Captive bred fish: Please Respond

[Troy F]

How many of you would pay more for captive bred fish? I'm sure the price would be considerably more and of course the selection is limited. Have a look at www.orafarm.com/ and see what is available.

Oops, try that.

[ 20 June 2002, 09:02: Message edited by: Troy F ]

[BCReefer]

Troy the link did not work for me? Anyone else?

Patrick

[Troy F]

That should work now.

[Delphinus]

Actually it's http://www.orafarm.com/

Personally I would like to see more of this kind of thing. I think it should be a two-way street: We as consumers should be willing and ready to pay more for captive raised; and retailers should be be willing to sell them for less than their wild-caught counterparts (whether this means subsidizing captive-raised, or artificially inflating the cost of wild-caught -- which way is the "better" ... well who knows. Retailers have to make a profit in order to stay in business .. more on this later).

I was quite disappointed to learn that C-Quest (another captive breeding facility) went under. The rumour I heard was that a cyclone, hurricane, or some kind of tropical storm basically wiped them out, they lost their broodstock, equipment was damaged, etc. and basically they just couldn't recover economically. So we lost one source of captive-raised fish. So obviously this business is rather precarious -- it's probably done more for the love of the hobby and "doing the right thing" rather than making a profit.

Ultimately, a business has to make a profit in order to be sustainable.

So, if being green is important to us, seeing captive-raised livestock over livestock that was recently plucked from the ocean, then we as consumers have to do our part, and support those businesses that are trying to offer this.

Just my $0.02 ... you asked if I was willing to pay more for this sort of thing and my answer is "yes."

[ 20 June 2002, 09:15: Message edited by: delphinus ]

[Doug]

100% agreement guys. My clowns are all captive bred, as are my 3 bangaii. The clowns are American, :D , while the bangaii are good ole Manitoba boys & girls. :D

Tony, I keep hearing that about C-Quest, then again, some time later, I hear they are still operational. :confused:

[canadawest]

As you could probably guess, I too am all for captive raised over wild caught.

Of course as a breeder of Bangaiis I am biased perhaps, but I do believe in the preservation of the species by reducing wild catches. My two Oscellaris clowns are captive raised.

But I too fall under the category of "price conscious" or even cheap. If my captive raised Bangaiis were being sold for twice the price of wild caughts, why would anyone (except for ethical type reasons) buy the more expensive ones?

I think that it boils down to increasing the awareness of the advantages of having captive bred livestock over their wild caught counterparts.

[Troy F]

Posted by Andrew: If my captive raised Bangaiis were being sold for twice the price of wild caughts, why would anyone (except for ethical type reasons) buy the more expensive ones?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think you pretty much answer the question in your question; for ethical reasons. You (figuratively) may also want to surmise that by buying captive bred fish and corals, you promote those businesses to carry on with their work. If those businesses are unsuccessful there may not be a hobby in the not to distant future.

The fish available at this time are pretty limited and in the case of the dottybacks, don't do much for a community tank (for the most part). However, everyone has clowns and most people have some form or another of goby genuses. There in lies the reason I posted this thread. I'm curious if you as hobbyists would look at captive bred specimens at an inflated price for the eithical reasons.

Tony, you make a great point about inflating the price of wild caught in order to subsidize the captive bred fish. I love that idea. A hefty tax wouldn't be anything new to a Canadian government.

[StirCrazy]

let me pose another question, why do "captive raised" fish have to be more expensive that "wild caught" in most cases they are local so there is next to no shipping charge (which is about 50% or more of the cost of most imported fish) also they are supposed to be more hardy.. Meaning that there should be less die off (another reason the lfs doesn’t have to charge as much)

There is no reason that a store can't sell stuff like this for the same price or even cheaper than wild caught except for greed itself. They see an angle that they can push it as superior than a wild caught and mark the price higher, saying that you are more responsible if you buy this local raised fish.

I have a friend that breads angelfish herein town and he gets 1.00/fish. The stores he sells to mark them up to usably 6.00 to 8.00 each where wild ones are 12.00 to 14.00.
Now I know that the average angel spawn is larger than a cardinal spawn but not that much... maby 4 times the numbers. So even if you sell a fish for 10.00 there is no reason the LFS should only mark it up to 20.00 and promote locally raised fish. Instead they crank it higher than wild caught and hinder its acceptance.

I consider myself more ethical and anal than most when it comes to providing for my fish and even I would not pay an inflated price for local raised fish... Hmm I think 10% more would be my limit and that would be pushing it.

I don't know maby my thinking is backwards bbut if we were honest and charged acordingly woulden't that encourage more people to buy localy raised fish?

just a though

Steve

[Troy F]

Steve, you are way off. The cost of raising captive bred fish is a lot more than bringing in wild caught. Have a look at the facilities that they have to keep up. Think about how much money you have in your tank, then think bigger, granted they aren't running the lighting that we are for a reef but you get the idea. Ask Andrew what he'd charge for his cardinals if he had to actually cover costs.

This isn't freshwater so the comparisons don't really hold true.

You may be willing to pay 10% more now but in a couple of years or so you'll be paying more than that. Fish may be safe a while longer but corals won't be available too much longer. That is my prediction.

[BCReefer]

In my tank the fish are a big part of tank but I am limited to a small quantity so now I am more than willing to pay twice the rate of wild caught.

When my tank gets bigger I will still be willing to pay more but I will have to stock slower. To be a true to the hobby we should do as much as possible in conservation. I don't mean that every single item in the tank needs to 100% captaive bread, but we can at least try.

My 0.03 worth!
Patrick