The ugly face of the fish trade

[Cian McLiam]

In this months Practical Fishkeeping magazine they have an article on the Flowerhorn Cichlids being bred in Singapore and the fate of those fish that arent 'up to scratch'.
The prices for Flowerhorn cichlids (a hybrid between two different species of Cichlids) has fallen dramatically over the last few months as more people are educated about how this new species was created, some stores are now selling them as a South American Cichlid or a Central American Cichlid when in fact it is neither. It is a totally man made species designed purely for profit. Now that the fishkeeping trade has seen the fish for what it really is, sales have fallen and 'runt' fishes that cant be sold are being dumped into the local waterways.

This is an indicator of what the aquarium fish trade has become and where it is heading, while we wait for the 'next big thing' those that have fallen out of favour are simply discarded.

I for one am disgusted at how far people will go to profit from aquarium fish and Im not aware of any other live trade where such tampering and abuse of nature is so common, and I would urge people who would like to see this come to an end to let their local shops know that they can not be fooled into buying such freaks and mutants. Such fish as the GloFish and dyed and painted fish will only be created if there is demand for them, with all the publicity that these practices are generating I hope that more people will know what is real and what is fake when buying the first pet fish, and make an informed and concientious choice.

There has been a lot of talk in the forum that liking/hating these fish is a matter of personal preference, I disagree. No sane person would say that dumping industrial waste on coral reefs is a matter of opinion, it is just wrong. I believe that injecting, mutating and painting fish purely for the novelty value is clearly wrong also. I do respect other peoples opinion on this but in a very cynical world, it can be hard to see the wider picture here. While a few glowing fish in an aquarium may seem harmless, what precedent does this set for other people who care more about profit than the fate of any living thing? It sends signals to say 'how these fish are created is of no importance, if they are new and different there will be a market for them'.

Please dont take my word for it, find out as much as you can about the issues and if you care, make your voice heard.

Ken

 

[Sinuhe]

How was the Flowerhorn Cichlid created?

Not that I especially support modified fish, but I don't think that the fact some ignorant people are releasing the unwanted fish to the wild is valid enough to say modifying fish for commercial purposes is wrong. That could, theoretically, happen to any fish that becomes unpopular over time, nobody wants to buy them anymore, and people want to get rid of them somehow. I'd think the best way to get rid of fish that nobody will buy would be to either donate them, or kill them in some painless way.

 

[Lateral Line]

>>>
I'd think the best way to get rid of fish that nobody will buy would be to either donate them, or kill them in some painless way.
<<<

Problems, who do you donate them to if nobody wants them, secondly, they are supposedly "lucky" fish, and killing "lucky" fish is supposed to bring bad luck - thus they prefer to release them into the eco system.

 

[Sinuhe]

Well, if people choose to rather make decisions based on superstition than common sense, then I guess there isn't much I can do about it .

I was just saying that releasing them into the wild is not the only way, or a responsible way, to get rid of any fish.

 

[FanOFish]

What's the big problem with releasing these fish into the wild? And please don't try to compare them to toxic waste..

Won't they just become food for other fish or breed and become a species that is now found in the wild?

 

[devinf]

They are not natural inhabitants of the ecosystem. They can and will impact the other lifeforms. Competing for food sources, possibly destroying food sources for other species, inter-breeding and diluting the gene pool of otherwise healthy fish populations (see another post here on North Atlantic Salmon), introduction of disease and parasites, etc...

It is a horrible thing to dump captive fish back into the wild. Just one or two dumped fish have the potential to destroy an entire lake/river section worth of fish. I think referring to them as toxic/industrial waste is very applicable.

 

[ste2k3]

There are many problems with these fish being introduced into the wild! nature works so why change it? if these fish were introduced into a body of water and lived succesfully, they may feed on one species of fish for example, guppys. if they feed on guppys, then the numbers of guppys would go down. With numbers of guppys falling, there won't be enough guppys to feed its natural preditors say, knife fish. knife fish will then start to decline. the fish that then preys on knife fish, for example a big catfish will also start to decline. before you ask "why won't the big cat eat the flowerhorns" the flowerhorns may be agressive unlike the knife fish and may defend them selfs against the catfish. in extreem cases i.e. say there was a !"man made fish" released into the amazon and the same thing happened, the animal at the top of the food chain may suffer in which case, it would be the native people who live in small villages on the edge of the rivers who rely on the river for food. if that food is not available, then small villages could be wiped out. this is going to the extreem but things like that could happen and people could suffer, not to mention the ammount of fish. the food web is not as simple as people think! so you have to ask yourself, is it really worth it for a new type of cichlid that really only looks like any other cichlid? new species of fish are being discovered each day, why not focus our efforts on finding out more about these rather than "making" your own false fish.

if someone wanted to make a human glow in the dark, they would never be allowed to go ahead but if its a fish, then its ok is it

 

[david27]

They are a potential toxic substance in a way. Feral populations can cause massive problems which is why I believe that many US states restrict the sale of some fish species.

I hope that the downturn in sales will prevent the creation of any more of these types of fish.

David

 

[Opcn]

The equine trade has problems a bit like this (Mules) and hourses escape and cause erosion (yup they do).

The problem is not that they are releasing hybred fish its that they are releasing large numbers of fish. If they let too many salmon type X go up a river here in alaska the salmon type X poulation in 4 to 5 years will botom out. Also if you let out a breeding population of non-native fish you always end up with to many.

Opcn

 

[wuvmybetta]

I read an article on this not too long ago, apparently all of the released flowerhorns are taking over the fish population.They've even ate the snakeheads fry and they're wiping out that population too so they began throwing giant snakeheads in to kill off the flowerhorns, fight fire with fire so to speak. At one point in the article they mentioned visiting seven lakes, they would throw in stale bread and the ONLY fish that came up to eat were horribly mutated flowerhorns

 

[andyt_uk]

SOMEWHERE on here i am sure someone posted a link to an article about a fish that has some markings on the side of its body that in chinese resembled numbers, some owner put thos enumbers on the lottery and won big style, so people tried to breeed more fish with the exact same marking and sell them
is this the flowerhorn? i cant remember, maybe someone else can find the post with the link.
if not the flowerhorn the same thing is happening, as well as what they wanted to achieve in looks the fish developed into a monstrous predator, and the local wild fish population is severely under threat and is being tackled with another fish that was killed off becuase of its predatorial antics

fire with fire...

where does it end

there is a fine line that needs to be drawn somewhere - but where, and who draws it?

 

[De Plano]

Try googleing invasive species. Then try carp invasive species. There have ben numerous articles and news shows on various invasive species. One show on national TV showed carp that are taking over the rivers and we are spending millions trying to keep them out of the Great Lakes.

 

[kuter]

Sorry to tell you Ken, but there is money to be made with any species of animal you are going to have this type of behavior. The following site is only a part of it.

puppy mills

Now if you want to know the truth about the equine industry let me know. I can show you examples of that too.
Kuter & Krew

 

[pmoyniha]

From the viewpoint of a Molecular Biologist (3rd year student at the University of Guelph), I spent this past semester taking genes froma bioluminescent bacteria and inserting them into E.Coli. It is really easy to do with the proper education. To take something like that a step and make it profitable is not that hard. In our current culture this is what drives us, to take something and make it profitable. So why not fish? Our culture does not support in depth ethical investigations of these actions. We are "get rich quick" people. Clearly releasing the hybrid species into the wild is a mistake and we will pay for that for years to come.

When we create these hybrid species we break up gene complexs that help animals to survive. The viability of these hybrid fish also needs to be called into question. This problem may be truly short lived if this species is truly a cross between two other TRUE species of fish. If that is the case, their young should (and I stress should) be infertile, so the hybrid should eventually die out in a natural system.

There is obviously a lot of questions around these topics and I think it is the job of local clubs and organizations to educate people on the topic. In my local paper there was an article on the glowing danios. It was practically selling them for the store. This sort of stuff has to be addressed.

Just my opinions anyways,
Pat

 

[Abernathy]

In my hometown area, there is a large Chinese population and almost all the lfstores are run by Chinese people. Flowerhorns are huge here commanding prices up to $450. Every store has made space for these HIGHLY-AGGRO fish and there are posters hawking them on every wall space. Frankly, I think they are rather ugly, and as to the myth of bringing luck and prosperity to one's household and business, I think that depends more on one's acumen and contacts rather than a fish who would take a bite out of your hand and kill everything else in your tank.