question that no one will answer!?

[somethingfishy]

I'm considering starting up a saltwater tank, but I have a question about the origin of saltwater hobbist's fish. i've asked several times in different areas of this forum, but no one will respond to it. the question is - where do the fish come from? breeders or are they captured from the ocean?

i'm uncomfortable taking fish, coral & rock from the ocean, but it appears that most dealers buy fish this way. is this true? & how can i purchase farm raised saltwater fish? or is this rare?

i figured that this would be a big topic here, but i can't find any information about it on this site.

can someone enlighten me? share your insight & opinions so that i can make an educated decision. please?

thanks :?:

[fairviewdr]

You can buy farm raised fish and corals. I believe they are usually refered to as aquacultured. I think most fish do come from the ocean though, but I'm not an expert on this topic.

[fairviewdr]

:roll:

[Bertsch]

This is the place my LFS buys their fish
Segrest Farms
I have gone to their page in the past and you can locate a dealer near you. Also after doing a google search on florida fish farm this place came up:

Florida Tropical Fish Farms Association
http://www.ftffa.com/

There is a members page where i am sure you could do google searches for the farms. That might help you also find a LFS which does not purchase their fish from the ocean.

Hope that helps -

[atrocity]

www.liveaquaria.com also has a tank raised section in which all the fish were bred in a tank I beleive.

[Angelscrx]

Most of your popular fish like clowns are farm raised since there is such a high demand for them (especially after Finding Nemo). A great place to buy aquacultured or propagated corals is www.garf.org. They may also be able to help with farm raised fish?

They are a great resource for many new hobbyist questions and are the friendliest people you can ever talk to on the phone. All of the corals they sell are propagated there unless they new specimens and then they study, document, learn and educate, breed them inhouse before they are sold to the public. They even take trades if you have something cool to offer. The website has lots of great pics and info.

[pilotrob]

another good site is www.orafarm.com they are a pretty well known company that offer aquacultured fish inverts, and corals. both of the LFSs i frequent get some livestock from them. I myself have 2 ORA percula clown and couldnt be happier with the colors and health of these fish.

for some animals however, no one has yet ben able to get them to successfully reproduce out of the wild so wild caught is the only way of getting them. it is a personal choice obviously if you do not wish to have wild fish and i can respect that. for me i am ok with wild caught as long as my LFS gets them from a responsible source and i know they wernt caught with cyanide, but i suppose that is the topic for a whole different thread.

[coral_diver]

somethingfishy I can answer your question. There are only some fish that are captive breed still about 80+% really on the 90+% side are still caught in the wild. The reason for this is that they are really hard to breed in captivity. Most fish that is. They are under a watchful eye on the harvesting of wild fish so it is not to worry to much. There is a slight difference in some aquacultured/farm raised fish vs wild caught as far as the way their stripes are and coloration sometimes. Also these seem to be a bit hardier like in the case of clowns. Corals on the other hand are both propigated and wild caught just depends on the variety. Clams also are bred in captivity and also still wild caught. Now on the anemone side these are mainly wild caught due to the extreme complexity of them lets just leave that at that and say unless you are sure you can keep one happy do not buy one because they are being stripped from the reefs and really only the reefs. This means lighting and food. Hope this helps.

[MikeS]

coral diver summed it up very well....

Mike

[Angelscrx]

I agree with Mike Coraldiver said it very well.