It’s without a doubt that the process of traveling from a coral reef, to a home aquarium, is one of the greatest threats to survivability for marine fish, once they enter the reef aquarium trade. Going from a remote island, in the middle of the ocean, across the globe, arriving in a first world country is wrought with difficulty under the best circumstances. Often, marine fish have spent days on a collection vessel, living in crammed spaces, before being sent to an exporter and beginning their grand journey abroad. For home aquarists, it seems as though we are powerless to smooth this painstaking journey. We cannot simply hop on a plane, travel around the world, and personally escort our new aquarium residents to their new home. Just a few oversights during collection can lead to illness, which often doesn’t being showing symptoms until our new tenants are acclimated into the aquarium environment. You may be thinking that I am offering a doomsday scenario, a plea of hard truths that should turn anyone away from marine aquariums, and have them pursuing more reasonable hobbies, such as crocheting or coin collecting. Actually, the truth is quite the opposite, as I am here to tell you that careful, conscious decisions about where your fish come from, and how you handle them, from the moment you open the bag, can have a tremendous effect on the long-term health of your animals. Since online ordering has become popular today, yet requires the most diligent acclimation procedures, I am going to focus this post on marine life ordered via the internet. Where healthy fish come from?
Most of us have some familiarity with the entire collection process. What many aquarists don’t know is that some locations have a far better record, when it comes to providing healthy marine life. Hawaii is one of these locations. In Hawaii, collectors are held to all federal fisheries standards, meaning that they have to comply with regulations, which manage where they can collect, how they can collect, and even determines the quantity of fish allowed per collector. Similar in some ways to rules regarding sport fishing, these state and federal regulations help ensure that the livestock you purchase from Hawaii has been ethically captured, which typically translates to healthy fish, right from the start. Thanks to Dr. Mac of Pacific East Aquaculture, both the Solomon Islands and French Polynesia have become home to great collection and export stations.… More:
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