Is it Ethical?

[Professor_fish]

In light of modern times and the declaration that the Great Barrier reef is dead, do you think it is still ethical to keep/collect tropical saltwater species harvested from the wild? What are your opinions on collection of so called 'live rock' from reefs?

Take into consideration how long such rock/coral takes to grow.
See if you can come up with reasons to support your stance, i would love to see some open discussion on this.

 

[Angelphish]

As long as you have an aquarium that can replicate the natural environment, then yes. I also wouldn't recommend it with tanks less than 200 U.S. gallons, unless it's a very small species like dwarf puffers.

 

[CarpCharacin]

As long as you have an aquarium that can replicate the natural environment, then yes.

Sure the fish may be fine, but what about the environment?

 

[Angelphish]

Depends on the demand of the fish. If only a few hundred are taken per year I see no issue. Taking larger numbers will likely screw some food chain up somewhere.

 

[CarpCharacin]

But what about taking coral?

 

[Angelphish]

Coral on the other hand, I'd say no.

 

[Professor_fish]

Not so much these days but back in the 90's it was common practice to poison reefs with cyanide!. Any fish that didnt die straight away were collected and sold, it is never a couple of hundred fish sadly. And again although its technically banned, people still harvest live rock/reef with dynamite.......

For me i got uncomfortable using live Rock, i use the same stuff they make gas fire inserts out of, the stuff like a white extremely light tile. No idea what the stuff is but its extremely light and porous, we have a local company that can somehow produce the effect we want if we supply molds for them. We have mini reefs built this way.

I have also cut way back on marine stuff, i have no real objection to what others do, but i know what the damage is and how things are done, i am no longer comfortable being a part of that.

 

[CarpCharacin]

Yeah I am definitely against poisoning reefs with cyanide. I know it isn't as common as it once was, but do people still do that to this day?

 

[Gray Wolf]

There are plenty captive propagated corals on the marked without taking from the reefs.

 

[Professor_fish]

Unfortunately large reefs are blown apart still. Cyanide is still used in places. I dived in the maldives 4 years ago, on a protected reef. It was heart breaking to see the gaps. I cant dive anymore, just as well i guess.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Agreed, I wouldnt want to see that, but again Mother Nature has her own means, and eventually she will heal, once the human destructor is extinct.

 

[Aquatic Endeavors]

Agreed, I wouldnt want to see that, but again Mother Nature has her own means, and eventually she will heal, once the human destructor is extinct.

Thats a fact

 

[Dennis Tracey]

I am torn between only having culture coral and fish and buying wild caught fish. I have determined that the drawf seahorses I got two weeks ago are wild caught, as were the ricodia corals from off the Florida coast. I doubt I will be buying from this dealer again. But what’s done is done. However Live Aquaria also deals with wild caught fish, and has a Divers Den that appears to be wild collected corals. I plan to stay with fragged corral. Wild collected coral is instantly gratifying but decimates nature, and artificial live rock is available for having little critters live in. Nuff said.

 

[Professor_fish]

It's good to see marine keepers who care about the impact they have, in the UK 90% of all clown fish come from a company called off, I have consulted for them. What shocked the hell out of me was discovering all there clown fish for the past 15 years come from a SINGLE pair of clown fish!

I didn't believe them despite being shown this pair, so I asked around for clown fish eggs off various people who have bred them, then we did a DNA test on the embryos, sure enough every single one was related!

Then I became disappointed when they sold the company, the new owners have many wild caught endangered species for sale to the trade. Final straw was find some on the cites banned list! A step too far and I reported them, waste of effort as no one even contacted them

 

[CarpCharacin]

I didn't believe them despite being shown this pair, so I asked around for clown fish eggs off various people who have bred them, then we did a DNA test on the embryos, sure enough every single one was related!

If other people had bred them, then wouldn't there be issues with mutations if they were related?

 

[Professor_fish]

So far didn't seem to be problems, but the original parents were exceptional in every way with good genetics

 

[CarpCharacin]

How did you go about determining the genetics of the original parents?

 

[Professor_fish]

Same way you do with humans. You take the DNA and compare it, it's a very common technique