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Originally Posted by aussiefishy
oh! those anemones....
something to think about is that, it is a shop, not a zoo... i totally agree that a shop should provide suitable environment for livestock, but to what extent?? proper salinity, lighting, currents, protein skimming i think,
we are not importing them to put into a tank for 5-6 years... things have to remember is the rate they are selling at, and also available space for anemones in a shop. from our experience, the amount of time each anemone in our shop is between 1-7 days. IMO, the stinging do not take long enough to harm anemones. (we have not seen anemones dying in our store in that system).. and if you ever take up diving into the tropics, anemones are somehow aggregates together as well.
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1) If you ever take up diving into the tropics, you will see that anemones are emphatically NOT "somehow aggregate together." The only exception to this are the species that are able to clone, and form colonies. But this is not true of all species of anemone.
If you look at any piece of the Great Barrier Reef, for example, you can swim 100m before encountering any anemone whatsoever. You can't swim a stone's throw in any direction before you surpass hundreds of SPS or other species.
Anemones do not hang out together on the reef. To quote Dr. Ron Shimek in a conversation we had about a year or two ago, "multi-species assemblages are
neither natural nor desireable."
2) You are not importing them to live in a tank for 5-6 years but you are importing them. So if they don't live for 5-6 years after they leave your shop does that exonerate you because it wasn't in your care? What about the oft-quoted statistic that maybe 1 in 10 anemones imported live to be >5years in captivity? Of those 9 how many did not make it past the first 6 months? Or 3 months? Or 1 month? If an animal melts in the first week, was it because the animal was acclimated poorly or because the tank was ill-suited? Maybe, but what about the possibility that the animal was so stressed or compromised that the last acclimation was just the final kick in the pants to seal its fate? Anemones do not find each other in multiple numbers in such close quarters and one of the worst things you can do to a stressed anemone is put it into a closed system with many other stressed anemones. The collection to retail process is in my opinion extremely harsh on them and I think we can't disregard what happens before we buy the animals as a factor in the absolute horrid statistics for long-term success (or lack thereof) of anemones in captivity. Especially shameful considering that our best guesses for anemone lifespans is that it is immeasureable.
An anemone collected out of the wild is that much less habitat for a wild breeding pair of clownfish. We really, really need to tread more carefully with anemones because I think the future for them in the wild is grim if we don't start getting our act together.
3) It is a shop, not a zoo. But to what extent do you keep conditions suitable?
To the fullest extent practical. If it is not practical to properly care for the animal during the duration of its stay in your facilities,
I think the ethical choice is to not offer that animal. Even if that means disappointing a few customers along the way.