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Through my high-school years, I was a huge tropical fish enthusiast. I think at one point I had five aquariums running in my room, a fresh-water community tank housing angel fish, neon tetras, zebras and the likes, a tank of African cichlids, a tank with piranha, a tank with two huge South American ciclids, and a large marine aquarium with a variety of creatures, including sea anenomes, clown fish, and my prize lion fish, a member of one of the most poisonous fish families there is.

It was always fun feeding the anemones by hand, with the lion fish swimming by my arm, coming up to grab a bit of the food as well. One stick from his spines, and I would have been paralyzed on the floor within seconds. Of course their poison can be treated, but I can't imagine it would be feel good.

Every time I go into the little aquarium shop nearby my apartment I get the urge to start up again. Now of course, I know a little more about how the live fish trade effects the natural reef environment. The common (though illeagal) practice of fishing with cyanide stuns the fish, but kills the reef and other organisms important the to ecosystem's survival. I find it hard to justify promoting the fish trade. If I could be sure that the fish were caught with more sustainable methods, I might consider it, and of course pay more, but I haven't seen any pet shops around here that make that garantee.

A quick search on google turned up this informative PBS article about the live fish trade.

The tragedy is that a live fish trade would be an excellent source of income for people in tropical countries which have coral reefs if only it was pursued sustainably and without destroying the reef habitat that the fish they depend on require. When the same species are caught using nets close to 98% of the fish reach transshipment points alive versus only about 30% for fish caught with cyanide (and of course, the reef stays healthy and continues to produce fish for the fisher… endlessly). The problem is that using nets is harder work, and the fishermen get, say, three fish for a day's work, rather than the three fish per hour they can get using cyanide.

Not only does the practice of cyanide fishing provide more short-term incentive for the local fishermen, who, despite the fact that the decorative fish trade is an international multimillion dollar business, typically earn only about US$50 per month, it's also very lucrative for the pet-stores and dealers as the article points out.

The vast majority of the fish that make it all the way to ornamental fish markets will die a few months later in living room tanks, having finally succumbed to their exposure to cyanide.

great colors!!!

Those are really amazing pictures!

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