[Lampshade]

Keins right, December 2012 we all die, Myan calender ends, and more importantly, they even made movies about it. There will be zombies, earthquakes, wars, God's, Son's of God's, everything. But anyways.. here's my answers.

1)so what do you think about our hobby and its impact on the natural reefs?

-the awareness this hobby has created has far surpassed any devestation people claim we have on the reefs. I don't think they should open up Hawaii for free picking, but that goes into that part of the awareness this hobby has created.

2)do you buy wildcaught if yes does it bother you?

-I think everyone does unless you own a clownfish tank? Doesn't bother me that they are wildacught, If someone could breed tangs cheaper than wildcaught i'd be up for buying them, but until that happpens i think wildcaught is the only economical answer for now.

3)what do you think we as hobbysts can do to protect or help our reefs??

-Frags help out, not buying cyonide caught fish would too. I think we all try to avoid that anyways because of the high death rate.

4)do you see the hobby coming to an end??

-If anything the opposite. but i'm sure people said that about their pet boa's too.

5)do you support captive breeding??

-defintily, when's the last time you bought a wild budgie/cockatiel.

6)what do you think the impact would be to the economy if collecting/harvesting were to stop??

-Our economy? not much, I'm sure we would all find other things to waste money on. I might even get a real suntan instead of a 15K MH tan.

I'm sure there's some villages in indonesia/fiji that would have a rough few years ahead thoguh.

7)do you think blackmarket or underground coral smuggling exist in our country??
-Yes, both accidently (Coral from USA) and planned. I think that if someone was going to set up a very large tank with a very large amount of money, there would be options that may be available. Do i think people dress in all black ninja suits collecting coral at midnight to sell in back alley's? no

8)do you think collecting and harvesting practises could be better?
-Cyonide is one method that most people know about. It's like dropping a knockout bomb on the reef, without regulating the knockout... most fish don't live. Most of our coral/fish is collected from some farily poor contries from some fairly poor villages. I'm sure these fish have been through a lot more than we could imagine. They could be better, but any wild caught animal would probably be better off in the wild, right?

9)would you not buy something because it came from the wild??
-I think we all have wild caught items in our tanks.

10)do you think the impact has bettered in the last ten yrs or gotten worse??
-Better, the impact of home aquariums is small, if people want to balme us for ruining the reefs that's ok with me if it gets people helping to save them.

11)do you believe there should be animal laws regarding fish and tank sizes??
-limits on tank sizes? no, generally if you own a 500+gallon reef, you are not going to bomb it and have everyting die. 50 people with 10 gallon reefs bomb them far more often.

If the question is fish size vs. tank size, ie. Tang Police. I don't think so, all these fish come from open ocean. anything under a 50000 gallon tank is technically "too small".

12)do you feel guilty for caging these little creatures?

-No, I'm not caging them, i'm saving them from a reef full of predators.......

13)whats your thoughts on species that dont do well and lfs bringing them in reguarily

Sea Hares, everybody thinks they are miracle creatures, they die. Lots. i'm sure there's more rare ones out there that are the same(Batfish, moorish idols, etc).

14)would you buy something smuggled or not supposed to be in our country??

-How good does it look? depends on why it's not supposed to be. If it's somthing that will take over local oceans, etc. then no. If it's endangered, no, i would not do that either. If someone missed out on making a few bucks off my purchase (I support LFS, there's many in between) then I'd have to see...(ever buy firecrackers? Think most peopell you buy frags from clain it on income taxs?)

15)would you be willing to give up this hobby if you knew it would save the reefs and oceans of the world?

If it would save them, yes. But honestly, I think it would do the opposite. myself, family and many people who come to see my tank had never really looked much at a reef tank before. Now that it's here, in only my small group of people, they have noticed how beautiful it is, and due to my constant talkig about it(obsesion :S) they know far more than they'd like to.