do you like "highly refined" fish or something not so man made??? them's fighting words

[Magnum Man]

so there are several fish that I avoid like the plague... I'm going to get ugly here for some of you, but platy's could just as well be glo fish... they are so in bred there isn't anything that resembles a wild fish even remotely available... technically Molly's Platy's Guppies, and endlers... they often don't live as long, probably because of breeding practices and the genetic soup they are comprised of... Cichlids are not missing from the club, though most can still be found in something resembling a wild fish... but angel fish, while still wild caught, are pretty inbred... yes, glo fish are "engineered" but in essence, so are the fish I first mentioned in this thread...

OK, I'll admit I do like my Santa Maria Endlers... but generally I guess I'm not a fan of the Guppy class of fish... I just scrolled through live bearers from one on line seller, and while not currently all in stock, they literally had several 100's of Guppy varieties, they have sold...I'm just not that guy... I've been trying to get or mimic wild type Molly's' and they really aren't much better... not putting down those that enjoy, but IMO, just because a fish is easy to breed, doesn't mean it should...

 

[gwand]

I have both wild caught and tank raised fish. From a moral perspective I now prefer tank raised fish. Living in the confines of a tank is the only life that tank raised fish have ever known. Wild caught fish were once free to roam wherever they wanted to go. But now are imprisoned until they die.

 

[GaryE]

There ain't nuthin' refined about the fish I keep. They can be downright rude and wild. You won't see them holding a teacup properly or doffing their caps to royals.

My only selected fish is a platy strain I spotted in a mixed platy tank a ways back. I thought they looked like the platys I'd buy as a kid, 55 years ago. I now have a second generation, and they're all throwbacks to the old, now unpopular type - smaller and spotted like crazy. How and where such a forgotten old strain survived is a question, but I see no young that aren't the basic type. And so, out of nostalgia for an old favourite fish, I'll keep them. They remind me of Nowak's Aquarium in Montreal, where Mr Nowak would be awful to kids who went in, but it was worth it to see the exceptional fish he carried.

The mass production of platy breeding types missed delightfully there. But that isn't to say they're wild type X maculatus. They aren't incredibly far off though.

Are we nature nerds interested in biodiversity and fish evolution, or is this an ornamental fish hobby to us? It's a mix of both to me, with a heavy accent on the nature nerd. I like pretty fish with interesting patterns, but I'll also keep plain fish with cool behaviour.

 

[anewbie]

I mostly go with wild caught fishes these days for two reasons - first of course the live longer and second hard to beat nature as these two pictures suggest (to me; if not you):

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Let's talk about laws and regulations. Many countries do not allow the capture and export or even local sale of species. Think about the Brazilian permitted list. It is illegal to remove zebra plecos from Brazil. If their laws had bot been circumvented, there would not be a single zebra pleco in anybody's tank unless the wild fish had been captured and exported prior to the current laws being in effect. I was able to procure a wild caught breeding group of 13 zebras in early 2006, I believe the odds were good that they left Brazil when it was not yet illegal for this to happen. Over the years they produced between 400-500 offspring which I was able to sell, trade or donate.

And if you have wild fish which spawn in your tanks, the offspring are not wild and if people only bought wild caught fish, what would you do with 100s of offspring or even 1,000s for some species?

And i do not agree that wild caught fish live longer than tank raised ones. I would argue it is the exact opposite. In a properly maintained tank there is regular food, no predators to eat them and a fishkeeper who is able to medicate a sick fish and , hopefully, save it from a shortened life. I have had zebras plecos into the their early 20s and longer, The same applies to some of my clown loaches. it also was the case for my sidthimunkis until their tank crashed and wiped them all out. I had to start over with new ones Some of those I had for almost 20 years. My oldest clown loach is in its mod 20s and been with me since 2003.

Oh yes. In my tanks there is little chance of pollutants seeping into the water from man made things- mining, damming, over fishing etc. etc.

(edited to change 4500 to 400)

 

[anewbie]

Think about the Brazilian permitted list. It is illegal to remove zebra plecos from Brazil. I

Brazil is weird; they ban export (i presume to preserve the species); then allow development and damn building to drive them extinct.

 

[Uberhoust]

I prefer the natural forms of fish, locally bred if possible. My wife likes some of the more colorful fish forms, ex. Portuguese blue in the angels for example, so I have to compromise a bit. My vote is for "something not so man made" but if I had to care for a glo fish for some reason I would care for it like my other fish.

 

[GaryE]

When I look at @Newbie's Discus and compare it to the neon tupperware saucers a friend was recently so excited to buy, the wild is so far nicer there's little comparison.

A happy medium is tank raised fish that are bred to continue to look like their wild caught ancestors. They're nice.

In high end fish, tank raised live as long as wild caught, but in cheaper fish like most people buy, tb shortens the lives of a lot of farmed fish.

 

[Abaddon]

I have a soft spot for rare, wild fish. They're always my go-to if possible. I tend to avoid "staples" like the plague, maybe that's some weird elitist streak in me rearing its ugly head lol XD But I have a few guilty pleasures too, like bettas and Endlers... love the occasional splash of colour in a tank. I used to keep wild-type Campoma Endlers and they were absolutely amazing little fish. The ones I currently have would never turn anyone's head with their appearance, but they are rare and difficult to get, so every one of them feels like a little precious gem that I feel very lucky to be able to observe. <3

 

[Innesfan]

With few exceptions, wild fish. But there are some exceptions--Vienna Emerald Guppies (bottom sword, preferred) which go way back and look more wild than most, top the list of line-bred fish for me.

 

[fishorama]

I mostly prefer wild looking fish whether tank bred or wild caught. But have kept angels, apistos, discus & long ago, guppies & bettas among some others I don't remember, far from wild. I don't like albino or long finned fish.

We may have been among the last to have wild caught sidthimunki loaches before they were red listed. We had only 2 & loved them! Then we moved & had to rehome them. We searched everywhere for them & were told they were endangered. We thought they were joking. I remember running across a large LFS when I thought I saw them. Close, they were nigrolineata but not sids. Then the hormone injected sids were available! so I was able to keep them again ...until we had to move again

 

[GaryE]

I've seen some beautiful linebred fish. But in most cases (other than the old marigold swordtail strain...) I just shrug and say they're pretty. If a person reading this is pretty, that's nice, but if you're reading this and you're pretty, if you want me to pay attention to you you'd better be funny and smart too. A plastic surgeon can make a boring lump of a person pretty (I'd be a challenge though) and a linebreeder can make big fins or vivid coloration. In the end, beauty is what you do.

When I look at a fish and study it, I want to understand why this happened. Why does that body shape work? What was the advantage it gave in the long, ancient random game of life? What does it reflect about its world? How did this species spread out and produce that species in a river 100 km away? What's the story?

If I look at a fish and admire its colours, I don't want to hear they are there because Ed Jones likes purple. But if they tell a tale of communication or survival in a habitat, now that's interesting. I'll tip my hat to Ed Jones, but I'll want to see the fish before he got his paws on it.

I can buy a linebreeder a beer and congratulate them on their hard work, but as long as hybridization isn't involved, a few generations of natural conditions will get rid of all the fancy stuff and the fish should eventually go back to survival shape. I went to school with a kid who got a nose job over the summer and showed up in school looking transformed, but by now, any kids born to that person will have ski slopes under where their eyebrows meet. That's life. If fashions change, maybe those original family noses will be a great advantage. It's interesting, at least to me.

I'm in this hobby for interesting stories. Does that matter? Nah, only to me. It's just fun.

 

[simonas]

I prefer in general the non man made fish and always thought that wild fish look better than the domestic strains

Wild discus are a great example of this as are oscars theres just something simple and stunning about wild examples of both in comparison to domestic strains

I'm not a fan generally of the mutated fish, short bodies, veil tails and colour morphs albeit I do love an albino gar and bought on this year