I had a 10" BGK who used to suck the eyeballs out of his tankmates (usually platies) if he felt he wasn't getting enough earthworms, blackworms, and bloodworms.
My wife named him Imotep
I had rescued him from somebody who's tank wasn't big enough, and I ended up giving him away because the biggest tank I had with no tankmates or compatable tankmates was only 55g, and I didn't want to risk the eyes of the fishes in my 125g.
Orignally, I was planning on putting him in the 125g once he came out of quarentine, but watching him blind the platies that I was also keeping in the Q tank killed that notion.
I had always been told that they would do fine with non-aggresive tankmates as long as they had enough space
I learned my lesson the hard way...
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Here's my question: If the minimum recommended tank size for a bgk is 75 gal. and you're not supposed to have any other fish with them, are people who want to keep this fish expected to set up a 75 gal. and basically just have one fish in it (the bgk)? Seems like a lot of trouble/expense to me for one fish. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
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This isn't aimed at you MacD - you're just asking a good question - but it raises a point thats been bugging me lately.
I always assume that people are expected to do what's best for a pet.
If the best thing to do for a parrot is to put it by itself in a properly sized parrot cage, do people complain that they cannot also keep canaries and finches in the parrot cage ? (not that I've ever heard)
Nobody buys a hamster cage and then gets mad when the sales staff at the LFS tells them they shouldn't put a rabbit in there (I hope).
Is this type of thinking unique to aquariums ? Or is it part of a larger issue, that many people don't see aquariums as pets, they see them as decoration ?
Why do so many people have a problem understanding that they should pick a tank size that matches the fish they want (and vice versa) ?
I hear this almost every weekend at work (LFS):
"I've got a (10g or 20g) tank, but I don't want these fish, I want big fish"
(usually after I show them appropriate fish for their 10g or 20g tanks) - and I just don't get it.
Then they look at me funny when I ask them if they would put a rabbit in a hamster cage