I Just Don't Get It...

I understand why fish breeders are jumping on the designer clownfish bandwagon rather than attempting to breed other species that are being harvested from the wild by the thousands every day: simply put, it's greed. But why do we, as hobbyists, continue feeding their machine by paying such ridiculous prices for unnatural livestock when the technology and resources could be used for far more productive purposes?

 

I agree Mr.Bill that we as hobbyist feed the beast to a certain degree. We need to aquaculture corals and fish to preserve and protect the environment yet it cost an arm and a leg buy aquacultured fish and inverts. I do not know how much of that cost is greed or over head..Seems to me collection of clowns from the wild should be prohibited at this point. You collect clowns and leave their anemone to fend for it's self and the anemone is eaten in short order if another clown pair does not move in to protect....domino effect.

This topic is common on the forums now, hopefully we'll see the hobby moving in a different direction.

 

Agree Mr. B. We take far too much without giving much back and ultimately it will bite us unfortunately.Our planet is dieing because of us.

 

We'll kill ourselves with unsustanble living and pollution before our plant. She'll find balance, albeit it may take 10s of thousads to millions of years. I consider us to be an annoying infection that will heal itself naturally in time.

As for clowns and other fish, I have never purchased a fish for more than $20. I can't justify spending $200 on a fish. I have a common percula clown, and he's good enough for me.

 

I agree Kevin ,,We belong to the planet ,not the other way around..It will surely find balance and probably be better off without us.
Considering what has already come and gone on earth we are simply a blip on the radar ,and a blip is being generous ,maybe half a blip..
Sad when you really think about it..


The fish though,well ,i look at it this way..They have come a long way in a short time in captive breeding and yes,they do go a bit nuts with designer clowns but they also breed a few large angels and tangs ..I wouldn't be surprised if we see hundreds of species being CB in our lifetime .And corals ,wow,what can't they grow and frag over and over.Hopefully harvesting from the oceans will be cut down drastically in the next 30 years.Hopefully!

 

That was my hope when captive breeding first began, but unfortunately, that's not the case. Even the easiest species to breed in captivity, the occellaris and percula clownfish, are still being harvested from the wild, and hundreds of others are not being captive bred at all. And yet we're using technology and resources to produce grossly overpriced, unnatural lineages, while efforts to preserve nature seem to be stagnating. Personally, I feel it's our responsibility to hold breeders to a higher standard and put them back on track with our wallets.

 

Education, education and one last time education.

When people stop buying fish that are collected from the wild than they'll stop collecting. It's unrealistic to think everyone will stop buying animals that are collected in the wild but if you make the dent big enough that it hurts then we will start seeing change.

Some people frown on animals in zoos, I do not if they are housed responsibly. The reason is simple, we protect what we cherish, if people are not exposed to public aquariums then they never give preservation a second thought.

To add to the momentous task of influencing the hobby you have to look at foreign countries, culture plays a huge part. Those doing the collecting do so to make a living, in the big picture they get a mere pittance compared to the retailer. We have to support those organizations that promote work in aquaculture and mariculture as an alternative to collecting, and that is the rub. You pay more for ORA products and I am ok with that if the fish or invert are not collected from the wild.

Wewww, boy I can go on can't I.

 

Thanks for bringing up this topic Mr Bill. I'm deciding how to approach stocking my upcoming 125 and i'd like to make my purchases from those businesses that are not taking from the ocean. I'll post what I find and i'd appreciate any suggestions. Start voting with my dollar.

 

Of course when I said killing the planet I was not being literal.I was speaking of all the other innocent life forms here that we will take with us.

 

I see where you are coming from but I don't see designer clowns as a problem. At least they are captive bred. I don't think it would cost much more to breed two types of fish as opposed to only one. If you have a high profit margin fish like a designer clown you could use the profits to supplement a breeding program for a less profitable fish.

I don't know if it works like that at all, but why not?