Is lossing your tank Coral or fish an inevitability

[bv_reefer]

after my anemone made dinner of a perfectly good tang i kinda don't let livestock surprise me anymore

[Sebae again]

I hope not. We are walking a thin line. We are all short several billion gallons of sea water in our biotopes. Disasters happen in nature never mind our tanks.IMO through my own observations ,I believe that propagated acros become more hardy through the generations of ''fraging'' and being introduced into other peoples tanks eg. different water parameters. At times I feel guilty for being in this hobby but I believe with the changes in the enviroment that one day it may be through us ,in an ironic twist of fate ,that we may be called upon to repropagate the oceans.

[justinl]

i think the whole fantasy that some hold about us hobbyists repopulating the oceans with coral is just short of ridiculous... no offence to you guys. I just think that there are limitations to our hobby and repropagation of the ocean is something that is just wayyyyy too far beyond us. plus theres a very good chance that any attempt to that may end up in a catastrophe anyways. it's not a bad goal/ideal, just not a realistic one imo. We're still trying to get this hobby reliant on local propagation, let alone the ocean. and speaking of local propagation, i think that's what we should be focusing on right now (thankfully i know some of us are)... we are too reliant on wild stock which is dwindling at an alarming rate and will eventually and inevitably be shut off from us by authorities or simply by extinction... hopefully not the latter. when the fecal matter hits the fan, i hope groups of trading aquarists like canreef and reefcentral will be in a state well stocked enough with healthy coral to carry the hobby on. it's scary to think that far ahead... at that point even a simple propagation of red bugs might not just mean a single tank crash (which is bad enough); it could mean wiping out the hobby in an entire region. ugh... but i rant, so to keep it simple, propagate, propagate, propagate. it'll save you money and could save our hobby one day.