Re: wild-caught fish

[anggrek@juno.com (Tsuh Yang Chen)]

dear brian,

i don't think you offended anyone.  it is a very valid concern.  i am
actually terribly depressed about the way we humans have been plundering
the rainforests around the world (btw, my interests include orchids and
other plants in addition to fish, that's why i get so depressed about it
- -- and we must not forget, there are the native peoples who depend on the
forests too).  however, the collection of fish for the pet trade has not
in most parts been detrimental to the wild fish populations, except in a
few cases where the fish is a food fish in its native habitat and
overfishing has made it scarce, as in the case of the pirarucu (Arapaima
gigas).  that's why i don't think this particular species should be
collected in the wild and sold in a pet shop.  another endangered species
is the asian arowana (Scleropages formosus) which is now only available
legally via captive-breeding.

as for most other fish in the hobby, wild collections have not had
negative impact in their population.  i believe dr. ning labbish chao has
done some studies about the ornamental fish trade in the amazon and
that's what he concluded.  i believe that sustainable and reasonable
exploitation of natural resources is not a bad thing.  wild fish
populations are more threatened by overfishing, deforestation, cattle
raising and oil mining in the rainforest than by collecting.  for
example, swordfish populations have plummeted in the oceans because we
have been overconsuming it.  

many fish you see in pet shops are wild collected, at least most tetras
and catfish are.  if we did not collect them from the wild, we would have
a very limited number of fish we could keep, mostly livebearers and
cichlids.  what bothers me more than wild-collecting is the blatant and
heartless disregard people may have for living things and pets.  in the
aquatic plant mailing list, there was discussion recently about selling
excess fish and plants to pet shops and one person wrote that because the
shop offered him too little for his fish, he'd "rather flush the fish in
the toilet."  

just my 2 cents.

tsuh yang chen, new york city

On Fri, 13 Feb 1998 22:39:59 EST IVIassacre@aol.com writes:
>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