Wild or tank raised

[gwand]

The Wet Spot which is an excellent establishment to purchase fish often offer the customer the choice of wild Cichlids or tank raised. I’m assuming that one should never mix tank raised fish with wild caught fish because of the differences in their immune system. But this is just a hunch. What are the pros and cons of acquiring tank raised versus wild caught Cichlids. Are there ethical concerns?

 

[Colin_T]

Wild caught fish are less likely to have diseases compared to farmed fish. However, when they have diseases, they are unusual ones and quite often involve parasitic worms that belong in goats or other animals and get lost in the fish's body.

Wild caught are generally stronger and healthier overall but they need to be kept in water that has the same pH, GH, KH and temperature to what they find in the wild. Farmed fish will usually tolerate a little more variation in their water chemistry and temperature.

Wild caught don't normally take dry food (especially floating foods) and usually require live or frozen foods. Sometimes they will learn to take dry foods but don't count on it.

Wild caught are quite often harder to breed in captivity but if conditions are right, they are easy to breed.

Wild fish usually have better colours but it depends on if you want original colours or man made mutations.

Ethical concerns, everything we do has ethical concerns
If the fish are taken in small numbers (not over fished) and the local waterway is protected from pollution, and the locals are involved and get the money for the fish, then it's fine as far as I'm concerned. If a foreign company goes in and cleans out all the fish from an area and leaves nothing for the local people, then I have issues with that.

 

[GaryE]

You're looking at African fish, and there are no major companies that go in. They tend to be sustainable local fisheries.

There were some problems in the Rift Lakes craze in the 80s and 90s, but that has calmed. The issues now are overpopulation and the taking of smaller and smaller fish for food.

There's no overfishing with riverine species. Their threats are our exotic wood flooring and furniture leading to deforestation, and gold mining silting up their rivers. All of the Cichlids and other fish in the oil extracting and pipeline provinces of Nigeria are in serious danger.

Healthwise, Colin is dead on. When there are diseases, they are weird ones. But they are uncommon compared to farmed fish, which are almost guaranteed to be carrying something. I have had a lot of magnificently healthy wild caughts, but not many equally good farmed fish.

If the farms followed a different model, they could be great. But controlling tb rather than outrunning it, avoiding hybrids - these things cost money and the farms are commercial enterprises. I buy wild caught when I have a choice, with home bred a close second. I notice wet spot often has Pelvicachromis sacrimontis, a more aggressive krib relative that comes in a black and a green form.The black form is stunning, but they must be breeding them there to have them available so often.

There are people who say only farmed are ethical,but they overlook how we get the fish from Africa. Most of the time, they are caught by local families who sell them to the exporters. Or the exporters themselves are fishers, with companies employing one or two people. In Singapore, farms are listed on the stock exchange and the profits go to people who have never seen a fish anywhere but on a dinner plate.

 

[gwand]

Colin and Gary, That was very helpful and informative. That’s why I love this forum.