Curious, who has pet fish?

[Kevrumbo]

The marine aquarium trade has come a long way, albeit it still has room to still grow. Many people and companies are working toward sustainable collection, aquaculturing, and farming of fish and corals. As someone pointed out already, many aquarium inhabitants are now being aquacultured and maricultured. I do my best to know where my inhabitants come from prior to purchases. Many of my fish have been bred and raised only in aquaria, including my seahorses, clownfish, cardinals, and most of my corals.

Kev, it's nice to be able to take trips and visit the fish in their own underwater habitats but some of us have responsibilities that keep us from jetting off as much as we used to or like to. Is SCUBA diving your only hobby?

Speaking of sustainability; how many people that buy, cook, or eat food-fish make sure that their purchases are sustainable. I rarely eat fish myself, but my family does and before ordering they check out Seafood Watch to see what the best choice may be for longterm global health. If you haven't heard of Seafood Watch, I'd encourage you to check it out. (And yes, there's an app)

Sorry no offense . . .but if you have to justify your hobby/pastime on such terms above (as well as you Ann Marie by asking such an obviously rhetorical & patronizing question -"Is SCUBA diving your only hobby?" ), then IMHO it's not worth spending time or money on being "ecologically/politically correct" in having an aquarium collection.

I guess I am fortunate having the luxury to frequently visit these tropical marine animals overseas in their natural habitat. . .

 

[Ann Marie]

I was not attempting to be patronizing in my reply to you. If it came across that way I apologize.

Though I'd like to discuss some of the points you've made, I don't want to derail this thread.

 

[Hank49]

I have 60 tanks with shrimp in them. Right now I have about 40 million penaeids from Mysis stage up to post larvae 5 stage. We hatch and grow about half a billion per year.
Also have about 800 45-50 gram breeders in 10 tanks that provide all our nauplii.
And we have another 1200 or so from 4 grams up to breeding size in our broodstock growing tanks.
We use a biofilter system for the broodstock but are abandoning it. We change 70% of the water every day anyway and control metabolic waste that way.
I don't have any fish right now.
But yes, I do kill all the fish that I eat. We go spearfishing every weekend.
I did have an aquarium in my house with some lionfish and a few damsels when I lived in the Philippines. But I let them go.