Environmental conscious setup

Originally Posted by shaman

Then if i engage in this hobby of keeping marine creatures,
I am actually destroying the nature?

I would like to know this too. Those corals found in Pasir Ris Farmway 2 are they cultivated or taken from the sea? I watched a couple of marine videos downloaded via P2P and I've learnt about the extreme importance of corals to the marine life.

[KaLiB]

Originally Posted by shaman

Then if i engage in this hobby of keeping marine creatures,
I am actually destroying the nature?

IMO(just my opinion, i don't have any solid proof to back this up), unless you buy tank bred fish or tank propagated corals, you would be doing some damage to nature as collectors will continue collecting fish and corals so long as there is demand for them. However, there are methods in place to limit the pressure.

The most important factor is to purchase fish from LFS that get fish from suppliers that catch their fish using ethical means.

Certain collectors practise using cyanide to catch the aquarium fish, this not only will kill the aquarium fish in time to come, it would also destory the life forms around the fish that got squirt by cyanide. This is very destructive and LFS that buy from suppliers who use such means to collect fish should be
condemned.

We have something called, CITES which if i'm not wrong controls the amount of livestock that can be exported. There is a certain quota but i'm not sure if this is strictly enforced and adhered.

I'm more concerned about corals because the fish population regenerates much faster than corals, unless they are over-fished. So, any comments on buying corals from LFS?

[Guppies Onli]

There was recently a documentary (too bad in Chinese on TV8 at 2pm weekday) on Taiwan corals. It is said that Taiwan has about 1/3 of the world corals but the rate is decreasing not juz by ppl harvesting them but also due to the pollution.

So you see, harvesting without regulation is juz one point but the pollution of the sea is another main factor.

Actually the main cause of the decline of corals (and possibly leading to the decline of other marine life) is global warming. Followed by overfishing. Global warming, well, there's nothing much we marine tank owners could do. But we may help to reduce overfishing by not buying from LFS that source their fish from overfishers.