes. I remember when the bird trade, at the barrel of federal legislation, was shut down. It was a good thing too as it had gone out of control. But you can easily buy a parrot today because the breeders had to step up. Caught birds were gone. And people "flocked" to hand raised birds because they were healthier and gentler. I bet the best way to see tank raised tangs hit the market is to shut down their wild capture at the sources.

 

[TheTodd]

Didn't Hawaii have something going on where they were going to stop the capture and export of certain fish? I almost recall it being Yellow Tangs...don't recall what happened with that though.

 

[Gregcoyote]

They've tried every year. It barely fails each time.

 

[Taiken5968]

I agree that something needs to be done to prevent over collecting of fish, but I am not sure an outright ban would be the best option. It can create a black market, and likely the people who can afford the illegal fish can also afford a good lawyer to get out of the charges, or greatly reduce them. I think a safe an easy thing to do is establish large reserve arias. This has worked quite well for fishing. People fish all around reserves, they catch more fish, and the numbers of fish increase since they have safe havens to spawn in.

It may not be a perfect idea, but it has done well when applied to fishing. In my opinion it could work with aquarium fish.

 

[waterfaller1]

Isn't "river monsters" a show where they catch fish with a hook?

 

[Chris J]

Yes they catch them on a hook, the way it's been done for hundreds of years. The fish caught on a hook also survive and are free to go about their business within a couple of minutes. I would quicker have someone hook me in the mouth and let me go rather than be caught in a large net and the boxed up shipped half way across the planet and then shoved in a closet and kept there for my life.

 

[waterfaller1]

Yes they catch them on a hook, the way it's been done for hundreds of years.The fish caught on a hook also survive and are free to go about their business within a couple of minutes.

Doesn't make it right.

I would quicker have someone hook me in the mouth and let me go rather than be caught in a large net and the boxed up shipped half way across the planet and then shoved in a closet and kept there for my life.

Do you keep an aquarium? If so isn't that a tad hypocritical?

 

[meegosh]

Do you keep an aquarium? If so isn't that a tad hypocritical?

I think we are all a little hypocritical, you know, being that this is a fish keeping website and all.

I think he was just saying he would take being snagged by a hook over caught and kept captive. Quite the hypothetical scenario.

 

[Chris J]

I have multiple aquariums, but I (unlike the members of the Tanked show we were initially talking about) care to research and learn the care requirements needed to provide proper care for the fish I purchase. I don't claim to be perfect, nor that hooking a fish in the mouth is without its issues, but is much better compared to the mass harvesting of fish with the majority being doomed to die before even making it to a home aquarium and still more being doomed to an existence in an aquarium which is not properly set up to meet their needs.

 

[waterfaller1]

Well said.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I guess my point in all of this is that we need to be more responsible with our hobby and try our best to lower the mortality rate we currently have.

 

[GBHammbone]

i think ive posted this on this site before, but gotta take Tanked for entertainment only. this is the worst ive heard of from them. copy/paste from MFK.


00rollins said:
04-10-2012 10:31 PM
I know for a fact that tanked is fully staged BS. I was able to see the filming of the show in person. This season will air an episode were they build a tank into an orthodontics office in West Islip, NY. I was there. They built a ridiculously awesome tank that is actually built into the building, i mean it cant be removed part of the structure. So filming day they are all there sitting around all day doing nothing while hired help fills this gigantic tank for hours. They provide written script to the doctor as he has to react on camera to the tank. Then re-shot all the the scenes several times, completely false from start to finish, not reality TV just acted like anything else on TV. Not the worst, they always talk about acclimation, this was a salt water shark tank, they threw thousands of dollars worth of fish into this tank without any acclimation at all. Several nice sized sharks and a ton of other salt water fish that should not have been with the sharks. Within 48 hours only 2 fish were left alive a small shark blinded by bashing himself into the wall of the tank and a large nurse shark that almost burst from eating so many dead fish. It was a horror show. The doctor had to pay for all the fish. The tank is free from the show. Seriously disturbing what so called fish lovers will do for money and fame. The filters were not even ready to be used these guys filmed and walked out fish started dying within hours. These guys are scum.

 

[Pearly]

Now if that is all a FACT... There has got to be a good investigative reporter out there to cover story like this! This is sickening!

 

[Gregcoyote]

I knew it was all produced, almost all reality TV is. But I gave them credit it wasn't as bad as that piece described. At big fish trade shows, it's amazing what they set up in a few days then tear down and sell off hours after the show is over. but none of it was to be permanent. The theme tank thing is getting pretty weak. The doctors tank this week with the phony internal organs mixed into the rubber coral. Just what I want to see and how secondary the fish become. Also it is another impossible to clean that tank, something every aquarium owner for the last thousand years has had to do occasionally. While I would die to have a tank I had to scuba in to clean, I wouldn't have one that had to be cleaned with long tools.

 

[MMantelli]

It makes me wander how the deep water tank they did for the Fl aquarium is doing...even before I started fishkeeping I knew something was off with that show