Is the saltwater hobby coming to an end?

I've been reading a lot of potential bans that may be coming for this hobby. I'm not whining, as much as I love this hobby, I'm all for conservation. I'm just curious if anyone knows more info about these topics. What are your thoughts on farming corals and fish? I know when my nano was up, all my corals were farmed or third or fourth generation fragged/farmed corals.

 

Ther hobby will never end, however it will adapt as it has already began. Propagation will keep the corals coming in!

 

The Mayans were right! omg!!!

 

I hope that some day everything is either farm raised or late generation Frags...I think with Coral we are getting there rather quickly...I have only late generation frags in my tanks...nothing straight from the ocean....fish are the challange....we have a long way to go there...it is not easy to get a variety of truly tank raised fish. They are out there...but not plentiful. I would by tank raised exclusively if it were an option.

 

Me too!

 

I agree. Personally, I ONLY buy coral that I know hasn't come straight from the ocean. I know I'd much rather see reefs diving/snorkeling then in my house... so I don't encourage anything that might hurt the natural version of what I am trying to duplicate within my aquarium.

 

It will never come to an end because there are always farm raised clownfish and propogated anemones and other hosting lps. That right there is one of the msot bought fish in the hobby.

We have many tankraised or propgated clams, sps, lps, softies, leathers, anemonies and other mushrooms, seahorses of multiple varities, dryrock and drysand turned live, and many other inverts. As for fish there are not many but many clownfish, gobies, and cardinalfish are tankbred pretty easily. I think we also have some success with wrasses and a few others but not on a large scale. The big challenge seems to be large and drawf angelfish, tangs, and butterflies but we will hpefully get there

 

And poor countries always will want other sources of income... Sad but true...

 

Education into proper collection techniques and awareness of what a valuable resource they have does make a difference. Rather than letting pollution, poor boating and recreational activities damage reefs collectors protect their resource. Some of the larger vendors and distributors are providing that education to their collectors.

Remember when cyanide was the common collection method or stunning.

Unfortunately though there will have to be bans to prevent the over collection of fish such as Tangs and other popular fish types that are impossible in today's age to aquaculture.

Liveaquaria charges more for their aquacultured pieces. The aquacultured corals are much smaller than pieces you can buy are their site that are wild or "maricultured". This to me seems like a step in the wrong direction.

It's understandable that aquacultured pieces are perceived to be hardier, and I have found this to be true. Are you paying the higher price for increased stability in the corals or are you paying for all the technology (chemicals, lighting....) that went into producing those corals?

 

Agreed, I'm sure you're paying for the technology. I've been to the Foster and Smith live aquaria up in Rhinelander WI. It's amazing, but they use tons of power to make it all happen.