Yes we are awful people, We give our fish better and more regular food than they will get in the wild- this is a horrible thing to do.
When a fish get sick in the wild, it usually dies. How dare we give them meds to save them.
In the wild many fish are food for other creatures. Giving our fish a life without such a threat isn't fair. They deserve to have the opportunity of being eaten.
And in our tanks we deprive the opportunity for our fish to suffer the effects of potential episodes of dought and pollution.
And if we keep rare fish and breed them after they have been eradicated in the wild are we not playing god? May we burn in hell for doing this.......
The very first fish auction I attended had a tank with two huge Pacus in it at the entrance to the room where the auction was held. They were to be auctioned. They were the last item that went up for bids. There was only one bidder and he bought them very cheaply. He bought them to have for dinner. In the wild. Large clown loaches are eaten by the local people.
We aren't awful people, but we feed our fish processed foods that don't necessarily meet their nutritional needs. We actually create fish obesity, something not seen in nature. We can do better.
We don't know a lot about med usage, and cause most of the diseases we treat by using too small tanks and slacking on our responsibility to do water maintenance. Every large aquarium store sends someone to clear out the 'deads' before opening, because of poor practices. We can do better.
I had fish and chips last week, so I'm one of those predators. In the wild, fish fall to predators. In tanks, they die of neglect in too many cases. We can do better.
We give our fish a higher risk of dying of drought or pollution in poorly maintained tanks. Then we buy more. We encourage sellers of long fins, stunted balloon bodies and other genetic problems that we cultivate industrially. They harm the fish, either internally as in balloons with scoliosis, or by hampering their ability to swim, as in long fins.
We fool ourselves by thinking a human with a few decades of fishkeeping time can maintain extinct and endangered fishes without working with a governmental, funded institution that can continue the work after we've gotten bored or died. A million year old species saved by a human with an 83 year lifespan? We aren't serious. We can do better.
If people eat pacus at fish clubs (not suggested as aquarium conditions and medications affect food safety with fish), why are we keeping them in the first place? They're too huge. We make very irresponsible choices, as many an oversized but under resourced pacu, pleco, goldfish, clown loach, bala shark or large Cichlid has learned.
To our credit, we're here to learn to do better. We've learned a lot and may actually share in a positive manner to help each other improve our skills, if we want to. That's the good side of the hobby to me - that people get past collecting live ornaments and start really learning how to balance their curiosity and consumption with information sharing and best practices. Aquarists have done many positive things so far, with many more to come.
