Wild Caught plecos

[Earthgirl]

When I bought my Medusa Head pleco, the guy at the fish store said that they were wild caught. Now, to me that does sound rather mean and for those fish to tavel all the way to Canada, makes me wonder. I really sat there for a little while thinking if I was going to actually purchase him, therefore supporting this industry. Anyways, I did and decided to do some research on this topic. So if anyone knows anything, please give me a heads up because I sure would like to know if this true or just the guy trying to sell me this fish, somehow making it rare.
Thank you

 

[K-Holed]

IF you dig deeper into the hobby you'll find that quite a number of fish (not just plecs) are still wild caught. I don't have a problem with it myself, as long as it is don humanely and it does not upset the balance in nature or deplete stocks too far.

 

[Earthgirl]

See, now I did not know that. I really must be naive! I still bought him because I love the plecs, but I still think it bothers me that he was taken form his home for my enjoyment. Please don't flame me for sounding contradicting there, but that is the honest truth. My husband is a hunter (against me) and says the similar to the fact that hunting is regulated, and if they didn't hunt, the population would grow for fast and the predators would not be able to keep up and the species would be overwhelmed. Hmmmmmmmmm!
I don't know?

 

[K-Holed]

If it makes you feel any better thik of it this way. By keeping wild caught specimins in aquariums, we have learnt much about them. We know more about what they need to live and survive and this can be aplied when trying to conserve their natural habitatas in the wild. Also, as we get to breed more and more species in captivity, we won't need to go to the wild as often to satiate peoples apitite for aquarium fodder (which will never go away)

 

[Earthgirl]

Now that is an awesome way of thinking of that way, how postitive!
Thank You K-Holed!

 

[willywonka099]

Actually chances are even before the fish are imported they are probably bred in large ponds like almost all fish .......so it could be the grand parents were caught in the wild

 

[TorPeteO]

I don't know about larger-sized plecos, but Otos are often wild-caught because they've been hard to breed in captivity. In order to catch them, local fishermen often use cyanide to stun the fish, and then scoop them up for export. This renders them very weak, and they're not a tremendously hardy species to begin with.

It's something that every fish hobbyist should know. There are many programs that are trying to educate those who harvest the fish on alternative catching methods than cyanide, but most methods aren't nearly as cost-effective. A sad truth, but the lives of these fish is often not worth a few extra pennies here and there.

 

[K-Holed]

Yes, this method is still employed, and it saddens me. Fortunately though it seems that this pracice is slowly dying out.

 

[CFC]

Actually chances are even before the fish are imported they are probably bred in large ponds like almost all fish .......so it could be the grand parents were caught in the wild

Very few ornamental fish are bred in ponds, those that are bred this way are actually bred as food and the farmers make a little extra money on the side selling a few to the fish wholesalers.

Wild caught fish are caught using a variety of netting methods from seine netting of whole shoals of tetras to the stalking and individual netting of rare or large fish.

 

[Timmy]

Earthgirl, we had a discussion on this a while back, have a look here:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=46478&hl=

or if the link doesn't work search for this:

Poll: SHOULD WE KEEP FISH CAUGHT FROM THE WILD?