Naive newbie here!! Captive vs wild

[Ebtbmom]

Doing my research to start my first tank and I’m only now realizing that reef fish are caught in the wild and shipped to stores! I assumed this was illegal and that all the fish were bred. I am stunned to learn that there are a bunch of P Sherman’s of 42 Wallaby Way out there capturing wild fish lol, it’s kinda freaked me out! Do you guys use mostly captive bred? What resource do you use? I’d like to have all captive bred if possible.

 

[blaxsun]

Most clownfish and dottybacks are now captive bred - but there are many fish that have not yet been bred successfully in captivity. I'm not so much concerned with the "P. Shermans" out there as I am the thousands of illegal fishing boats and tens of thousands of miles of drift nets that kill indiscriminately.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Actually most common aquarium fish, corals, and invertebrates are aquacultured at this point. It’s when you get into super exotic species and things like starfish that are typically wild caught. I know it’s very sad but know that your aquarium is not having an impact on overfishing in coral reefs and most fish are not taken from their homes and when I found this out I was very happy about it. LiveAquaria and Petco advertise if it’s wild or aquacultured if not you can always ask the seller.

 

[AydenLincoln]

And look for ORA livestock most saltwater fish stores will advertise this brand of aquacultured livestock. https://www.orafarm.com/

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Yeah, a lot of progress has been made with aquaculture in recent years, but we’ve still got a long ways to go (particularly with predatory fish and with inverts).

ORA and Biota are great places to start your search if you’re looking for captive bred reef fish, tuxedo urchins, or for corals - they’re big names and work with a few of the other big name sellers in the industry (like LiveAquaria, whose shipping practices of late have reportedly been questionable). Rusalty (aquaculturenurseryfarms.com) has some aquacultured inverts (I only know their ghost shrimp, green lantern shrimp, and feeders are aquacultured, I’m not sure on the rest), and their seahorses might be aquacultured as well.

If you’re looking for seahorses, though, there are plenty of great shops for them (at least in the US), so don’t feel restricted to just Rusalty (I’ve heard a lot of good things about seahorsesavvy.com). If you’re looking jellyfish, there’s Jellyfish Warehouse, which aquacultures their livestock.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

I’m not sure why everyone is painting such a rosy picture here. Most of the fish we keep are wild caught. There is a high morbidity and mortality rate from when they as caught to the time they get to us. Additionally, a large number of fish who make it to our homes die from disease or lack of experience on our part. It is true that there are other forces that impact nature (excessive commercial fishing, bleaching of reefs secondary to global warming , etc) but that does not mean that what we are doing is acceptable or has no impact on nature.

If you want to go all captive bred, and I commend you for doing so, your selection of fish will be quite limited. You can also try buying fish that are no longer wanted from previous owners. I encourage you to do your own research and make your own decision as to how our hobby impacts Mother Earth. It certainly is not as rosy as everyone on this thread is making it out to be.

I do hope that the day arrives when all the creatures we keep are captive bred. It has certainly improved, largely due to Hawaiis ban on ornamental fish capture and import. However a lot of the fish come from Indonesia. As long as there is a steady supply of wild caught fish there is not much motivation to further develop captive bred.

 

[AydenLincoln]

I’m not sure why everyone is painting such a rosy picture here. Most of the fish we keep are wild caught. There is a high morbidity and mortality rate from when they as caught to the time they get to us. Additionally, a large number of fish who make it to our homes die from disease or lack of experience on our part. It is true that there are other forces that impact nature (excessive commercial fishing, bleaching of reefs secondary to global warming , etc) but that does not mean that what we are doing is acceptable or has no impact on nature.

If you want to go all captive bred, and I commend you for doing so, your selection of fish will be quite limited. You can also try buying fish that are no longer wanted from previous owners. I encourage you to do your own research and make your own decision as to how our hobby impacts Mother Earth. It certainly is not as rosy as everyone on this thread is making it out to be.

I do hope that the day arrives when all the creatures we keep are captive bred. It has certainly improved, largely due to Hawaiis ban on ornamental fish capture and import. However a lot of the fish come from Indonesia. As long as there is a steady supply of wild caught fish there is not much motivation to further develop captive bred.

Of course everything we do affects the environment/ocean but honestly the seafood industry has the biggest impact on the ocean compared to the aquarium industry which is a much much much smaller impact. I happen to work in a seafood department and sadly I know more than I’d wish to know. We all have a carbon footprint regardless of how eco-friendly someone may choose to be as sad as it is that’s the truth. And I know for a fact all my fish/corals are farmed which for me makes me really happy and I still think you can have an awesome selection of livestock to choose from and it’s most definitely possible to have an amazing setup and be as eco-friendly/sustainable as possible. Just my thoughts.

 

[Ebtbmom]

Of course everything we do affects the environment/ocean but honestly the seafood industry has the biggest impact on the ocean compared to the aquarium industry which is a much much much smaller impact. I happen to work in a seafood department and sadly I know more than I’d wish to know. We all have a carbon footprint regardless of how eco-friendly someone may choose to be as sad as it is that’s the truth. And I know for a fact all my fish/corals are farmed which for me makes me really happy and I still think you can have an awesome selection of livestock to choose from and it’s most definitely possible to have an amazing setup and be as eco-friendly/sustainable as possible. Just my thoughts.

This may be a dumb question, but is farmed the same thing as aquacultured? Are these both captive bred options?

 

[Ebtbmom]

I’m not sure why everyone is painting such a rosy picture here. Most of the fish we keep are wild caught. There is a high morbidity and mortality rate from when they as caught to the time they get to us. Additionally, a large number of fish who make it to our homes die from disease or lack of experience on our part. It is true that there are other forces that impact nature (excessive commercial fishing, bleaching of reefs secondary to global warming , etc) but that does not mean that what we are doing is acceptable or has no impact on nature.

If you want to go all captive bred, and I commend you for doing so, your selection of fish will be quite limited. You can also try buying fish that are no longer wanted from previous owners. I encourage you to do your own research and make your own decision as to how our hobby impacts Mother Earth. It certainly is not as rosy as everyone on this thread is making it out to be.

I do hope that the day arrives when all the creatures we keep are captive bred. It has certainly improved, largely due to Hawaiis ban on ornamental fish capture and import. However a lot of the fish come from Indonesia. As long as there is a steady supply of wild caught fish there is not much motivation to further develop captive bred.

The tank I’m getting is only 40g so having limited options is ok! I know that I do plenty of things that aren’t environmentally friendly but the thought of a fish being taken from its happy fishy home makes me sad lol!!

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

This may be a dumb question, but is farmed the same thing as aquacultured? Are these both captive bred options?

Farmed can mean either aquacultured (grown in tanks/aquariums) or maricultured (still captive-bred, but typically grown in a fenced off chunk of the ocean). Either way, both are environmentally friendly options.

 

[AydenLincoln]

This may be a dumb question, but is farmed the same thing as aquacultured? Are these both captive bred options?

Yes it is! But aquacultured is a term used in the aquarium industry and farmed is more of a seafood industry term lol. Although they both mean the same thing.

 

[Zionas]

If you want to go all captive bred for a 40g, here’s what I’d do:
-x2 Clownfish (I don’t like the designer varieties so go with the common ones)

-x1 BIOTA Sapphire Damselfish

-x1 BIOTA Royal Gramma

-x1 Captive Bred Flameback / Cherub Angel (ORA) (maybe a Biota Coral Beauty?)

-x1 Captive Bred Yellow Watchman or another kind of Goby / Shrimp combo

-x1 other small fish from ORA or Biota

And that will give you a nice, fully stocked 40g IMO.