What is Great Success?

[Paul B]

I have been reading through a lot of threads on here and elsewhere and I hear all the time, "I use this or that with great success" or "I fed my moorish Idol bagels and cream cheese with great success". Or
I never show my wife what I spend on my tank and have great success.

What exactly is great success?

Is great success when you buy a clownfish on Friday and it lives long enough to get it out of the bag without jumping on the floor and it is now next Tuesday but it ate a flake on Monday Is that great
Success"? Or did you buy a Moorish Idol because you saw it eating Hamburger Helper in the store and the store owner assured you the fish has been eating this for 6 months so you got it home and although it is covered in spots and is nauseous so you put Prizapro on it and it is still alive after 3 days.

I don't know but "Success and Great Success" should mean different things. To me, "success" is if you buy a fish and a year or two later it is alive and healthy. That means the fish is eating and thriving, disease free and seems healthy. But "Great Success" is only when you buy a fish, it eats right away and eventually, if it is a pair, it spawns and keeps spawning for it's entire presumed lifespan which in fish can be anywhere from 4 years to 40 years. If you have a clownfish and it is 10 years old, you are successful at keeping that fish. But is that same fish lives
30 or 40 years, that is great success because clownfish live into their 40s.

If a person lives 30 or 40 or even 50 years was he successful? I don't think so because a humans presumed lifespan is somewhere around 80 so anything else is a failure.
If we say we have great success at something, some people may get the wrong impression. As fa as I know, no one with a home tank has ever kept a moorish Idol for it's presumed lifespan which is "probably" 15 or so years. I kept one for five years which is a dismal failure.
I think we really need to pick our words more carefully.

Like if I say I am a real hunk of a Man and a great catch. I may be lying.

 

[this is me]

I read this post with great success.

 

[madducks42]

Our tank has only been up and running for about a year so I still consider everything new, even though some of the coral and fish have been in the tank for well over six months and *seem* to be thriving. I think I would consider being successful with a new addition, be that a fish, invert, coral, etc, if after a year it was not only still alive but seemed to be thriving. I wouldn't consider it a "great success" until it had reached what we suspect it's lifespan to be; or if it was a particularly difficult fish/coral, if I kept it alive longer than most keepers. And even then I would still want to do better next time and share what I did to keep that particular fish/coral going for as long as I did with others who had kept it and see if we could come up with a better strategy for future endeavors.

 

[Paul B]

I have to disagree a little. If you were to keep a fish to it's presumed lifespan and it was spawning all that time, or even if it was not. There is nothing better as that is the epitome of fish keeping so I would reserve the phrase "Great Success" for that. Other wise, what would you call it? There should be a distinction between keeping a fish a year or two and 20 or 30 years should there be not?
I have plenty of fish for a few years but I don't call that a Great Success. I also have a clownfish for 26 years and it has spawned for all that time so I would consider that a Great Success even though that fish could conceivably live a few more years. Just my opinion of course.

Maybe we have to make a new term for very old fish, something like Great Supermodel Fish, or Super Super successful

 

[madducks42]

Not sure which part you're disagreeing with, lol.

 

[Paul B]

Let me think about it.

 

[Jim Tansey]

Paul have you got a rating system for wives, trying to figure out how I'm doing.

Jim

 

[Paul B]

Yes, If you were married for more than ten years and both of you are miserable, quit and do something else. Maybe go out to dinner with a parole officer. If, like me you were married for over 40 years, and your happy, you pass and your hair should grow. But if you got married and divorced in the same week, you need to re think your attitude, maybe buy a fish tank.

Once on my job this carpenter was getting married that day. It was like a Thursday so I doubt it was a very elaborate wedding. He showed me a picture of the girl he was marrying in a few hours and told me, this is my future EX Wife.

I think he failed before he started and I hope his future EX wife had her head examined for marrying this Jiboni.

 

[One Eye]

I consider my divorce to be a great success. I only used 1 measurement to determine great success. Is she gone? Yes!.....Great Success!!!

 

[Paul B]

I am happy for the both of you.

When I was stationed in Colorado I thought I was the hottest thing around. (I even had hair) I had this motorcycle and I was cruising out someplace on a deserted stretch of road in the plains and I spot these two beautiful girls in a convertible. (you didn't need helmets in those days)
The girls stopped and I pulled up next to them to put my moves on them. I stopped and put my foot down. My bellbottom pants leg got stuck in the pedal and I fell over in the street looking very stupid. I stayed there until the girls were very far away and I couldn't hear them laughing any more.
That was not an example of a Great Success. :doh:

 

[Chris A.]

Doesn’t something always go wrong in those situations lol