I just don't know

[Paul B]

I was going to a meeting today and I was stuck in traffic for over an hour and I was thinking about that part about cycling a tank with a fish or a dead shrimp and it came to me that it has to do with size. At least I think people have more respect for animals which are larger. For instance, why don't we care when our fish eat pods? Pods have a life but it seems no real rights. Then we have brine shrimp, they also don't have many rights as I never heard anyone say, "Oh that poor brine shrimp, look how that fish is going to eat him" Brine shrimp, it seems also don't have rights. But what if we put a dolphin in the tank to cycle it? OMG what would happen then? Dolphins have rights. Is it because they are bigger? Or is it that are smarter? Maybe if brine shrimp had longer arms that they could hold a pencil with they would do pretty good on standardized tests.
We really don't know. So maybe we should try to find a really really small pencil for them just to see how they do.
Speaking of intellegence, are tangs smart because they "live" in schools? That brings up a whole set of questions like why do we drive on the parkway and park in the driveway. I guess it's all semantics, or is it?
So if dolphins or even whales were the same price as feeder goldfish, like ten for a dollar, would we feed them to our fish or would we respect their rights, if they really have any. Do they have a constitution or do they go by ours? What if they are in international waters or for instance in Bayone New Jersey?
If pirates stopped a whale, would US warships have to rescue them? If they did, then could we use that whale for fish food?
I really don't know.

 

[MBG75]

I was going to a meeting today and I was stuck in traffic for over an hour and I was thinking about that part about cycling a tank with a fish or a dead shrimp and it came to me that it has to do with size. At least I think people have more respect for animals which are larger. For instance, why don't we care when our fish eat pods? Pods have a life but it seems no real rights. Then we have brine shrimp, they also don't have many rights as I never heard anyone say, "Oh that poor brine shrimp, look how that fish is going to eat him" Brine shrimp, it seems also don't have rights. But what if we put a dolphin in the tank to cycle it? OMG what would happen then? Dolphins have rights. Is it because they are bigger? Or is it that are smarter? Maybe if brine shrimp had longer arms that they could hold a pencil with they would do pretty good on standardized tests.
We really don't know. So maybe we should try to find a really really small pencil for them just to see how they do.
Speaking of intellegence, are tangs smart because they "live" in schools? That brings up a whole set of questions like why do we drive on the parkway and park in the driveway. I guess it's all semantics, or is it?
So if dolphins or even whales were the same price as feeder goldfish, like ten for a dollar, would we feed them to our fish or would we respect their rights, if they really have any. Do they have a constitution or do they go by ours? What if they are in international waters or for instance in Bayone New Jersey?
If pirates stopped a whale, would US warships have to rescue them? If they did, then could we use that whale for fish food?
I really don't know.

Maybe it's not size or intelligence. Maybe it's worthy to be saved if it's nice to look at?
I know it seems to me there are animals that are smarter than some people, also there are people that are animals.

 

[Paul B]

Maybe it's worthy to be saved if it's nice to look at?

Thats true, we see" save the panda bears and save the kowala's" but we don't see" save the hermit crab, black widow spider or elisia crispata, (lettuce slug)

 

[steamer51]

"I just opened a fine bottle of my Pin Noir that I made 2 years ago. The best wine I ever made. A fine vintage.
I won't share any with my fish." I don't know if the wine is affecting your posting but if it is you should drink some more since it is very positive.

 

[Paul B]

I opened up another one tonight, but nothing comes to me.
I know you don't believe me so I am adding a picture of me corking the thing.
Of course I don't know if that is the same exact bottle as the one I will drink tonight, but it resembles it.
Making wine is fun, educational, messy and like reefing a little expensive, but at least you get wine out of it.
I am not sure what we get out of fish tanks because I have never lived without a fish tank. My Dad had a fish market and every once in a while the fishing boats would drag in something still alive in the nets and he would bring it home for me.
Sometimes it was a crab but I didn't have salt water so the longivity was measured in minutes. I got a little better when I learned to read.
This stuff is all common sense anyway and I think people read too much into it. Like using a refractometer. What are they setting the salinity at? It varies all over the place, and the temperature. My fish live with me, I don't live with them so they have to get used to the temperature that I like. They have never complained and they live, spawn and grow old and die just like they are supposed to do.
That brings me to the thought as to weather fish feel pain. I say no. No pain what so ever. They feel something, but pain, nope.
Maybe guilt, anamosity, sadness, or irratable bowel syndrome but not pain.
A fish is an animal that never dies of old age (unless it is in my tank) they are almost always eaten alive by either a bear, crab, anemone, supermodel or larger fish. If one of them happens to live long enough to where it will shortly die of old age, it will slow down enough to get eaten anyway. So pain would not benefit such an animal. Many times I have caught a flounder with a hook where the hook nearly ripped his mouth off and I tossed it back only to catch it five minutes later. I once had a triggerfish rip off the bottom jaw of my hippo tang and the tang kept trying to eat, even though he had no mouth. I have seen sharks with their intestines hanging out because some other shark bit through them and guess what that shark is doing? Turning around trying to eat his own intestines. It just doesn't seem like an animal would do if it felt pain. I eat fish almost every day. I just finished some flounder (with my wine) so I hope that flounder didn't experience pain while he was suffocating on the deck of a ship.
If you don't agree with me on that, and you know who you are, start your own thread about fish feelings. Besides I don't hardly eat red meat so I saved a lot of cows, and they thank me for it.