We all want healthy fish, and we don’t want to have to take out a second mortgage to get them. Often, I talk with aquarists who are wondering, what is the deal? Sometimes, it seems like pulling teeth, to get parasite free, healthy marine fish, at a fair cost. Most consumers don’t understand the complex details of the marine fish trade. Right now, we are hearing a lot about NOAA, legislation, and even banter that links the reef aquarium industry to reef degradation. What does it mean for our hobby? Will the price of marine livestock rise, making it unaffordable to many aquarists? Will it become illegal to buy or keep certain coral or fish species? Is the combined force of anti-aquarium conservation movements, pending NOAA restrictions, and the belief that reef aquariums are destroying the environment, the end of home reef aquariums? Many of these topics have been debated since before the early 1990s, as marine aquarium technology became better, and more and more people were keeping reef tanks. Suddenly, what was once a tiny industry, was becoming something much larger. Companies that made lighting for horticulture were suddenly producing reef aquarium lights, and by 2000 the reef aquarium world was buzzing, and it’s continued to grow ever since. Answers to some of the questions above begin in understanding where many of our aquarium fish come from. 
Island nations across the globe, with access to exotic reef fish, are often poor and opportunity is scarce. Often islanders resorted to capturing food fish for the seafood industry, or blasting the reef to bits for the limestone industry, to put food on their tables. The islanders cared little about the ecological gem that surrounded them, as they needed money to live. When the reef aquarium industry moved in, and a demand for healthy, live marine fish began, devastation had already been done, by islander’s previous attempts to earn a living. Using reefs as a source of raw building materials was especially devastating, as large tracts of reef were demolished, salvaging the blown up bits for things like road construction. The reef aquarium industry wanted exotic fish, alive, and lots of them. Islanders wanted to make money quickly. From this very imperfect union, things like cyanide collection were born. Lots of fish could be captured, by simply stunning them with cyanide. In time, we learned that those fish were doomed, and the internal damage cyanide caused eventually killed them, further down the line.… More:
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