What do we want to see change/improve in the future?

[ENTMogul]

Thinking about the hobby we all love, I am curious to see what you would like to see change for the better in the near future.

For me I would love to see hobbyists understand exactly what is in their tank. Now I know most of us do, but there are thousands (if not millions) of people out there who just don't know anything about what is in their tank, be it corals or fish.

I would also like to see an advance in technology where we can take, lets say a fish, and virtually go into their environment. Looking around different forums and blogs and watching people ask where their tang comes from and what they should feed it blows my mind. It's time to change all of this.

Anyway enough from me, let's hear from you!

 

[benningtondt8]

I think you are right that it would be great to see the hobbyists really understand what is going on in the tanks. I think the more you know about these wonderfully diverse ecosystems them more you love them and want to protect them. I believe this starts in most cases at the LFS, this is where a good foundation of knowledge can get the hobbyist off on the right foot. There are too many cases of people leaving the hobby out of frustration. Most likely they weren't given enough if any information on what it takes to keep these specimens, and actually thrive in the aquarium. There are also cases of misinformation which can be just as bad or worse. I believe that LFS's need to take a sincere interest in getting hobbyist off to a proper start. I believe this would ensure a bond between the hobbyist and the LFS and probably make them long term customers, which means more money.
After the LFS it is the hobbyist duty to research and do some more research. There is a wealth of knowledge out there from books, magazines, to cheaper options such as this forum. This will also help get you off to a good start. I do not however want to discourage the process of trial and error as this can be one of the best teaching methods(although costly).
Something I am really excited about is the process of this hobby becoming more and more independent from wild caught specimens. With increasing technology we have taken great leaps into hopefully one day becoming a self-sustainable hobby. Getting the hobbyist educated about the fragile reef ecosystems, will hopefully encourage them to make more conscience decisions and go the eco-friendly route when setting up a tank and choosing livestock.
As the hobby becomes less dependent on wild caught livestock, I hope there will be an increase in marine preservations and laws. I think there should be teams of people who observe heavily touristed areas and is there is obvious decline there should be restrictions on how often they are visited. I know from experience that the cruise industry has had a negative impact on local reefs in the bahamas. Most cruise lines do not educate people on what they are seeing and what to do to help protect them. I look at it this way, alot of people take cruises to see these reefs, and if cruise lines do nothing to help protect them there will be no reef, and losses in profits.
This is a very crucial time to take action and help protect the wonderfully diverse ecosystems that we all love. We all can make a difference, even though some of us like me are currently thousands of miles away from the nearest ocean. Doing little things like buying captive bred fish and aquacultured corals are great starts.
Pass your knowledge on and help inspire the next generation of eco reef-junkies.

 

[muttley000]

I think enhancements in education would be great also. How long until an Ipad or something is displayed on the wall by the tank so that the prospective buyer has information on what they are seeing at their fingertips? I personally gravitate towards LFS that have reference materials avaliable for people. I know there are always going to be some that just do what they want with no reguard to the life they are buying, but I try to let people know they may want to research more before going ahead.

I also am optimistic about captive breeding, but without turning things political would greatly prefer that captive breeding become so efficient that artificial government controls are not needed.

 

[ENTMogul]

I personally have never been to an LFS that has had reference materials directly accessible. The LFS in Florida I frequent has books behind the counter which they show me with no hesitation, however, I am not sure if that is the norm since I am a very good customer.

I love the iPad idea (or something of the sort). It would really bring the industry into the 21st century. However, the cost-benefit ratio might not be to appealing for the majority of stores.

Let's here some more ideas and thoughts.

 

[camaroracer214]

i would like to see wholesalers and lfs stop importing livestock that cannot be kept long term. why the hell do they keep importing nudibranchs that feed only on hydroids? why do we import fish that won't readily take prepared foods (such as the cleaner wrasse)? Whey do they import sea pens and other invertebrates that are nowhere near suitable for the captive life?

 

[ENTMogul]

i would like to see wholesalers and lfs stop importing livestock that cannot be kept long term. why the hell do they keep importing nudibranchs that feed only on hydroids? why do we import fish that won't readily take prepared foods (such as the cleaner wrasse)? Whey do they import sea pens and other invertebrates that are nowhere near suitable for the captive life?

+1 on that! However, my cleaner wrasse has been with me for years....

It is also time to connect hobbyists like we haven't seen yet. I see a huge disconnect between experienced reefers, people just getting into the hobby, and big brands in general. All will change soon I'm sure.

 

[GreshamH]

i would like to see wholesalers and lfs stop importing livestock that cannot be kept long term. why the hell do they keep importing nudibranchs that feed only on hydroids? why do we import fish that won't readily take prepared foods (such as the cleaner wrasse)? Whey do they import sea pens and other invertebrates that are nowhere near suitable for the captive life?

OK reel back 15 years... the same thing was being said about a lot fo coral we find easy to care for now

Sea Pens if given the proper care do just fine.

 

[speakupforblue]

I agree that the education about fish and critters needs to be more handy, especially when visiting an LFS. I can't tell you how many times I see a brilliant looking fish and/or invert and wonder if they are easy to keep. Sometimes I don't trust the staff of the LFS because they are told to sell, others educate, but most are motivated to sell.

 

[ENTMogul]

We need more talks and learning experiences like this:

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[ENTMogul]

Ocean Exploration

Ocean Exploration

Virgin Oceanic is also going to do some incredible things. I have the pleasure of knowing Sir Richard and meeting the team of Virgin Oceanic at the Virgin America Terminal 2 launch in San Francisco back in March. Let's just say, these guys will do some great things.

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[camaroracer214]

OK reel back 15 years... the same thing was being said about a lot fo coral we find easy to care for now

Sea Pens if given the proper care do just fine.

i agree completely gresh, but without trying to get hung up on specifics, i think everyone needs to be more responsible in their choices. hobbyists need to stop buying fish out of their experience and collectors/wholesalers need to understand that the general populace doesn't know how to care for animals like sea pens. i encourage hobbyists to experiment and push boundaries, but what usually happens is the hobbyist buys a fish/coral/invert and then floods aquarium forums with questions like "i bought this and now can you tell me how to care for it".

i do understand the importance of getting difficult livestock into suitable hands though. without experimenting with hard to care for livestock, our husbandry techniques wouldn't be as advanced as they currently are.

 

[ENTMogul]

There 400,000+ people on this forum and we only get 6 responses?

Let's go people get involved.

 

[doctorgori]

I always get mixed feeling when a consumer based "Hobby centric" industry like this one has another altruistic goal attached to it....

I've trolled around here long enough to see a few folks "gallop in" and scold people for cycling with damsels yet see nothing wrong with using a dead shrimp...my guess is that shrimp would have loved to swap places with the damsel (the same guy that just beat up the newb for putting a tang in a 75 gal probably just drove his SUV to the store and bought "Orange Roughy" all the while tuned into "Rush" on 1100am)

...anyway, this hobby uses a "consumable" that has a very short manufacturing chain: basically the earth sends it to us "raw" and we can consume the product "as is" w/o much modification: not much different than oil or wood or gas (which BTW IMHO arguably has an even larger eco-footprint than the few fish we kill annually)

...my point is: unless we go 100% captive bred, as long as we are removing an animal from the food chain, ulimatley what we do with it, I don't think makes any difference as far as planet earth is concerned...(we can argue what is "Wasteful" all day long)

So if I were to wish for a change it would be to focus or develop a way for "3rd world Jose" to make a sustainable buck from his natural resources (focus on the supply end as opposed to making "moral judgments" and "enviormental choices" on the demand end)

...because I've been there to the 3rd world; and trust me; if "Jose" ain't feeding his family by harvesting fish he can do far more enviormental damage by turning to "bush meat" or skinning some endangered local spotted cat and selling it at the local market...people are going to live off the land for lack of other choices....we here in the USA did it back in the 1800's and the list of enviormental casualties is even worse...

 

[fish_dave]

Hello Doctorgori, nice to see a reasonable and thoughtful reply. I hope that it is understood by many.

Dave

 

[doctorgori]

Hello Doctorgori, nice to see a reasonable and thoughtful reply. I hope that it is understood by many.

Dave

yeah a semi rant...I just kinda grow weary of the "guilt trips" for everything we do....personally until someone rides up to me on a bicycle fresh from thier hut made of recycled mud & straw, I kinda got a closed ear to it....

Thing is a "Raw live fish" makes for an easy "enviormental impact target", harder to see is all that energy it took to make that aluminum beer can, or all the trees and forest cut down to make your house, or the acres and acres of rainforest it took to make that fast food hamburger you just ate....

I've alluded to this before: that Moorish Idol I just killed is a enviormental drop in the bucket...to be brutally honest, the real evils are happening around the globe; its a supply side economics problem, not a consumer based enviormental impact issue....

Sorry to deviate a lil there EntMogul ...

 

[curlykid]

I think it would help the quality of livestock if there were livestock facility inspectors. They basically go and tell the stores what they can and can't sell based on health. It would also be nice if wholesalers and collectors were regulated, wholesalers can only sell what's healthy, and collectors have to hand collect instead of using chemicals. Also, we need to create really small pumps and protein skimmers that are extremely efficient and perform well.

 

[ENTMogul]

yeah a semi rant...I just kinda grow weary of the "guilt trips" for everything we do....personally until someone rides up to me on a bicycle fresh from thier hut made of recycled mud & straw, I kinda got a closed ear to it....

Thing is a "Raw live fish" makes for an easy "enviormental impact target", harder to see is all that energy it took to make that aluminum beer can, or all the trees and forest cut down to make your house, or the acres and acres of rainforest it took to make that fast food hamburger you just ate....

I've alluded to this before: that Moorish Idol I just killed is a enviormental drop in the bucket...to be brutally honest, the real evils are happening around the globe; its a supply side economics problem, not a consumer based enviormental impact issue....

Sorry to deviate a lil there EntMogul ...

Don't apologize! I love the content! exactly what I'm looking for. People's opinions create data which is what drives innovation. Keep it coming.

I think it would help the quality of livestock if there were livestock facility inspectors. They basically go and tell the stores what they can and can't sell based on health. It would also be nice if wholesalers and collectors were regulated, wholesalers can only sell what's healthy, and collectors have to hand collect instead of using chemicals. Also, we need to create really small pumps and protein skimmers that are extremely efficient and perform well.

I think this is a great idea. It should go further though. For instance, why collect a foot long Vlamingi tang? It should stay in the ocean and there needs to be inspection before the fish even leaves the collection boats.

 

[fish_dave]

Just trying to understand how these ideas would be implemented. Who would inspect the fish before it leaves the collection boats? Do you see some kind of inspector out on the boats bobbing around while the fish are collected? Many if not most of the collection is done during 4 to 7 day or longer trips where the collectors sleep on the boat or on a small sand bar. Who would pay an inspector to go out on such a trip? How would an export facility in a third world country be inspected? How does a broke and inefficient government pay these inspectors? I see Vets in Wholesale facilities all the time now, it is often very difficult to diagnose fish disease in one visit, it would probably require a one or two week quarantine to accuratly diagnose many diseases. This would cause the price of fish to go up considerably and still not eliminate all disease issues. Is this really feasable? Are hobbyists willing to pay double or triple what they pay now for fish? It would be interesting to know if they really want a regulated hobby or if it is just cool to think about it.

 

[ENTMogul]

Just trying to understand how these ideas would be implemented. Who would inspect the fish before it leaves the collection boats? Do you see some kind of inspector out on the boats bobbing around while the fish are collected? Many if not most of the collection is done during 4 to 7 day or longer trips where the collectors sleep on the boat or on a small sand bar. Who would pay an inspector to go out on such a trip? How would an export facility in a third world country be inspected? How does a broke and inefficient government pay these inspectors? I see Vets in Wholesale facilities all the time now, it is often very difficult to diagnose fish disease in one visit, it would probably require a one or two week quarantine to accuratly diagnose many diseases. This would cause the price of fish to go up considerably and still not eliminate all disease issues. Is this really feasable? Are hobbyists willing to pay double or triple what they pay now for fish? It would be interesting to know if they really want a regulated hobby or if it is just cool to think about it.

It is true. Any type of regulation always effects something in the long run, be it price or volume. It would obviously be very hard to implement such a thing, especially in a third world country, but again these are just ideas (which creates innovation).

I think more important is getting hobbyists to learn about the ocean. This will than effect buying habits and will ripple back to collectors.

 

[doctorgori]

Are hobbyists willing to pay double or triple what they pay now for fish? It would be interesting to know if they really want a regulated hobby or if it is just cool to think about it.

maybe....we pay more for the ORA stuff already....
...althought it would be cool if industries could spring up in places like Samoa, similar to the TF farms in Fla ...perhaps help out there economically, take some burden off the much more enviormentally impactful tuna canning industry....

right now the oceans are strained...a lot of Asia and the Pacific is leaning on the oceans pretty hard...if there were a buck involved that puts more money directly in the pockets of the small villagers instead of "Starkist Tuna" , well that would be a step in the right direction...

oh one more thing: right now the supply chain is inefficient and too slow...we gotta find a way to reduce the time from reef to tank or better yet take the "reef" part out all together