Guilt in the reefing hobby

[Fishingandreefing]

Oh, you should definitely go back and read through this thread. Lol!!! I remember it well!!! It’s quite entertaining

Nah not going to. But just want to mention this. Human are selfish, including me. However, at least I didn’t directly harm the animal but try my best to keep them thrive.

 

[hart24601]

I've been setting up my tank and have been struggling with the ethics of reef keeping. I might have gotten ahead of myself with this hobby...

If purely reefing you can keep minimal or no fish at all, or just captive bred ones if that’s more suitable for you. However for coral there is a lot particularly in the USA that have been in hobbiest tanks for decades now since they were from the ocean. You can have a beautiful coral tank with 100% aquacultured coral, fish, even snails and urchins now.

 

[MarkyMark_]

If purely reefing you can keep minimal or no fish at all, or just captive bred ones if that’s more suitable for you. However for coral there is a lot particularly in the USA that have been in hobbiest tanks for decades now since they were from the ocean. You can have a beautiful coral tank with 100% aquacultured coral, fish, even snails and urchins now.

One of my major issues im struggling with is the knowledge that by purchasing all of the equipment and "aquacultured" livestock for a reef tank is that I am contributing financially to a destructive hobby and there's no two ways around that. I can not find specifics on the impact this hobby has had throughout its history to the current day but I can not pretend that reefkeeping has not done some damage.

I have no way of knowing whether a coral is truly "aquacultured" For example, imagine a large acro colony taken directly from the ocean and fragged. Is this aquacultured? How would I know whether or not what I am purchasing did not come to be by this process? There is no way to know. Not to mention the import of single polyp lps (scoly) which I know for a fact are taken from the ocean.

Add in the live fish trade, a significant number of which die en route to their final destination, the tons and tons of live rock taken over the years, public perception, the recent Hawaii ban(among others the past several years) and I find myself with a lot of money invested, and empty tank and a guilty heart

 

[hart24601]

One of my major issues im struggling with is the knowledge that by purchasing all of the equipment and "aquacultured" livestock for a reef tank is that I am contributing financially to a destructive hobby and there's no two ways around that. I can not find specifics on the impact this hobby has had throughout its history to the current day but I can not pretend that reefkeeping has not done some damage.

I have no way of knowing whether a coral is truly "aquacultured" For example, imagine a large acro colony taken directly from the ocean and fragged. Is this aquacultured? How would I know whether or not what I am purchasing did not come to be by this process? There is no way to know. Not to mention the import of single polyp lps (scoly) which I know for a fact are taken from the ocean.

Add in the live fish trade, a significant number of which die en route to their final destination, the tons and tons of live rock taken over the years, public perception, the recent Hawaii ban(among others the past several years) and I find myself with a lot of money invested, and empty tank and a guilty heart

Good point and there are some thing that are unavoidable with any hobby, not that it makes it ok but it’s hard to have anything that is totally guilt free if you look deep enough.

As for knowing what coral are truly aquacultured it’s not that hard, thankfully reefers have been posting a long time and you can see photos and trace lineage back a long time for most of ORA corals and then vendors like battlecorals are totally open how many years some items have been cultured. To your specific point they all started that way, but it’s easy to find corals that have been aquacultured for decades now with a bit of research.

Fish are harder no doubt, but luckily you can have a great reef without if wanted and corals that have been aquacultured for decades. Is that good enough? Up to you.

I personally keep track of what I buy and donate a percentage of that to coral reef restoration projects. It’s of course far less then if I donated money used for my tank, but it’s how I personally attempt to offset my impact.

And while the hobby has done damage, I think it’s worthwhile to consider the possible benefits it’s had. Fragging techniques to repopulate, getting people interested after seeing a home reef in ocean conservation, and if pollution gets bad enough hobby might have a last bank of species in general to reseed.

 

[wonroc]

The fish can leave anytime they want. They just have to ask