Importance of captive bred fish

NotFishyFishGuy · Oct 14, 2019

How important do you think captive bred fish are? We are taking fish from the ocean and then placing them in a glass box filled with water, many of which are only several feet long. Even for the smaller fish like a small goby damsel or clown, they still aren’t used to it and I just don’t think it’s exactly humane. I mean at least is reefers are trying to keep it healthy; many uninformed people or restaurants don’t really care about the fish other than making the fish “survive”. There is a HUGE difference between an animal surviving and it thriving. Especially for those bigger fish or fish that need more space to swim Like a tang or eels and sharks or groupers which mostly aren’t being captive bred except for yellow tangs in Ocean institute in Hawaii (maybe also other places this is the only one I know). I think as hobbyists we can make a change and if we can captive breed more and more types of fish we will no longer have to take them from the wild. Use this thread to share your thoughts on this and if you have any experience captive breeding. These fish should not have to deal with a cramped space, food when someone feels like giving it and has time, bad water conditions, and to be stripped of their normal habits. Most big fish (usually not from dedicated hobbyists more from a restaurant or another public place) aren’t even being treated well with filtration or heating or water changes. However if we can captive breed more fish, they grow up in the environment and it becomes their normal habitat. Well that’s all I have to say let me know what you all think

flsalty · Oct 14, 2019

I've bred freshwater fishes, but not any saltwater. I think it's great that hobbyists try breeding. The thing is there isn't much incentive to do it beyond being able to say you did it. Will it make a dent in the commercial sale of fish? I'm going to say no. I'd hate to see the availability of fish dwindle down to 5 or 10 easy to breed fish.

BTW, I don't see it as inhumane to keep wild caught fish. My concern only extends to environmental impact. I think it would be great if we could figure out how to breed all fish.

The Aquatic Arsenal · Oct 14, 2019

It is very important. More and more marine fish are being captive bred all the time. I think with newer technology and understanding of how some of these fish live in the ocean is greatly helping with captive breeding in the hobby. The same thing is happening with coral as well.

tuesdayd · Oct 14, 2019

I think the less we mess with our environment, the better for us all. Captive breeding fish and aquaculturing coral would seem to be more sustainable than taking from the ocean.

Reef AquaCult · Oct 15, 2019

It is my opinion that we should select aquaculture animals above wild caught whenever possible and support marine aquarium aquaculture businesses so that our hobby is sustainable and environmentally friendly. There is a very high and unacceptable mortality for wild caught specimens and very poor quality control from some areas such as Indonesia. Some fisheries are high quality such as Hawaii and Australia. Hobbyists should not only look for captive bred fish and when purchasing wild caught fish, demand transparency and only accept specimens from high quality collectors. Asking for the cheapest prices is a sure way to lose on all fronts.

NotFishyFishGuy · Oct 15, 2019

If we could breed almost all fish in captivity we wouldn’t have to worry about taking them wild caught. They would also already be used to an aquarium environment where you are the one that feeds them. But everything starts with an idea. Who here is planning on starting to breed fish? We should all help out to improve the hobby

Peace River · Oct 15, 2019

If you haven't already, I encourage you to watch the videos from BRS of the presentations given at MACNA. Several of the presentations touch on the questions in the initial post.

NotFishyFishGuy · Oct 15, 2019

Peace River said:
If you haven't already, I encourage you to watch the videos from BRS of the presentations given at MACNA. Several of the presentations touch on the questions in the initial post.

Do you mind summarizing it?

bearsfish · Oct 15, 2019

In my opinion, we have come far enough in this hobby to understand the impact that we are having on the world, not just reefs and the ocean at large. I have bought exclusively captive breed / propagated fish and corals since my first tank and I am intending to keep this practice with my new one.

I see the value in collecting from the ocean in order to learn more and to start a captive breeding program that would permit certain species to be more readily available to hobbyists in the future, but I am not a fan of pulling from the reefs in a manner that is not sustainable.

Just my 0.02

Sump Crab · Oct 15, 2019

I applaud those who have accomplished great feats in captive bred ornamental fishes. I certainly hope that this becomes a successful venture for many people.

I think that sometimes people forget that wild caught fish can be a sustainable resource for our hobby. If fished for responsibly there is no reason why we should avoid wild caught fish.

The one type of fish I would greatly avoid is "farmed". Fish that are "farmed" in large nets in the ocean do cause problems within their local ecosystem.

In the end I look at ornamental fish just as I look at food fish. I do not think that we should stop fishing for recreation or food.

Silver14SS · Oct 15, 2019

I have only captive bred fish as I felt it was the easiest way to avoid disease and pests, the ethical perspective didn't factor much into it for me.

I've wondered which uses more resources - raising fish in captivity or wild collecting?

Tuffyyyyy · Oct 15, 2019

Silver14SS said:
I have only captive bred fish as I felt it was the easiest way to avoid disease and pests, the ethical perspective didn't factor much into it for me.

I've wondered which uses more resources - raising fish in captivity or wild collecting?

I've seen this mentioned a few times to try and justify wild caught fish and I'm not sure there's much merit to it. Wild caught fish have several rounds of boats and planes that would easily outweigh a captive breeding facility.

S2G · Oct 15, 2019

I don't see the issue if done responsibly. I dont like taking the large specimens tbh. I don't like seeing show size emporer Angel's etc for sale.

Captive bred has become as corrupt as the whole designer coral fad imo. The road to hell is paved with good intentions

Silver14SS · Oct 15, 2019

Tuffyyyyy said:
I've seen this mentioned a few times to try and justify wild caught fish and I'm not sure there's much merit to it. Wild caught fish have several rounds of boats and planes that would easily outweigh a captive breeding facility.

At first glance I agree, but then I wonder how expensive can it really be if the WC fish is $10/20/whatever nominal amount at the LFS. I assume overhead is significantly higher if the breeding facility is in the US. I haven't seen an in depth comparison and would be very interested in it.

Daniel@R2R · Oct 15, 2019

Captive breeding is the future of this hobby and the key to sustainability.

Sump Crab · Oct 15, 2019

Tuffyyyyy said:
I've seen this mentioned a few times to try and justify wild caught fish and I'm not sure there's much merit to it. Wild caught fish have several rounds of boats and planes that would easily outweigh a captive breeding facility.

Not necessarily. Being that the "several rounds of boats and planes" are also, in most cases, carrying cargo for various other businesses or industries the carbon footprint assigned to the fish/coral would most likely be a small percentage.

Breadman03 · Oct 15, 2019

Tuffyyyyy said:
I've seen this mentioned a few times to try and justify wild caught fish and I'm not sure there's much merit to it. Wild caught fish have several rounds of boats and planes that would easily outweigh a captive breeding facility.

But what about mining and purifying salts, sending them by boat, train, and plane to wherever they go, all of the resources that goes into sourcing, processing, and distributing all of that feed, purifying water for the tank systems, which includes all of the waste water, the impact of releasing all of those salts into terrestrial environments, septic or sewage treatment facilities. I'm not sure which has a lesser impact, but I have redesigned my system to be much more energy efficient than it ever was.

EMeyer · Oct 15, 2019

Every decision has costs and consequences.

Buying wild caught fish supports subsistence fishers in developing nations. Its a very renewable resource, belonging to them, that they can make a living by harvesting. Buying fish captive bred somewhere in the US may make a person feel good about their decision, but its taking food off the table of a poor family somewhere in the Philippines.

Am I seriously giving you a hard time for buying captive bred fish? No, just emphasizing that in this issue as all others, there are no silver bullet solutions t real world problems. Everything is tradeoffs. Including captive bred fish.