The End Of Fish Keeping As We Know It.

[Colin_T]

This may sound like a pessimistic outlook but has anyone thought about what is going to happen to fishkeepers when we run out of oil?
As oil reserves run low the government is going to start stock piling aircraft fuel. This will be held in reserve for the armed forces and for diplomatic travels. Then when war breaks out the airforce will be able to defend the country.
Things will no longer come into the country by air and instead will spend months on a boat. Tropical fishes will not survive a month on a boat coming from Asia. This means aquarium fish importation will cease and the only fishes available will be locally bred stock.
Livebearers, cichlids and some other fishes will be fine because they are readily available and easy to breed. But what about the tetras and catfish that are rarely bred here?
The time has come for people to start breeding these species. Only if this happens will common aquarium fishes still be readily available in the future.

 

[chesterscot]

its the same with all these bird fans been banned inports because there rare imo nothing gets people breeding livestock more readily than high demand and a good price surely this is good for conservation and im sure the same applies to fish
scot

 

[fergalthefish]

wow i'd love to go on a night out with you Colin T!!!! lol

 

[geo7x]

To be honest if imports by air were reduced I would be far more worried about food shortages than ornamental fish.

 

[Helen G]

I'm sure the governments are looking into alternative fuel sources

 

[Tobigara]

i don't think that we need to worry too much about that. at least not for transportation reasons. the US consumes something like 50% of the worlds resources and there is enough oil to last us at least 300 more years. the oil sands deposit in canada alone will keep us going for about 100 years. by that time, we should have found an alternate and probably better fuel source.

 

[WILDER]

If are homes keep on flooding we won't need fish tanks lol.

 

[pauly]

None of us will still be alive when the world runs out of oil, don't worry.

 

[emmsy]

Okay. I know someone who works for the BAA ( British aviation authority ) and they have pondered this exact same theory. ( This is the nerd in me coming out Colin ). They are experimenting with LPS gasses and other biofuels. Infact, if you look at the massive Airbus plane, 8% of that is powered using LPS. Okay, now 8% doesn't sound much, but imagine if they developed that to 100%?.

Imports for everything are at stake here, not just the imports of livestock from other countries.


I agree though, if alternative is not found, it will have a devistating effect on fishkeeping as a hobby.

Emma

 

[becca320]

My other half works in the oil industry and although I dont really take much of an interest (I know i should) He says a lot of the scaremongary about oiL running out and all the rest of it is just stupid maybe some truth in it but not for the next 400+ years.
In the last 20 years Oil refinery has gotten deeper and deeper and so long as the technology keeps advancing the capture of new oil resources is unfounded therefore a lot of it in ther press etc is just the governement making sure that they can keep taxes high by saying it is running out

 

[joecoral]

hydrogen fuel cells are the way forward. Just need a safe and efficient way to store and distribute the hydrogen and we're all sorted lol

 

[Breedon]

did'nt virgin atlantic use some bio fuel on one of there flights as a test about 4 weeks ago.

 

[Mikaila31]

OMG! Its the end of the world

 

[Tolak]

I completely agree with Colin on the breeding point. Oil aside, many of the regions some of the more commonly caught fish are from are quite remote, and often have political issues that affect exports. Many areas, most notably the Amazon, are being deforested at a rapid rate, destroying habitat.

With the amount of equipment I have running I have to breed & sell, and it has to be something that sells well, hence angels. If I didn't start with angels years back it would be L number plecs. Have to pay the bills.

A little story; a couple of years back, at a club auction, a friend of one of the members drove up from I believe Arkansas. This guy bred L number plecs, had the biggest payout of all the sellers at that auction. I've been telling other members for years to jump on L number plecs, so far nobody has given it a go.

These are the sort of fish that will be affected by import regulations, and many take quite some time to get to the point of being breeders. If I ever tire of angels this will be the route I will take.

 

[Colin_T]

The government is looking into alternative fuels for the aviation industry, however it is going to be a while before they can find a suitable safe substitute. When aircraft fuels run low the government will ban the use of aeroplanes for all but essential services. Medical supplies, diplomatic missions & war will be the main reason planes stay in the air. The importation of exotic pets is not an essential item and as such will be put at the bottom of the list for aircraft use. And if fish do come in by air they will be so expensive that only a select few will be able to afford them.

For Tobigara
The American people are told what they want to hear. If they were told there was going to be no oil in 10yrs and gas prices were going to skyrocket next week, there would be outrage, rioting and a collapse in the social structure of society. There is already enough grievance about the price of petrol/gas being $4 a gallon, can you imagine what it would be like if gas suddenly went up to $10 a gallon. And with half the population owning guns there would be chaos and bloodshed over the remaining fuel.
Also it is an electoral year and no government in the world would tell their voting public they are wasting all their oil reserves fighting a war in the middle east. That is political suicide.
As for the Canadian oil reserves supplying the US for another 100yrs, I think China & India will buy most of that oil and the US will be left out in the cold. China owns a significant portion of America (and a lot of other countries) simply because of products we buy from there. If the Chinese government was to call in all their outstanding accounts from overseas countries, the US & other countries would be bankrupt and China would take whatever it wanted. And they have the population to do so. The US might have 300million people but China has more than triple that number. And although the US has air superiority, It won’t be able to fly its planes for long without the money to buy fuel.

For becca320
Your husband is told what he wants to hear. And if he is in management he tells other workers what they want to hear. Oil supplies are running out and we have gone past peak production. If the human race can use more than half the world’s oil reserves in less than 100yrs, it is not going to have any oil left in 100 yrs time. Especially considering there are significantly more people on the planet and significantly more vehicles on the planet using fossil fuels.
Drilling deeper holes will not fix the problem and will not find more oil. Once you go past a certain point underground, carbon no longer becomes oil but becomes gas, coal or diamond instead. This means oil is a finite resource and we are running out of it. There is more of it in the atmosphere (as CO2) and less of it underground in liquid form.

Anyway, besides all this the main reason I started this thread was to bring people’s attention to the fact more fish species need to be bred in captivity. The sooner people start breeding things like tetras, barbs, gouramis and catfish, the sooner we can guarantee the aquarium hobby will remain in tact in future years.