The industry - where do our fish come from?

[DAnCSF]

Hello All,

So I've been keeping fish for a while now but I've rarely considered where the fish come from, captive breed vs wild caught. Like many I've always thought of captive breed as the most environmental considerate, but I've come across a documentary that has given me a new aspect and views on our hobby. BTW I'm not here to advocate one side or another but I do think it's worth knowing both sides of wild caught vs captive bred. Like all things in this world it's not a simple black and white issue. Here are links to a 2 part documentary about the Amazon and the tropical fish trade.
In case the links don't work search YouTube for

WILD CAUGHT: AQUARIUM FISH TRADE OF THE AMAZON​

 

[jaylach]

Thanks for the post. I haven't watched but will as I saved the links.

 

[Byron]

These are very good videos. They explain very well the several benefits of wild caught fish, both for the fish themselves and the environment.

 

[DAnCSF]

These are very good videos. They explain very well the several benefits of wild caught fish, both for the fish themselves and the environment.

As I said life is full of grays....I like my LFS but they are small mom and pop operations but never asked them where their stock comes from. I don't have a super store LFS in my area that sell wild caught. Then again there are on-line operators that do have wild caught suppliers so that is an option. I have 6 tanks but I'm not advanced enough where I'm doing specially/exotics fish where the ecomonmics of online buying makes sense in my situation. So to each his/her own but it's worth understanding the industry. And as I always thought life is complicated and full of gray areas but understanding the gray areas will help each of us make informed choices. I'm glad you enjoyed the videos.

 

[emeraldking]

As I said life is full of grays....I like my LFS but they are small mom and pop operations but never asked them where their stock comes from. I don't have a super store LFS in my area that sell wild caught. Then again there are on-line operators that do have wild caught suppliers so that is an option. I have 6 tanks but I'm not advanced enough where I'm doing specially/exotics fish where the ecomonmics of online buying makes sense in my situation. So to each his/her own but it's worth understanding the industry. And as I always thought life is complicated and full of gray areas but understanding the gray areas will help each of us make informed choices. I'm glad you enjoyed the videos.

I already knew how the industry works but I do have to admit that I've enjoyed watching those videos.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

This is a subject very close to my heart. I have been following this topic now since i got my first group of breeding wild caught zebra plecos in early 2006. At the time they were brought into the country and were available to the original owner, Brazil had not yet started with the permitted lists. So I was not doing anything that might make folks look asakance.

Over time this changed. If you study the ornamentall fish trade and the gold mining trade in brazil which is commong around water bodies, you wll see native populations mining for gold and ausing chemicals which get dumped inot the waters and kill the fish. The illegal trade trhives because demand will always be met. But smuggling fish means many pr mosst of them die along the way.

One the other hand intelligently managed ornamental fish trade can work well and be profitable. When the governemetn outlawed it all the locals go nack to gold mining.

And then consider how the government of brazil o[erate, They will not do researh to know what is in the rivers they damn. if theree are not many described species they are easier to wipe out. So in go damn, fish species are eradicated from the planet and that is the name oof that game.

From the 13 zebras I purchased i have distributed about 500 offspring. From my groups of L173- One wild and one TR (21 fish total), I have distrbuted a few 100 and have a bunch more to go. So I am not a one way street to species eradication.

When I got my zebra group it was not easy to find zebras, especially tank raised ones. Today I can easily buy 300 farmed zebras from Indonesia and they will cost me less than 1/3 or maybe 1/4 of what flks paid for imports years ago. So even if the Belo Monty dam combined with the limited smuggling of zebras (greatly reduced from its heyday), this species will not disaapear from the planet. it will live on in aquariums across the globe.

Consider this pretty much every species that humans have domesticated of the past few 100,000 years started out as a wild animal. Nore of us would have a single fish in any ot our tanks if somebody, at some time, did not take the species from the willd. Even the tank strains, line bred or cross bred would not exist for the hobby.

That said, there is a much more rational way to use wild stocks to feed into the hobby in such a way that it does not endangeerd the existence of species. We don't have to make war, or kill each other either, but it is our nature I guess.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

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