Okay, so I recently made a bad purchase. I'll admit that. In general, I agree with what is being said in this post. I have a 125gal saltwater tank and I ensure that I don't even come close to over-stocking it. Nor would I allow fish into that tank that I didn't know for sure could live comfortably in there.
That being said, we'll go back to my recent bad purchase. I recently bought two freshwater fish from a local fish store, with the idea of starting up a freshwater tank. I didn't know what the fish were and neither did the people in the fish store. In fact, after (my mistake, I know) buying them I came home and spent over a week on the internet researching, posting to forums and emailing people to ask them what these fish were. (I didn't post here, maybe you folks would have known right away.) I even went to every fish store in the area with pictures and no one could tell me what they were. Finally, after about a week, someone figured it out. They are barramundi. I know, I know.
Okay, here is the part I will concede: "I should not have two (or even one) barramundi. I do not have the ability to keep them properly once they mature. It was an irresponsible purchase, and regardless of how long it would have taken or how hard it was, I should have done the research before buying them."
That being said, what is the alternative for these fish? I am not challenging anyone, I am asking. I don't know what happens to fish if they are not purchased. I know that IN the fish store, there were four of them in a 5-gallon tank. At my house they (they are maybe 3 inches long now) currently occupy a 33-gal tank and will move into a 55gal tank when they get bigger (not full grown, of course). I know that _I_ bothered to find out what type of fish they were when the pet store's only answer was "I don't know. The distributor said they are sea bass." We've established that I shouldn't have bought them. But what happens to them if I don't? Was someone with a 2000gal tank going to come along and buy them? Were they going to be taken back to Australia and released back into the rivers and estuaries there? I guess that you could say, "Well, if you don't buy them then they are not your responsibility and you don't have to worry what happens to them." Isn't that the opposite of what we're saying in this thread, though? Look, I made a mistake by buying the fish, I admitted to that, but aren't the chances pretty good now that at least for a little while these fish will be with someone who is interested in doing the best he can for them instead of being in a fish store that couldn't even be bothered to find out what they were?
I know that ideally, I would not have purchased these fish and some person with an absolutely giant aquarium would have come along and purchased them. But realistically, what are the chances that would happen? I don't know that there are a ton of people in this area with fish tanks large enough to properly care for adult barramundi, and even if there were, the fish store was obviously prepared to sell the fish to the first person who walked through the door. The chances of these fish leaving the store with someone who could care properly for them as adults was very, very minute.
Please understand that I am not saying that I either purposely or accidently did the right thing here. I'm just saying that these fish probably weren't facing a much better alternative. I still shouldn't have agreed to take responsibility for fish that I cannot keep once they've grown to full maturity. But for right now, I am honestly trying to do the best I can to make them happy.
So aside from doing my research ahead of time, never purchasing them in the first place and hoping beyond hope that someone with an immense fish tank was going to get to these fish before some other schmuck bought them, what would you all suggest I do now? Get rid of them immediately? Do the best I can until I can no longer buy tanks that are big enough for them? I'm perfectly open to suggestions.
P.S. By the way, if you live anywhere near me (I live in eastern Ohio) and you have the facilities to properly care for adult barramundi, I would be perfectly willing to let you have them.