Will captive breeding replace wild-caught fish on a wide scale soon?

[livinlifeinBKK]

Like the title says do you guys think captive breeding will replace wild fish on a wide scale anytime soon? I think the corals will be taken over by captive breeding but with the exorbitant prices of the fish, I'm not sure I see it happening too quickly. Opinions?

 

[SlugSnorter]

it has. all the most common fish are captive bred, majority of corals are captive bred

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

it has. all the most common fish are captive bred, majority of corals are captive bred

They're able to be captive bred but most of the fish people are buying are still from the Philippines and Indonesia because of the cost

 

[DeniseAndy]

For fish, science is getting there. We have some amazing hobbyist working on it too. Maybe some day, but not "soon".

 

[SlugSnorter]

They're able to be captive bred but most of the fish people are buying are still from the Philippines and Indonesia because of the cost

most common fish are captive bred, more exotic, bigger or less common fish are wild caught yes.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

You sure about that? Just a couple years ago a full 50% of fish in the trade worldwide came from one of those two countries

most common fish are captive bred, more exotic, bigger or less common fish are wild caught yes.

 

[reeftwincities]

I hope so! Some of the recent efforts with interruptus, regal and venustus angelfish really have me excited. There are not too many other "holy grail" fish on my list anyway.

 

[Timfish]

It's going to be awhile. Looking at what's available from captive breeders and what's available collected from the wild there's quite a disparity. Also, don't confuse captive raised where larval fish are collected then raised in cages as captive bred. Regal tangs being the best example I know of.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

It's going to be awhile. Looking at what's available from captive breeders and what's available collected from the wild there's quite a disparity. Also, don't confuse captive raised where larval fish are collected then raised in cages as captive bred. Regal tangs being the best example I know of.

That's what I'm thinking...we know how to breed most of the fish but due to price and demand constraints most are still wild caught

 

[jkcoral]

I enjoy wrasses, they are my favorites by a long shot. It’s my understanding that captive breading for wrasses is nonexistent, and the same for other families of popular fish, which is a bummer.

The costs of research and developing a captive breeding program are staggering. And that is before considering the time (years and years) of hard work. I am hopeful, and there are some really smart people working on this stuff. Some extra trucks full of money will help captive breeding continue to expand.

 

[jfoahs04]

I think you'll continue to see a divided market for fish with a growing variety of captive bred fish, but it'll never shift entirely to captive bred (barring legislation that makes wild caught illegal). The economics won't make sense for many (maybe even most) species. Clowns breed readily in the aquarium and sell in high volumes. It makes economic sense to captive breed them. But many species are much more challenging (or outright impossible) to breed in captivity and/or don't sell in volumes that make pursuing captive breeding viable from an economic standpoint. The latter will remain wild caught for the foreseeable future.

Corals are a different story. I can see coral shifting to almost entirely aquacultured/maricultured in the near future. Propagation is easy - healthy corals grow and can be fragged. Those frags circulate and take up exponentially growing market shares. This is already happening (my system is about 95% aquacultured - my only wild-harvested pieces are a few raffle winnings). Also, between grafts and morphing under different conditions, it's not hard to keep introducing new variations without adding new wild harvested species. There may always be a market for wild harvested species, but I definitely think that, unlike fish, aquacultured stuff will take up the vast majority of the market in the near future (if it doesn't already).

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

I think that the wild capture of fish will not end. It may be greatly reduced, but we will never be able to breed some fish. We'll never be able to breed xathichthys triggerfish and parrotfish, for example. It will also be several decades before we have bred all of the tang and angelfish species. Some new species of fish are brought into the hobby yearly, and if we end wild collection who knows what we will not be able to have in our tanks someday. We should also not forget that the harvesting of fish and coral brings much needed money to impoverished communities, and gives them a stake in protecting our reefs. Of course, the captive breeding of fish is important too. While the effect of collection of fish and coral is minimal on the reef, it does not do the hobby any favors in public relations. Also, many captive bred fish are better aquarium inhabitants, and have the potential to be cheaper if people stop artificially inflating prices. Some rare fish might only reach the hobby because of captive breeding. Peppermint angelfish, abei angelfish, dr. seuss soapfish, rostratum tangs, and many others are extremely uncommon, but that might change if BIOTA gets their hands on a pair. I think that both wild collecting and captive breeding are important, and should be equal contributors to the hobby.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I have to agree that it won't be anytime soon, unfortunately. If I had to guess, I'd guess it will happen over the next few decades.

While it is true that we know how to breed many different fish, there are only a few companies that do so consistently (so we have limited stock), and there are still many fish that we have yet to be able to aquaculture. Predator fish are a great example of this (I've only heard of lionfish spawning in captivity once), as are very common fish like Salarias fasciatus (A.K.A. the lawnmower blenny). Similarly, fish like wrasses that pose special challenges to keep and breed in captivity (at least for now - I don't believe that any species is actually impossible to breed in captivity, I just know that some have more particular needs than others) are incredibly difficult to breed in any way, let alone an efficient manner that would make sense from a business perspective.
*Plus, we mainly keep tropical, non-commercial (read: not typically consumed by humans) fish, so there's still a lot of temperate fish, commercial fish, deep sea fish, etc. left for us to learn how to aquaculture in captivity. However, as was mentioned above, a lot of these fish just don't make financial sense to breed.*

Once enough species are captive bred on a regular basis, I think we'll start to see a transition over to them (particularly if we can get the sales costs down for the captive bred fish), but there will always be some holdouts who prefer the "more natural" wild fish for one reason or another (see the captive bred yellow tang threads here on the forum for potential reasons). As far the pricing goes, normally I would say that the price will come down as the number of available fish goes up - and that's probably true for many species - but, looking at captive bred clownfish, I think the more popular ones will probably stay pretty high for the most part. It could turn into a "breed" thing like with cats and dogs, where your generic "clownfish" goes for a reasonable price and your "purebred clownfish" goes for an insane amount, but only time will tell.

Personally, I think two of the best things we could see for the hobby in this regard are more hobbyists breeding fish - not just clowns and bangaii cardinals, but other fish as well - and individuals and companies working with public aquariums to provide both common and rare captive bred specimens. The hobbyist breeding could help to greatly increase the number of fish available and decrease prices, and the working with aquariums could provide access to a wider, relatively stable market - particularly for large or rare/expensive fish.

Just my two cents here.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I agree...also don't forget about the butterflies...I think I've only heard of one instance of one species breeding in captivity

I have to agree that it won't be anytime soon, unfortunately. If I had to guess, I'd guess it will happen over the next few decades.

While it is true that we know how to breed many different fish, there are only a few companies that do so consistently (so we have limited stock), and there are still many fish that we have yet to be able to aquaculture. Predator fish are a great example of this (I've only heard of lionfish spawning in captivity once), as are very common fish like Salarias fasciatus (A.K.A. the lawnmower blenny). Similarly, fish like wrasses that pose special challenges to keep and breed in captivity (at least for now - I don't believe that any species is actually impossible to breed in captivity, I just know that some have more particular needs than others) are incredibly difficult to breed in any way, let alone an efficient manner that would make sense from a business perspective.
*Plus, we mainly keep tropical, non-commercial (read: not typically consumed by humans) fish, so there's still a lot of temperate fish, commercial fish, deep sea fish, etc. left for us to learn how to aquaculture in captivity. However, as was mentioned above, a lot of these fish just don't make financial sense to breed.*

Once enough species are captive bred on a regular basis, I think we'll start to see a transition over to them (particularly if we can get the sales costs down for the captive bred fish), but there will always be some holdouts who prefer the "more natural" wild fish for one reason or another (see the captive bred yellow tang threads here on the forum for potential reasons). As far the pricing goes, normally I would say that the price will come down as the number of available fish goes up - and that's probably true for many species - but, looking at captive bred clownfish, I think the more popular ones will probably stay pretty high for the most part. It could turn into a "breed" thing like with cats and dogs, where your generic "clownfish" goes for a reasonable price and your "purebred clownfish" goes for an insane amount, but only time will tell.

Personally, I think two of the best things we could see for the hobby in this regard are more hobbyists breeding fish - not just clowns and bangaii cardinals, but other fish as well - and individuals and companies working with public aquariums to provide both common and rare captive bred specimens. The hobbyist breeding could help to greatly increase the number of fish available and decrease prices, and the working with aquariums could provide access to a wider, relatively stable market - particularly for large or rare/expensive fish.

Just my two cents here.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I agree...also don't forget about the butterflies...I think I've only heard of one instance of one species breeding in captivity

Actually, Rising Tide Conservation has information about the captive breeding of four different butterflyfish species: Chelmon rostratus (Copperband Butterflyfish), Chaetodon striatus (Banded Butterflyfish), Chaetodon sedentarius (Reef Butterflyfish), and Chaetodon miliaris (Milletseed Butterflyfish).

Aquacultured Fish – Rising Tide Conservation

www.risingtideconservation.org

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

how to tell? Its about supply and demand. If captive bred can supply the demand, then great, but if not, and people are willing to pay, then someone is willing to fetch it out of the ocean for the money.

or maybe the gov't will step in and create laws

Personally, I dont really see it happening soon, but regardless, we would just find another way to screw up the planet.

 

[MartinM]

No, and we wouldn’t want it to. Wild caught fish are an incentive to maintain ecosystems and provide jobs and food.

 

[sfin52]

I believe most fish are wild caught with a few exceptions. Clowns are mostly captive bred with some exceptions.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

No, and we wouldn’t want it to. Wild caught fish are an incentive to maintain ecosystems and provide jobs and food.

Personally I agree for the most part...however, the sheer number of some fish species that are lost in the shipping and presale process is pretty crazy and leads to a huge demand for these species which isn't necessarily positive if they're being harvested from reefs

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I support captive breeding of course but I think wild caught should also be an option available...this hobby is already so expensive and tripleing or quadrupling the cost of fish I just shake my head at sometimes