Is the idea 'saltwater fish are more difficult than fresh' dated?

[ReefingCanuk]

I did FW for years, many different species and bred cichlids. I did a nano SW in 1990 that was near impossible. Technological advances have made SW less complex, but there is still big difference, but I would not call it "harder", just more "involved". First, FW is way more forgiving; set it and forget it. I found the more neglected the tank better it did. No water changes, cycles, or testing. Thrown anything in and it worked. Easier to treat any infection. Simple. Second, is the cost of entry. The filtration, lighting, water, tests, and even fish are more $$ for SW. Not a poor man's hobby, but will turn you into one. Third, is time. You need to pay attention to SW where you can largely ignore FW aside from feeding. Dirty water? Thrown in a pleco, done. I got back into SW because of the time commitment, something for me to focus on. But do I find it harder? No, just pay attention and give it the TLC it needs.

 

[Dark_Knightt]

Hey all,

I often talk to hobbyists who want to keep marine fish, but they say "salt is too hard/complicated." In my opinion, if you're only keeping fish, it's no harder than fresh. I imagine in the early days of the hobby, saltwater fish were more challenging, but these days, especially with captive bred fish like clowns, saltwater is doable for any mid-level hobbyist. But the sigma lingers.

For example, discus. When discus first entered the hobby, they were impossible to keep. These days, they're captive bred and as simple to care for as any fish. Yet people are still afraid to keep them. Everyone is operating on outdated information. I'm wondering if the same holds true for saltwater.

Do you think the idea that saltwater fish are more difficult is a dated? (Please exculde coral from your calculations. Coral, especially SPS, opens a whole new can of worms.) Also, how has the hobby progressed from, say, the 80s to now in terms of easiness? I only began keeping saltwater fish in 2010, so I'm curious what it was like in the early days.

Youre definetly right(generally speaking). Fish only tanks are probably as easy as fresh fish, excluding tough fish like eels, lionfish, some tangs and even mandarins. But sometihng like a firefish, goby, blenny, clown, and lots lots more, super easy in my opinion.

 

[fishkeepinginasia]

I do disagree with the usage of discus as "as simple to care for as any other fish." I have yet to hear of discus that will thrive in non acidic pH water (7.0+) that isn't heated to a fairly high temperature. They're certainly harder than the more common fish like tetras or corydoras. It doesn't help that the effort of breeding discus in captivity commands a large price tag as well...

Perhaps I mis-spoke about discus. When I first decided to try discus I was a nervous wreck and sure I'd fail. However, I kept captive bred discus and was so surprised by how well they did. I said what I said because of the personal experience I had keeping them, and being surprised at how much easier they were to care for than I expected.

Thanks for the link to that video. It sounds really interesting and I've got it on my watch list.

 

[fishkeepinginasia]

I did FW for years, many different species and bred cichlids. I did a nano SW in 1990 that was near impossible. Technological advances have made SW less complex, but there is still big difference, but I would not call it "harder", just more "involved". First, FW is way more forgiving; set it and forget it. I found the more neglected the tank better it did. No water changes, cycles, or testing. Thrown anything in and it worked. Easier to treat any infection. Simple. Second, is the cost of entry. The filtration, lighting, water, tests, and even fish are more $$ for SW. Not a poor man's hobby, but will turn you into one. Third, is time. You need to pay attention to SW where you can largely ignore FW aside from feeding. Dirty water? Thrown in a pleco, done. I got back into SW because of the time commitment, something for me to focus on. But do I find it harder? No, just pay attention and give it the TLC it needs.

I love some of the stuff coming out of this discussion like how saltwater is "more involved." Great way to put it!

 

[92Miata]

Never found saltwater fish to be any harder than freshwater. Freshwater you're also way more likely to get sold fish that get 4+ feet long. And there are plenty of diseases freshwater fish can get.

Most of the complexity is with corals (and mostly stonies). Frankly, I had way more trouble with high light planted tanks than I did with reefs.

 

[dennis romano]

I have two reef tanks and a 125 with six wild discus. I spend more time coddling the discus than the reefs. The colors of the discus are terrific, but if I forget to do a water change all hell breaks loose. They turn brown and hide in their driftwood. They get plain tap water but must be kept at 83 degrees. They won't touch flake food but relish live blackworms. If an importer doesn't purge them of internal parasites(which most have) then you have to quarantine and medicate. Finally, the minimum price is $70 and can go up to $250.

 

[jimfish98]

New to SW but if you set a timer on me trying to just dial in the flow between the pump power and overflows, in the same time I would have set up and had a FW of the same size running smoothly with bacteria added while having walked away for a week. A lot more goes into the SW from the start and we will see over time.

 

[j.falk]

I think a lot of the reason people fail with saltwater / think it's hard is because they don't take the time to research and inform themselves on how to properly setup and maintain a saltwater aquarium BEFORE attempting to do so. When you know nothing about what you are trying to do...then yeah, it's going to be hard because you have no clue what you are doing.

I also think people are lazy these days and expect to not have to put any real effort into keeping something. I worked at a LFS for 14 years and most people want to just fill the tank up with water, add the fish and feed them once a day...easy peasy...but it doesn't work like that.

You'd probably be surprised at how many people used to come in, buy saltwater fish, take them home and put them into a brand new tank filled with tap water...only to watch them die within minutes and then come back in the store demanding a refund. It used to happen so often that we finally put several NO GUARANTEE ON SALTWATER signs up above the saltwater tanks to try and keep people from doing it. And if I had a dollar for every time someone asked if table salt is what you were supposed to use in a saltwater tank...sigh...

 

[BradB]

Depends how elaborate you want to be. Nothing in saltwater will ever be as easy as a betta in a bowl. If you want an elaborate freshwater setup, you need all the same tests, equipment and water chemistry - except you can't use a skimmer, and don't need as much flow and light and salt of course.

 

[stanlalee]

"fish" not that big of a gap. Pretty much none beyond mixing saltwater and initial filtration set up. "reef" is where the added work and complexity comes in. Just fish can be kept with almost no maintenance. Have done it a few times especially before I discovered reef keeping.

 

[EcoFriendlyMouth]

IMO, it depends what you are doing with both. I've had a multitude of planted tanks that got pretty complicated and time consuming. However Freshwater setups in general are a bit more resilient to changes in the water column, so not as many people focus on testing as much as they do reef tanks. I would say that the information gap in setting up saltwater makes it a bit more challenging to get into. However at the end of the day, we are still talking about very different ecosystems, down to the anatomy of the fish. Harder? maybe a bit, definitely more tedious. Different? Most definitely.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Its still tougher, but the gap is certainly narrowing.

I would never use tap water in my reef, yet I do for all my FW tanks. Then you have the added cost, time, and energy to mix salt water, and topping off. If you don't top off a FW tank it just gets low. If you don't top off a SW tank the salinity rises until its certain death for the fish.

Harder to do FOWLR then FW, it all depends on the setup. Fish only SW, and fish only fresh are both pretty easy, but the SW side adds a whole other level. This is of course from the OP neglecting coral keeping at all, and FW planted tanks that can be just as hard if not harder. IMO

I agree. SW still harder than FW. Some things like salinity (requiring an ATO and refractometer) and need for RODI are still things that move the bar higher for salt than fresh, but I do agree that it's not hard if corals aren't in the picture.

 

[Dr Jimmy]

I think saltwater will always be more difficult because you have at least one additional parameter to keep track of: salinity. If we assume FOWLR, this single addition makes it "more challenging". I would guess the vast majority of us don't consider this to be that big of a deal, but it is an additional step. That doesn't mean there aren't easier to keep saltwater fish than freshwater... that's a special circumstance.

 

[Zionas]

I think the general perceived difficulty of this hobby is what puts many people off when it comes to going beyond the “ooh, pretty fish and corals” stage and the public aquarium visitor stage. It’s sad because you see some of the same people have other hobbies for decades that are equally time consuming and hard to master.

I sometimes get strange looks and looks of doubt when I tell people I want to start a reef tank. I’ve learned to just ignore them. If they don’t want to contemplate this wonderful world, then they’ll forever be “casuals” missing out on yet another beautiful part of life.

 

[hotdrop]

I don’t think it’s more difficult with the right gear. With a refugium you can overstock and over feed without much worry. The ato is important and not needed in salt but once you have one you wonder how you did even freshwater without it.
Biggest difference is cost, rocks skimmers, lights will set you back 1k + to end up with a starter tank. Also salt is really hard on cheap gear.