Tank raised yellow tangs from Sustainable Aquatics

[Ooulophilia]

I view this as a type of "greenwashing" - using buzz words to sell a product. I think these should be labeled as "tank acclimated", and calling them "tank raised" is misleading and deceptive to hobbyists who may not know better.

Worldnewsmap says the fish are "shipped to their facility in Johnson city then t on they make sure they are healthy and get them eating" - if that is the case are the fish that Live Aquaria sell out of the Divers Den "tank raised"? I do not see a differentiation.

In my eyes this is no different to cutting and pasting a wild coral onto a base and calling it "aquacultured".

 

[MrTuskfish]

'Tank raising" of some difficult species makes some sense. There are lots of fish that are tough to acclimate to captivity, but do fine after that. There would be a re-stressing when moved from dealer to you. But why yellow tangs? They are one of the easiest fish in the hobby; I sure wouldn't pay a premium to have someone acclimate a fish like this, they can live on the floor for at least a week.

 

[velvetelvis]

In my eyes this is no different to cutting and pasting a wild coral onto a base and calling it "aquacultured".

In fairness to SA, it isn't quite the same thing--they're not calling the fish "captive-bred" or "tank-bred", which would be the piscine equivalent of aquacultured coral. They aren't claiming to have bred and raised these fish in captivity. I do agree, though, that it sounds like they're playing fast and loose with the definition of "tank-raised".

The problem is that most aquarists, including myself until recently, aren't aware of the true definition of "tank-raised" fish. I also thought that fish caught at a very small, post-larval size and raised in captivity were tank-raised.

They still do good work with their captive breeding program. I have a lovely pair of black ocellaris from SA that I'm very happy with. Unfortunately, I wonder if the minor but perhaps growing controversy over their claims of tank-raising fish is going to tarnish their reputation a bit.

 

[velvetelvis]

(((double post)))

 

[ahud]

How do you argue that catching smaller fish is not environmentally beneficial? I'm literally asking, not trying to argue.

In my opinion what they are doing is indeed more environmentally friendly than taking adults out of the breeding population. Mortality rates for fish that have recently settled are still very high.

Just my opinion.