Re: Mixed species tanks?
#5
"they have put fish together who would never be found in nature in the same waters, or who are known to prefer very different conditions from each other".
Is this an assumption or have you checked the information? Many fish which are kept in the hobby have been widely introduced beyond their natural range. It's also not right to assume that a species will only live in conditions which are the same or very similar to that species natural range.
Guppies for example are often quoted as needing slightly hard alkaline water to thrive, yet they are present in at least 69 Countries some of which don't even have waters which are hard or alkaline.
http://fishbase.mnhn.fr/Country/Count ... ia&SpeciesName=reticulataI think if you checked you would find that a surprising number of the fish which "don't exist together in nature" actually do.
Also just because fish live together in the wild it doesn't mean that they will in a tank. Pike and roach are found together in the wild, but in a tank...