New Cleaner Wrasse

[lastlight]

Well put! I agree 100%. None of us are saints and obviously we share the guilt yet cannot quit this hobby.

I also wonder how you can even ENJOY being a member here Naesco when nearly everything I read by you has this same flavor. That's not a personal attack but seriously what motivates you to police the forums in this way? There's nothing ethical about you keeping a tank whatsoever. There may be different shades of ethical but we're all guilty to some degree.

[naesco]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Well put! I agree 100%. None of us are saints and obviously we share the guilt yet cannot quit this hobby.

I also wonder how you can even ENJOY being a member here Naesco when nearly everything I read by you has this same flavor. That's not a personal attack but seriously what motivates you to police the forums in this way? There's nothing ethical about you keeping a tank whatsoever. There may be different shades of ethical but we're all guilty to some degree.

The motivation is very simple and I don"t look at it as policing the forum.
Many newbies make a purchase of an unsuitable species and post, which post is followed by congratulatory posts and posts for other newbies desiring the same species.

By entering a thread such as this, I have the opportunity of putting forth the opinion of experts like Scott Michael and Robert Fenner.
Some readers get ****ed off because they are going to do what they want to do anyway.
Others are going to re think their purchase and that is the reason I post.

[lastlight]

I can respect that. PM'd you. If you're enjoying yourself and prevent a few reefers willing to accept the fact they can't keep x in tank y...more power to ya. I do see others offering similar advice like I said in my PM...maybe with a slightly less authoritative tone which comes off differently.

[0sprey]

I agree to a point. But unfortunately most people who argue these ethical points are just way too hypocritical. If you have a tank, you have contributed to a reefs destruction in some way. You have fish in an unnatural environment.
I am all for ethical fish/coral collection and argue it here all the time. I wish more could be done to make certain species less likely to die suddenly in our tanks because they were caught by poison. But in the end, if I really cared as much as I often think I do, I would have given this hobby up so long ago. The day I realized what this hobby does to the reefs around the world should have been enough to discourage me from buying ANY fish or coral. But it hasn't.
Apparently I am selfish enough to continue.

My list of fish that shouldn't be kept in captivity regardless of longevity is pretty short. There's a big difference between sustainable harvest of a common species and harvesting a keystone species. Without cleaner wrasses, the ecology of the reef crumbles.
It's like the difference between sustainable softwood harvesting and wholescale clearcutting of old-growth rainforest. Both technically destroy trees and have some ecological impact, but one area will recover, and the other won't.

I believe that it is possible to practise marine fishkeeping in a more responsible manner, if we're careful. Buying frags instead of corals fresh from the reef, avoiding endangered/keystone species, that kind of thing.

Still selfish? Yeah, probably. Really, when you get down to it, 'sustainability' is just a catchphrase for continuing to do what we want while trying to minimize the impact. But I think that a conscientious aquarist can actually do a lot of good- both for the hobby and the environment as a whole.

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by naesco

The motivation is very simple and I don"t look at it as policing the forum.

????? Look at your avatar???

[0sprey]

Originally Posted by fishytime

????? Look at your avatar???

lol...
+1