The ethics of rimless tanks and fish jumping

[ktownhero]

What a dramatic post...

This has nothing to do with rimless tanks specifically -- a rim doesn't prevent jumpers, a lid/cover does. It's super easy to get a screen top for a rimless tank and it makes almost no effect on the appearance of the tank.

That said, if people want to run without a lid, I don't care... But I would certainly advise it for obvious jumpers such as certain gobies or blennies. I have always kept open-top tanks (rimmed or not) in the past, only recently adding an Artfully Acrylic top to my Red Sea Reefer because I wanted to keep a diamond goby.

[smatter]

When a fish jumps out of my uncovered tank my pets get a treat. Circle of Life.

[ktownhero]

IMO, the ethics of fishkeeping in general trumps any concerns over using a rimless tank. This hobby is inherently ethically questionable as it's entire premise involves taking animals from their environment and putting them in an experimental container. If you can't stomach losing a fish from jumping then I don't know how you stomach this hobby at all.

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[kalare]

Originally Posted by ktownhero

IMO, the ethics of fishkeeping in general trumps any concerns over using a rimless tank. This hobby is inherently ethically questionable as it's entire premise involves taking animals from their environment and putting them in an experimental container. If you can't stomach losing a fish from jumping then I don't know how you stomach this hobby at all.

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So, because (one may believe) that the ethics of pet keeping is bad in general, we should then just not strive to take care of those pets that we have "imprisoned" to the best of our ability? Makes no sense.

What about the ethics of say, using mules for labor to till fields. Some people may call that animal enslavement...so should those farmers than treat those mules like crap or (to draw parallel here) leave them in a pen, with an fence with only an opening on the side of a cliff, such that a startled mule has the chance to mistakenly fall? No, they would fence the whole thing, cause it's smart and is the right thing to do, regardless of any "grey area" that others may or may not think of their mule keeping practices.

[albano]

Originally Posted by ktownhero

... This hobby is inherently ethically questionable as it's entire premise involves taking animals from their environment and putting them in an experimental container. If you can't stomach losing a fish from jumping then I don't know how you stomach this hobby at all.

And what about the domestication of dogs...why shouldn't they all be returned to the wild!