Re: wild-caught fish

[IVIassacre@aol.com]

Just curious.....is there any real purpose to keeping wild specimens?  I can
see if keeping a wild specimen would in some way improve our knowledge of the
fish, but is this the case?  What kind of effect(if any) do aquarists have on
the wild populations of aquarium fish?  IMO, if the fish is readily available
in captive bred form then there should be no reason to subject wild ones to
the stress of being moved hundreds of miles away and possibly leading to the
depletion of that species in the wild.  Is the captive bred gene pool for
certain fish really that small?  


Sorry if I offended any wild fish keepers,  
             Bryan Kohart