Illhaveanother
In Memoriam
This is just my opinion and I wanted to get some feedback.
keep in mind the editing for this paper is okay at best so be kind.
and if your angryabout this don't come insulting me or hunting me down:uzi:
My opinions on the saltwater fish trade the good and the bad
First of all let me say I'm not against keeping saltwater aquariums at all. I have my own aquariums and think it is the best hobby in the world, if you even think it should be considered that. Let me say that I am more on the side of conservation and cultivation more than I am interested in aquariums because it's just something to do. During the following I would like to discuss my feelings on the fish trade ,and like the title states the good and the bad. I also want to express how we can make it better and some innovative new ideas I have to help the aquarium trade and the oceans succeed in the long run .
Something that doesn't add up to me is that people say that by helping support the aquarium trade you will help poor Indonesian and Philippian fisherman survive and that without this practice they would die ,and that this is good for the environment because it is done sustainably. Here's the part that doesn't add up ,these people are poor and live in country's were law enforcement is poor as well they get paid very ,very little even for the most expensive, flashy fish you may see in local fish stores. So if you're a poor person who can make more and more money by catching more and more fish why not do it? Just think about that and try to put yourself in there shoes for a minute. I believe many of them are doing just what I stated before , taking more than they should and it's not helping them or the oceans near them any at all. What also must be stated is that these fish undergo a living hell being shipped from one facility to another and treated for parasites with chemicals that end up hurting them more than helping them in the long run. It is pure laziness on the fish wholesalers because if they just took a little more time and used fresh water soaking methods to kill the saltwater parasites all the problems would be solved ,but to many of them are worried about profit and want the fish in and out right away.I know this for a fact because I have a store near me with very nice people but a very bad retailer , I try to get them to switch but this company saves them the most money, half the time the fish they get are in bad condition mostly due to poor handling , but they keep coming back because this company just replaces dead fish no problem and keeps taking more and more and more out of the oceans because more and more of there fish die . I even saw a whole batch of mimic tangs come in and they all had acid burns scaring there scales . I think the only one that survived in the long run was the one the put in there display tank and even he is still suffering months later from these burns. This is why I feel that especially, for people on the eastern side of the united states that they should re - consider getting pacific fish as a first choice because the journey is so long for the poor creatures that most don't survive and by supporting an order of these fish coming all the way across the world , and then most holding facility's in California your probably going to end up with mostly dead fish or some type of mortality .
So complaining about all these problems isn't going to solve anything so here are some solutions I have though up. What I think we should do is enforce laws that bring fish stores but most importantly wholesale facility's up to par. There are to many parasite riddled wholesale facilities in the united states and to many with poor water quality . we need to support a program to help make these facilities better and to make sure they are checked up on frequently to make sure they are abiding by the law. I also believe we should ,especially for more sensitive or rarer fish give facilities a required waiting period of 5 days or so to hold the fish before they ship it out to make sure it settles down enough. A lot of the fish deaths aren't from just stress there from continued non ending stress that torments the fish for many a day until it is damaged in one way or another or dead. Something I also would like to mention is that we should support the tropical Atlantic trade more. Especially those of us on the eastern side of the united states. My theory is that if we help plant these coral reefs and help make these Caribbean habitats healthy again through groups like CRF (the coral restoration foundation)that we will have better habitats and more fish .Therefore more fish to help our oceans and supply our trade. I believe that if we truly are dedicated hobbyist that love the fish and corals that we should give back to the environments they come from. This could be personal donations or businesses setting apart some of there profit to give back to what gives to them , the ocean. Personally what I would like to do is start a non profit or low profit business that focuses on raising captive bred corals and fish as well as other invertebrates and selling them to hobbyist . once they were sold during the end of the year use 40 to 50 % of the profits to help replant coral reefs or fund marine research projects .Even donating to CRF as earlier mentioned would be a huge help. This way we could help the ocean by providing hobbyist with something captive bred therefore there would be zero impact on wild stock ,giving them a product they want all while helping a cause they love. The rest of the money could go towards keeping the coral facility's up to par and to fund workers pay. Something else I would like to mention is that I think we should also try to help get more breeding facility's of big angelfish and other fishes as well as massive community Mariculture farms or plantations for corals setup. This way more people could sustainably help the trade while earning fair wages in order to survive. This could also lessen the number of collectors of indo pacific fishes because they wouldn't absolutely need the money to survive because they would be working all day at the coral farms making money. The way I would ideally like to see it ,is to have a number of pacific fish imports drop and more pacific coral imports rise. I would like to see big plantation types of communities be setup so that there are good jobs for multiple community members. I would like to see them collect some corals from the wild, and consistently collect from the wild but just not as many different things . primary collection should be for new interesting and or rare species of corals that have not reached much popularity or haven't become common enough yet in the trade. Then I would like to see them take those corals and grow them out , frag and keep some and sell others off to the trade . care should be taken not to frag to small of pieces of coral off .Then offer Americans and other countries a wider assortment of maricultured corals to come by. These large to medium sized corals would already have a head start and then could be grow out and captive fragged by us reef keepers . A bunch of happiness by reef keepers all while doing good for thee environment with little impact on those fragile reef environments would be the desired result. Its important to realize that not all the pacific is bad , places like Hawaii and Fiji and some of the other smaller pacific islands have pretty fair restrictions but trouble comes in when buying from large countries with poor law enforcement or sense of conservation. Many of the small island have little community's that truly care about there resources while other larger island nations have people that tend to care more about profit more than anything. Many of these small island have fishes that only live at that island and no other like the yellow tang of Hawaii and the gold flake angelfish of Christmas island . Care is to be taken when buying these species because if you happen to kill them off there's greater environmental impact because there living range isn't as great there for there's not as many as them as say something like a coral beauty or sailfin tang which are spread all over the pacific. It's important to make smart informed and environmentally conscious decisions as a reef keeper. Do plenty of research, read plenty of books and know your fish by heart before buying. It's always good to do a quick online check on your phone or tablet before you make a final purchase.there is also huge money that could be made in setting up agrocrete live rock farms in community's like Fiji and the Philippines to the extent it is almost like a plantation.
Now I have talked enough constructively about the saltwater aquarium trade let me talk about some of its good things. Fish tanks in general have been know to stop things like altimers and depression for those who consistently look at them . But in general it's just the aspect of cultivation that I like , being able to grow out a coral and sell it to get another and another and keep the process going is a fun and rewarding experience. Not to mention that these creatures are for the most part stunningly beautiful . I have also always liked collecting things whether it has been Pokémon cards, frogs and toads ,or my current collection interest corals there's always been something about having an interesting collection of unique and colorful creatures that I have always been attracted to. Not to mention all the other things you can collected to make your collection of other things even better looking ,like certain equipment , special rocks , fish and other invertebrates it truly is a fun ,healthy and addictive hobby.one of the reasons this hobby becomes such a good distraction away from normal life is that there's so much involved in it , different sciences ,technical skills ,artistic imagination etc. It makes up a whole different world of extremely complex but yet beautifully simple and colorful living creatures. As my paper comes to a close I would like to mention that I believe the aquarium trade is our way into helping the oceans survive not killing them off. We just have to do it the right way through support the hobby by buying as much captive bred and truly sustainably harvested livestock as possible. After all if we didn't keep aquariums most of us reef keepers wouldn't care about the oceans because we wouldn't recognize it beauty and importance. If not for this hobby I wouldn't have got into loving the ocean at all and would have no passion in my life to stay alive. without this hobby a lot of things would be different and that's why it's foolish to even call it a hobby because it's so much more. As we move forward through time I hope we used the information that myself and others have provided to make the hobby work for good and not for evil . And to quote a famous fish youtuber whome I admire "“ until later times, keeping enjoying the ULTIMATE hobby .
We are the hobby ,we make the hobby
If you have not read my previous paper "“ the aquarium trade the good and the bad , then you may not fully understand this paper. In This particular paper I will be going into more detail about topics I wrote in the previous article. First off I would like to discuss what the name of the article hints to. We truly do as Reefers , Breeders , Fishkeepers, Cultivationist, or just simple saltwater aquarium owners interested in the logistics of the hobby we all make it up and individually come together to form one big community . while some of are fish values are different then others I believe we can all agree we at some time felt some fascination or love for the creatures, and most likely still do unless you are only in it for the money. My whole point I'm trying to get at is that the fish community can be looked upon as good or evil we make the hobby up and thus should be responsible for helping advance it in the correct direction. The following will be indepth ways to help the hobby advance and how.
First let me express that I believe it is the aquarium community's responsibility to help make there own trade better. What I hate to see are these people who criticize others who may want to set special collection limits to protect certain species or full grown species of tropical marine organisms to protect the trade and the earth , and life as we know it. these people get all upset because they believe these organizations are hurting our trade , our business and there life's and that these groups are trying to hurt us . when there trying to help preserve it to keep our trade alive in the long run. it's a different story with these organizations that want to shut the trade down all together, there just plain stupid.
Now lets talk about mariculture ,you know the farming of corals on metal grids just off shore of the island community's mainly around the indo pacific region. People ask how would we get these plans of yours into action? So if we want to stop taking so much and start giving back to help our own cause supporting mariculture plantation efforts would be a great first start. We could possibly help setup a fund that sends aquaculturist's , and marine biologist over to places like Indonesia and the Philippines and teach the natives how to farm ,and inform them a little more about the whole science around the ocean eco systems around them. This fund could also help supply materials to start out with over seas such as coral mounts ,glue and wracks . Once these people learned the mariculture techniques themselves they could each start there own plot in the ocean and grow coral crops out to sell to the trade. Or you could help support the start of some type of business that goes along and uses patches of the ocean to farm these things and would hire local people to help check and tend the farms. Same goes for live rock farming . setup patches of agrocrete rocks in the ocean and let them cook and then harvest them. I know that these things exist already I just want to make them more prevalent. I believe these areas should also have executive supervisors check on them a couple times a year to make sure things are going smoothly.
It would also be a great help to the Indonesian people if we could get them to have a better understanding of global trade and negotiation so they will be better of and wont keep selling there products off at such dirt cheap prices anymore. They need to realize how valuable there products truly are. I don't like to get to deep into nations personal people issues though I like to mainly stick to the wildlife part of things but I felt like even though this point isn't of great concern to me at this moment that it at least be mentioned.
As far as the whole ordeal in the part of the holding of fishes in wholesale facilities I believe it is up to us to make sure government gets laws changed so that fish are treated as fairly as any other animal. If you truly love these animals entirely and not just the ones you or your immediate friends or family may have you'll really care about getting fish and other aquatic organisms more wrights. You'll help fund or support causes that will keep stricter holding codes in check to make sure fish are being kept and transported correctly. The trade isn't terrible but it isn't perfect either and I believe we need to work through these steps to help the trade get better. This is not to say all these facility's are bad ,its to get the bad ones to be forced to become like the good ones already are.
As an overall summary I would like to say that I wouldn't mind if these plans are constructively criticized or agreed with. But I wouldn't be disappointed to see any bashing . We can all learn more through each others view points. Overall I believe that we should try to make our trade better by ourselves. Supporting as much captive grown ,bred or maricultured livestock as possible is always good. I think that many hobbyist want to help make the trade better but just don't know how to . this is why I would like to see some more people in the saltwater hobby setup and create charity's that really help make a difference and were the money really goes to that cause. Maybe a site that shows video progress and articles of there achievements on there websites all in thanks of the donations they received. I have discussed other ways of achieving good charity types of ideas in my other paper.I wouldn't mind if we get some government assistance but I would like to see the saltwater aquarium community do most the work themselves . like I have said before we can make this better but we just have to get a good plan down like I believe mine is , get our heads together and get organized as a community and DO IT! As a reader really take some time and think about the points made and compare and contrast them with yours and even if you think my idea's are terrible keep an open mind and try to see how one might see how they would work and remember constructive criticism is wanted ,bashing is not. My final words will be , Just remember to keep on fragging.
keep in mind the editing for this paper is okay at best so be kind.
and if your angryabout this don't come insulting me or hunting me down:uzi:
My opinions on the saltwater fish trade the good and the bad
First of all let me say I'm not against keeping saltwater aquariums at all. I have my own aquariums and think it is the best hobby in the world, if you even think it should be considered that. Let me say that I am more on the side of conservation and cultivation more than I am interested in aquariums because it's just something to do. During the following I would like to discuss my feelings on the fish trade ,and like the title states the good and the bad. I also want to express how we can make it better and some innovative new ideas I have to help the aquarium trade and the oceans succeed in the long run .
Something that doesn't add up to me is that people say that by helping support the aquarium trade you will help poor Indonesian and Philippian fisherman survive and that without this practice they would die ,and that this is good for the environment because it is done sustainably. Here's the part that doesn't add up ,these people are poor and live in country's were law enforcement is poor as well they get paid very ,very little even for the most expensive, flashy fish you may see in local fish stores. So if you're a poor person who can make more and more money by catching more and more fish why not do it? Just think about that and try to put yourself in there shoes for a minute. I believe many of them are doing just what I stated before , taking more than they should and it's not helping them or the oceans near them any at all. What also must be stated is that these fish undergo a living hell being shipped from one facility to another and treated for parasites with chemicals that end up hurting them more than helping them in the long run. It is pure laziness on the fish wholesalers because if they just took a little more time and used fresh water soaking methods to kill the saltwater parasites all the problems would be solved ,but to many of them are worried about profit and want the fish in and out right away.I know this for a fact because I have a store near me with very nice people but a very bad retailer , I try to get them to switch but this company saves them the most money, half the time the fish they get are in bad condition mostly due to poor handling , but they keep coming back because this company just replaces dead fish no problem and keeps taking more and more and more out of the oceans because more and more of there fish die . I even saw a whole batch of mimic tangs come in and they all had acid burns scaring there scales . I think the only one that survived in the long run was the one the put in there display tank and even he is still suffering months later from these burns. This is why I feel that especially, for people on the eastern side of the united states that they should re - consider getting pacific fish as a first choice because the journey is so long for the poor creatures that most don't survive and by supporting an order of these fish coming all the way across the world , and then most holding facility's in California your probably going to end up with mostly dead fish or some type of mortality .
So complaining about all these problems isn't going to solve anything so here are some solutions I have though up. What I think we should do is enforce laws that bring fish stores but most importantly wholesale facility's up to par. There are to many parasite riddled wholesale facilities in the united states and to many with poor water quality . we need to support a program to help make these facilities better and to make sure they are checked up on frequently to make sure they are abiding by the law. I also believe we should ,especially for more sensitive or rarer fish give facilities a required waiting period of 5 days or so to hold the fish before they ship it out to make sure it settles down enough. A lot of the fish deaths aren't from just stress there from continued non ending stress that torments the fish for many a day until it is damaged in one way or another or dead. Something I also would like to mention is that we should support the tropical Atlantic trade more. Especially those of us on the eastern side of the united states. My theory is that if we help plant these coral reefs and help make these Caribbean habitats healthy again through groups like CRF (the coral restoration foundation)that we will have better habitats and more fish .Therefore more fish to help our oceans and supply our trade. I believe that if we truly are dedicated hobbyist that love the fish and corals that we should give back to the environments they come from. This could be personal donations or businesses setting apart some of there profit to give back to what gives to them , the ocean. Personally what I would like to do is start a non profit or low profit business that focuses on raising captive bred corals and fish as well as other invertebrates and selling them to hobbyist . once they were sold during the end of the year use 40 to 50 % of the profits to help replant coral reefs or fund marine research projects .Even donating to CRF as earlier mentioned would be a huge help. This way we could help the ocean by providing hobbyist with something captive bred therefore there would be zero impact on wild stock ,giving them a product they want all while helping a cause they love. The rest of the money could go towards keeping the coral facility's up to par and to fund workers pay. Something else I would like to mention is that I think we should also try to help get more breeding facility's of big angelfish and other fishes as well as massive community Mariculture farms or plantations for corals setup. This way more people could sustainably help the trade while earning fair wages in order to survive. This could also lessen the number of collectors of indo pacific fishes because they wouldn't absolutely need the money to survive because they would be working all day at the coral farms making money. The way I would ideally like to see it ,is to have a number of pacific fish imports drop and more pacific coral imports rise. I would like to see big plantation types of communities be setup so that there are good jobs for multiple community members. I would like to see them collect some corals from the wild, and consistently collect from the wild but just not as many different things . primary collection should be for new interesting and or rare species of corals that have not reached much popularity or haven't become common enough yet in the trade. Then I would like to see them take those corals and grow them out , frag and keep some and sell others off to the trade . care should be taken not to frag to small of pieces of coral off .Then offer Americans and other countries a wider assortment of maricultured corals to come by. These large to medium sized corals would already have a head start and then could be grow out and captive fragged by us reef keepers . A bunch of happiness by reef keepers all while doing good for thee environment with little impact on those fragile reef environments would be the desired result. Its important to realize that not all the pacific is bad , places like Hawaii and Fiji and some of the other smaller pacific islands have pretty fair restrictions but trouble comes in when buying from large countries with poor law enforcement or sense of conservation. Many of the small island have little community's that truly care about there resources while other larger island nations have people that tend to care more about profit more than anything. Many of these small island have fishes that only live at that island and no other like the yellow tang of Hawaii and the gold flake angelfish of Christmas island . Care is to be taken when buying these species because if you happen to kill them off there's greater environmental impact because there living range isn't as great there for there's not as many as them as say something like a coral beauty or sailfin tang which are spread all over the pacific. It's important to make smart informed and environmentally conscious decisions as a reef keeper. Do plenty of research, read plenty of books and know your fish by heart before buying. It's always good to do a quick online check on your phone or tablet before you make a final purchase.there is also huge money that could be made in setting up agrocrete live rock farms in community's like Fiji and the Philippines to the extent it is almost like a plantation.
Now I have talked enough constructively about the saltwater aquarium trade let me talk about some of its good things. Fish tanks in general have been know to stop things like altimers and depression for those who consistently look at them . But in general it's just the aspect of cultivation that I like , being able to grow out a coral and sell it to get another and another and keep the process going is a fun and rewarding experience. Not to mention that these creatures are for the most part stunningly beautiful . I have also always liked collecting things whether it has been Pokémon cards, frogs and toads ,or my current collection interest corals there's always been something about having an interesting collection of unique and colorful creatures that I have always been attracted to. Not to mention all the other things you can collected to make your collection of other things even better looking ,like certain equipment , special rocks , fish and other invertebrates it truly is a fun ,healthy and addictive hobby.one of the reasons this hobby becomes such a good distraction away from normal life is that there's so much involved in it , different sciences ,technical skills ,artistic imagination etc. It makes up a whole different world of extremely complex but yet beautifully simple and colorful living creatures. As my paper comes to a close I would like to mention that I believe the aquarium trade is our way into helping the oceans survive not killing them off. We just have to do it the right way through support the hobby by buying as much captive bred and truly sustainably harvested livestock as possible. After all if we didn't keep aquariums most of us reef keepers wouldn't care about the oceans because we wouldn't recognize it beauty and importance. If not for this hobby I wouldn't have got into loving the ocean at all and would have no passion in my life to stay alive. without this hobby a lot of things would be different and that's why it's foolish to even call it a hobby because it's so much more. As we move forward through time I hope we used the information that myself and others have provided to make the hobby work for good and not for evil . And to quote a famous fish youtuber whome I admire "“ until later times, keeping enjoying the ULTIMATE hobby .
We are the hobby ,we make the hobby
If you have not read my previous paper "“ the aquarium trade the good and the bad , then you may not fully understand this paper. In This particular paper I will be going into more detail about topics I wrote in the previous article. First off I would like to discuss what the name of the article hints to. We truly do as Reefers , Breeders , Fishkeepers, Cultivationist, or just simple saltwater aquarium owners interested in the logistics of the hobby we all make it up and individually come together to form one big community . while some of are fish values are different then others I believe we can all agree we at some time felt some fascination or love for the creatures, and most likely still do unless you are only in it for the money. My whole point I'm trying to get at is that the fish community can be looked upon as good or evil we make the hobby up and thus should be responsible for helping advance it in the correct direction. The following will be indepth ways to help the hobby advance and how.
First let me express that I believe it is the aquarium community's responsibility to help make there own trade better. What I hate to see are these people who criticize others who may want to set special collection limits to protect certain species or full grown species of tropical marine organisms to protect the trade and the earth , and life as we know it. these people get all upset because they believe these organizations are hurting our trade , our business and there life's and that these groups are trying to hurt us . when there trying to help preserve it to keep our trade alive in the long run. it's a different story with these organizations that want to shut the trade down all together, there just plain stupid.
Now lets talk about mariculture ,you know the farming of corals on metal grids just off shore of the island community's mainly around the indo pacific region. People ask how would we get these plans of yours into action? So if we want to stop taking so much and start giving back to help our own cause supporting mariculture plantation efforts would be a great first start. We could possibly help setup a fund that sends aquaculturist's , and marine biologist over to places like Indonesia and the Philippines and teach the natives how to farm ,and inform them a little more about the whole science around the ocean eco systems around them. This fund could also help supply materials to start out with over seas such as coral mounts ,glue and wracks . Once these people learned the mariculture techniques themselves they could each start there own plot in the ocean and grow coral crops out to sell to the trade. Or you could help support the start of some type of business that goes along and uses patches of the ocean to farm these things and would hire local people to help check and tend the farms. Same goes for live rock farming . setup patches of agrocrete rocks in the ocean and let them cook and then harvest them. I know that these things exist already I just want to make them more prevalent. I believe these areas should also have executive supervisors check on them a couple times a year to make sure things are going smoothly.
It would also be a great help to the Indonesian people if we could get them to have a better understanding of global trade and negotiation so they will be better of and wont keep selling there products off at such dirt cheap prices anymore. They need to realize how valuable there products truly are. I don't like to get to deep into nations personal people issues though I like to mainly stick to the wildlife part of things but I felt like even though this point isn't of great concern to me at this moment that it at least be mentioned.
As far as the whole ordeal in the part of the holding of fishes in wholesale facilities I believe it is up to us to make sure government gets laws changed so that fish are treated as fairly as any other animal. If you truly love these animals entirely and not just the ones you or your immediate friends or family may have you'll really care about getting fish and other aquatic organisms more wrights. You'll help fund or support causes that will keep stricter holding codes in check to make sure fish are being kept and transported correctly. The trade isn't terrible but it isn't perfect either and I believe we need to work through these steps to help the trade get better. This is not to say all these facility's are bad ,its to get the bad ones to be forced to become like the good ones already are.
As an overall summary I would like to say that I wouldn't mind if these plans are constructively criticized or agreed with. But I wouldn't be disappointed to see any bashing . We can all learn more through each others view points. Overall I believe that we should try to make our trade better by ourselves. Supporting as much captive grown ,bred or maricultured livestock as possible is always good. I think that many hobbyist want to help make the trade better but just don't know how to . this is why I would like to see some more people in the saltwater hobby setup and create charity's that really help make a difference and were the money really goes to that cause. Maybe a site that shows video progress and articles of there achievements on there websites all in thanks of the donations they received. I have discussed other ways of achieving good charity types of ideas in my other paper.I wouldn't mind if we get some government assistance but I would like to see the saltwater aquarium community do most the work themselves . like I have said before we can make this better but we just have to get a good plan down like I believe mine is , get our heads together and get organized as a community and DO IT! As a reader really take some time and think about the points made and compare and contrast them with yours and even if you think my idea's are terrible keep an open mind and try to see how one might see how they would work and remember constructive criticism is wanted ,bashing is not. My final words will be , Just remember to keep on fragging.
