Titan Trigger... yes, really!

[mort]

Honestly I have a similar story so
When I was 6 me and my dad used to go to this LFS. One day we walked in and they had about anything between 10 and 30 baby red tail catfish inside a 10 gallon (38 litre) this LFS also sold me and volitan lionfish for my 30 gallon and it died of marine velvet or ich sadly

The shop in question also sold (I don't know if they still do as I don't go in there) baby red tails but they also have a 3-4ft one on display which they rescued. It takes a certain type of person to see both together and still want one but I guess it asks the question, is it a good shop for showing the potential size of some of these fish rather than just having a small cute one that everyone might want? Or is it bad that they stock them in the first place?

 

[lion king]

One of my 1st fish was a red tail catfish, I'd say 30 years ago. I had no idea, I loved that fish; I'd put on a Shamu show for my friends and he would come out of the water and take food from my hand. I was lucky to find a store in Los Angeles with what must have been a 10.000 gallon display that took him. To this day I see tanks of babies at the LFS and it kills me.

 

[Elegance Coral]

More regulation is not the answer. If many people had their way, this whole hobby would be regulated out of existence. Every zoo and aquarium would be shut down.
We need to be very careful about this type of thing.
People have protested, and demanded Seaworld stop keeping killer whales and dolphins in captivity. Using many of the same arguments posted in this thread. These protesters have pretty much got their way. Now, IMHO, as a direct effect of this, a tiny little porpoise, the vaquita https://www.google.com/search?q=Vaq...ved=0ahUKEwiRvrKHqMfUAhUFbSYKHVawDHQQ_AUIBygC, in the gulf of California, will become extinct in our life time. Gone for ever! This is happening right on the doorstep of Seaword California. They have the knowledge, equipment, money, and ability to save this animal. But they wont. They have a strict policy of not collect these animals from the wild. They, along with the rest of the world, will watch this incredible little animal disappear from the face of the planet, simply because of some well meaning, but misguided activists.
If you were to poll people around this country, I bet you'd find the people that care the most about saving our coral reefs, and the animals in the ocean, have had some dealings with this hobby. Either they've owned a tank themselves, or they've learned about it through a friends tank. We've all gone through it...... Someone comes over for the first time and sees our tank and the questions begin to flow. They ask questions because they simply don't know. It's hard to care about something you know nothing about. Most people, reading an article about some little polyp that's kin to a jellyfish and lives on the bottom of the ocean in Indonesia, simply won't care. How can they care about something like that, when they don't care about a cute little porpoise going extinct right here in our own back yard?????
We need to keep this hobby alive....... We need to get as many species as possible, in the faces of as many people as possible. Should Titan triggers be regulated???? No... Absolutely not. Just like the one pictured in this thread, the vast majority of these fish, we will see, are juveniles. An adult, breeding pair of these fish produce thousands and thousands of offspring. The odds of any one of them reaching adulthood and breeding themselves is incredibly slim. The vast majority will die in the ocean long before they reach sexual maturity. If we can take a had full of these young fish, that are likely doomed anyway, and show people how incredible they are, perhaps, just maybe, we can get people to care about them.
I can produce an argument, to support the notion, that virtually any of the species we keep, should not be collected. Where does this stop???? Where do we draw that line that says it's okay to keep this species, but not that one????

Climbing off my soap box
Peace
EC

 

[mort]

More regulation is not the answer. If many people had their way, this whole hobby would be regulated out of existence. Every zoo and aquarium would be shut down.
We need to be very careful about this type of thing.
People have protested, and demanded Seaworld stop keeping killer whales and dolphins in captivity. Using many of the same arguments posted in this thread. These protesters have pretty much got their way. Now, IMHO, as a direct effect of this, a tiny little porpoise, the vaquita https://www.google.com/search?q=Vaq...ved=0ahUKEwiRvrKHqMfUAhUFbSYKHVawDHQQ_AUIBygC, in the gulf of California, will become extinct in our life time. Gone for ever! This is happening right on the doorstep of Seaword California. They have the knowledge, equipment, money, and ability to save this animal. But they wont. They have a strict policy of not collect these animals from the wild. They, along with the rest of the world, will watch this incredible little animal disappear from the face of the planet, simply because of some well meaning, but misguided activists.
If you were to poll people around this country, I bet you'd find the people that care the most about saving our coral reefs, and the animals in the ocean, have had some dealings with this hobby. Either they've owned a tank themselves, or they've learned about it through a friends tank. We've all gone through it...... Someone comes over for the first time and sees our tank and the questions begin to flow. They ask questions because they simply don't know. It's hard to care about something you know nothing about. Most people, reading an article about some little polyp that's kin to a jellyfish and lives on the bottom of the ocean in Indonesia, simply won't care. How can they care about something like that, when they don't care about a cute little porpoise going extinct right here in our own back yard?????
We need to keep this hobby alive....... We need to get as many species as possible, in the faces of as many people as possible. Should Titan triggers be regulated???? No... Absolutely not. Just like the one pictured in this thread, the vast majority of these fish, we will see, are juveniles. An adult, breeding pair of these fish produce thousands and thousands of offspring. The odds of any one of them reaching adulthood and breeding themselves is incredibly slim. The vast majority will die in the ocean long before they reach sexual maturity. If we can take a had full of these young fish, that are likely doomed anyway, and show people how incredible they are, perhaps, just maybe, we can get people to care about them.
I can produce an argument, to support the notion, that virtually any of the species we keep, should not be collected. Where does this stop???? Where do we draw that line that says it's okay to keep this species, but not that one????

Climbing off my soap box
Peace
EC

Whilst I completely agree with your sentiments I don't think the issue is that complicated. Banning these species isn't necessary at all. I have no problem with people owning even monster fish if they can care for them properly their whole lives. What I do believe and from someone who has seen the inside of many a wholesaler, is that there are far more suitible species of fish which aren't rare or hard to find, that could easily be sustainably harvested, which we don't see. Imo it's the wholesalers who are partly to blame for stocking these monster or troublesome species rather than diversifying to more sensible stock. If you look at the halichoeres genus for one there are something like 80 species but only a small proportion are commonly available, cardinals have a couple of hundred species and again only a few are often seen, add all the other families in and you have 1000s of species which would be more suitable, probably just as hardy and sustainable but they are not offered.
I know some of the biggest species we see are off cuts from the food market where aquacultured bat fish, sweetlips etc are common but do we need them to be offered as frequently as they are when they could easily just be ordered in?

Once again this isn't about controlling anything but rather trying to emit some common sense into an industry that often looks bad. I think these large species do nothing but further highlight how potentially cruel we may seem to the outside world.