The Banggai Rescue Project

[Tedatlast]

Here is a OPPORTUNITY to make a change.
Check out The Banggai Rescue Project and become a backer !!!!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/603466482/the-banggai-rescue-project

All my best
Ted Bergström
Bioted Marine

 

[dubdlee]

I saw this today in CORAL, awesome project!!

 

[atreis]

Indeed! I'm also ashamed to admit that I both didn't know they were endangered and have one in my tank...

 

[doctorgori]

there are a few species for both food & hobby that are in the same boat....

 

[GhostCon1]

Indeed! I'm also ashamed to admit that I both didn't know they were endangered and have one in my tank...

I did not know this. That being said, how is it possible they are allowed to be sold the way they are? Much less even caught in the first place.

 

[Wolverine]

I did not know this. That being said, how is it possible they are allowed to be sold the way they are?

Don't forget that they are easily tank bred, and there's really no good reason to remove them from the wild. Also, they have been introduced to non-native islands for easier collection for the hobby.

 

[Luiz Rocha]

All of the ones that are sold today are tank-bred individuals.

 

[jerpa]

All of the ones that are sold today are tank-bred individuals.

This is not true. LiveAquaria sells both captive-bred and wild caught.

 

[doctorgori]

This is a good topic from an awarness perspective...

Like I said, the public often has no idea how enviormentally impactful/sensitive certain consumer products actually are:
(esp. certain ocean & rain forest products)

for example: Orange Roughy, Chilean Sea bass, certain tropical lumber species, SE Asian Turtles...the current harvest are not sutainable....

I could go on, but short sighted policies and the voices of those economically impacted often prevents any meaningful adjustment towards sustanability trends

 

[Wolverine]

All of the ones that are sold today are tank-bred individuals.

This should be the case, but, sadly, as Jerpa pointed out, it's not true.

for example: Orange Roughy, Chilean Sea bass, certain tropical lumber species, SE Asian Turtles...the current harvest are not sutainable...

I agree with your post in general, but just wanted to point out that now you can get farmed Chilean Sea Bass, which seems to be starting to help the natural populations (of course, I say this with the hope of avoiding all the problems related to fish farms )

 

[sullyfish]

As a breeder of banggai I found this project very interesting and am now a supporter. It was interesting to read the time-line section that said Banggai's commanded a price of $100 each back in the nineties. Boy, if I only had a time capsule....

 

[hvacman250]

Wild caught sell for $15-20, tank bred fetch $35-40. As long as people carry on caring about nothing but the bottom dollar, this will always be an occurance.

I'm by no means a tree hugger or a "green" person, but I hope people will see the destruction this hobby can do and spend a little more money for tank raised fish.

 

[doctorgori]

Wild caught sell for $15-20, tank bred fetch $35-40. As long as people carry on caring about nothing but the bottom dollar, this will always be an occurance.

I'm by no means a tree hugger or a "green" person, but I hope people will see the destruction this hobby can do and spend a little more money for tank raised fish.

yeah but we've seen this play before: "green" being a excuse to raise prices A.K.A "conscience marketing" ....

I'm not versed on the assorted cost associated with raising vast qty's of commercial fish, but as someone who has has raised cardinal fry himself (and literally dozens of other species), I'm not seeing the $35/per fish as being reasonable (and this is not disputing the price at all)

 

[billsreef]

It was interesting to read the time-line section that said Banggai's commanded a price of $100 each back in the nineties. Boy, if I only had a time capsule....

Interestingly back when they were retailing for around $100, and even when the price dropped to around $50, they came in excellent shape and held up very well. Once the price really started dropping and they started coming into the wholesalers in large numbers, the quality and survival dropped like a lead brick.

 

[Wolverine]

Wild caught sell for $15-20, tank bred fetch $35-40. As long as people carry on caring about nothing but the bottom dollar, this will always be an occurance.

I'm by no means a tree hugger or a "green" person, but I hope people will see the destruction this hobby can do and spend a little more money for tank raised fish.

That's true. We used to trade ours into the stores for credit and corals; that store only sold captive-bred.

 

[Wolverine]

As a breeder of banggai I found this project very interesting and am now a supporter. It was interesting to read the time-line section that said Banggai's commanded a price of $100 each back in the nineties. Boy, if I only had a time capsule....

Yeah, my roommate and I bought one for around $75 when I was in college.

(the store I mentioned above was in Bellevue, NE.)

 

[chrisv]

The degree to which these have become an invasive species in many areas is incredible. they are out competing native fish and ruining ecosystems.

The wild collection of these from non native environments is probably an incredibly good idea.

 

[Luiz Rocha]

A lot of the "wild caught" sold by live aquaria and others recently are not part of the original Banggai Island populations, but are caught in other areas where new populations were "started" by the release of tank bred individuals (such as Lembeh straits). There is a lot of pressure in Indonesia to protect the original populations of this species, and some of the sites were they are found are closed for collections. There is a book about it already published.

 

[Luiz Rocha]

One more thing everyone, I just wanted to point out that I am not trying to discourage this project, on the contrary, I think it is a great idea, and I think it is time to re-evaluate the populations of this fish. The latest IUCN report (and the book that I link above) are from 2007, so 5 years ago, and this fish has a relatively short generation time (2.5 years), so it would be nice to know what is going on out there now.

As for what we can do as hobbyists, it is quite simple, just make sure the ones you are getting are tank bred.

 

[Wolverine]

One more thing everyone, I just wanted to point out that I am not trying to discourage this project, on the contrary, I think it is a great idea, and I think it is time to re-evaluate the populations of this fish.

Definitely true; and I also am not trying to discourage the project.