Stop the collection of wild fish!

There are seceral ways to view this, And some are very beneficial. For instance the remaining Lake victoria species in the hobby ware the only thing that prevented extinction of many of those fish. The nile perch more or less maurauded the wild populations if I understand it correctly. Without this hobby, few people would even know or care about those occurances. With this hobby, the cichlid species were preserved for the most part, and when a solution if found for the nile perch, the cichlids can be re-introduced to the wild. So we have essentially prevented extinction and have the ability to wait out a plauge, and then reinstate the wild populations.

Additionally theere is a good bit being done by responsible countries to preserve wild populations where applicable. The zxebra pleco is illegal to harvest in the wild right now, because the harvest pressure threatened extinction. More importantly, there are several folks breeding these fish for the hobby, and preserving the blood lines that are currently in captivity so if the remaining wild population should fail that fish will avoid extinction.

There have also been several species that were driven to extinction through the hobby, but things are not now as they always were, and this hobby and the folks in this hobby are largely responsible for helping more than they hurt.

I agree that we should be cautious of source, I also agree that we should look to captive bred animals more often than not.

I have been the owner of several wild caught fish, and enjoy the natural personalities and different characteristics of these fish, I'll also say that I only buy wild breeds that I know are doing well in the wild.


Overall, something that everyone should be aware of is the economic ramifications of stopping wild collecting of animals. The local economies live on those collections, without them we would see areas of starvation and economic failure which lead to black market advances and far less responsible practices. people will not starve to death when they can avoid it even if they have to break the law to eat.

Next is the cost of this hobby, If we stop all wild collections, the costs increase to the hobbyist. Then they either leave the hobby, or they have less money to re-invest in the interest of the hobby and the animals they house. Less money is less money any way you look at it. When times are lean in my home, I don't donate money to causes. So if the hobby becomes expensive the first thing that suffers is the organizitions out there doing good for the wild populations. So the economy that supports the wild populations is essentially the same economy that supports inexpensive animals in the pet stores. Mess with one and we mess with all of them.

And don't even think about suggesting the government increase taxes for those purposes. They already steal a good bit of my money for causes I don't approve of.
 
I'd encourage people to buy tank reared s.w. fish ," the babies are caught in their larval stage or just after." In the ocean 99% of them would have been consumed by a predator anyway so, their removal from the eco system will have less of an affect. I'm also an avid gardener and if it weren't for that hobby there would be a lot of really neat plants that would have gone the way of the dodo bird. For example the Benjamin Franklin tree hasn't been seen in the wild since the late 18th century T.Takil ,"the kumoan windmill palm is known from 1 individual in the Rome botanical garden and about 9 individuals in the wild hardy to usda zone 6a or 6b but, there are 1000's in captivity.
Usually hobiest have very little impact on wild populations vs other environmental issues like global warming,"my usda zone is about 10F warmer than it was 20 years ago doesn't sound like much until you realise that's the difference between Atlanta and Cleveland.
 
i went to a store I hadn't been to before yesterday to get a tank for some firebelly toads. i told the guy at the counter, who said he thought it was wrong to keep toads in captivity as they are a 'wild' animal. that's all fair enough, I thought, but coming form a guy who stocks a load of marine fish I thought it was just a little hypocritical. Fish are 'wild' animals too. I figure, as long as it's captive bred (like the toads, incidentally) then there's nothing wrong with keeping it. I do think though that the main target of collecting wild fish should be to establish a captive breeding project before selling them on a large scale. But I know that is not always practical.
 
It would seem everyone here has a valid point and we can't argue about any of this.

These days most fish are legally proclaimed from the wild in a way that will not effect the species. Illegal, poaching of fish is a very different matter and very harmfull. It is just a pitty that some countries do not have funds to control such things as this. I'm sure some activist will catch on one day and convince those governments to fix the problem. I just hope it's not too late for our oceans, which I believe are in more of a threat than the freshwater rives, lakes etc.

I do really believe though from an insane amount of research done by scientist all over this planet that earth does not have very long. That doesn't mean we can just neglect it all though. I am not religious, but I do believe in kharma. So I believe we should treat all creatures with the utmost respect. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about our planet fading away. It has a life cycle just like any human, and one day it's gonna die. The funny thing is it could actually be any second. Any moment a number of things could happen to end our existance. The sun for instance is so unpredictable it could burn out tomorrow and we would never see it again. Or a meteor could hit us and be the day after tomorrow. Or an earthquake. Tsunami. Cyclone. Global warming. This place is so unstable it reminds me of an aquarium in this way. Sometimes your fish will die for no reason it would seem. Sometimes conditions in your tank just go haywire as hard as we try and keep it perfect.

All we can really do is be thankfull for the time we have and do the best we can with it. Hopefully in the end we are better for it and it all pays off in some way, some place, some time. Try not to think too hard though or you'll go crazy like me.

Thanks for having me. Peace.
 
Their cause looks sound. How do you know if fish you buy are from Project Piaba, though? I noticed the site did not list any links to purchase their fish. Or am I misunderstanding it?
 
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