For a long time I have thought that one aspect of human beings’ cruelty to the natural world is our keeping fish in tanks for our own amusement.
No mention at all about any attempt to rescue the fish. And no doubt (sadly) they will build another one. Though I hope someone rethinks this and decided not.
And yes, we too had a fish tank when I was a child. The moment I realised it was completely and utterly wrong was when I was sitting in an Indian restaurant and there was a large fish tank that formed the pillars and archway between the two rooms of the restaurant - why? For heavens sake.
I’m with you on this Sue, and have to bite my tongue when I visit the neighbours and see their tank with all the poor creatures swimming aimlessly in it. As to choosing live fish to be killed and eaten @Corona that is totally beyond the pale for me, and to answer @_Brian I don’t eat fish anymore for this very reason, especially as, alone amongst all the animals eaten by humans, there are no laws to prevent the cruel methods of killing sea creatures.
While we are at it, I am trying my best to modify my diet away from meat altogether, as discussed in another thread.
When does a tank become a pond?
We have a pond in our garden oval shaped 10m x 12m and around 1m deep.
It contains some 200 small fish which came from initially 20 some years ago. The pond also attracts frogs and all sorts of wildlife.
The pond is for our pleasure though perhaps some would perhaps say amusement. Who knows if the fish are happy but they certainly know how to multiply and that process always seems to please humans.
When you consider the aquariums of years gone by like Brighton dolphinarium and the slightly dark secrets of how long dolphins live in captivity like that slowly being killed by chlorinated water byproducts. They gave the same names to the dolphins so as not to alarm the public as each one died. Although I do not believe in keeping these and many other beautiful animals in captivity such as these there have been huge improvements to many over the years thankfully. Nausica in Boulogne/Calais is very much improved using the same technology I use in swimming pools.
Yes, I realised that, and in the same way when I was a lad of about 10 and was given a couple of Sticklebacks from Cookie’s pond by a girl who had caught some but I had not been able to. I really fancied her too, I’ll take sympathy if there is nothing else going.
My Dad, an engineer, made a tank to fit the angled shelf in the corner of the room and they and their offspring lived there for years. Wouldn’t do it now though.
When it is to provide a new habitat for voluntary wildlife. I have 3 and there isn’t a single fish in any of them, if there were it would be because a couple were dropped by passing birds. But they do have newts, frogs, toads, skimmers, boatmen, dragonfly larvae and snakes. Also visiting birds of many varieties. Everything that is there came of its own accord and if it is eaten, it will not be by me.
@Corona , again. I have always felt rotten about such high intelligence mammals being in captivity like that. But I once had a thought that if they are so bright, how come it isn’t us that are in oxygen filled tanks in the sea for their amusement? Hmm, perhaps someone should go and look.
Leon the Lobster - interesting watch.
What is it like to buy a Lobster from the grocery store seafood section and keep it in a saltwater aquarium at home as a pet? This video shows you just how this went.
I think this debate has so far largely omitted mention of the critical factor of size of captive and size of space in which they are confined. Large fish and large animals need much larger spaces than can be provided by aquaria or zoos.
A wild African elephant travels tens of miles a day, whereas in even the ‘best’ zoos with the largest enclosures, they tend to walk round in circles, which is asymptom of psychosis. Furthermore in the wild an elephant can have social circles of as many as several hundred other elephants, whereas in zoos there may only be one or two others, who may simply be offspring. An even more extreme example is the endangered S African wild dog which lives in small pack sof a dozen of so, each of which requires 200 -700 sqr kms of hunting territory, but which are confined in small ‘runs’ in zoos like those of French hunting dogs
Aquaria and zoos are terrible places for non-human animals that were designed by humans for humans.
Hmm, perhaps someone should go and look. 
