what are your views on people trading in fish??

lol maybe that's where the detachment is rooted. Once you go to the LFS and buy a fish from tanks in the same building as you got your pretty fish from knowing that it is only food, they don't seem as much like pets anymore.

 

It's almost imposible

 

You just need the right technique. I've traded many fish out of my tank and catch them all without touching the rocks or coral. This includes species of angel, butterfly, tang, and wrasses. A while ago I managed to scoop my shy flasher wrasse out without even disturbing sand.

 

Yeah, the definition of "pet" is different to different people as well, part of the whole grey area of this discussion. Although I don't particularly form any sort of real emotional bond with my fish, I still feel responsible to do my best to provide them a good, healthy, natural life. That's just part of my respect for nature and animals in general.

To me a pet is any animal under my care. I don't have a problem with feeder fish or crickets etc, I would also consider them pets as well, just temporary pets until they fulfill their natural "duty" in the food chain.

The only issue I have with feeder fish etc is if they really aren't good foods for the animal being fed them, like from what I've read goldfish are not a good nutritious diet for lots of fish so I would have an issue with people doing that but only because it's not a good food source for their other pets.

 

All good points.

Feeder fish are more entertainment for me than food for the fish. It's like renting a movie

 

i feel like my fish are pets in some ways the fact that i care about them and hope to give them the attention they deserve and am responsible for them and especially when i had my valentini puffer fish but after getting attached to him and him showing me how much a fish can be like a dog... i came home to him dead in the filter after he had jumped into it... at the end of the day a fish is just a fish and they are great creatures but the life expectancy is too short to make them pets and this is coming from the girl that names all of her fish... haha

 

That's where minnows come into play! They tend to have the higher entertainment value too, as I remember from FW/Oscar days.