More regulation is not the answer. If many people had their way, this whole hobby would be regulated out of existence. Every zoo and aquarium would be shut down.
We need to be very careful about this type of thing.
People have protested, and demanded Seaworld stop keeping killer whales and dolphins in captivity. Using many of the same arguments posted in this thread. These protesters have pretty much got their way. Now, IMHO, as a direct effect of this, a tiny little porpoise, the vaquita
https://www.google.com/search?q=Vaq...ved=0ahUKEwiRvrKHqMfUAhUFbSYKHVawDHQQ_AUIBygC, in the gulf of California, will become extinct in our life time. Gone for ever! This is happening right on the doorstep of Seaword California. They have the knowledge, equipment, money, and ability to save this animal. But they wont. They have a strict policy of not collect these animals from the wild. They, along with the rest of the world, will watch this incredible little animal disappear from the face of the planet, simply because of some well meaning, but misguided activists.
If you were to poll people around this country, I bet you'd find the people that care the most about saving our coral reefs, and the animals in the ocean, have had some dealings with this hobby. Either they've owned a tank themselves, or they've learned about it through a friends tank. We've all gone through it...... Someone comes over for the first time and sees our tank and the questions begin to flow. They ask questions because they simply don't know. It's hard to care about something you know nothing about. Most people, reading an article about some little polyp that's kin to a jellyfish and lives on the bottom of the ocean in Indonesia, simply won't care. How can they care about something like that, when they don't care about a cute little porpoise going extinct right here in our own back yard?????
We need to keep this hobby alive....... We need to get as many species as possible, in the faces of as many people as possible. Should Titan triggers be regulated???? No... Absolutely not. Just like the one pictured in this thread, the vast majority of these fish, we will see, are juveniles. An adult, breeding pair of these fish produce thousands and thousands of offspring. The odds of any one of them reaching adulthood and breeding themselves is incredibly slim. The vast majority will die in the ocean long before they reach sexual maturity. If we can take a had full of these young fish, that are likely doomed anyway, and show people how incredible they are, perhaps, just maybe, we can get people to care about them.
I can produce an argument, to support the notion, that virtually any of the species we keep, should not be collected. Where does this stop???? Where do we draw that line that says it's okay to keep this species, but not that one????
Climbing off my soap box
Peace
EC
