If you’re an aquarium enthusiast then you have likely seen or heard about Animal Planets newest TV series better known as “Tanked.” The show features ATM (Acrylic Tank Manufacturing) doing what they do best, creating crazy aquariums, and generally being themselves. As the show has grown in popularity so has their fan base and of course those who aren’t such fans.
Since airing in August “Tanked” has been getting rave reviews and tons of publicity from the New York Times to late night TV appearances. The aquariums showcased push the envelope in aquarium design, having converted phone booths, jukebox’s, kegs, guitars, and even classic cars into aquatic masterpieces that most anyone would be proud to own.
Conversely, criticism has been pouring out of quite a few hobbyist forums and aquarium news outlets. Allegations are generally that the show does not provide enough education to viewers and portrays the aquariums as ‘instant’, they don’t know what they are doing, and promoting bad husbandry.
As a person that has worked in this line of business for years – every single day – and sells these custom aquariums I find this whole thing amusing.
A majority of our clients that are purchasing these aquariums are not hobbyists and have absolutely no desire to be one. They do not call a custom aquarium company like us or ATM because they want to take care of – or for that matter know anything about their aquarium. They are typically individuals and businesses that are looking for a hands off an aquarium that ‘just works,’ they are typically busy doing other things and only want to have to feed the fish and be able to make a phone call and have the problem solved if one comes up. Certainly there are clients that purchase these custom tanks and wish to take care of them on their own but not many first timers are looking to make the kind of investment an acrylic aquarium is.
The assumption about these guys and what they know (or don’t know), what they do, and how they do it are all just that – assumptions. Since none of us were there when they shot the footage these fish could be going into tanks that have been setup for weeks and, properly cycled with ammonia dosed into the tanks. They could have also put the fish in the tank for a few hours (as is done all the time at trade shows, club meets, etc) and then taken back out after the video was shot.
Regarding the livestock that goes into the aquariums, a few sayings come into play;
1) You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink
2) The customer is always right.
When a client has spent 5k – infinity on a new custom aquarium and they would like to have the entire Finding Nemo crew in their aquarium for their kids there’s not a whole lot you can do besides tell them the risks of proceeding with what they want done. They buy reef inserts because they are not looking to build a reef tank over the next several years and they do not want the expense or hassle related to keeping a live reef.
When it comes to the lack of real technical educational value of the program, your right they don’t discuss the filtration systems, fish compatibility, water quality/parameters, etc. The lack of discussion has little to do with the fact that it couldn’t be shown, it comes to the fact that no one is sitting in front of their TV show on a Friday night at 9 PM going ‘God I want a biology lesson,’ they are however going ‘woah that’s a cool aquarium, never seen that done before.’
There are many other people and businesses that don’t have a TV show that are ‘responsible,’ by the definition that is implied by these disgruntled folks, for causing the death of large numbers of fish. Interestingly no one points the finger at glass tank manufacturers for printing fully stocked aquariums on their packaging (and no one complains that they toss in reef safe tap water purifier samples or less than the best fish diet) or internet retailers who have no contact with the buyer, therefore they have no idea if they are shipping their fish into a certain death situation. This is just two examples of which there are many more that hobbyists may fortunately never see.
While I understand the worry about people trying to just dump fish into an aquarium and get an instant tank, I have great faith in my peers that own stores, that no legitimate LFS would ever sell someone an aquarium and tell them to take it home and fill it with fish in the same day. The fact remains that most people who would ever try to create an instant aquarium are the people who buy 10 gallon freshwater setups and 20 bucks worth of fish at your local big box, and the story always ends the same way.
Aquarium ownership has grown exponentially with over 12.7 million US homes claiming to have an aquarium in 2011 and with that will come new hobbyists that will catch the fish bug and inevitably develop what may become the next greatest filtration system, captive breeding capability, etc. The best way to help the ornamental fish industry if you are concerned hobbyist is to start with yourself and start by making the choice to stop buying fish that are not sustainably captured and stop buying corals and fish that have low captive survivability altogether.
We support ATM and Tanked for helping to bring the wonders of the ocean into every US home in a way which may inspire us and our children to become the next generation of oceanographers, marine biologists, or fish geeks like us.
In an intriguing method of figuring out what us American’s think our reef is worth the US government estimated that each tax payer would be willing to spend $287.62 per household to protect our reef for future generations - doesn’t seem very scientific or realistic to measure the value of a coral reef in this way but hey who are we?
