My own opinion is that the keeping of all animals - ANY animals - in captivity is yet another thing that humans do to gratify themselves. The whole issue is absolutely loaded with shades of grey. I mean, personally I don't consider that it's wrong to produce or eat meat. I say this because the property my rented house is on is mainly for beef production. The cattle wander freely around large paddocks, graze all day, behave naturally, have their babies with them... the only bad thing that happens to them is going to the abattoir, which is a few hours out of otherwise happy lives, and as long as there is no unnecessary suffering and they are killed humanely, I dont' consider it cruel to raise them for meat. But then have a good look at feedlots, and whole issue changes. Cattle standing in tiny pens in their own excreta, no room to turn around or lie down or walk anywhere - prevented from exercising away their fat - with nothing to do but eat, eat, eat, all day, wasting grain desperately needed by hungry people overseas. That is in my opinion morally reprehensible - but it doesn't make ALL beef production wrong, or stop me eating beef.
And that's basically how I feel about fishkeeping. Just because some people do the wrong thing by their animals, and because the way they enter the hobby (either dragging them out of the wild or farming them) is rarely humane, I don't think it makes all fishkeeping cruel. Certainly, I believe that my own fish are happy.
Most tank raised fish would not survive in the wild, because they are used to fish tanks. I have to accept that the production of fish for the trade is essentially cruel. The fish you don't see are the ones crammed into tiny, overcrowded growout tanks, culled (cruelly, often by exposure to air) because of the slightest defect. And the breeders, living under the same conditions or worse, culled as soon as their useful breeding lives are over. That's cruel. But the fact is that as a single hobbyist, by stopping buying fish I will do virtually nothing to stop this from happening. The way I see it, the best thing I can do is to take as many fish as I can into my own tanks and give them a good life free of cruelty, neglect or ignorance. I believe that the fault for continuing cruelty (out of fish factories) lies largely, but not entirely, with LFS/LPS which give so little information, and who will sell to people who choose to ignore what advice they are given. It also lies with the buyers who do so little research before purchasing fish.
I think it's important to design the tank for the benefit of the fish. This doesn't mean that technicolour gravel and fancy ornaments are bad, but it does mean they need to be used carefully. Even tank raised fish will not feel comfortable in a bare tank, or in some fluoro marvel. I try to simulate their environments to suit their instincts so they don't spend their lives searching for something they know should be there and that isn't.
. if this is true, they are more than aware of how they are kept.
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