How ecologically responsible is fish-keeping?
Paul
I was just wondering, how ecologically responsible is fish-keeping?
Are the typical LFS fish bred in captivity or wild caught? If wild
caught, is that damaging any eco-systems?
A friend has the belief 'freshwater OK, marine not OK'. Obviously wild
coral reefs are very endangered - so perhaps I see his point?
Any thoughts?
Ross Clement
: I have been enjoying my new tank setup thanks to help from here.
It probably depends on the fish. Some fish have been saved from extinction
by being in tanks. Some fish haven't been near a wild habitat for longer
than most of us have been alive, such as the extremely domesticated and
selectively bred mollies and guppies. Some fish are being over-collected
to the point where it is endangering wild stocks. Botia sidhumunki (spelling?)
is an example. Apparantly the University of Thailand (which one?) tried to
farm them, and failed.
There's another viewpoint, which is that if there is a market for fish,
then they have value to people living in the area (and there are a lot
of poor countries in the third world), and therefore it becomes important
for the local people to preserve the fish, while otherwise they may have
no value to them, and hence no effort be made to preserve them.
However, with dynamite and cyanide, extreme damage is being done to marine
habitats such as coral reefs. Did you see The Blue Planet special program
on the dangers to marine habitats? Apart from the small number of marine
species being bred in captivity (see the TMC website), I think that there
are serious questions about the ecological effects of wild-caught reef fish.
Cheers,
Ross-c
J. Nowlin
>Are the typical LFS fish bred in captivity or wild caught? If wild
>caught, is that damaging any eco-systems?
Most of your typical freshwater aquarium fish can be bred in captivity. Some
haven't been bred succesfully with any regularity, however, and must be caught
in the wild (most puffers, loaches, for instance). Usually, the respective
governments are pretty good about not letting their home species become
extinct, but it happens...I understand cherry barbs are almost extinct in the
wild...perhaps bala sharks, too.
Personally, I don't think we should be bothering reefs...but I'm alright with
keeping marine fish.
~J.
The Fat Man in Black
"The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel." -
Horace Walpole
"The world would be so much nicer if people only used guns on themselves." -
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
LeighMo
Are the typical LFS fish bred in captivity or wild caught? If wild
caught, is that damaging any eco-systems?
A friend has the belief 'freshwater OK, marine not OK'. Obviously wild
coral reefs are very endangered - so perhaps I see his point? <<
I think it depends on the fish. Some freshwater fish are wild-caught. But
that's not necessarily bad.
Most clown loaches, for example, are wild-caught. But only the babies are
taken, and they are trapped in a manner that doesn't affect larger fish.
(Bamboo with holes drilled in it is placed in the water, and the fish hide in
the holes. The size of the holes determines the size of the loaches caught.)
The breeding adults are left alone, being too big for most aquariums, so the
population is maintained. That's not true for all freshwater aquarium fish,
though.
You might find this link of interest:
http://www.science.nus.edu.sg/~webdbs/biodiversitii/bio/aquarium_more.html
Marlin
is possible to stock a marine tank that has no wild caught animals. There
are an increasing number of tank raised specimens becoming available to the
SW hobbyist. Amphiprion ocellaris (Common Clownfish) is an example. There
are some others Royal; Grammas, some of the Tang (Surgeonfish) species and
others as well. When I lived in the San Antonio, TX area, there was access
through a few LFS with connections to local Universities that had overstock
problems with research animals. These were many generations removed from
the wild and a preferred fish because some water quality issues were not as
stringent. The only way to know though is to have a trustworthy LFS tell
you where they get theirs.
Same was true with corals, both hard and soft. Though these didn't
necessarily come from the Universities. Coral farming through propagation
is becoming fairly commonplace (in certain areas at least) and is being
carried out by hobbyists.
This is not true for anemones, starfish, clams (especially giant specimens),
octopi, squid, and other tank oddities. These are still considerable
challenges to the amateur level hobbyist as there water (particularly
specific gravity issues), diet, and a host of problems that fall into the
"Why did that happen" category.
Live rock and live sand can both be had through special "farmers" who are
creating live rock from base rock. However, admittedly, regional live rock
acquisitions (Fuji, Hawaiian, etc) are still preferred because of the wild
element that can come in the form of "hitchhikers." Same for live sand.
I was able to have a "mostly" domestic SW setup in 2 different tanks, but I
did have a few items that were wild caught.
Marlin
"LeighMo" <lei...@aol.comNoSpam> wrote in message
news:20011103123956...@mb-md.aol.com...
Nestor 10
> >> I was just wondering, how ecologically responsible
> >> is fish-keeping?
> Are the typical LFS fish bred in captivity or wild caught? If wild
> caught, is that damaging any eco-systems?
Most of the "bread and butter" stock is now captive- bred - the number of
"albino" and "golden" species showing up in the market is a definite clue.
As to whether keeping fish is useful in and of itself, there are two
definite examples that spring to mind:
Barbus titteya - the Cherry Barb
Tanichthys albonubes - Tan's Fish, more commonly known as the White Cloud
Mountain Minnow
The natural ranges of both of these fish have been rendered uninhabitable by
Man, and the fish only survive as part of the trade.
There are also many species indigenous to Lake Victoria that exist only in
captive situations today - their brethren having long ago been consumed by
the glutonous Nile Perch. The Perch was, of course, introduced to the Lake
through the misguided efforts of Mankind again.
There are many examples of species preservation groups that seek to maintain
viable breeding stocks of fish facing annihilation and extinction in "the
wild". They're usually referred to as "Species Maintenance" programs, and
are conducted by people actually interested in diversity of Life rather than
economic gains. Many of the fish they work with would be considered merely
as "ornamental" by some rather than some type of food or commercial stock.
Finally, consider the situation of our future Ichthyologists, Limnologists,
Marine Biologists and their ilk.
All of these people keep fish in a tank of water.
How many of them got their start in this "destructive" hobby?...
--
-Y-
Nestor 10
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