I see a lot of stuff on the web about people raising some species of fish they keep, and I'm wondering about the practice. Can you really sell them all to the LFS? For example Percula clowns. It seems like in a large city there would be multiple people doing this, and when you multiply this by the # of fry per batch and the # of spawnings monthly, it seems like it would be quite afew fish. Is the demand really that great? And if it is, is it because of people who were told by the LFS that saltwater tanks were easy, and while they may have spent large amounts of money, are killing a new fish on a weekly basis? I recognize the benefits of captive breed specimens, and I think they should be bought in place of wild ones whenever possible, but I'm wondering about the ethics of the practice. How many of these fish end up gettin flushed a week after they leave your house? I would like to raise fish myself, as I think I would enjoy the challenge. However if most of them are destined to die, I would have no interest in the practice. I would love to hear you thoughts on this.
Breeding Fish
- Thread starter TuffGong
- Start date
A good place to start might be the Breeder's Registry:
http://www.breeders-registry.gen.ca.us/
Also the book re clownfish and anemones byt J.Wilkerson has a lot of information on breeding. One species that may be easier to start with would be Bangaii cardinals since they are mouthbrooders the fry do not start so small and can take foods that are easier to culture/buy.
Other than having my fire shrimp and peppermints spawn like clockwork I have not attempted to raise any marine fish or invert. Had a lot of success breeding cichlids back in the day but that's not exactly hard.
http://www.breeders-registry.gen.ca.us/
Also the book re clownfish and anemones byt J.Wilkerson has a lot of information on breeding. One species that may be easier to start with would be Bangaii cardinals since they are mouthbrooders the fry do not start so small and can take foods that are easier to culture/buy.
Other than having my fire shrimp and peppermints spawn like clockwork I have not attempted to raise any marine fish or invert. Had a lot of success breeding cichlids back in the day but that's not exactly hard.
Most of the fish that are imported are destine to die well short of their possible life span. If they are left in the wild, they don't have much better luck either due to predation, IMO.
Most beginners will kill fish. Many people who keep fish for a long time will kill fish. It is my believe that it is better for the ocean if these fish are tank raise rather than wild caught fish from the ocean.
In the wild, the average survival of all the offspring produced by a pair of fish is two. That is not very much is it? I don’t want to sell my babies (birds, hamsters, dogs and fish) to people who I think do not provide reasonable home for them. Still, I think the fish that I raised in captivity have much better chance in my tank than in the wild in reproducing their gene for the future generations even if most of them will die premature under some one else’s care.
Minh Nguyen
BTW, I am not raising any marine fish at this time.
Most beginners will kill fish. Many people who keep fish for a long time will kill fish. It is my believe that it is better for the ocean if these fish are tank raise rather than wild caught fish from the ocean.
In the wild, the average survival of all the offspring produced by a pair of fish is two. That is not very much is it? I don’t want to sell my babies (birds, hamsters, dogs and fish) to people who I think do not provide reasonable home for them. Still, I think the fish that I raised in captivity have much better chance in my tank than in the wild in reproducing their gene for the future generations even if most of them will die premature under some one else’s care.
Minh Nguyen
BTW, I am not raising any marine fish at this time.
Mihn, I understand what your saying, but in the wild it's different. The strongest survive, and they all have their chance. In the home aquarium, whether they live or not is decided by how competent the keeper is. Also, captive breeding has made some species more availible. The lower price no doubt results in more deaths. But I guess in the long run, minimizing the impact on the reef is far more important.
A common practice for fish breeders is to cull the mutants. If you grow fish to make money then you need to cull the ones with bad swim bladders, very bad coloration, disfigured fins, ect. This alone is enough to steer a breeder with ethical issues away.
As stated in my publications selling the fish to a distributor is very difficult. Why would a store buy a couple of species from a local breeder when he can get the same product with the rest of what they need at the same or better price from the wholeseller.
IMO there is no ethical issue. The demand isnt nearly as high as expected and most breeders grow the fish for personal accomplishment. I think that if that all beginners lose some fish but its not like thousands of TR fish are being flushed right after you sell them. And to follow Minh's point better TR then WC.
As stated in my publications selling the fish to a distributor is very difficult. Why would a store buy a couple of species from a local breeder when he can get the same product with the rest of what they need at the same or better price from the wholeseller.
IMO there is no ethical issue. The demand isnt nearly as high as expected and most breeders grow the fish for personal accomplishment. I think that if that all beginners lose some fish but its not like thousands of TR fish are being flushed right after you sell them. And to follow Minh's point better TR then WC.
Give them away, to a point but mostly you would only grow out what you knew you could use. If you get 100 successful grow out every batch from a clown fish you would never be able to find enough local homes. So even giving them away only works short term.
HTH
HTH
The thing about culling the fish does help a lot. With cichlids I use to try to take out all of the fry. But now I just let them stay in the tank and play survival of the strongest. Only a couple survive but nmow I have the strongest, healtheist, prettiest cichlids of the whole batch and they sell for quite a bit more. Of course I don't sell them to LFS's but instead private buyers who are interested in having a better genetical strain in there breeding colonies. It is a way of making the breed stronger. But I do not do it for my enjoyment I just do it because I am lazy and have forgotton all about my cichlids since I got a saltwater tank, it just happened to be like that.
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