am I god to my fish????????

I have taken up the hobby of a marine aquarium. I had to purchase a whole ensemble of stuff to make my aquatic universe work. Salt mix, sea sand complete with bacteria, hermit crabs to eat detritus, a clown fish and a few blue damsels and of course for my clown fish an anemone. I toiled and mixed and cleaned and arranged and bought a heater and a temp gauge and I fretted at bedtime.. Is the PH right?? is the Na mix right? Is the protien thigamig workin? Did I feed em to much? Why isnt the clown eating? Any ways I had 2 hermit crabs and one decided he wanted to eat anemones....well the only one in the tank I decided to select him out of the food chain.. Then it hit me...am I god to my fish... I am all powerful I am setting the conditions..i care about my aquatic universe.. I decide who lives who dies... I am god!!!! or am I just crazy? lol

I'd say you are about the same as an adoptive parent. While not biologically related, you care for their well being.Hence, no more God than your parents are to you.[This message has been edited by Melchior, 03-09-2004]

Yes I care for them and they're well being, but I also set up the conditions for they're little universe. And I am the one who moves the mountains in they're world. And I am the one who selects out who lives who dies. I am the one who introduces new life into the aquarium of my choosing. I am the one who puts in the new water. I am the great god with the net!! LOL.

You're not setting the conditions, you are re-creating conditions
that are required for the healthy development of your fish.You do not create, nor do you control that environment, you simply
supply it, or rearrange it.You cannot change the environmental rules in which the fishes
live.

"You cannot change the environmental rules in which the fish live." I believe I can though.. If I choose I can increase the Na mix slowly over a long period of time until my little fish adapt to the higher saline content. Or I can go the other way and reduce it. Now yes there is a point in which the fish will die.. but I am changing the environmental rules by adding or taking away elements. Give me enough time (100 million years or so) and I will have those fish crawling out of the aquarium. I do control the enviroment, when I reach over and increase the thermostat I control the envionment by increasing the water temperature. I Know what you are saying Peter... I am just batting the idea around as to what constitues a god.. your thoughts?

Perhaps the point is that the fish don't know that.

Just like we dont know. I know it is a CRAZY thought but I sometimes get these. And now I have somewhere to torture others with them instead of getting strange looks from my co-workers. LOL!!!
Think of it to them I am omnipotent, benevolent, fire and brimstone on the hermit crab for attacking my anemone. If my fish could write they would hail me as god!!! Thou shalt not eat from the anemone.

1.61803,god, maybe, not God. But if you really want to stretch your mind, consider the problems the fish have deciding if you exist or not, and what they can do to get more food, or whatever. Write a story for your children, in which two of your fish are having a discussion about whether you exist. Or, better yet, one of the fish and an anenome. Really make the point about the relationship between what's really out there, and our senses.Then read Felix Salton to them.Stephen

I thought the same thing when I saw a picture of a mouse dunked under a fluid of flourine which permitted oxygen exchange. I am quite sure the mouse "knew" that the change in its environment was not on the up an up. I stoped thinking that way when I had to clean up turtle detritus or let the thing go so that it could live. The extra effort was well worth the lack of motion in my plastic dinosaurs and strange change machine transformed types. The snakes even copulated before dinner. No one but me cared. Electric fish can sense dielectrics so it seems far from clear that you cant entertain them to do other "clowning" around with a compter input into the tank. I have been toying with the idea of playing classical music to tadpoles to see if one can affect typmanuum radius development. working with electricity under water would be easier though. My grandfather had found a strange RANA in western NY that was abnormally large for its kind in this department so I got to wondering if the the greenfrog got big ears by listening to bullfrogs when it was growing up.

That's changing the environment, not the rules that
govern the environment.

The fish are unaware that there is any interaction
with something other than the 'natural world' that they
inhabit....hmmm... beginning to see a greater parallel than I thought

Dear 1.61803,I suggest it's not so serious as it seemed.
You are just crazy. Be positive, with appropriate medication you'll feel better soon.
Lucky guy!
I never heard about pills for God.Concerning your Hermit Crabs, I don't think he was not necessary attempting to eat your anemone. Crustacean, especially Hermit Crabs and Sea anemones have secular relationships.
I love all benthic invertebrates.
In real world seas, this association is called carpose (one is protected by the other). If the size permit it, Hermits attach the anemone on his shell. This association is called phoresy.
A major evolutionary stage in the field of animal associations.If you want, try to Googlize these terms.Sincerely,Denesha

Hi Denesha, thanks for the information, the hermit crab in question has been selected out of the environment by god 1.61803 for attempting to consume said anemone. His partner who showed no interest in the anemone is still doing well and has more than tripled in size. At the time god decided to smite the crab the anemone was much much larger than the crab, I actually observed the crab taking pinches of the anemone and consuming them. That was his doom. PS. the anemone died a few months ago. [This message has been edited by 1.61803, 03-17-2004]

Hi 1.61803,Sad days in your world. Sincere condolences.
You've been the passive actor of a mass extinction.
Sob!What will be your new decision?Denesha