Fine- teach me. Exactly how can anybody tell if a fish even has emotions? Exactly how do you know if a fish is happy or sad? Explain how one knows how to identify trust being shown by a fish? If a fish gets ich, we can treat it with meds for this. If a fish gets a bacterial infection, we use antibiotics. Where are the antidepressants for fish?
We put sick fish into a smaller H tank for good reasons:
1. Sick fish will be picked on or killed, so we remove it from this threat and the stress that goes with it.
2. Sick fish usually need medication. It is cheaper to medicate a smaller rather than a larger tank.
3. Sick fish need to be observed, again easier in a smaller H tank.
4. Sick fish need to have their food consumption and poop monitored, again easier in a smaller H tank.
4. An H tank may be smaller, but it is not too small for the fish that is in it at the time.
Then lets talk quarantine. This is anywhere from a 4 to 12 week process depending on the fish and the knowledge level of the fish keeper. Q tanks are supposed to be appropriately sized for the fish load they will hold for that amount of time. If the new fish have to be treated, the time in Q can be longer.
But given all the research out there done with fish, why is it that if this were a reasonable method that it has not been discussed in detail on a number of sites and research facilities?
How can the OP tell us this method only works for SA cichlids which are young fish? What is a young fish? Various SA cichlids will have different lifespans. Where does this factor in? "The trick is to get the fish from the pet store...", well what about fish that one gets from all the other sources?
I know a number of experienced breeders and keepers of discus. I kept them myself for a number of years. Never once have I ever heard that this is a practice used with young discus. But then what I wonder is does the OP's "advice" apply to both tank raised and wild caught discus?
What I do know is pet store fish are kept overstocked, underfed and often not in the best of health. Put them into any decent tank with regular food and they will do better.
And then lets consider acclimation. Not the silliness many do with drips etc. but the actual acclimation process that takes a weeks in the real world. By the time one gets a fish home from a store it has been moved a few times, stressed and underfed and when it its put into our tank, it is once again in a strange setting with changed parameters. Whether these are in a small isolation tank or a bigger permanent tank, they will affect the fish. It takes time for any fish to adjust to new quarters and adapt to new water parameters.
I am sure the OP's post was well intentioned and my response a bit harsh (sorry, but I have been trying to bat down aquarium myths for years and I get a bit short sometimes). But in the end allowing misinformation to stand unchallenged is the cause of more issues in this hobby than anything else. In fact many of the response in this thread merely stated other urban myths in response.
Let me leave you with this:
Abstract
Convict cichlids are highly aggressive tropical fish, exhibiting complex behaviors and adaptations. Studies suggest that environmental conditions, such as resource availability, individual development, trait variation, and activity of other individuals, affect these factors. Examining aggressive behavior in laboratory-raised females under different pairing situations, the researcher hypothesized that an individual paired with an equally-sized individual would display more aggression than the same individual paired with a smaller opponent. Aggression was measured by scoring attack behavior, namely the number of bites, number of chases, and chase lengths. Individuals in the equally-sized treatment exhibited more and longer chases than those placed with an unequally-sized opponent. This study is beneficial in leading to further understanding of the field of behavioral ecology of fishes. Analyzing ways in which fish respond to different situations at an individual level can inform us about ecological and evolutionary factors, such as survival and reproduction, at higher levels of organization.
from
http
/www.csus.edu/McNair/_ALL-Scholars-Articles-Photos-Webpage/13_2011_2012/journal_2011-12/Jasmine_Hamilton.pdf
Yes, there is science out there on these topics- "
Effects of tank colour and light intensity on feed intake, growth rate and energy expenditure of juvenile Eurasian perch, Perca fluviatilis L." from http/www.researchgate.net/publication/248341383_Effects_of_tank_colour_and_light_intensity_on_feed_intake_growth_rate_and_energy_expenditure_of_juvenile_Eurasian_perch_Perca_fluviatilis_L/file/5046352945c1b29add.pdf
They do always seem happier with more space as is usually true for all creatures, and I have witnessed fish ' sulking ' when moved from a large environment to a small one, although it The stress of being moved is most likely accountable for this though.
