Oh, absolutely agreed - though in theory, you can take a frag home and secure it in a tight hole.
But hard corals are illegal to collect in the republic of south Africa. In any case, it is easy to look up something stationary like a coral before deciding to collect. A fish or something mobile, you often just catch, put in the bucket, then pull out the book. It gives you something like, "eats small crustaceans" - which leaves you with not much information.
So you can have a strictly local qt tank, keep it at home for a few days, research, see if that individual is eating, see if it eats (local only!!) Corals and shrimp, check it out.
A lot of what I catch isn't widely kept, and not on liveaquaria. My tidepool gobies are the beat pets ever. In the wild, they inhabit small pools with wild salinity and temperature shifts. The water gets walked in and peed in. But they live.
They don't eat corals, don't fight, love pellets and prepared foods, and have the most awesome personalities. They swim up to me with their little smiley faces and beg for food. Their home now is maybe twenty times the size of their wild habitat.
But I wouldn't have known that before catching them, searching, and close observation in local qt. If they weren't eating, or unsuitable, they'd have gone home.
We must - MUST - be ethical, both in terms of environmental concerns and concern for our pets. But in the end, I feel this method is kinder to the ocean than a lot of commercial collection and transport methods.
But no, I'd never ever yank something out of the ocean without due diligence. I run a qt set up so I can return the smallest little whelk if I worry that it isn't a good species for captivity.
I am enjoying this discussion - the ethics of it all are worth pursuing. I am open to all and any advice on making sure I am following best practice - and encouraging others to do the same.
