Ethical question

I

Invictus

Reefing newb
Recently (as in this week) I have realized my dream of owning a tank (see my intro thread for details).

It is part of my nature to respect all living organisms, and any pet I have I see it as more than "just a pet." So while I exhaustingly research how to maintain a reef(maybe thats a misnomer so far "salt water aquarium" (FOWLR)) tank ontop of the number of books I have read, I find myself reaching a question.

When purchasing a new watery companion, are there guidelines available to make sure that their aquisition met certain sustainable integrity? I realize most of this is probably in the hands of purchasing from the right LFS, but I in good conscious cannot purchase a new inhabitant knowing it either: was treated in poor conditions soley that the profit of the distributor was more appealing than treating it well, or removing the fish from its origin was detrimental to that origins livelyhood.

Are there sites that can help? Maybe a listing of recognized LFSs that conform to the standards I wish to comply?
 
I have one simple rule "take nothing from the sea unless it is plentiful". The IUCN Red list is a good way to determine whether a species is plentiful. This list is more strict than the US Federal government's definition of endangered.

If a species is not plentiful or it is endangered then it is probably a good thing to buy it tank-raised or aqua-cultured. Why? When you buy an endangered or diminished species that was tank-raised you are helping to put the live-capture vendor out of business and that is a good thing. Take clown-fish for instance. Scientist have recently said their numbers are somewhat diminished. By purchasing them 'tank-raised' you are putting the people who take them from the ocean out of business.

Relying on enforcement to prevent people, especially in poor countries, from catching endangered species is not a viable solution. When I was in Costa Rica, my hotel overlooked a marine preserve. I wish I could count the number of times I saw a fishing boat casually drop its nets at dusk in the middle of the preserve. Think how often this happens in really poor countries like the Philippines! Buying tank-raised and aqua-cultured species puts these illegal operations out of business.
 
I wish more new comers to the hobby had the same mind set and concerns as you.

Welcome to Living Reefs :Cheers::Cheers::Cheers:
 
Welcome!

I try to buy tank raised or aquacultured also.
Where in chicago do you live? I live in the south suburbs. It is good to see more and more on here:mrgreen:
 
Tank raised is where it's at. Earlier this year, I read an article on someone who successfully tank raises mandarin dragonets which EAT PELLETS. This is a huge leap for the species that could so easily see its wild numbers vanish because of this hobby. The wild ones are so difficult to keep well fed for any long term period without a very large, very well established system.
My LFS carries locally tank bred clowns, and has been all year. Result: less anemone deaths in the wild, better hobby success in keeping the fish. Win-win. I wish more stores would keep tank raised fish and coral, instead of just buying the cheap wild caught stuff from the warehouses.
 
I'm guilty of it - but try not to buy margarite snails. Hell!! Any snails - if I can help it. Margarite and most astrea and turbo snails come from water thats normally 55F -- 65F. We are slowly boiling them in our tanks. But they are a necessary evil IMO. I hate to buy them and I hate to see them die, but you kinda need them if you expect any semblance of a clean tank that's not overgrown with hair algae or some other nuisance plant.

Also, don't buy whole corals or big giant frags of corals that have obviously been sawn in half. If it's got exposed skeleton and it's the size of your fist - somebody harvested a huge coral and cut it up into fist sized frags. Thats disgusting IMO. Not only did they take a massive and beautiful coral out of the wild - they cut it up for PROFIT. Greed will be the ruin of humanity.

Set up your own frag tank. Take frags off your own "underwater garden" and sell them or give them away. Every frag thats sold between reefers drives down the price at the LFS and keeps a coral from being taken from the ocean.

Don't buy it unless ya know what it is - how to care for it - and a plan for long term management of it - some corals can live to be hundreds of years old.
 
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One of the best ways to be sustainable in this hobby is to trade and buy corals from other hobbyists. If it was grown out in someone else's tank, and you take a piece and grow it out in your tank, and in turn share it with someone else, you can create a chain reaction of people sustainable reproducing the original coral. The vast majority of the corals will grow, spread or reproduce in our tanks, and there is really no good reason to buy wild-harvested colonies of corals.
 
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